Contemplative Bible Reading

Judges 1:27-31  (New International Version)

²⁷ But Manasseh did not drive out the people of Beth Shan or Taanach or Dor or Ibleam or Megiddo and their surrounding settlements, for the Canaanites were determined to live in that land. ²⁸ When Israel became strong, they pressed the Canaanites into forced labor but never drove them out completely. ²⁹ Nor did Ephraim drive out the Canaanites living in Gezer, but the Canaanites continued to live there among them. ³⁰ Neither did Zebulun drive out the Canaanites living in Kitron or Nahalol, so these Canaanites lived among them, but Zebulun did subject them to forced labor. ³¹ Nor did Asher drive out those living in Akko or Sidon or Ahlab or Akzib or Helbah or Aphek or Rehob.

This was written after God’s people moved into the promised land. The people were instructed to drive out the land’s inhabitant’s. The above verses are only a partial list. Over and over,

each tribe failed to drive out the inhabitants.

God’s people lived among other people who did not worship the Lord.

The result was predictable and predicted. The previous inhabitants influenced God’s people – not the other way around. Behavior went down, not up.

Proverbs 24:17-18 (New International Version)

¹⁷ Do not gloat when your enemy falls;
when they stumble, do not let your heart rejoice,
¹⁸ or the LORD will see and disapprove
and turn his wrath away from them.

This is a timely read considering the recent death of Osama bin Laden and the ensuing celebrations. Perhaps connecting these verses with those events is a stretch, but perhaps not.

Leviticus 2:13 (New International Version)

Season all your grain offerings with salt. Do not leave the salt of the covenant of your God out of your grain offerings; add salt to all your offerings.

I read this verse recently and noticed the striking similarity to one of my favorite verses in the New Testament from Colossians 4:6:

Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.

Today, salt is salt. It comes in those little white paper packets in the condiment bags you find at cheap food places. You break the paper, the salt spills everywhere, and makes a mess. Where it snows, we pour salt on the ice to melt it. It’s just salt. Who cares? People who eat too much salt have high blood pressure and die.

Salt was worth more in the ancient world. It was a symbol of purity and things that endured. The phrase “salt of your covenant” was important. A covenant signified by salt was an important agreement.

“I’ll have lunch with you some day,” is just a figure of speech and is not an important agreement.

“I’ll pay for this house in monthly installments over 30 years,” is an important agreement. It is much more like a covenant of salt.

And then I consider the verse from Colossians. Consider my words carefully. Speak as if I am making a long-term agreement. I guess I don’t do that often enough. Lord, help me to choose my words as if they are enduring and pure and an agreement made with salt, because they are.

Acts 3:17-18 (New International Version)

¹⁷ “Now, fellow Israelites, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did your leaders. ¹⁸ But this is how God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, saying that his Messiah would suffer.

Now let’s read these verses from The Message translation

^17-18“And now, friends, I know you had no idea what you were doing when you killed Jesus, and neither did your leaders. But God, who through the preaching of all the prophets had said all along that his Messiah would be killed, knew exactly what you were doing and used it to fulfill his plans.

Note the last three words from The Message.

I believe that the audience of Jesus on that day was part of God’s plan. God wanted to accomplish something; He wanted to redeem the world and restore the perfect relationship He created in the beginning. The people of Israel acted in ignorance, but what they did was part of God’s plan.

I believe that everyone alive today and everyone who ever lived are part of God’s plan. The troubling question I ask myself is:

Do I treat everyone as if God created them specifically to be part of His plan?

Oooops. Well, maybe on a good day. That, however, isn’t too good. How would my life be if I truly treated everyone as if they were part of God’s plan? As if everyone were created by God for a specific purpose in accomplishing His intent?

I am afraid that I treat too many people as if they are part of my plan for life, not God’s.

Proverbs 16:33 (New International Version 2011)

The lot is cast into the lap,
but its every decision is from the LORD.

We are back to casting lots to make decisions. This verse strikes me as one more simple example of using the lot or the die to seek what the Lord wants us to do.

I doubt we will return to this practice. It is, however, based in scripture with plenty of instruction on how to use it.

Acts 19:13-16 (New International Version 2011)

13 Some Jews who went around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were demon-possessed. They would say, “In the name of the Jesus whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out.” 14 Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. 15 One day the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know about, but who are you?” 16 Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all. He gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding.

The Apostle Paul is in the city of Ephesus. According to earlier verses in this chapter, Paul stayed in Ephesus for over two years.  Note what extraordinary miracles happened around Paul:

11 God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, 12 so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them.

If you could grab a dirty sock from Paul’s laundry basket, you could heal the sick and cast out evil spirits. This power led some Jews to try to cast out evil spirits using Paul’s fame and the power of Jesus Christ.

Note the attributes of evil spirits from verses 13 through 16:

• Evil spirits know about Jesus, i.e., spiritual matters
• Evil spirits know about Paul, i.e., physical, personal, and political matters
• Evil spirits empower people to perform super-human actions
• Evil spirits exist

This leads me to speculate about super-human actions. When was the last time you saw one man beat seven men? We usually refer to such people as professional athletes. I think this is possible, but not likely. It is, however, something to consider.

2 Chronicles 2:5-6 (New International Version 2011)

⁵ “The temple I am going to build will be great, because our God is greater than all other gods. ⁶ But who is able to build a temple for him, since the heavens, even the highest heavens, cannot contain him? Who then am I to build a temple for him, except as a place to burn sacrifices before him?

