Contemplative Bible Reading

John 3:26 (The Living Bible)

So they came to John and said, “Master, the man you met on the other side of the Jordan River—the one you said was the Messiah—he is baptizing too, and everybody is going over there instead of coming here to us.”

These are follows of John the Baptist. They are concerned about a few things, so they come to John to ask a few questions. Notice how they describe Jesus:

the one you said was the Messiah

These followers don’t yet believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Christ. John the Baptist said Jesus was the Messiah, but these followers aren’t yet convinced.

Slow? Dim-witted? Human? The answer to all three is, “yes.”

Nehemiah 2:7-8 (The Living Bible)

7 Then I added this to my request: “If it pleases the king, give me letters to the governors west of the Euphrates River instructing them to let me travel through their countries on my way to Judah; 8 also a letter the Asap, the manager of the king’s forest, instructing him to give me timber for the beams and for the gates of the fortress near the Temple, and for the city walls, and for a house for myself.”

And the king granted these requests, for God was being gracious to me.

The King of Persia liked Nehemiah, a good and faithful servant. Nehemiah asked the king for many things. That is an understatement; Nehemiah asked for a lot of things. The King of Persia gave Nehemiah what he requested.

Wow. What a kind king. What a good persuader Nehemiah was.

The conclusion:

God was being gracious to me.

Excuse me? This was all between Nehemiah and the king. Right? Where was God in this conversation?

God was everywhere in this conversation. God is everywhere in every conversation I ever have. I infer that God is in every conversation between every group of persons everywhere all the time. Sometimes, well, make that almost all the time, we tend to omit God’s part. We tend to omit the graciousness that is available from God. How stupid are we? How stubborn are we? How arrogant are we?

And God still loves us—the wonder of the grace of God.

Malachi 1:2-3 (The Living Bible)

“I have loved you very deeply,” says the LORD.

But you retort, “Really? When was this?”

And the LORD replies, “I showed my love for you by loving your father, Jacob. I didn’t need to. I even rejected his very own brother, Esau, and destroyed Esau’s mountains and inheritance, to give it to the jackals of the desert…”

The first part of these verses show how stupid we can be. “Really God, when did you love us?” How can a person be so dense as to even ask such a question? Well, I’m glad that today we aren’t as pitiful as those people back then (not). We’re worse than they were.

The second part of these verses shows how God sometimes rejects some people. He chooses through whom He will perform works on earth. When he chooses some, he rejects others for that work. Today, He chooses some people to travel the world and preach. He chooses some other people to stay home and trudge through their daily employment to earn the money to send the others. In the same example, He chooses some to stay home and live near their adorable grandchildren while He sends others out of the country to rarely see their friends, children, and adorable grandchildren.

He chooses some; He rejects some. Our plight is to play our role the He has chosen. And, while doing our role, let’s be thankful for a task that he has chosen.

Zechariah 9:9-10 (New Living Translation)

⁹ Rejoice, O people of Zion!
Shout in triumph, O people of Jerusalem!
Look, your king is coming to you.
He is righteous and victorious,
yet he is humble, riding on a donkey—
riding on a donkey’s colt.
¹⁰ I will remove the battle chariots from Israel
and the warhorses from Jerusalem.
I will destroy all the weapons used in battle,
and your king will bring peace to the nations.
His realm will stretch from sea to sea
and from the Euphrates River to the ends of the earth.

Here comes the King! I guess, sort of. There must be something wrong with this King as he isn’t arriving in a remodeled 747 with satellite communications and bedrooms and everything else. Instead, he comes in on a rusty bicycle with slightly bent wheels. He has no secret service or other guards or entourage. He is empty handed. There are no signs of a conquering army or a conquering hero.

How do you combine humility and grand victory? I don’t know. I haven’t seen it in my life. Perhaps that is why the vast majority of the people who did see it didn’t recognize it.

What else does God do in my life everyday that I don’t recognize?

Zechariah 14:12 (New Living Translation)

And the Lord will send a plague on all the nations that fought against Jerusalem. Their people will become like walking corpses, their flesh rotting away. Their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongues will rot in their mouths.

As I read this, it hit me—this is a description of zombies or the walking dead. So this is where all the mummy, zombie, etc. literature originates. Where else?

Much of Western and other cultures on earth come from the Bible. We don’t read the Bible enough to recognize these things as they come and go and come and go in their endless cycles.

People are creative and innovative and all that. Still, much of the creativity that we admire among people comes right from God. It’s just that we have forgotten God and what He put in our minds.

Psalm 131:1-3 (New Living Translation)

¹ Lord, my heart is not proud;
my eyes are not haughty.
I don’t concern myself with matters too great
or too awesome for me to grasp.
² Instead, I have calmed and quieted myself,
like a weaned child who no longer cries for its mother’s milk.
Yes, like a weaned child is my soul within me.

Put your hope in the LORD, now and always.

2 Samuel 5:1-2 (New Living Translation)

Then all the tribes of Israel went to David at Hebron and told him, “We are your own flesh and blood. ² In the past, when Saul was our king, you were the one who really led the forces of Israel. And the Lord told you, ‘You will be the shepherd of my people Israel. You will be Israel’s leader.’”

Funny how we remember and forget. Here we have all the tribes of Israel telling David that he was the one who “really led the forces of Israel.” Hence, the all are loyal to David and all recognize David as the one true king.

David was in Hebron seven years fighting against some of the tribes of Israel. Seven years. For seven years the didn’t seem to remember David’s past accomplishments. Now, however, they shout that David really was the leader all along.

Funny how we remember and forget. Yet, God still grants us His grace.

1 Samuel 22:1-2 (New Living Translation)

So David left Gath and escaped to the cave of Adullam. Soon his brothers and all his other relatives joined him there. 2 Then others began coming—men who were in trouble or in debt or who were just discontented—until David was the captain of about 400 men.

David raises an army of 400 men. That is quite a feat, and should make David comfortable and safe. Note, however, the characteristics of the men in the army:

• in trouble
• in debt
• discontented

Not quite the individuals I would want in an ideal army. Still, the LORD provided this for David and the LORD made it work for David. Still, David needed a lot of faith to look about him and claim them as his army.

1 Samuel 19:23-24 (New Living Translation)

²³ But on the way to Naioth in Ramah the Spirit of God came even upon Saul, and he, too, began to prophesy all the way to Naioth! ²⁴ He tore off his clothes and lay naked on the ground all day and all night, prophesying in the presence of Samuel. The people who were watching exclaimed, “What? Is even Saul a prophet?”

Picture Saul in verse 24. He lay naked on the ground all day and all night prophesying.

Try to picture the President of the United States or just about any elected official or noted leader doing something like this today. Lying naked on the ground all day and all night.

I would react with much skepticism in such a case. Still, no one seems to react that way in this passage.

1 Samuel 19:4  (New Living Translation)

The next morning Jonathan spoke with his father about David, saying many good things about him. “The king must not sin against his servant David,” Jonathan said. “He’s never done anything to harm you. He has always helped you in any way he could.

I find this to be an interesting choice of words:

The king must not sin against his servant David

Jonathon doesn’t say “murder” or “hate” or some other thing that he knew his father Saul was was doing against David. This translation uses “sin.”

Ouch, sin is serious, sin is religious. Murder is just plain old stuff that people do without regard to a God or a spiritual world of any type.

How often do I sin against another person? How often do I consider my attitude towards another person as sin?