Insightful Musings on the Scriptures

by

Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67

Good morning, special ones.

And my brother is a special one today—on his 75th birthday. Wow! That’s old! But I’m not very far behind. Another thought impacting me in the reading today is one that should be very fundamental to all of us. Speaking of the Israelites on their sojourn it says, “God was not pleased with most of them” (v. 5). That can only mean that it is wise to live to please the Sovereign Creator—and real dumb to displease Him if one knows better. Why is that so hard for so many to grasp?

I need to hurry off again—get back to the saw mill where this job is waiting me. Hope my ailing back holds up.

Blessings on your work today.

Love, Dad/Ray.

I really cannot give you a good clear explanation as to why God has allowed the ratio between the saved and the lost to be so dismal. But that clearly seems to be the way it is. Perhaps one of the saddest statements from the words of Jesus is in Matthew 7:13-14: “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” Did you hear that? “Only a few find it.” I find no pleasure in that realization. Why only a few? I suppose it’s partly because so few embrace the reasonableness of SEEKING GOD (A HEART AFTER GOD) with the intensity that a starving man seeks food (Matthew 5:6), which provides the ability to face and win over their own natural sin nature, abandon their self-centeredness, and remain on that course. I guess that’s the very reason the promotion of the saving Gospel of Christ is of such vital urgency in this predominantly lost and sin-sick world.

Notice the same dismal ratio presented in this passage featuring the experience of the Israelites between their deliverance from Egypt and their entering the Promised Land. Four times in the text before me the word ALL is used. They were ALL under the supernatural cloud, they ALL experienced the supernatural deliverance through the Red Sea, they ALL experienced a form of baptism, and ALL ate food that was supernaturally provided. Sounds good so far. But then we run into verse 5: “Nevertheless, God was not pleased with MOST of them; their bodies were scattered over the desert.” Wow! Please pay attention to the comparison between the ALL and the MOST. If I read the account correctly, only Joshua and Caleb were of the original 3 million (roughly) that left Egypt. That’s a gloomy statistic. But now let’s read on through verse 6 to get the full purpose for this history lesson and glean guidance and encouragement: “Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did.”

Don’t ignore this huge warning: “So if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!” The point is that it is possible to be caught up in all kinds of Christian and religious stuff—and still fall—without even knowing it—without warning—if one is distracted from one’s primary purpose for being. So what’s the answer? For one thing, don’t get distracted from your primary purpose for being! Duh. And it doesn’t require brilliance to understand that you cannot go seriously off course and get your heart set “on evil things as they did” if you maintain the posture of A HEART AFTER GOD (Loving God and living to please Him—our primary purpose for being). So BE CAREFUL! (And please read Ephesians 6:10-18 again.)