Insightful Musings on the Scriptures

by

Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67

Good morning, dear ones.

Whew! Seems like a whirlwind around here. But it sure is a pretty day for a whirlwind! This list keeps getting longer.

Our trip to Seattle yesterday went well. We made good time going up. Only spent about an hour with my old friend, Ray Porter. Charlie Peterson met us there. The three of us were high school classmates. We just did some monologue, sang, and ended with prayer. He was not able to do much responding. He’s clearly close to the end of his sojourn. Then we made it home in good time, missing the bulk of the rush-hour Seattle traffic. I even squeezed in a little graphics job before lights out.

Have a great day.

Love, Dad/Ray.

Sin has consequences—bad ones. That’s just the way it is. People can rebel, fight, scream, argue, legalize it, and get angry at their circumstances and blame God all they want—but they can never alter that fact—any more than they can get angry at the law of gravity and successfully alter it. The New Testament calls it “the law of sin and death” (Romans 8:2). This FACT was not exclusive to the New Testament era—its basic form had to be available to the knowledge of these ancient kings of Israel and Judah as well. The instructions contained in their scriptures were explicit. And they had their own history to draw from. Surely they could discern the blessed benefits of those gone before them who chose a lifestyle of living to please God. Surely they could see the historical effects of sin and rebellion. Surely they would know that no one on their deathbed had ever repented of a HEART AFTER GOD. How could they plead ignorant?—and accidentally adopt a lifestyle of doing “evil in the eyes of the LORD” when they know different?

Untold suffering is the lot of Judah as described in the last two chapters of 2 Kings. Babylon is the tool that God uses this time around to chastise His persistently sinful people. Jerusalem and the temple are demolished. The ornate splendor and craftsmanship that were signs of their prosperity and blessing are stripped away. Nearly the entire population of survivors are hauled off into captivity to Babylon.

I’m recalling that song, “By the Rivers of Babylon,” that has become a kind of hit tune in our day. As I consider its lyrics, I’m inclined toward a different view than most. Here are a few lines:

“By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down Ye-eah, we wept, when we remembered Zion. …When the wicked Carried us away in captivity Required from us a song Now how shall we sing the LORD’S song in a strange land?”

Hey, all you Jewish guys, wailing and carrying on beside the rivers of Babylon, don’t you get it?!?! Don’t you think your present status could be a predictable consequence? You want to call your captors “wicked,” but who are the wicked ones here? Don’t you understand you weren’t singing “the LORD’S song” in your homeland either?—not at heart level anyway. If you had, how likely is it that you would be where you are?

Well—let’s not be too hard on them. We’re all made of the same crazy stuff. And history confirms this fact: Sinners who keep sinning continue to reproduce sinners who keep sinning—UNLESS—unless they shift their heart attention to their Maker Who alone is able to turn on their lights and allow them to see and embrace the provided antidote—choosing Christ as both Savior and Lord.

Let’s review here how the Apostle Paul is inspired to present the solution: “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit” (Romans 8:1-4).