Insightful Musings on the Scriptures

by

Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67

Greeings, dear special ones.

Rain squalls seem to be the norm for the day. But Becki and I were able to get in our walk/jog this morning without rain. Dandy sure enjoyed the outing again. Here’s a poetic statement of his passion in life:

Have a great evening. Stay on course

Love, Dad/Ray.

My memory is so poor, and it’s been so long since I’ve read this passage, it is impacting me with an explosion of meaning as though I’m reading it for the first time. Wow! What a powerful package of corrective revelation. I underscore “corrective,” because left to ourselves and our own perspectives, we can come up with all kinds of goofy thought patterns and judgments which, if uncorrected, can bump us way off course—on some other route than “paths of righteousness” (Psalm 23:3). After all, that’s one of the primary functions of Biblical revelation as intended by the One Who Inspired it—“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17). Besides these corrective benefits, don’t you wish to be prepared and equipped to do good work that wins God’s blessing?!—ready to do life correctly.

One such common error among men who lean to their own understanding is identified in the text—the flawed conclusion that the Sovereign LORD is flawed in His judgments, in His implimentation of punishments, and His general management over the affairs of men. “It’s just not fair!” is a common complaint. Many ask, “How can a loving God allow human suffering?—or even allow the idea of HELL to remain in His vocabulary?—not to mention banishing people to that ungodly place?” You’ve probably heard these antagonisms before. My processing of Scripture, however, is causing me to turn that around and raise what I believe is better question: How can human brains (hearts) reason that they, who are so limited in knowledge and have absolutely nothing that was not given them, including the ability of objective thought, misuse that ability so as to think they are qualified to bring the moral character of the Sovereign All-Knowing Holy One into question?—as though they KNOW better? Is that not the height of human arrogance? I judge that we should fear that kind of reasoning more than we fear a charging bull elephant. That thinking is incorrect, to say the least.

On the other hand, there is a definite place for human reasoning—even natural feelings. Many of us, for example, know what it’s like to have children who resist and rebel against our parental wisdom and advice. It is extremely painful to watch them experience the consequences of their rebellion. Does that fact not help us identify with the “feelings” of our Heavenly Father when he sees His children rebelling?—to their own harm? (Read chapter 18.) And who of us like the idea of being married to an unfaithful spouse?—one who sleeps around and even drums up a prostitution business on the side? That would be understandably intolerable and cause for terminating the relationship. Exactly. And that’s the very reality the Heavenly Husband must cope with when His people (bride/wife) place other gods and ideologies before Him and His Truth. (Read chapter 16.)

The core solution shines through once again—a HEART AFTER GOD. Think of it as a road sign that marks the “path of righteousness.”