Contemplative Bible Reading

1 Samuel 23:19 (New Living Translation)

But now the men of Ziph went to Saul in Gibeah and betrayed David to him. “We know where David is hiding,” they said. “He is in the strongholds of Horesh on the hill of Hakilah, which is in the southern part of Jeshimon.

I guess this is just part of the fallen human nature – we tend to believe liars when they are lying the way we like.

These two men come to King Saul and betray David’s hiding spot. By “betray,” I assume that they were trusted by David to keep a secret. Instead, they broke their secret, i.e., they lied to David about keeping a secret.

These two liars come to Saul and say, “Trust us, we are telling you the truth (even though we lied to David).”

Saul trusts the liars. Again, I guess this is part of (fallen) human nature.

Is this how gossip works? “I told Sally that I wouldn’t tell anyone her secret, but her secret is so important that I have to tell you about it.”

Ecclesiastes 9:3 (New Living Translation)

It seems so tragic that everyone under the sun suffers the same fate. That is why people are not more careful to be good. Instead, they choose their own mad course, for they have no hope. There is nothing ahead but death anyway.

The Teacher explains the path chosen by many in their lives. They choose their own mad course. Why? Because, as they see it, there is nothing ahead but death. So, what’s the use?

This is one of the results of life without hope in a Savior. Those of us who have a Savior, and the hope He brings, should spread the good news as much as we can.

1 Samuel 23:4 (New Living Translation)

David now stayed in the strongholds of the wilderness and in the hill country of Ziph. Saul hunted him day after day, but God didn’t let Saul find him.

Saul was chasing David. Saul had resources. I guess he had the best trackers in the kingdom at his service. Still, Saul couldn’t find David.

This verse tells us that God didn’t let Saul find David. It seems that God made Saul take a wrong turn here and there.

Funny how if you turn left – physically, mentally, emotionally – instead of right or vice versa, you never find what you seek. It just isn’t there. Something that simple changes your life.

Do we believe that an omnipotent God can do something so simple as cause a person to make a wrong turn? Silly question; of course God can do that. I believe that God still does that – everyday.

Deuteronomy 14:22-23 (New Living Translation)

²² “You must set aside a tithe of your crops—one-tenth of all the crops you harvest each year. ²³ Bring this tithe to the designated place of worship—the place the Lord your God chooses for his name to be honored—and eat it there in his presence. This applies to your tithes of grain, new wine, olive oil, and the firstborn males of your flocks and herds. Doing this will teach you always to fear the Lord your God.

The title of the post is correct. This passage is from the old law. God tells the people to set aside a tithe (a tenth) of their crops. Bring that produce to Jerusalem, sit down, and eat it all.

What? God wanted the people to eat what they set aside for God. That is an awfully generous God. Oooops, we may have stumbled on something here – that was an awfully generous God. What happened to that mean, ugly, no-fun God? Perhaps we had the wrong impression about the old law and God.

Fast forward a few thousand years. Some of us go to a church building on Sunday and give money. What happens to the money? We consume it ourselves. We pay for our building; we pay people to encourage and teach us, and we pay for all sorts of things that benefit us. Even the money that goes to pay a missionary ten thousand miles away blesses us.

Still, an awfully generous. What happened to that mean, ugly, no-fun God? Perhaps we still have the wrong impression about God.

Deuteronomy 13:6-11 (New Living Translation)

⁶ “Suppose someone secretly entices you—even your brother, your son or daughter, your beloved wife, or your closest friend—and says, ‘Let us go worship other gods’—gods that neither you nor your ancestors have known. ⁷ They might suggest that you worship the gods of peoples who live nearby or who come from the ends of the earth. ⁸ But do not give in or listen. Have no pity, and do not spare or protect them. ⁹ You must put them to death! Strike the first blow yourself, and then all the people must join in. ¹⁰ Stone the guilty ones to death because they have tried to draw you away from the Lord your God, who rescued you from the land of Egypt, the place of slavery. ¹¹ Then all Israel will hear about it and be afraid, and no one will act so wickedly again.

I guess one falls under what we used to call “tough love.” Maybe it falls under “make an example of someone.”

The instruction is simple: if anyone – no matter how close they are to me – asks me to go worship other gods with them, I kill them. And everyone in town joins me in killing them.

Harsh? Absolutely yes.

Reason? Everyone will know what happened and why and will be afraid (understatement there). Their fear will mean that no one will act so wickedly again.

Old Testament law. I thank God for New Testament grace (among other things).

This is also part of the responsibility God placed on the community. When you know that you have to bash the skull of anyone who strays, you keep an eye on your neighbor. If you see him taking a step that may lead in the wrong direction, you grab him by the shirt and scream at him. “Don’t you dare go there. I don’t want to bash your skull with a rock. I will do it, and I will hate you for making me do it, but I will do it.” Yes, I thank God for grace.

Deuteronomy 8:1-5 (New Living Translation)

Be careful to obey all the commands I am giving you today. Then you will live and multiply, and you will enter and occupy the land the Lord swore to give your ancestors. ² Remember how the Lord your God led you through the wilderness for these forty years, humbling you and testing you to prove your character, and to find out whether or not you would obey his commands. ³ Yes, he humbled you by letting you go hungry and then feeding you with manna, a food previously unknown to you and your ancestors. He did it to teach you that people do not live by bread alone; rather, we live by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. ⁴ For all these forty years your clothes didn’t wear out, and your feet didn’t blister or swell. ⁵ Think about it: Just as a parent disciplines a child, the Lord your God disciplines you for your own good.

