Outdated? .......... Parables 647

August 31, 1999

My PC is choking. If I create or open large graphic files, it gags. If I try to open more than three programs at once, it sends me ominous suicide notes. So, I’ve been computer shopping.

This is not easy. My bloodlines trace directly to Scotland. I dislike spending money. Even more, it galls me to pay one amount and find out I could have spent less by waiting a week. With computers, not only do prices drop continually, but the components quickly become obsolete.

From the other side, computer sales escalate because the people who use them want to keep up with the latest, if not the fastest. In this business, older hardware or older software programs are seldom better. New technology makes itself attractive by promised benefits.

In a society that demands the latest, it is not much wonder when the subject of the Bible comes up that people say, “How can anyone rely on that old book? It is so outdated.”

In some ways it is, at least in Canada. We do not live in tents or use donkeys and horses for our transportation like the people in the Bible did. Our food, clothing, and social habits are different too. However, some things never change. Consider human nature. Then compare ourselves to the first people the Bible mentions, Adam and Eve. We live in a country voted number one in the world. They lived in paradise. We still want more. So did they. In fact they could not resist the one thing forbidden to them. It was only the fruit from one tree yet it proved too tempting.

We are the same. Despite all the privileges in our lives, we go for the forbidden. For instance, we can drive anywhere on well-built roads with our fancy cars. The one thing forbidden is exceeding the speed limit. But the temptation is too much. Has anyone completely resisted?

Our tendency to push beyond set limits gets us into trouble. The Bible gives another example, this time, the roving eye problem. David was a God-fearing king but from his rooftop one night, he gazed too long at a woman having a bath. He could not resist, took her for himself, made her pregnant and killed her husband to cover up his own lust and sin.

Church members are tempted too. The New Testament describes a couple who pledged to the Lord the proceeds from the sale of their property. It sounded good, but when the time came, they plotted to keep some and lie about the size of their gift. The church leaders discerned their lie and the results were tragic. Greed and dishonesty came at a terrible price.

Today, we may not spend the evening on our roof spying at our neighbors and we usually don’t lie about our charitable donations. Nevertheless, everyone still fights with, and sometimes loses to, an inner impulse to grasp after something that does not belong to them. Or we greedily hold on to that which does. We may not murder but we hate. We may not steal but we covet. Some people lust and sin just like David, but don’t even try to cover it up.

This is where the Bible is up-to-date. We have the same sinful attitudes and do the same shameful things. We resist God and we are in conflict with one another. It is true for every person, no matter their culture or the era in which they live.

All miss the mark of God’s intention for us but for this horrid flaw, God offers an unchanging cure. He offered the same one to Adam and Eve, King David, the couple who lied, and to every person ever since. Simply put, His cure is mercy, grace and forgiveness.

How do we find that? Take time to dust off that old, Book. It is more up to date than most people think.