Contemplative Bible Reading

2 Corinthians 4:5 (New Living Translation)

You see, we don’t go around preaching about ourselves. We preach that Jesus Christ is Lord, and we ourselves are your servants for Jesus’ sake.

This is pretty simple. Paul says that the Gospel is not about him; it is about Jesus the Christ. We, however, have been stumbling over ourselves in this point for a long time.

It is easy for me to talk about me. I know myself better than I know anyone else. That isn’t a difficult concept. If I want to tell stories about someone, I am my easiest subject. And I have plenty of stories about the failing of the human condition where I am the center of the failure.

The problem is that it is easy for people to understand the Gospel message as self-centered. I am the center of the universe. Live like me and God will love you.

And then we reach the last phrase of the above verse, the part about me being your servant. That must be a figure of speech or something because it can’t possibly be interpreted literally. Then again, maybe it is to be interpreted literally.

Sometimes this Gospel can be difficult. Jesus – not me – is the center of the story. I am to serve everyone else. Simple concept, difficult implementation. I am glad that God helps me every second of every day.

Zechariah 7:8-10

⁸ And the word of the LORD came again to Zechariah: ⁹ “This is what the LORD Almighty said: ‘Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. ¹⁰ Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor. Do not plot evil against each other.’

He was a good friend of mine in high school. We lost touch as high school friends often do.  Then I learned of what he had done to his mother.

He wanted to buy something, but had no credit. People who give their lives to alcohol tend to lose all credit with lenders. He pestered his mother until she signed her house to him as collateral for the loan. The result was what people expected.

He defaulted on his loan, and his mother lost her home.

I wanted to find him and hit him in the head with a board. Perhaps that is how the LORD felt as he spoke through the prophet Zechariah. His people

• were unjust towards one another
• showed no mercy
• had no compassion
• oppressed widows and orphans and the poor
• plotted evil against one another

What makes it all worse is that these people were family. They all descended from the sons of Jacob; they were all cousins as  They were doing just as my former high school friend had – they were swindling members of their own family.

The LORD sort of hit them in the head with a board. How? He left them alone. He left them to their own resources. He let them suffer the natural consequences of their actions.

They simply got what they deserved.

Today, God let’s us have what we deserve unless we choose otherwise. We can escape our just desserts by accepting His grace.

1 Corinthians 6:9-10  (New International Version 2011)

⁹ Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men ¹⁰ nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

There must be something wrong with this list of sins. I mean, someone must have made a mistake when creating the list.

The list includes the obvious, horrible sins:

• sexually immoral
• idolaters
• adulterers
• men who have sex with men
• thieves
• drunkards

But really, why are these in the list?

greedy – isn’t greed good, isn’t that what drives the economy?

slanderers – why, that’s just saying something that is sort of bad about someone else, we all do that, right?

swindlers – that is a harsh translation, it is really talking about good business people, those who are able to sell $1 worth of goods for $5 and drive the economy

They put fill-in-the-blank-with-a-little-sin right next to fill-in-the-blank-with-a-big-sin. That must be wrong.

This is all subjective – on our part. From God’s perspective, it isn’t so subjective. Note – everything in the list hurts someone. God advises us to avoid things that hurt people. If we are hurting people, we are not loving them, and God wants us to love one another.

Funny how so much of this adult stuff goes right back to what we were told as small children in Sunday School – love one another.

Judges 16:15-16 (New International Version 2011)

¹⁵ Then she (Delilah) said to him (Samson), “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when you won’t confide in me? This is the third time you have made a fool of me and haven’t told me the secret of your great strength.” ¹⁶ With such nagging she prodded him day after day until he was sick to death of it.

Delilah is attempting to manipulate her husband Samson. She tries one of the oldest, most used even to this day ploys:

If you really love me, you would fill-in-the-blank

There isn’t much new when it comes to how we can twist and turn and nag and generally become a pain to those we love. This is the epitome of conditional love.

It is a shame that we use the word – love – for how we feel about people and things and then use it for how we feel about God. In Greek, there are different words for the different types of love, but in English we have one word. That makes it easier for us to twist and turn and nag God. That makes it easier for us to say things like,

If you truly are a God of love, you would fill-in-the-blank

We’ve heard phrases like that so much, they come naturally. We see conditional love everywhere, hear that God is love, and conclude that God’s love is conditional as well. Is there any other kind?

