Contemplative Bible Reading

Numbers 16:12-14 (New Living Translation)

¹² Then Moses summoned Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, but they replied, “We refuse to come before you! ¹³ Isn’t it enough that you brought us out of Egypt, a land flowing with milk and honey, to kill us here in this wilderness, and that you now treat us like your subjects? ¹⁴ What’s more, you haven’t brought us into another land flowing with milk and honey. You haven’t given us a new homeland with fields and vineyards. Are you trying to fool these men? We will not come.”

Yes, Egypt. The people described Egypt as a land flowing with milk and honey. What happened to all that stuff about the people crying in the pain an agony of slavery? Things sure changed in a hurry. Now Egypt was flowing with milk and honey and lollipop trees and all that goodness.

Us today? Gosh I was miserable then, but now I am happy. That is until I am miserable in my new circumstance and then yesterday seems so sweet and why oh why did God put me in this miserable place with these miserable people? How does God tolerate us? I am thankful that He does.

Leviticus 7:21 (New Living Translation)

If you touch anything that is unclean (whether it is human defilement or an unclean animal or any other unclean, detestable thing) and then eat meat from a peace offering presented to the Lord, you will be cut off from the community.

Ever been cut off from a church? No big deal, there are lots of churches. Just look in the Yellow Pages or on your Google machine.

Not so in the Old Testament. Always try to remember that God’s chosen people, the Israelites, the Jews, the Hebrews, were one big family. They were all related and they could easily trace their common ancestors (“Oh, you are my 13th cousin!”). To be cut off would mean severing all ties to all your blood relatives.

The above verse is just one of many that give an offense that is punishable by being cut off from your relatives. They Jews took this seriously, well, at least some of them did. Many had their lapses in memory and judgement.

Today? Yes, there are deeds we can do that will cause a community of believers to cut us off from the community. The community will, at least I hope will, allow us back if we confess and repent of the deeds. I know God will accept us back into communion with Him if we confess and repent. Such is the limitless Grace of God. Such is the difference between the old and new covenants. Such is just one part of the many blessings we enjoy in the Christ, the one appointed to redeem us all from our sins.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow.

Exodus 35:34-36:1 (New Living Translation)

³⁴ And the Lord has given both him and Oholiab son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan, the ability to teach their skills to others. ³⁵ The Lord has given them special skills as engravers, designers, embroiderers in blue, purple, and scarlet thread on fine linen cloth, and weavers. They excel as craftsmen and as designers.

36 “The Lord has gifted Bezalel, Oholiab, and the other skilled craftsmen with wisdom and ability to perform any task involved in building the sanctuary. Let them construct and furnish the Tabernacle, just as the Lord has commanded.”

God’s chosen people built a magnificent Tabernacle—a portable, tent temple of worship. They did this while all million of them wandered the desert wastelands.

Let’s try to understand this situation a bit. There are at least a million men, women, and children. They are homeless and wandering in circles in a desert. Surviving in this situation is a magnificent accomplishment. It is something that could not be done without divine intervention.

They didn’t just survive; somehow (divine intervention again) they thrived. And they managed to build a portable temple of worship.

How did they do it? Again, divine intervention. God gave the necessary abilities to enough people. The verses shown above indicate which people and which abilities. God, knowing human frailties, also gave them the ability to teach younger people how to do what they were doing so that there would be no skill shortage in the future, no degradation into a dark age of skill and knowledge.

Divine intervention. I believe it is still with us if we will just take the effort to notice it.

Exodus 32 (New Living Translation)

⁹ Then the Lord said, “I have seen how stubborn and rebellious these people are. ¹⁰ Now leave me alone so my fierce anger can blaze against them, and I will destroy them. Then I will make you, Moses, into a great nation.” ¹¹ But Moses tried to pacify the Lord his God. “O Lord!” he said. “Why are you so angry with your own people whom you brought from the land of Egypt with such great power and such a strong hand?

¹⁹ When they came near the camp, Moses saw the calf and the dancing, and he burned with anger. He threw the stone tablets to the ground, smashing them at the foot of the mountain.

In the first verses above, the LORD was angry with His chosen people. He advises Moses to stand back so he won’t be burned when the LORD destroys the people.

Moses calms the LORD.

Five minutes later—well, maybe not exactly five minutes later, but not too much later—Moses is angry with the same bunch of people.

