Thursday, February 19, 2009

Jim Elliot's Journal

I have been reading through Jim Elliot's journal, and while The End of the Spear portrays him as a pretty silly figure, I have to say that even as a Junior in College, the guy was extremely observant in his reading of Scripture. Today's entry is a good example.

Commenting on Exodus 4 (when God gives Moses the three signs to prove to Egypt that He is with Moses), Elliot has this to say about the third sign-turning the water of the Nile into blood:

"The first two were demonstrable to the servant alone to himself as God witnessed to him in private, but the final proof must be done before men, without previewed experiment. This is significant for illustration. Take the world's own waters, dip from her own store of knowledge, and poor before the eyes of all the redemptive story latent in the smallest bit of truth. 'Using the world' for the advantage of God's cause, slaying Goliath with his own sword--this witness they will believe."

While any commentator worth his salt would probably consider this a serious "spiritualization" of the text, it is a pretty profound and perceptive analogy.