Insightful Musings on theScriptures
by
Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67
Good morning, dear ones.
If I told you what a lousy night I had—coughing, sneezing, and snotting—I guess I would be the bearer of some relatively bad news—so I just won’t tell you. It’s evidence that Becki disobeyed me when I begged her to not give me her cold and sore throat condition. On the other hand, I reckon that it wasn’t intentional. But, for whatever reason or cause, she sure didn’t keep it to herself.
I’ll wait to see how I fare today. But I’m committed to following through with this structure in SE Portland. The six posts are now set, so I’ll be going up from there, using the boom truck crane feature to lift and position the trusses. The weather is supposed to withhold its moisture today. Perhaps I’ll have a photo to send tomorrow morning.
“Hi ho! hi ho!—it’s off to work I go!” Blessings on your day.
Love, Dad/Ray.
PS: Becki just gave me a hot cup of a concoction claiming to knock a cold. So far, it also claimed to burn my tongue. We’ll see how well it burns out the ailment.
Who is speaking here? It’s clearly Miss Wisdom. She invites and pleads in the first person all the way through Proverbs 8, urging close relationship with all people everywhere. I ascribe to her the female gender partly based on Proverbs 3:13-18 where Wisdom is presented as “she.” In that passage the appeal is so urgent for people to embrace her and stay close to her that I wrote in the margin of my Bible, “Make Wisdom your spouse.” Failing to do so bears a serious warning—as in today’s passage: “Blessed is the man who listens to me, watching daily at my doors, waiting at my doorway. For whoever finds me finds life and receives favor from the LORD. But whoever fails to find me harms himself; all who hate me love death” Proverbs 8:34-36.
Beyond simply identifying the speaker as Miss WISDOM, I’m inspired here to equate Her with the very SPIRIT OF GOD—THE HOLY SPIRIT—the same Spirit that is “not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). Consider the descriptions contained in this section that can only be attributed to deity. For example, “I was appointed from eternity, from the beginning, before the world began. When there were no oceans, I was given birth…I was there when he set the heavens in place…” (vv. 23-31). Now consider the first two verses of the Bible—“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters” (Genesis 1:1-2).
I love the promise contained in the FOCUS VERSE. And I really believe this to be a viable dynamic truth—announcing mankind’s most wonderful blessing, as well as his most damaging shortcoming. In short, human destiny turns on the hinge of seeking and loving God—or not seeking and loving God. Many attempt to make the equation far too complicated—but it’s really simple math!
One of the most compelling evidences, for me personally, that I fit the status of a SEEKER/FINDER/LOVER of the God of the Bible, is how deeply I harmonize with David’s expressions of praise in Psalm 8—“O LORD, our LORD, how majestic is your name in all the earth!” (Psalm 8:1 and 9). The entire extravagant spread of creation all around me displays the obvious fingerprints of The Creator. When I walk to my studio in the dark of the morning under a magnificent starry sky, my worship is so spontaneous I can’t hold it back—nor do I wish to. “When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?” (Psalm 8:3-4).
I’m certainly not intending to speak here with any arrogant boasting—like, “Look at how wonderful I am!” I prefer to think that I am simply reaffirming my personal choice, and offering some supportive evidence for the authenticity of that choice.