Contemplative Bible Reading

Luke 12:14 (New Living Translation)

13 Then someone called from the crowd, “Teacher, please tell my brother to divide our father’s estate with me.”

14 Jesus replied, “Friend, who made me a judge over you to decide such things as that?”

A man comes to Jesus with a personal problem. The man wants Jesus to solve his brotherly problem.

Jesus turns his back on the request. Jesus didn’t do this often. Jesus healed people when requested. Jesus raised people from the dead when requested.

Jesus turns his back on this request.

Why? Well, since I’m writing this blog I claim the privilege of speculating. I think Jesus is telling the man, “You and your brother are adults. Be adults and settle this yourselves.”

ooops. Why do I write oooops? Because too often I act like this man. I want some higher authority to settle something that I should settle. Why is it that the scriptures daily show me my failings? Perhaps that is a good reason to read the scriptures daily.

Romans 8:28 (New Living Translation)

And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.

The blessings roll on and on in this sentence.

(1) God is active. God is causing things to happen all the time without end.

(2) God controls everything. “Everything” is a big word that encompasses, well, every thing.

(3) God works for the good. God is positive.

(4) God works for me as I love and praise God.

The last one means something that means much to me:

God is on my side

I feel pretty darn good about that.

Luke 12:1 (New Living Translation)

…Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees—their hypocrisy.

Jesus is speaking here. What is the yeast of the Pharisees? Many point out that throughout the Bible yeast is often mentioned with sin. Here, however, Jesus mentions a specific failure: hypocrisy.

“Those Christians are nothing but a bunch of hypocrites.”

I heard that one often when I was a kid. I don’t hear it as much anymore. Perhaps all the world is hypocritical or something. Perhaps labeling is seen as too judgmental in our post-post-post-(how many posts are in we now? I forget.) modern world.

Hypocrisy rules the world. The Internet, cable news, blah blah blah. It goes on and on forever. Everyone can see it when a person does this but not that.

Jesus was right (funny how that works)—hypocrisy is like yeast. It spreads and seems to live forever. Keep in a warm moist place and it grows.

Romans 8:38 (New Living Translation)

And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words.

I love the words used in this translation of this familiar verse.

God gives us His Holy Spirit. One of the main reasons is to help us—to help me, and I need a lot of help—in our weaknesses. As an example, the Holy Spirit helps us—helps me, and I really need a lot of help in this area—when praying. I—notice how I dropped the “us”—often don’t know what to pray for. The Holy Spirit does much of the praying for me in ways that my words cannot express.

Is there any way that I can express my gratitude for this one blessing from God stated in these two little sentences? Probably not, but these sentences express a meta-blessing or a blessing about a blessing. The Holy Spirit will express my gratitude for me.

Luke 7:33-34 (New Living Translation)

33 For John the Baptist didn’t spend his time eating bread or drinking wine, and you say, ‘He’s possessed by a demon.’ 34 The Son of Man, on the other hand, feasts and drinks, and you say, ‘He’s a glutton and a drunkard, and a friend of tax collectors and other sinners!’

Some critics of Jesus are busy criticizing Him again. This time they compare Jesus to John the Baptist—a fellow they didn’t like that much, but now they find someone they dislike more.

Notice the charges against Jesus at the end of verse 34:

1. glutton
2. drunkard
3. friend of tax collectors
4. friend of other sinners

How did #1 get in that list? An over eater in there with those other things? Must be a mistake. Right? Perhaps not.

Romans 12:2 (New Living Translation)

Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

I love the wording of this verse in this translation.

Don’t copy the world! Who would want to copy the wars, famine, stupidity, and hatred? For some reason, the answer is too often “me.”

Let God. Get out of the way, stupid. God wants to transform me. He is working on me. I just need to do more “letting” and less “getting” (clever rhyme if I do say so myself).

Then I will learn. You mean if I stop trying so hard I will learn more? That doesn’t make sense to me. Then again, perhaps the whole point is to stop trying to make sense to me.

Jeremiah 10:24-25 (New Living Translation)

24 So correct me, Lord, but please be gentle.
Do not correct me in anger, for I would die.
25 Pour out your wrath on the nations that refuse to acknowledge you—
on the peoples that do not call upon your name.
For they have devoured your people Israel[c];
they have devoured and consumed them,
making the land a desolate wilderness.

Jeremiah was a godly man. He served the LORD with his life. Note, however, his prayer:

God, it is okay that you correct me for my sins, but please take it easy on me. Now those other folks, hammer them into the ground for their sins.

Perhaps I am being a bit harsh on Jeremiah, but look at his words.

Perhaps Jeremiah reminds me of me a little too much.

God, help me to grant grace to others in just a tiny bit the way that you show grace to miserable me.

1 Corinthians 9:22-23 (New Living Translation)

22 When I am with those who are weak, I share their weakness, for I want to bring the weak to Christ. Yes, I try to find common ground with everyone, doing everything I can to save some. 23 I do everything to spread the Good News and share in its blessings.

Common ground—like common sense—is uncommon. In the world of the 2010s (I don’t know what we call it anymore), the word is “polarization.” That means those on this side are much farther away from those on that side than they were in the past.

How did this and that become so far apart? I suppose one day some historian will have an answer. The result is the same—common ground  is thin and dangerous.

Sure, I can find common ground, but those who are on the same polarized side as I am quickly become polar angry or something like that. They don’t remember the writings of Paul. It is one thing to show Christ to those who don’t know Christ, but it is another to suffer the onslaught of those who are or were on my side.

I suppose we created this danger-in-the-common-ground situation. I suppose it is just another stupid thing that smart people do with the aid of Satan. Funny how Satan finds ways to use are smart-ness against us.

Exodus 8:26 (New Living Translation)

But Moses replied, “That wouldn’t be right. The Egyptians detest the sacrifices that we offer to the LORD our God. Look, if we offer our sacrifices here where they Egyptians can see us, they will stone us…

Moses had been asking Pharaoh for permission to take the children of Israel off into the desert to offer sacrifices to the LORD. This is at a time before the LORD gave His people His law that included great details on sacrifices.

So what were these Israelite sacrifices? Why were they detestable to the Egyptians?

For the first question, my guess is that they were animal sacrifices. This goes back to the time of Abel and how he shed an animal’s blood.

For the second question, my guess is that the Egyptians detested everything the Israelites did in their religion. The  Egyptians were quite religious with many gods—one for everything important in their lives. These Israelites were a pathetic people; they were slaves that made bricks from mud and straw. No wonder the Egyptians detested the Israelites and everything they did. The pinnacle of detest was that the Israelites only had one god, and they worshipped that god by killing perfectly good animals.

Still, Moses and the Israelites understood how the Egyptians despised them and their worship of the LORD.

Exodus 8:26 (New Living Translation)

But Moses replied, “That wouldn’t be right. The Egyptians detest the sacrifices that we offer to the LORD our God. Look, if we offer our sacrifices here where they Egyptians can see us, they will stone us…

Notice how the Egyptians used stoning—circle a person and throw rocks at them until they are dead—as capital punishment. The children of Israel were to adopt this practice in their law from the LORD.

I can speculate as to why the Egyptians used it and why the LORD later called His people to use it. Perhaps it was a simple matter of economy—rocks were pretty cheap. Perhaps it was the necessity of the community to be involved in the punishment of one of their own. Did the LORD cause the Egyptians to use stoning as a precursor to His command to His people? Again, simple speculation on my part.