Contemplative Bible Reading

Isaiah 58:6-7 (New Living Translation)

6 “No, this is the kind of fasting I want:
Free those who are wrongly imprisoned;
lighten the burden of those who work for you.
Let the oppressed go free,
and remove the chains that bind people.
7 Share your food with the hungry,
and give shelter to the homeless.
Give clothes to those who need them,
and do not hide from relatives who need your help.

Here is what God values: (pardon the bullets)

• Free those who are in prison unjustly
• Lessen the burdens of workers
• Free the oppressed
• Remove what binds people
• Share food with the hungry
• Give shelter to the homeless
• Clothe the needy
• Be present for those who need help

Summary: be just and feed, clothe, and shelter others.

Pretty simple, huh? Now, give someone else a blank sheet of paper and a pencil and ask, “Please, write on this paper what you think I value.”
oooops, the result may not be pretty.

Isaiah 58:3 (New Living Translation)

‘We have fasted before you!’ they say.
‘Why aren’t you impressed?
We have been very hard on ourselves,
and you don’t even notice it!’

In this verse, the people are crying to Jehovah for justification (we are good, don’t punish us). They cry that they have been very hard on themselves.

Does worshiping God mean we have to be hard on ourselves? Is worship supposed to be difficult? Is punishing ourselves somehow supposed to impress God.

I’m glad we don’t have this attitude today. ooops, perhaps we do. Perhaps we try to impress God by withholding things from ourselves. We’ll impress God with our hard work. How silly is all that?

God, please help me in my unbelief.

Isaiah 56:3-5 (New Living Translation)

3 “Don’t let foreigners who commit themselves to the Lord say,
‘The Lord will never let me be part of his people.’
And don’t let the eunuchs say,
‘I’m a dried-up tree with no children and no future.’
4 For this is what the Lord says:
I will bless those eunuchs
who keep my Sabbath days holy
and who choose to do what pleases me
and commit their lives to me.
5 I will give them—within the walls of my house—
a memorial and a name
far greater than sons and daughters could give.
For the name I give them is an everlasting one.
It will never disappear!

This passage is about people who are different from me. God includes these, they, them as well as me. Several things to note:

1 God includes them; I cannot exclude them. This passage discusses foreigners (Gentiles) and eunuchs. There were no eunuchs in the service of Jehovah God. To the contrary, those mutilated in the flesh were banned from some aspects of service and worship. Nevertheless, Jehovah God blesses them and gives them a name to be honored.

2 They commit themselves to Jehovah God. These foreigners and eunuchs have committed themselves to Jehovah God. He accepts their sacrifice, their commitment.

3 (AND THIS ONE IS HARD FOR ME!) How they commit themselves and how they do what pleases Jehovah God will appear different to me than how I do the same. That is because they are different, they come from a different place, they do the same as I, but differently. I must accept this different-ness because Jehovah God does.

Psalms 119:73 (New Living Translation)

You made me; you created me.
Now give me the sense to follow your commands.

Please God, Creator of all, Creator of me. Give me the good sense to follow what you say to me. Without that, it doesn’t matter what I hear from you as I will stumble along in my own foolish path.

Psalms 107:1-3  (New Living Translation)

1 Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good!
His faithful love endures forever.
2 Has the Lord redeemed you? Then speak out!
Tell others he has redeemed you from your enemies.
3 For he has gathered the exiles from many lands,
from east and west,
from north and south.

Give thanks to Jehovah. Why? Among many reasons, He has redeemed me from my enemies.

redeem: verb, gain or regain possession of (something) in exchange for payment.

God has paid my enemies to go away and leave me to live in freedom. I am free from fear. I am free from extortion. I can take a nap in the middle of the day and sleep soundly.

What is that worth? What is it worth not to worry constantly? What is it worth to not fret bill payments? Why don’t I live like I know these things? Yes, again, God, help me in my unbelief. Help me to live the life You have given me.

Psalms 105:37  (New Living Translation)

The Lord brought his people out of Egypt, loaded with silver and gold;
and not one among the tribes of Israel even stumbled.

When Jehovah brought His people our of Egypt, there were several million persons in the group. What was the rate of attrition? Zero.

Perhaps I am reading too much into the translation of this verse, but it seems that no one stumbled and fell on the way out of Egypt. Anyone who works with people and is concerned with attrition and turnover will state how this is a miracle. Nothing like this happens in real life.

I suppose Jehovah God deals with the impossible.

Psalms 97:1-2 (New Living Translation)

1 The Lord is king!
Let the earth rejoice!
Let the farthest coastlands be glad.
2 Dark clouds surround him.
Righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne.

Note the last phrase of the second verse. Righteousness and Justice are noted to be the foundation of the throne of Jehovah, King of Kings. What is more, all the peoples of the earth rejoice because these are the foundations.

• Gold, silver, and diamonds are not the foundation.
• Grand buildings and roads are not the foundation.
• Adoration of fans is not the foundation.
• Massive military is not the foundation.
• The glory of man-made arts is not the foundation.

Righteousness and Justice—these are the foundation. These describe the Lord God Jehovah. These describe what should be the values of us who claim Jehovah as our Lord and Savior.

When was the last time I praised the value of doing what is right and acting in a just manner? oooops. God, help me in my unbelief.

Ecclesiastes 7:29 (New Living Translation)

But I did find this: God created people to be virtuous, but they have each turned to follow their own downward path.

We were created to be virtuous.

virtue: noun –  behavior showing high moral standards.

Well, that is a pretty simple one. It is also an unpopular one these days.

The above verse has one of the dreaded words of the English language, “but.” Instead of living as we were created to do, we have followed our own downward path.

What is wrong with me? Why do I turn away from my God-given nature and pursue junk? This is why I end many blog posts with, God, please help me in my unbelief.

Hosea 4:11-12 (New Living Translation)

11 “Wine has robbed my people
of their understanding.
12 They ask a piece of wood for advice!
They think a stick can tell them the future!
Longing after idols
has made them foolish.
They have played the prostitute,
serving other gods and deserting their God.

Let’s begin with the second verse. People pick up a stick off the ground and ask it, “What will the future bring?”

Consider that picture for a while. Consider it a little while longer. Okay, now that we have that one out of the way. How stupid is that?

Let’s go back to the first phrase, oh yeah, the one about wine. What’s a little sip of wine? I guess nothing when a little sip is it. But why take a little sip? Why not just pass it by all the time? There are times in my life when I feel that I have lived in an alternate universe. Alcohol has occupied no place in my life. Perhaps I missed something, but, per the above, perhaps I missed the logic of picking up a stick and asking it about the future.

God, help me in my understanding.

Isaiah 2:5 (New Living Translation)

Come, descendants of Jacob,
let us walk in the light of the Lord!

Light. Sure seems to be a better place than dark.

I suppose that in our post(post(post))modern world, we don’t appreciate the idea of light and dark. We are always in the light physically. It is rare and only momentary that we are in the dark physically. I don’t have a good appreciation for what people felt about light and dark centuries ago.

This passage, like many others, calls for us to be with God and expresses it in terms of light. God came to us and showed us the way. We choose. We can stumble along or walk. Why is it that we—me—choose to stumble so often?