Insightful Musings on the Scriptures

by

Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67

Good morning, dear people.

Late again. At least Becki and I did a walk/jog…with Bimbo. Then, about the time Becki is ready for a shower, she receives a call announcing that her sister, Lorna, is back in the hospital. She was taken to ER the night before last. It’s still unclear what’s going on. This will probably modify the day.

My progress on this big table with benches is slower than I like. But at least there is some progress. I think it’s still under control. It all needs to be done by June 15. I can’t allow too many distractions…though I may need to break away to do some tree work.

Have a great Thursday…though a few recipients on the other side of the dateline will have received this tomorrow. Understand?

Love, Dad/Ray.

There is an unjustifiable notion that seems to run deep in human hearts of every generation—that we of our generation are smarter and generally more advanced than people of the previous one—and far more so than the ancients. This amazing book of Job helps to convince me that that notion is nothing short of a stupid lie! The brilliance of thought and eloquence of expression represented by this ancient debate and this ancient unknown author who puts it all together—it’s just stunning to say the least. Consider the creative use of metaphor contained in the FOCUS VERSE—the last statement of Eliphaz’ last speech. And consider the fact that Job may have lived before Abraham. So, are we more advanced today? I think not. Some of the people I observe in supermarkets, and some of the stuff I hear reported in the news, would indicate quite the opposite. Beyond that, I suspicion that some of our scientific and technological advances contribute more to our psycho-spiritual retardation than any corresponding advances.

On the other hand, Job and his “friends” had an edge that we don’t have—age—or the bulk of time for assimilating data and developing wisdom. If Abraham lived to be 175 years old, these guys may have had a very large number of years under their belts already. Wow! If I was 175 right now, I could reflect on my personal accounting of American history to back before the Civil War.

A word of caution is appropriate as you work at building your own worldview (You should be, you know.) and attempt to connect vital dots: Length of life, the volume of education, or even the eloquence of expression, do not guarantee that one’s overall conclusions are entirely right. Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, for example, were brilliantly and eloquently wrong in their judgment that Job had to be a deceitfully bad dude to have had all this bad stuff happen to him.

One thing for sure—this gathering of so-called friends has ceased to be friendly. These guys are now engaged in a kind of verbal brawl—each claiming that the other has absolutely nothing to say that the other doesn’t already know—each demeaning the other for being a numb-skull. It’s competetive and proudful combat—going nowhere toward solution. Job is so bent out of shape at one point that he says, in so many words, “If you had any brains at all, you’d just keep your mouth shut! What’s going on here is much bigger than your stupid bias is going to be able to figure out!” (13:5)

Even this observation presents a worthy lesson: You will always have people around you who disagree or take exception with your perspective. But you do nothing to elevate, enhance, or reinforce your own position by blowing them away to their face and trashing them with disrespect and depreciation. That will only rob the discussion of objectivity and cause it to go up in subjective smoke.

My anchor point still remains: The best chance you and I have for getting it right—a HEART AFTER GOD.