Insightful Musings on the Scriptures

by

Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67

Good morning, dear people.

Becki picked up little Nicholas last evening. He’ll be with us about a week…while his 5-year-old older brother, Kaden, is to be taken to Disneyland as part of his birthday celebration. That will add a few complications to the day in sorting out some demands and details…one complication being that Thano works from 1pm to 7pm.

I need to do an early trip into Portland for some sign supplies. Here we go with the rest of the day.

May the Lord help you to do your day right.

Love, Dad/Ray.

The only devotional inspiration that I seem able to extract from this passage is implicit—and even that is in the form of warning. For example, I find some implicit warning in Saul’s use of the word “uncircumcised.” It has to carry an attitude of assigning inferiority to others and superiority to oneself. Here was Saul, out of FIRST-COMMANDMENT-FELLOWSHIP with the LORD, about to die in a losing battle with the Philistines, yet he still insists on prejudicial superiority because of some ceremony he was subjected to way back when he was a non-thinking baby?

Another warning I find here is against suicide. While we should be compassionate toward those suffering from depression, that act remains to be driven by a subtle attitude of superiority as well. It says something like this in no uncertain terms: “God, my judgment as to what needs to be done here is superior to Yours. I have lost all interest in trusting You for the outcome of my circumstances.”

Notice a little indication psychological irony in the record. Saul commanded his armor-bearer to run him through with a sword after he had been wounded. “But his armor-bearer was terrified and would not do it” (10:4). Why?—what was the armor-bearer scared of? Dying? If so, it seems at least ironic that he too made himself die—“he too fell on his sword and died” (10:5). I suppose it’s possible he was bound by a code of honor similar to “The captain goes down with the ship.”

In following the Proverbs 3:5-6 recipe for doing life, I think it’s helpful to understand that every circumstance we meet in life can only yield one of two options: Either (1) I’m going to live, or (2) I’m going to die. There you have it. Don’t make it too complicated. And the beautiful fact is that a HEART AFTER GOD forces both options to be good ones. Yup! For the serious Bible believer, life becomes a WIN-WIN arrangement—“For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21). Where in the world can you go to find a deal like that?!?

We’re talking here about Biblical faith—and those who are full of it are faith-FULL—faithful. Those who are not full of it are faith-INSUFFICIENTLY FULL or faith-FLAT—unfaithful. Two times in this passage the word “unfaithful” is used: (1) “The people of Judah were taken captive to Babylon because of their unfaithfulness” (9:1). (2) “Saul died because he was unfaithful to the LORD” (10:13).

I think it’s safest to not just seek being kind of full, but “full and running over.”