Insightful Musings on the Scriptures

by

Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67

Happy Christmas, dear people.

Christmas Day. Whew! It wasn’t till yesterday that I finally got out some decorations and put them up. We’re really on top of things. Becki picked up the little boys about 8am. Following that, we did our little traditional thing and let the boys open a few gifts. They are pretty hyped up. Now we need to get ready to head to my cousin’s in Portland as he and his wife have invited us to join them in a Christmas dinner production at their place.

The sun is shining at present. Nice. Earlier in the morning it was pouring. All this rain has to be translated as snow in the higher elevations—a very white Christmas.

May your day be touched by the joy of the real Christmas story.

Love—Ray.

It’s like the featured angel in this chapter holds a remote control before a big screen TV and uses it to give John another video clip of animated symbolic super drama. More than being captivated by the spectacular show as described by John, I find myself being captivated by the root cause for all this incredibly bad stuff being portrayed. I’m inclined to conclude that the general root is contained in the angel’s words when he says, “This calls for a mind with wisdom.”

Is there any more important ingredient than WISDOM for making life work right? If WISDOM can be defined as “the right use of human intelligence,” then the wrong use results in various forms of STUPID!—always yielding bad fruit. Why is that so hard for us humans to get straight in our minds? Could it be that we simply have a strong propensity toward this counterpart to WISDOM? The answer has to be, YES—the direct result and residue of the NATURAL SIN NATURE.

How and where is WISDOM birthed?—or where does the right use of human intelligence begin? In my own words I would say, only in A HEART AFTER GOD. (Have I ever used that phrase before?) In the words of the Bible, Psalm 111:10 gives a good answer: “The fear of the Lord (or a healthy and balanced HEART AFTER GOD) is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow his precepts have a good understanding (…at least an adequate one). To him belongs eternal praise.”

With this perspective in mind, read chapter 17 again, and you will see this pattern of cause and effect played out through the entire panorama of human affairs. Notice that the “great prostitute” is described as being “intoxicated with the wine of her adulteries” (v. 2). Then she is presented as being “drunk with the blood of the saints” (v. 6). To be sure, drunkenness is antithetical to sound-mindedness and wisdom. Notice that those who are deceived and join in following “the beast” are those who rebel against God and His Word, who do not have A HEART AFTER GOD, “whose names have not been written in the book of life” (v. 8). Whereas these people have chosen to reject God’s light (truth), there is no other alternative but to face the mind-darkening consequence of that rejection. Finally, notice verse 17 as it confirms this principle and pattern: “For God has put it into their hearts to accomplish his purpose by agreeing to give the beast the power to rule, until God’s words are fulfilled.” That seems reminiscent of Romans 1:28: “…since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind…”

Please develop A HEART AFTER GOD—it pays huge benefits.