Contemplative Bible Reading

2 Samuel 8:2 (New Living Translation)

2 David also conquered the land of Moab. He made the people lie down on the ground in a row, and he measured them off in groups with a length of rope. He measured off two groups to be executed for every one group to be spared. The Moabites who were spared became David’s subjects and paid him tribute money.

This section of 2 Samuel describes the military triumphs of King David. Here David executes two-thirds of the people of Moab. Pause here: David executes two-thirds of the people of Moab. Why? Why is David so brutal? The following verses continue to describe the death and destruction that flowed from David. At one point he cripples the horses that pull 900 chariots. That is thousands and thousands of horses crippled by David. Why does he torture animals?

Yet a few sentences later we read that David did what was just and right for all his people.

These two things cannot both be true, but they are. King David was righteous and also brutal. That characterized the times in which he lived, huh? None of this makes sense to me sitting here in a nice coffee shop with nice people on a nice day in a nice community. I don’t know if the times of David were odd or my time and place is odd. I just can’t answer the questions that I can ask.

Thank you God for my life in my time and place. Help me in my unbelief.

1 Samuel 7:10 (New Living Translation)

10 Just as Samuel was sacrificing the burnt offering, the Philistines arrived to attack Israel. But the Lord spoke with a mighty voice of thunder from heaven that day, and the Philistines were thrown into such confusion that the Israelites defeated them.

The dreaded Philistines arrive with an army to attack Israel. The Philistine army was superior and was to win yet another battle. The Israelites defeated the superior Philistine army.

Huh? What happened? The Philistines were thrown into confusion by thunder, i.e., weather. God changed the weather, the Philistines were confused, and they were defeated.

This doesn’t make sense, but this is right in front of us in the text. God brought some unexpected thunder of a kind that threw an army into confusion to the point that they couldn’t shoot straight or whatever armies of the time were trying to do.

Does God change the weather to change all battles of human armies? I don’t know. I don’t read that in the Bible. I do read where God does change the weather for some battles for some armies at some times and the weather changes the outcome. If God changes the weather, what else does God change to affect the course of human events? Probably many things. It is for God to know and me to wonder. It is also for me to do what is right and righteous and seek God’s mercy and grace.

1 Samuel 6:5-6 (New Living Translation)

5 Make these things to show honor to the God of Israel. Perhaps then he will stop afflicting you, your gods, and your land. 6 Don’t be stubborn and rebellious as Pharaoh and the Egyptians were. By the time God was finished with them, they were eager to let Israel go.

This is part of the (hi)story of the relationship between God’s people and the Philistines. The Philistines had captured the Ark of the Covenant. The result was seven months of plague on the Philistines. The leaders of the Philistines asked their priests and diviners for advice on what to do to stop this plague. The verses above are the advice of the priests and diviners.

Notice how the advice speaks of Pharaoh and the Egyptians. Those events happened hundreds of years before. Yet, the Philistines knew the history of God’s people and how God had miraculously brought the people out of Egypt after four hundred years.

The Philistines remembered the history. Often, God’s people didn’t remember their own history. That makes no sense. The enemy knows God better than God’s people know God. What was wrong with God’s people?

It is easy to shake my head and wonder about the forgetfulness and sinfulness of God’s people way back when. Us today? Me today? Well, uh, we and I certainly wouldn’t be so stupid and sinful, huh? Well, maybe or maybe not or something. I have my bad days. I have days that are much worse than bad. I am glad the prophets aren’t recording my life for someone else to read a few thousand years from now. How would “The Life of Dwayne” read in a few thousand years? Yikes.

Please God, help me to remember and help me in my unbelief.

1 Samuel 17:46 (New Living Translation)

46 Today the Lord will conquer you, and I will kill you and cut off your head. And then I will give the dead bodies of your men to the birds and wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel!

This is from the history of David and Goliath. Goliath is the “you” in these sentences. Note the order of Goliath’s demise:

• The Lord will conquer Goliath
• David will kill Goliath

David killing Goliath comes after the Lord conquering Goliath. David performed the physical act of cutting off the head of a fallen man. This occurs after God conquers the man’s spirit. Goliath was doomed because God said so. The rest was a formality. The rest could be performed by a teenager.

