Insightful Musings on the Scriptures

by

Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67

Good afternoon, dear people.

Much of my day so far has been caught up with helping a guy who broke down on Saturday near the end of our driveway with an over-loaded trailer. I moved the broken trailer onto our property on Saturday…and did a booboo in the process by wiping out the neighbor’s mailbox. We replaced the mailbox this morning. Then I helped him secure a new axle from a friend as well as helped him install it. Now, I need to get on with other things.

Earlier, Becki joined me on our WOG (walk/jog). Every time Dandy is with us, he loves to drop into a little pool of water fed by a small stream as we come back down the hill. He really enjoys that little cooling off experience after getting so heated up while chasing sticks along our course. He’s convinced now that’s the only reason we do this excursion…to throw sticks for him to chase. Sometimes I’m tempted to wish my life were that simple.

Have a great day doing something more important, I hope, than chasing sticks.

Love, Dad/Ray.

Wouldn’t it be nice if we could get our psycho-spiritual lives plugged in like an appliance—so that it would just run thereafter with consistent reliability—never faltering, never falling, never failing to do what it’s supposed to do? In other words, wouldn’t it be nice if life was just plain easy?—at least easier than it is? But alas!—we’re simply not made that way—especially not after our ancestral “fall.” We’re more like an engine that continually needs fuel, like a cistern that continually needs replenishing, like a sailboat that constantly needs sail and course corrections according to the external conditions of winds and currents, like a garden that perpetually needs the attention of cultivation, watering, and weeding in order to fulfill its purposes and be productive. I guess we’d better get used to this reality and deal with it.

Inconsistency is reflected in these short laments by Jeremiah as he endures and witnesses the incredible suffering surrounding the seige of Jerusalem and its devastation by the warriors of Babylon. Emotionally, he’s all over the place. Indeed, how could he not be when he sees with his own eyes conditions so desperate within the city walls that “compassionate women have cooked their own children, who became their food when my people were destroyed” (4:10). Just because we don’t like to think about it does not alter the reality of starvation conditions that can become so intense and horrible so as to cause victims to turn to cannibalism for the sake of survival. Ugly—but true.

On the other hand, there is evidence that Jeremiah never wavered in his recognition that the Sovereign LORD was presiding over it all. He recognized cause and effect. “For he does not willingly bring affliction or grief to the children of men” (3:33). “You, O LORD, reign forever; your throne endures from generation to generation” (5:19). “Our fathers sinned and are no more, and we bear their punishment” (5:7). “Joy is gone from our hearts; our dancing has turned to mourning. The crown has fallen from our head. Woe to us, for we have sinned” (5:16). For these reasons, the urgency of the FOCUS VERSE is well understood. We too are wise to “examine our ways and test them.” Why? Because we can never escape God’s rules of cause and effect. We can fight and fume—but never escape. Period! We’ve quoted this rule before—let’s do it again for good measure: “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up” (Galatians 6:7-9).

DARKNESS is a common Biblical metaphor for BAD—and LIGHT for GOOD. Jeremiah draws from that metaphor a couple times in chapter 3. I’ll site one: “He has driven me away and made me walk in darkness rather than light” (3:2). He speaks on behalf of Israel under the LORD’S chastening hand. But let’s take a moment to meet that dismal condition with encouraging light from the Apostle Paul: “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord (…then live to please Him!) Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for it is light that makes everything visible. This is why it is said: "Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you"” (Ephesians 5:8-14).