God, thank you for loving me unconditionally. Thank you for loving me when I stumble and when I glance away at something else. Help me learn to love in he same manner.

Jeremiah 10:1-2 (New International Version 2011)

¹ Hear what the LORD says to you, people of Israel. ² This is what the LORD says:

“Do not learn the ways of the nations
or be terrified by signs in the heavens,
though the nations are terrified by them.

Now and then, the LORD sent a message to His people through a prophet. To me, these messages often sound like a parent scolding a child, “If Johnny Jones jumped off a cliff, would you jump off a cliff?”

Seriously, look at the verses above. The people around God’s people worshiped the skies and the stars in the skies. If they saw the stars aligned in a peculiar way, they were terrified.

The LORD created the heavens and the earth. He put the stars in the sky. He aligns them as he intended. Don’t worry about all that. Besides, the LORD has provided everything the people need. The LORD even gave them pointers on how to live that would be good for them (somewhere else we note that the nations around the LORD’s people recognized the excellence of these pointers or laws).

The situation is much the same today – if we let it be. Congress and the White House can’t make a budget deal (again this year). Or maybe the deal they make is worse than doing nothing at all. I can be terrified by these modern-day, American signs in the heavens. I can let these rule my life and determine my outlook.

Or maybe I can listen to the pointers God has given me on how to live and dwell in grace He has provided.

2 Kings 23:13-14 (New International Version 2011)

¹³ The king also desecrated the high places that were east of Jerusalem on the south of the Hill of Corruption—the ones Solomon king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the vile goddess of the Sidonians, for Chemosh the vile god of Moab, and for Molek the detestable god of the people of Ammon. ¹⁴ Josiah smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles and covered the sites with human bones.

Here is another episode in the life of good King Josiah – one of the last good kings of Judah. Here is a (hi)story of Josiah ridding Jerusalem and the country of idols. Note the “high places,” i.e., places of idol worship that Josiah desecrates or destroys in verse 13. These places of idol worship were built by King Solomon.

A little research on Wikipedia (among other places) shows that Solomon was King about 330 years before Josiah. Through all the ups and downs and good times and bad times over 330 years, the people of Jerusalem and Judah kept these places of idol worship in tact.

330 years!

It seems that someone in those 16 generations, someone would have said, “Hey, these things shouldn’t be here!”

Nope. That never happened. I guess the people just became accustomed to these places and left them in place. I mean, they seemed to have been there forever. Perhaps the attitude was:

If those things were wrong, someone would have removed them.

Perhaps that is my attitude today. I see things that are wrong, things that shouldn’t be. Things that are not good for me or for my neighbor. But hey, they’ve been here a long time, so who am I to do something. I am a person who follows Christ. That’s who I am. I should do something.

God, get me going like Josiah. Get me to remove the places of idol worship that are about me.

2 Chronicles 34:29-31 (New International Version 2011)

²⁹ Then the king called together all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. ³⁰ He went up to the temple of the LORD with the people of Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the priests and the Levites—all the people from the least to the greatest. He read in their hearing all the words of the Book of the Covenant, which had been found in the temple of the LORD. ³¹ The king stood by his pillar and renewed the covenant in the presence of the LORD—to follow the LORD and keep his commands, statutes and decrees with all his heart and all his soul, and to obey the words of the covenant written in this book.

The king here is Josiah. He was one of the last “good” kings in Judah. He was good because when he learned of the law, i.e., the covenant, he did everything he could to obey the words of the covenant.

I keep noticing how often these passage in this part of the Old Testament call it “the covenant.” These people had a covenant or an agreement with the LORD. It was sort of a contract.

Do I have a contract with God? I started to think of this for a while. One quick answer is “yes.” If I do what God wants, I am saved.

Ooooops, that doesn’t work. Sometimes I do what God wants. Then there are the other times – somewhere between 2% and 98% of the time – when I don’t do so well. I’m not trying to exagarate here, but let’s try to remember every person I have met today and ask myself how much I loved each and every one of them. And that is just the simple parts of “the contract.”

Have I broken the contract? Will God turn his back on me? I sure hope not.

I believe I have better than a contract that I have to renew every day. Instead, I have grace.

God, thank you for granting grace.

