Doug Van Pelt

Wisdom from Mr. Love

I had the privilege of spending a couple hours with the athletic director and trainer from my high school yesterday. He is a great man that people like to be around. He's cheerful, helpful, and outgoing. When you entered a room, he'd bellow, "How's it going, Van Pelt?" or "What do you say, Ivory?" He'd learn your name and get to know you.

He was an Air Commando back in the 60s. They were the Special Forces of their time. He grew up in a segregated Oklahoma, where his dad taught him to ask the "how" questions, instead of complaining or asking "why" questions when they encountered a problem. He was taught to find a solution. When he entered the Air Force and went through marksman training, his shooting was excellent. He could hit a rabbit on the run with a rifle, rock or anything handy he could throw. He was red-flagged for his marksmanship and added to the Air Commandos, where he served in the Vietnam War. There was two units, numbering about 700 men or so total. Less than 100 of those men made it back home, and he said that when he got back on U.S. soil, he vowed to live for those men.

His character and testimony are rock solid. Anyone who knew him in high school (or any time period, for that matter) probably still remembers him. He invested in people. Without crossing the state lines of preaching the Gospel, he showed character and help instill it in a way that was inspiring. His walk was right on target. He didn't have to open up a tract or mention the name of Jesus the Christ. He preached virtue, and people listened.

I'm so glad I was able to spend some time with him yesterday, sitting outside and eating some good ole Texas BBQ. His son, a classmate of mine, called me yesterday and told me that he'd have a one-hour layover at the bus station in Austin. I took advantage of this time and met him. It's funny, his children tried to talk him into flying, but this bus ride fit into the philosophy he told me about. "One day I will stop living in this body," he said. But until then he was going to live this life. "I'm in no hurry. I have no desire for so-called 'fast living.'" He enjoyed the longer bus ride because it was part of this journey of life that he was enjoying so much.

Even when the Greyhound bus employee was explaining how he'd have to pay $10 more because his ticket was a such-and-such type ticket and even though he was being re-routed from Houston to San Antonio to Dallas to LA back to San Antonio through Laredo and El Paso to LA, he made faces to me and made a fun time out of the inconvenience and different information he was being given.

[I just had to re-type all of this due to inadvertantly hitting a key or keys on my keyboard while I sprayed away dust around my monitor and such. That's always a drag, but I figured I could blow it off entirely, complain about it, or just re-type it and, in turn, make it "tighter" and easier to read, maybe.]

In Genesis 38, we see an example of true Capital Punishment.

But Er, Judah's firstborn, was wicked in the Lord's sight; so the Lord put him to death.

Judah told his other son, Onan, to lay with his deceased brother's wife (Tamar) so that his brother would have offspring. This was to "fulfill his duty as her brother-in-law."

Whenever he lay with his brother's wife, he spilled his semen on the ground to keep from producing offspring for his brother. What he did was wicked in the Lord's sight; so he put him to death also.

Some people have called masturbation "the sin of Onan," and pointed to this passage as a proof-text. Problem with that is that's not what Onan was doing; and that's certainly not what was "wicked" in the Lord's sight here.

Judah tells his daughter-in-law to live with him as a widow, thinking that maybe his youngest son can give her children when he gets old enough. Later on Judah's wife dies and Tamar dresses up like a prostitute and Judah propositions her and sleeps with her for the price of a young goat, with his seal, cord and his staff as his pledge until he pays it. Later on he comes back to pay for his sexual service and can't find the prostitute. She had gone back to the house. When it was revealed that "Tamar is guilty of prostitution and is pregnant," Judah pronounces that she should face Capital Punishment. On her way out she sends a message to Judah.

"I am pregnant by the man that owns these...see if you recognize whose seal and cord and staff these are." Judah recognized them and said, "She is more righteous than I, since I wouldn't give her to my son Shelah."

He was right about the righteous part. That old man would sleep with a prostitute, but as soon as his daughter-in-law becomes a prostitute, he wants to punish her by death.

When Tamar gave birth, she gave birth to twins. The first son stuck his hand out and the midwife tied a scarlet thread on his wrist. Then he drew his hand back and the other brother came out. He was named Perez. The one with the scarlet thread on his wrist then came out and was named Zerah.

I didn't make these stories up! This stuff was right there in Genesis 38. Who said the Bible was boring?

Posted by Doug Van Pelt at February 22, 2007 09:01 AM