Insightful Musings on the Scriptures

by

Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67

Hello, dear ones, on a gorgeous summer-like afternoon.

It’s already been a full day…so much so, I just rose from my nap. Old people need naps, you know. I was required to be at the Silverton Hospital just before 7am to get in line for an ultra-sound scan my doctor ordered…focusing on my kidneys. Well, another way to put it, they’re actually His kidneys, and He’s just allowed me to use them for a while. I really don’t know any more than that at this point. Then before lunch, I got in a couple hours on my big table woodworking project.

Be good and be blessed.

Love, Dad/Ray.

Elihu was definitely a member of the prosperity cult. Here is a statement that reflects the core of that ideology. He, like many today, uses that doctrinal package as a club to beat up believers who are not as healthy and wealthy as they are—fully convinced that their health and wealth are trophy-like rewards for their own righteousness—their own application of faith. I can only imagine the scope of pain, suffering, frustration, and depression that this doctrine inflicts on those who cannot seem to generate the same rewards for themselves. Many, as a result, will draw the conclusion that, for reasons they cannot figure out, God simply does not like them as much as he does some others—or that they have unwittingly commited some kind of obscure unpardonable sin and must now be punished with some kind of infirmity or financial struggle. I can recall my own mother struggling deeply with some of this kind of depression when I was young.

If it is true, that God wants all His kids to be healthy and wealthy all the time—that He will always heal and always bless with financial prosperity those in right relationship with Him—then depression is virtually unavoidable if, after trying to say all the right words, pray the right prayers, believe the right stuff, regularly attend the right church, and seek the right revivals—and yet the infirmity remains and the bank account is still flat.

I’m remembering how Zophar earlier beat on Job with the same idea back in chapter 11. He challenged Job that if he would only seek God (like Zophar), worship (the way he does), and repent (like he has), then Job’s life would be transformed into wall-to-wall fun and fulfillment (like he enjoys…at that point in time). “Then you will lift up your face without shame; you will stand frim and without fear. You will surely forget your trouble, recalling it only as waters gone by. Life will be brighter than noonday, and darkness will become like morning” (11:13-20).

Pride can hardly reach higher levels than what Elihu demonstrates—“Be assured that my words are not false; one perfect in knowledge is with you” (36:4). On one hand he exalts God and His transcendence—“How great is God—beyond our understanding” (36;26)—but presumes to understand more completely than anyone else, after blasting Job with the condemnation that he knows nothing—“So Job opens his mouth with empty talk; without knowledge he multiplies words” (35:16). Elihu’s arrogance inspires him to hit Job with another pious dig—“Beware of turning to evil, which you seem to prefer to affliction” (36:21). Once again, the clear reasoning of this mindset is that if Job was not turning to evil, there could not possibly be this much affliction.

Quite honestly, I do not enjoy this big dumb debate. It strikes me as dumb because it doesn’t really achieve anything. I also have to turn off the talk-show radio sometimes when they get into passionate argument and anger. I believe the foolishness of this kind of conflict is the main value of it’s being included in the books of the Bible. I find here even more support for my simple conclusion on how to do life from a Biblical perspective—that it’s far more required to have a HEART AFTER GOD than to win debates.