Contemplative Bible Reading

Exodus 5:2 (New Living Translation)

“Is that so?” retorted Pharaoh. “And who is the Lord? Why should I listen to him and let Israel go? I don’t know the Lord, and I will not let Israel go.”

In many English translations, like this one, the Old Testament phrase “the Lord” is a translation of sorts of the Hebrew name YHWH, pronounced Yah-way. The English word often used here is Jehovah.

Pharaoh, here arguing with Moses, makes a clear statement of truth. He didn’t know Jehovah; he had never heard of Jehovah. Pharaoh knew many gods by name and attribute. The Egyptians had many gods with one of the better-known to us today being Ra the god of the sun. Later in Exodus, Jehovah shows that he has power over Ra the god of the sun by blocking the sun and plunging Egypt into day-time darkness.

In the Christian world of today, we assume that “being religious” means being Christian. That is not the definition of the word. There are many people today who are religious and spiritual in that they believe there are powers present that go beyond explanation by the natural sciences. These super-natural forces are at work in their lives. Some of these people acknowledge the existence of Jehovah, but rank Jehovah somewhere in the middle of the list of known gods.

Other people today are like Pharaoh of Egypt: they have never heard of this god named Jehovah.

Genesis 4:10-12 (New Living Translation)

10 But the Lord said, “What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground! 11 Now you are cursed and banished from the ground, which has swallowed your brother’s blood. 12 No longer will the ground yield good crops for you, no matter how hard you work! From now on you will be a homeless wanderer on the earth.”

God confronts Cain after he had murdered his brother Abel. The ground had swallowed Abel’s blood because of Cain. The result was that God was banishing Cain from the ground. The ground would no longer accept Cain’s labor and return life in the form of food.

Cain’s sin separated him from the blessings of God’s creation.

What about me? Today? Has my sin separated me from the pure blessings of God’s creation? I look out the window and creation seems pretty darn wonderful. Could it, however, be much more? Perhaps one day I will know. Sorry, once again I don’t have answers to the questions I pose.

Exodus 13:13 (New Living Translation)

A firstborn donkey may be bought back from the Lord by presenting a lamb or young goat in its place. But if you do not buy it back, you must break its neck. However, you must buy back every firstborn son.

This verse is part of a long list of laws about redemption. One Google definition of redeem is:

gain or regain possession of (something) in exchange for payment.

Jehovah was emphasizing to His people that He owned everything. There were some items that especially belonged to Him. He allowed the redeeming or “buying back” of some items. Still, the emphasis was that Jehovah owned the item.

This all leads to Jesus the Messiah—our redeemer. I think of the old song I Know that My Redeemer Lives by Charles Wesley. I tend to set aside the word redeemer for religion only. That is my problem and challenge.

So where does all this meandering in print lead? Jesus the redeemer bought me; He brought me back to Jehovah from a pathetic sinful condemnation. Thank you God for your grace. Let me never forget it.

Genesis 3:22-23 (New English Translation)

22 And the Lord God said, “Now that the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil, he must not be allowed to stretch out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” 23 So the Lord God expelled him from the orchard in Eden to cultivate the ground from which he had been taken.

God expelled Adam and Eve from Eden because of their sin. God expelled them to prevent something—eternal life.

Note verse 22, especially the last phrase. God could not allow a sinful creature to live forever. Perhaps that would be too painful for God to be eternal next to sin. That is my silly speculation, but it shows the mind of tiny man next to God.

Eternal life in sin, who would want that? Arrogant man would jump at the chance, but one day would discover the folly of it. God grant me contentment in the state of temporary sin.

Genesis 3:8 (New English Translation)

Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God moving about in the orchard at the breezy time of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the orchard.

Adam and Eve were pretty smart; Adam and Eve were close to the Lord God as they knew the Lord God well. They walked with the Lord God every day. They knew the Lord God created everything including life itself.

And Adam and Eve thought that if they hid among the trees the Lord God wouldn’t be able to find them. How stupid is that?

Me? Today? Same stupid. God, help me in my unbelief.

Genesis 14:22-23 (New English Translation)

22 But Abram replied to the king of Sodom, “I raise my hand to the Lord, the Most High God, Creator of heaven and earth, and vow 23 that I will take nothing belonging to you, not even a thread or the strap of a sandal. That way you can never say, ‘It is I who made Abram rich.’

I love the NET translation for these verses. Abram wouldn’t take “the strap of a sandal” from the king of Sodom. Abram was trusting in Jehovah for the smallest thing to the biggest thing. Nothing was to come from another man. Nothing was to be credited to anyone or anything but Jehovah.

Such was the faith of Abram.

Romans 7:24 (American Standard Version)

Wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me out of the body of this death?

I love the wonderful, horrible wording found in this translation. Paul calls himself a wretched man.

One definition of wretched is

in a very unhappy or unfortunate state

The word “unfortunate” is an understatement. Paul is doomed to damnation because of his sinful state. Yes, that is unfortunate.

Paul replies to himself in the next verse with Jesus Christ being the answer to “who shall deliver me?”

Thank you God for your grace that saves a wretched person like me.

1 Corinthians 12:7 (New Living Translation)

A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other.

It is easy to accept a gift and use it for my own pleasure. Someone gives me a gift certificate for my birthday. I enjoy the meal. Natural right?

Perhaps this natural use of gifts distorts my view of gifts from God. God gives me things so that I can help another. Uh, perhaps God has this gift-usage thing all backwards or something. Uh, perhaps I have this gift-usage thing all backwards. The latter has much more weight behind it.

God, help me with my unbelief.

Galatians 4:8 (New Living Translation)

Before you Gentiles knew God, you were slaves to so-called gods that do not even exist.

This summarizes the state of the Gentiles in Galatia before the Gospel. They had enslaved themselves to things that didn’t exist. Let’s try to understand that principle.

Think of something that does not exist. Try your favorite fairy tale, like the wooden boy whose nose grows when he lies. Now worship that character in the fairy tale. Sort of, well, silly or something like that? That was the state described by Paul.

No one today is so silly, right? Well…

Galatians 1:4 (New Living Translation)

Jesus gave his life for our sins, just as God our Father planned, in order to rescue us from this evil world in which we live.

I can’t add anything. God, please keep my pride from having me attempt to add.