Insightful Musings on the Scriptures

by

Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67

Greetings, dear ones.

Another full and active Sunday here. But I did squeeze in a little nap. We’ll be running off in a few minutes to Pheasant Pointe for the Gospel Sing…then on to Dallas to spend time with Andy and Delaine and their family.

Then tomorrow we’re planning to lay aside all our other work engagements to do a run to Seattle. An old High School friend is at death’s door and we’d like to call in one last time.

Blessings on the remainder of your day.

Love, Dad/Ray.

The miracles recorded in the Bible cause some readers to choke. Maybe they become so accustomed to the natural flow of things in the physical world that they erroneously reason that that’s all there is. So any accounting of a supernatural event is treated with scornful rejection. I have some intellectual problems—but I don’t have that one. In my Biblical view, the entire realm of the supernatural is as natural for a supernatural God as is anything we regard as natural. By comparison, it never seems to occur to this antagonistic mindset that the very existence of the natural world, including the way atoms work, is all mysteriously empowered by the supernatural—by the very supernatural Spirit of God. However we put it all together, it sure seems like a terrible risk for one to wait till natural death to find out whether or not there is any such thing as supernatural.

An equally disjointed view is one that accepts the reality of the metaphysical, but rejects Biblical revelation—perhaps because it requires accountability to a singular Sovereign God. This is the mindset that becomes preoccupied with stuff like ghosts, clairvoyance, astrology, UFOs, extra-terrestrial life, Sasquatch, leprechauns, voodoo magic, reincarnation, and religion in general. In my own quest to connect mysterious dots, nothing is more stabilizing and influential than the Biblical fact that THERE ARE ONLY TWO KINGDOMS over the realms of both the natural and the supernatural—the Kingdom of God, and the kingdom of Satan (which exists by God’s permissive will). That’s all we have to work with.

Hezekiah mounts the stage of this historical drama and puts on a very welcome and encouraging performance as King of Judah for 29 years. Whew! How refreshing! “He did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, just as his father David had done” (18:3)—unlike most of those other power-mad monarchs who “did evil in the eyes of the LORD.” Does anyone really think there could be this positive high point in the record if Hezekiah had any doubt of a personal Holy supernatural God? Sure, he was justifiably traumatized by the physical threat from Sennacherib King of Assyria, but “Hezekiah trusted in the (supernatural, transcendent) LORD” (18:5), and he did the right thing by taking the threatening letter and prayerfully “spread it out before the LORD” (19:14)—as if He didn’t already know what it said. Sennacherib’s arrogant challenge was not just against Hezekiah and his kingdom, but against the very supernatural God of Israel. Hezekiah was scared—but supernatural God wasn’t. Why would He be? In so many words, the LORD’S response was, “Since this little cockroach has directed his challenge toward Me, I’ll handle this one, Hezekiah. You won’t even need to activate your army.” And in one night 185,000 warriors lost their lives by unexplainable supernatural causes. Go figure.

Why anyone would want to taunt or deny the true supernatural God, I reason, can only be explained in terms of supernaturally-inspired deception.