Notice verse 3, God let the people go hungry. Why would a loving God let people border on starvation? That is not love, is it? It is not love as I understand it, but there is much about God that I do not understand.

God did that so He could teach the people. That’s not fair, at least not the sense of fairness that I understand. If God wants to teach me something, let him do it my way. Oooops. Now I am telling God how to conduct Himself. Isn’t that backwards?

Anyways, God teaches the people that bread, that stuff from wheat that comes out of the dirt, is not the source of life – God is the source of life. Well, I guess that makes sense, but couldn’t God teach lessons the way I like? That would sure be easier on me, and…

There we go again.

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Judges 8:22-23 (New Living Translation)

²² Then the Israelites said to Gideon, “Be our ruler! You and your son and your grandson will be our rulers, for you have rescued us from Midian.”

²³ But Gideon replied, “I will not rule over you, nor will my son. The Lord will rule over you!

Gideon had just won a miraculous victory – the one where three hundred men with trumpets and torches and clay pots, you know, the Sunday School (hi)story. Anyways, with victory comes the cry, “You be our leader!”

Gideon tries to remind the people of the “miracle” in the phrase “miraculous victory.” The miracle was supernatural or, as many today like to say, spiritual. The LORD Jehovah (YHWH) made the miracle, made the victory. The LORD would rule the people, not Gideon and his descendants.

The people, always confused by these spiritual things, would cry again and again for a person to rule them. The LORD eventually granted them their request with predictable and predicted results.

Oh well, at least Gideon was able to postpone the inevitable.

2 Samuel 19:41-43 (New Living Translation)

⁴¹ But all the men of Israel complained to the king, “The men of Judah stole the king and didn’t give us the honor of helping take you, your household, and all your men across the Jordan.”

⁴² The men of Judah replied, “The king is one of our own kinsmen. Why should this make you angry? We haven’t eaten any of the king’s food or received any special favors!”

⁴³ “But there are ten tribes in Israel,” the others replied. “So we have ten times as much right to the king as you do. What right do you have to treat us with such contempt? Weren’t we the first to speak of bringing him back to be our king again?” The argument continued back and forth, and the men of Judah spoke even more harshly than the men of Israel.

These verses were recorded as David was returning to Jerusalem. He is the “king” mentioned here.

David was from the tribe of Judah. The people of Judah felt a close tie to David, and rightly so. The peoples of the other tribes were a bit jealous, and rightly so.

How did the people of Judah show their pride in one of their own? How did the people of the other tribes show their pride in their own families?

Neither group acted well.

Some fifty years later, the nation separated into two weaker, less Godly nations. Generations of people, millions of people over the centuries – all hurt because of the separation. And maybe this incident was part of the start.

There are times in our lives when we are happy about the accomplishments of someone close to us. We are a little less happy about the accomplishments of someone we know, but who is not so close to us. It is important how we act in these situations. We can hurt people with how we show our joy. We can hurt people with how we react when they are joyous.

Judges 2:1-4 (New Living Translation)

The angel of the Lord went up from Gilgal to Bokim and said to the Israelites, “I brought you out of Egypt into this land that I swore to give your ancestors, and I said I would never break my covenant with you. ² For your part, you were not to make any covenants with the people living in this land; instead, you were to destroy their altars. But you disobeyed my command. Why did you do this? ³ So now I declare that I will no longer drive out the people living in your land. They will be thorns in your sides, and their gods will be a constant temptation to you.”

⁴ When the angel of the Lord finished speaking to all the Israelites, the people wept loudly.

God’s people were told to remove the people living in the land He promised them. They were also told to remove all the gods and idols of the people living in the land.

God’s people disobeyed. The angel here tells them the result of their choice:

those gods would be a constant temptation.

When they realized the consequences of their choice, the people wept.

Today? Do we keep things around us that tempt us? Evil is everywhere. What do you want me to do, live in an isolated cabin in the woods?

No, not that. The Gospel won’t spread it we do that. So, what do we do? How do we live without temptation near to us? I just ask the questions; I don’t have all the answers.

Numbers 18:30-32 (New Living Translation)

³⁰ “Also, give these instructions to the Levites: When you present the best part as your offering, it will be considered as though it came from your own threshing floor or winepress. ³¹ You Levites and your families may eat this food anywhere you wish, for it is your compensation for serving in the Tabernacle. ³² You will not be considered guilty for accepting the Lord’s tithes if you give the best portion to the priests. But be careful not to treat the holy gifts of the people of Israel as though they were common. If you do, you will die.”

The people brought their offerings to the Levites at the Temple. The Levites were to follow instructions given by the LORD. Note the phrase in verse 32:

But be careful not to treat the holy gifts of the people of Israel as though they were common.

There was a difference between what was holy and what was common. There are several uses of the word “holy” in the Bible. One use is that items that were holy were set apart for a special purpose, set apart for the LORD. We (may) have similar holy items today, e.g., a building set apart to be used only in the service of God.

The warning to the Levites, and to all of the LORD’s people, was not to mix the items set apart for the LORD with everything else.

Today? Do I set aside a part of my life for God? Maybe my entire life is to be for God? Do I set aside some of my  money for God? Does all my money come from God and is His for me to use for Him?  I don’t have an answer.