2 Kings 19:14-15 (New International Version 2011)

¹⁴ Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers and read it. Then he went up to the temple of the LORD and spread it out before the LORD. ¹⁵ And Hezekiah prayed to the LORD: “LORD, the God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth.

Hezekiah was in trouble. The letter mentioned above was from an enemy who was poised to destroy Hezekiah and his people.  Hezekiah spreads the message before him and begins to pray.

Superstition?

I don’t think so. I have done this. Sometimes I make a list of

• things troubling me
• people in my concerns
• wonderful things
• wonderful people

Sometimes I open the Bible to an especially important passage (for that day).

I look over the list or the passage and pray. The items on the list come closer to my heart, and I pray deeper.

God, thank you for prayer. Thank you for the example of Hezekiah and praying over a document.

Numbers 27:21 (New International Version 2011)

He is to stand before Eleazar the priest, who will obtain decisions for him by inquiring of the Urim before the LORD. At his command he and the entire community of the Israelites will go out, and at his command they will come in.”

• What is in the world is the Urim?
• Why would anyone inquire of it before the LORD to obtain a decision?
• Why in the world would I wait until my age to ask these questions and find the answers?

So I go to Wikipedia for the answers (I went to several other sources to confirm the answers).

The Urim, and the Thummim were stones or jewels. These stones were placed in the vest of the priests like Eleazer in the above verse. The priest was to inquire of the stone before the LORD. It appears that these stones would turn colors or change brightness (on and off like a light bulb). The change in color would provide the LORD’s answer to the priest.

Now this is a bit weird. Praying to God and then looking a the color of the stones on my shirt.

Weird or not, this is what God instructed the priests to do. I have to believe that, for a while at least, the priests obeyed.

Jonah 1:4-16 (New International Version 2011)

4 Then the LORD sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up. ⁵ All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god. And they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship.    But Jonah had gone below deck, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep.⁶ The captain went to him and said, “How can you sleep? Get up and call on your god! Maybe he will take notice of us so that we will not perish.”

⁷ Then the sailors said to each other, “Come, let us cast lots to find out who is responsible for this calamity.” They cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah. ⁸ So they asked him, “Tell us, who is responsible for making all this trouble for us? What kind of work do you do? Where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?”

⁹ He answered, “I am a Hebrew and I worship the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.”

¹⁰ This terrified them and they asked, “What have you done?” (They knew he was running away from the LORD, because he had already told them so.)

¹¹ The sea was getting rougher and rougher. So they asked him, “What should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?”

¹² “Pick me up and throw me into the sea,” he replied, “and it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you.”

¹³ Instead, the men did their best to row back to land. But they could not, for the sea grew even wilder than before. ¹⁴ Then they cried out to the LORD, “Please, LORD, do not let us die for taking this man’s life. Do not hold us accountable for killing an innocent man, for you, LORD, have done as you pleased.” ¹⁵ Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm. ¹⁶ At this the men greatly feared the LORD, and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows to him.

The is a relatively long passage in today’s contemplation. I like this passage because it is an unusual encounter. In many scriptures, a prophet or a King of God’s people met with generals or kings or priests from other peoples who worshiped other Gods. What sets this passage apart is that Jonah – a prophet – is talking with a bunch of sailors – just plain folks – who do not know the LORD – YAHWEH – the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Note what these other just plain folks do:

They each cried to their own gods. This was diverse group of people from different places where they worshiped different gods.

They did what they could – throw things overboard to save the ship.

They asked Jonah to pray to his god. Everyone believed in a god (or two). They knew that there was more than just the physical world.

They cast lots. God’s people also cast lots to make decisions. The practice was based on faith in a deity, not just luck.

The lot fell on Jonah, and the sailors believed that Jonah was responsible. Such was their faith in the lot.

Jonah identifies his god as the LORD – YAHWEH. The sailors had heard of the LORD and were frightened. This showed their respect, awe, and fear of the LORD.

Jonah told the sailors the solution – throw him in the sea.

The sailors refused to do so. That was part of their code of conduct – you don’t throw someone in the sea in a storm. They had a code of right and wrong.

With all alternatives exhausted, the sailors decided to throw Jonah to his certain death.

They prayed to the LORD for understanding and forgiveness.

They believed in the existence and power of the LORD.