Perhaps this is the way many occurrences occur today: God does the miracle while I just show up and stand there. The power is God’s. Still, I have a part to play—I have to show up and stand there. God gives me that ability. I have to choose to use the God-given ability.

Why not just let God do both parts? What good is there in that? We could have seen Goliath drop dead on the battlefield without any human doing anything. What good is there in that? “God moves in mysterious ways His wonders to perform,” so says a poet. A big part of those mysterious ways is God has someone like David or me stand there and do something simple after God does the miracle.

1 Samuel 17:45 (New Living Translation)

45 David replied to the Philistine, “You come to me with sword, spear, and javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies—the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.

This is part of the (hi)story of David versus Goliath (called “the Philistine” in this sentence.) Let’s see, Goliath brings a sword while David brings the name of the Lord, the God of Israel.

We all know the result and the victor.

This was a miracle. A teenager against a much larger, much stronger, much more experienced warrior. We all know who should have won this fight. This wasn’t a movie—it was real. God sent David and God enabled David.

Still, the name of God opposed the sword of a man. Couldn’t God have simply taught Goliath a lesson and forgiven him for his mistakes and let him live? Sure, of course God could have done those things. Why not? I don’t know. It wasn’t the right outcome for that place and time.

Does this mean that when a stranger points a gun at me I say, “You come with a gun. I come with the name of God.” and it all turns out okay? Those planes that crashed into buildings on 9/11, were there any Christians on the planes and in the buildings who brought the name of God with them? I believe there were, but it didn’t turn out like David and Goliath.

I suppose there are times and places of God’s choosing where things like David and Goliath occur for all to see. I suppose there are other times and places with other outcomes. It is not my choosing to determine the outcomes. It is my place to call on the name of God and trust in the outcome. Sigh. Thank you God for allowing me to call on Your Name.

1 Samuel 3:10 (New Living Translation)

10 And the Lord came and called as before, “Samuel! Samuel!”

And Samuel replied, “Speak, your servant is listening.”

This is part of the (hi)story of Samuel the prophet. Samuel is still a boy at this time, yet God speaks directly to Samuel and tells Samuel about the evil actions of Eli the priest and Eli’s sons.

Tell a boy that the adults are misbehaving? This is all backwards and just plain wrong. Still, it is right and righteous. Later the text states, “20 And all Israel, from Dan in the north to Beersheba in the south, knew that Samuel was confirmed as a prophet of the Lord. 21 The Lord continued to appear at Shiloh and gave messages to Samuel there at the Tabernacle.”

Sometimes God speaks directly to some children. Here it is in front of us in plain language. But uh, well, this was long ago in a galaxy far, far away and all that, right? This doesn’t happen anymore, right? Maybe? Possibly? Probably?

I don’t know the answers to these questions. Let those who have discussed these things for centuries continue to discuss them. I see where things that don’t make sense to me make sense to God. Once again, I’m not God and I don’t understand it all. Praise be to God, and God, please help me in my unbelief.

1 Samuel 18:17 (New Living Translation)

17 One day Saul said to David, “I am ready to give you my older daughter, Merab, as your wife. But first you must prove yourself to be a real warrior by fighting the Lord’s battles.” For Saul thought, “I’ll send him out against the Philistines and let them kill him rather than doing it myself.”

This is part of the (hi)story of King Saul and the next king David. Saul was determined to kill David because Saul was sure David wanted to kill him. Saul was wrong all around.

Saul “hatches a plot.” Saul would promise his older daughter Merab as a prize for David fighting the Lord’s battles. Surely, thought crafty King Saul, the Philistines would kill David for him. Well, as history would show, Saul was wrong about all this. And who was Saul to decide what were and were not the Lord’s battles? Anyways…

Let’s consider the relationship of Saul to his daughter Merab. Merab was a prize, a trophy. That shiny trophy was enough to convince David to go on suicide missions. Well, I guess that is one form of flattery. Still, the father says, “See my daughter. You’d die for this prize, huh?”

Saul wasn’t a good father. Saul wasn’t a good King. Perhaps there is a correlation in these “wasn’t a good” statements. How about correlating wasn’t a good father with wasn’t a good CEO or supervisor or shift manager of the midnight shift at White Castle (name any small, regional franchise).

