Month: April 2022

Week 13  Psalm 92

Verse seven says: although the wicked flourish like weeds, and evildoers blossom with success, there is only eternal destruction ahead of them. So there’s two pieces. Piece #1: wicked people will be successful. Piece #2: evil people will end up in a state of permanent destruction. Taken together Pieces #1 & #2 make up the full picture. But today Piece #1 jumps out at me…evil people will be successful.
There’s no law of the universe saying a bad person can’t be successful. Evilness and success can go hand-in-hand. And even though there’s also no law says I have to be bad to succeed the main point in Piece #1 is that there are villains who are high-achiever villains.
Of course Piece #2 seems to balance things out in the end – the writer says: with my own eyes I have seen the downfall of my enemies. But I don’t get the impression a good person is guaranteed to witness the fail of an evil person. An evil guy might even live his whole life and outlive the good guy and then die a success.
That doesn’t mean he outsmarts and avoids Piece #2. But for me it’s a reminder that a ruthless violent corrupt person might be very successful. So I shouldn’t be surprised when I see it. And even if I know his success is only in the short-term it’s still a success (and for all I know a rogue’s short-term might still end up seeming pretty gallingly long).

Note: quotes from Psalm 92:7 & 11 (NLT)

Week 13  1 Samuel 3

The writer begins by saying that Samuel is a young apprentice in the tabernacle. Then he adds: in those days messages from the Lord were very rare, and visions were quite uncommon.
I’m reluctant to make anything more of it than that – when Samuel was young messages from the Lord were rare.
I draw a vertical line on a page and title it ‘Message Frequency’.
At the bottom of the line I write ‘Rare’ and at the top ‘Often’.
Beside ‘Rare’ I add extra words – infrequent uncommon seldom once-in-a-blue-moon. Direct and immediate contact wasn’t happening. Israel was in the communication doldrums.
At the top beside ‘Often’ I add frequent regular recurring common repeatedly often-enough. Communication initiatives are happening.
I wonder why the writer made this point about message frequency. I figure that for one thing he was saying that Samuel’s nighttime experience when he heard the Lord was an exception to the rule. And maybe too that this was the beginning of an uptick in message frequency. (That’s a pretty safe bet. I’ve read the story of Samuel before and know that he develops into a regular conduit of messages from the Lord.)
And I also wonder whether message frequency is a longer-term & recurring & cyclical thing. A repeatable pattern over periods of time. Stages when the Lord’s voice is rare. Then times when it’s regular. Back-forth. On-off. Open-shut. I wonder what regulates the interval. Wonder if and how it’s regulable.

Note: quote from 1 Samuel 3:1 (NLT)