This doesn’t say much good about the people. They angered the LORD and then angered Moses. What was wrong with those guys? I suppose they had the same faults that I have; they had the same inexplicable foibles that I have; they had…well, you get the idea.

It is easy to see the faults of others. It is difficult to move past my own faults. And God loved those people anyways. And God loves me anyways. The grace of God is boundless, and I just can’t understand it. Perhaps one day.

Genesis 41:37-38 (New Living Translation)

37 Joseph’s suggestions were well received by Pharaoh and his officials. 38 So Pharaoh asked his officials, “Can we find anyone else like this man so obviously filled with the spirit of God?”

Joseph had impressed Pharaoh, so Pharaoh replies in verse 38. Notice what Pharaoh believes:

• There is a God
• There is a Creator
• There is a spirit world
• The Creator God puts his spirit in some people
• Joseph had been so filled with the spirit of God

This Pharaoh was a religious person. He believed there was more to life than the physical. Religious does not mean that a person follows God, Jehovah, the Creator. Religious means you believe in more than the physical in front of you.

There are many religious people in the world who are not Christians. We have something in common from which we can start conversations.

1 John 2:27 (New Living Translation)

But you have received the Holy Spirit, and he lives within you, so you don’t need anyone to teach you what is true. For the Spirit teaches you everything you need to know, and what he teaches is true—it is not a lie. So just as he has taught you, remain in fellowship with Christ.

What do I need to know? Here we go with this “need” vs “want.” Here is a fair test of need and want when it comes to knowledge. If I need to know something, the Holy Spirit will teach me.

No wonder calculus with analytic geometry required so much work to learn.

But silly examples aside, this is an important principle. How can I talk to someone about Jesus in my life? I think the Holy Spirit will teach me that one. How can I love my wife and kids? Same answer.

Thank you God. As usual, You know what I need and You provide.

Exodus 16:4-5 (New Living Translation)

⁴ Then the Lord said to Moses, “Look, I’m going to rain down food from heaven for you. Each day the people can go out and pick up as much food as they need for that day. I will test them in this to see whether or not they will follow my instructions. ⁵ On the sixth day they will gather food, and when they prepare it, there will be twice as much as usual.”

Before the LORD gave the people manna, He gave them these instructions. He would put everything in front of them, but He wanted them to take only as much as they needed.

The result was predictable and predicted. Some grabbed much more than they needed.

Us today? Well, here we go again. We don’t do much better. How much is enough? What do we need? As I have said for years, and not done what I said for most of those years, “If I have two pair of pants, I have twice as many as I need.”

God provides everything to us. He would like us to take what we need and share the rest. God, please help me to please you in this and many other ways. Thank you for forgiving my many failings.

Hebrews 12:11 (New Living Translation)

No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening—it’s painful! But afterward there will be a peaceful harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way.

Mark Twain once said something like, “A Classic is something you don’t want to read, but you want to say you have read it.” Well, Twain, like a lot of us, stole his quote from the Bible. The writer of Hebrews said the same thing about discipline some twenty centuries earlier.

Discipline hurts. If it didn’t hurt, it wouldn’t grab our attention. Few people like pain.

Discipline, however, does grab our attention and usually leads to change that helps us.

Please God, discipline me so that I progress. But, please God, don’t let it hurt too much. That is a silly prayer, but one I utter often.

Psalms 25:7 (New Living Translation)

Do not remember the rebellious sins of my youth.
Remember me in the light of your unfailing love,
for you are merciful, O Lord.

David wrote this Psalm. He asks God for something quite selfish, but I find myself asking the same thing. David asks God to remember God’s love for him. David precedes that by asking God to forget David’s youthful, rebellious sins. Yes, quite selfish. Yes, something that I ask as well.

God is gracious, loving, and forgiving. Me? Well, like David, I’ve had bad moments and bad days. I depend on God’s grace. Every day, at least every day is my goal, I thank God for His grace. Without His grace, I’m lost.

Hebrews 11:3 (New Living Translation)

By faith we understand that the entire universe was formed at God’s command, that what we now see did not come from anything that can be seen.

Take note of the second half of the above sentence:

what we now see did not come from anything that can be seen.

If anyone can explain how this works, please explain it to me. What we sense all about us came from something that we cannot sense. I take the liberty to extend “see” beyond what we can see with our eyes alone. I extend it to anything we can sense with any technology we may have now or in a thousand years from now.

Again, please, someone explain how this works. Then again, I believe by faith that it happened, and there is no proof in faith, only belief.