We should only pick kings who are good fathers. We should only pick fill-in-the-blank with good fathers or good mothers. No children? Well, that makes the question a little tougher. Still, I think we can learning something here with Saul, his daughter, and David.

1 Samuel 2:12, 22 (New Living Translation)

12 Now the sons of Eli were scoundrels who had no respect for the Lord

22 Now Eli was very old, but he was aware of what his sons were doing to the people of Israel. He knew, for instance, that his sons were seducing the young women who assisted at the entrance of the Tabernacle.

This is near the beginning of the (hi)story of the prophet Samuel who played a large role in the life of David the King. As a boy, Samuel lived and served with the Priest Eli at the Tabernacle. Eli had two sons who were scoundrels.

We don’t use the work scoundrel much anymore. Since a scoundrel is “a dishonest or unscrupulous person; a rogue,” we have plenty of scoundrels around, but we call them something else or other. Still, here were the sons of God’s priest, and they were scoundrels. Look at some of the unscrupulous things they did per verse 22.

Verse 22 sure is a damning one. Verse 12 is as well: these sons had no respect for the LORD. It seems that this lack of respect in verse 12 led to the actions in verse 22. Yes, these are related. If I don’t respect the LORD, I do all sorts of things that the instructions given by the LORD note as wrong.

Hmm, disobeying God, not respecting God, doing what God says is wrong. All seems to go together. Seducing young women, wrong. Well, there are lots of others things God told the people were wrong. I won’t go into the list. One reason is there are lots of things politicians and the media praise as progressive and on “the right side of history” or some such nonsense. Ouch. You mean all those old things still hold? Yikes. Why, most of the world isn’t respecting God.

Sigh. How does God tolerate us? Unfailing grace. Thank you God. Help me in my unbelief.

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

1 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.

This is part of the (hi)story of David’s struggle with King Saul. In human terms, it was a civil war or a rebellion. Here David is at a large cave. First, David’s was joined by his relatives. Later, others came until there were 400 men present. Who were these men?

They weren’t described as patriots. They weren’t described as righteous. They weren’t described as anything worthwhile. They were just discontented. They were in trouble. They were in debt.

What an army! What a bunch of losers. Yet, these are the men God sent to David to “help” him. Please God, stop helping David. I mean, David is supposed to win, right? Send David something better than a bunch of troublesome, indebted, and discontented losers.

Well, God works in mysterious ways His wonders to perform. No kidding? God sure does. Hey God, help me, but how about a more straightforward approach than sending me a bunch of troublesome, indebted, and discontented losers. Huh? I mean, I know what I’m doing here and what I need and surely you’ll provide those things for me, huh? No? You provide me with what? How is that supposed to work?

Well, God works in mysterious ways His wonders to perform. Thank you God.

1 Samuel 1:6-7 (New Living Translation)

6 So Peninnah would taunt Hannah and make fun of her because the Lord had kept her from having children. 7 Year after year it was the same—Peninnah would taunt Hannah as they went to the Tabernacle. Each time, Hannah would be reduced to tears and would not even eat.

taunt: a remark made to wound someone

Peninnah and Hannah were two wives of a man named Elkanah. Peninnah had born children; Hannah had not. This was a situation from a decision from God. Let’s not forget that big point.

Peninnah, not realizing the decision of God, would taunt to hurt Hannah. Peninnah succeeded as she wounded Hannah to tears year after year.

God decides to do this and not that, that and not this. I can’t figure out why God decides some things at some times in some situations. I never will be able to figure out all that. I’m not God (and that really bothers me on bad days).

We see things; we often don’t see God’s influence on things. Things are good for me because I am good and I do things right and I and I and I and I… It’s all because of me. Wrong. Stupid. I am blessed in some ways. I wish I was blessed in a few more ways. The other fellow has some blessings I want for myself. Sigh.

One thing God does not wish is taunting. God decided to give me something. Thank you God. And God, please keep me from taunting another person because You didn’t give them that same thing. I don’t taunt out loud. Still, in my mind, well, sometimes that is another matter. Please God, help me in my unbelief.