Insightful Musings on the Scriptures

by

Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67

Good morning, dear fellow travelers.

I just made three paper airplanes for the little boys. I was having them sail them from high on a ladder. I haven’t seen Thano yet.

I’m not yet sure if saw milling or signage will call for most of my attention today. But next on my agenda is a jog. I guess I’ll work things out from there.

Have a blessed day.

Love, Dad/Ray.

Without doing some technical research on the meaning of the word “woe” as used in the Bible, I think I’ve figured out that it means the equivalent of the opposite of blessing. I’m led to regard Biblical “woe” as the state of being un-blessed (or cursed) by the sovereign will of “the LORD Almighty”—with absolutely nothing that any little puny human can do to avert or resist that judgment. So those who fall in line with God’s “woe” are in big trouble! Really big! But here is one of the saddest of all facts contained in Biblical revelation: Those bound by the deceitfulness of the NATURAL SIN NATURE, and who fall under the “woe” of God, typically don’t know it, don’t believe it, or think they are good enough, strong enough, or smart enough to somehow avert it.

The concordance of the NIV tallies 22 times in Isaiah alone that the word “woe” is used. You will recall that Isaiah even used the word against himself during that experience of exposure to the Sovereign Holiness of God—“Woe to me!” (6:5). In other words, “I’m in big trouble!” But, of course, the word is found often in the text of the New Testament as well. I notice that Jesus pronounces “woes” 27 times in the 3 Gospels. And the last book, Revelation, records 13 appearances of the word. With as often as this word is repeated through the Scriptures, don’t you agree that we have here a warning that deserves our careful attention? Using a concordance to track the word and the way each use is applied could be a worthy personal exercise indeed.

The severest of Jesus “woes” were aimed at those posing as representatives of God but who were arrogant and corrupt at heart level. For example, “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men's faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to” (Matthew 23:13). These antagonists were worthy of the same “woe” Isaiah states in the FOCUS VERSE. In our own day and culture, who most typically poses as representatives of God more than churches? So here’s a good general warning for churches: Be very careful how you formulate your rules and doctrinal deductions. Jesus actually quotes Isaiah when He rebukes, “You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you: ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men’” (Matthew 15:7-9).

Do you see what I see in that last quote from Jesus?—“…their hearts are far from me.” Can you imagine a more Biblical, safer, and more all-inclusive personal standard for avoiding any divine and deserving “woes” than to nuture a HEART AFTER GOD?

Last question: In regards to the FOCUS VERSE, do you see any danger that our own nation might be in?—without knowing it?

(Hmmm. I wonder—would the liberal media ever wish to use this quote by this author?)