King Solomon is sending a note to the King of Tyre. He is placing an order for building materials for the Temple he is about to build in Jerusalem. As a man of words, Solomon introduces the order with a description of the Temple. Summarizing, and Kings and other politicians rarely summarize, what Solomon writes here:

This doesn’t make sense to build a temple, because God is greater than all the universe. Nevertheless, we should have a place to offer to sacrifices of our agricultural economy as God requires, so this is the best we can do.

Lessons for today? Let’s try these:

No amount of love for others,

No amount of service to others,

No amount of prayer, Bible study, and meditation,

No amount of any of these good things can in any measure compare to the grace God has extended to me.

Nevertheless, they are ways I offer myself as a living sacrifice to God.

Acts 16:16-18 (New International Version 2011)

¹⁶ Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a female slave who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling. ¹⁷ She followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.” ¹⁸ She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became so annoyed that he turned around and said to the spirit, “In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!” At that moment the spirit left her.

Here we have Paul on one of his missionary journeys. He meets a young woman who has a spirit in her. Note the facts presented:

• She predicts the future
• She knows that Paul is preaching about the one true God
• She knows what Paul is preaching

Now some conjecture:

• The spirit in her is from Satan

I don’t think this spirit is from God. If if was, why would Paul cast it out of her?

And some more conjecture:

• The same spirits from Satan are in people today

What a curse, the ability to predict the future. Sure, it seems nice to be able to predict sporting events, stock market prices, even just predict the weather. A person could make a lot of money with that ability. Think a little more, the wonder of life goes away. You would know how you will feel at any time in the future. There would be no surprises. Everything would be dull.

Oh, yes – the controversial part to some people – evil spirits in people today. I know there are biblical arguments against this idea. Still, I can’t find a verse that plainly says, “There will be a time when spirits won’t be in people.” I am open for someone showing me such. I tend to believe that there are evil spirits in some people in some form. Why else might a person crash a plane full of people into a building full of people in a city full of people?

1 Kings 1:28-33 (New International Version 2011)

²⁸ Then King David said, “Call in Bathsheba.” So she came into the king’s presence and stood before him.

²⁹ The king then took an oath: “As surely as the LORD lives, who has delivered me out of every trouble, ³⁰ I will surely carry out this very day what I swore to you by the LORD, the God of Israel: Solomon your son shall be king after me, and he will sit on my throne in my place.”

³¹ Then Bathsheba bowed down with her face to the ground, prostrating herself before the king, and said, “May my lord King David live forever!”

³² King David said, “Call in Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet and Benaiah son of Jehoiada.” When they came before the king, ³³ he said to them: “Take your lord’s servants with you and have Solomon my son mount my own mule and take him down to Gihon.

David is in the last days of his reign as King of Israel. He has declared that among all his sons, Solomon will be the next king.

David calls the appropriate officials and tells them what to do. Prepare my mule? There must be something wrong here. Solomon is supposed to ride in on David’s horse or chariot or something. Mule? Is he kidding?

Nope, that is the custom. In a time of peace, a new king arrived on an animal used in time of peace. Note how in his entry into Jerusalem, Jesus rode a donkey. Only conquering kings arrived on vehicles of war.

Sometimes we become infatuated with the idea that we succeed by overcoming incredible obstacles and opposition. In truth, we had a pretty easy path. Instead of arriving in shining armor on a white horse, we would be better served by casual clothes and a mule – like Solomon and Jesus. When I read that last sentence, a humble entrance would put us in pretty good company.

Acts 12:1-5 (New International Version 2011)

¹ It was about this time that King Herod arrested some who belonged to the church, intending to persecute them. ² He had James, the brother of John, put to death with the sword. ³ When he saw that this met with approval among the Jews, he proceeded to seize Peter also. This happened during the Festival of Unleavened Bread. ⁴ After arresting him, he put him in prison, handing him over to be guarded by four squads of four soldiers each. Herod intended to bring him out for public trial after the Passover.

⁵ So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him.

King Herod makes a move on the young church. Herod is a Jew, but he is more of a popularity-seeking politician than anything else. Herod has James killed, most likely cutting off his head with a sword. Herod “got a bump in the polls” from this. Peter is next. The only thing that gives Peter a few days of life in prison is that the Festival of Unleavened Bread or the Passover is in progress. Peter’s execution will have to wait. Herod takes no chances as he sets an around-the-clock personal guard on Peter in prison.

The church prayed for Peter. What did they pray?

• Herod would change his mind about Peter
• Peter would break out of jail
• Peter would be comfortable during his last hours of life in jail
• Peter’s execution would be quick and painless
• The church would find a way to exist without Peter

Given my experience with people (like me), my guess is the church prayed more for items on the bottom of the list instead of those at the top of the list. I mean, Herod wasn’t going to change his mind. He was headed down a political path and there was no turning back. And escape, are you kidding? Well, at least God would provide Peter with some comfort in prison and maybe a physical numbness at his death.

In researching these verses and talking to people about them, I have heard one theme many times when we as Christians pray for someone who is in a terminal condition. We pray for healing (or jail break in Peter’s case), until a point comes when healing is impossible. Then we pray for comfort for the dying and the family.

We see the impossible and we stop praying for God to make it possible.

We have to remember – God is in the impossible business.

• Cancer
• Hostage situation
• Alcoholism
• Cheating on a spouse
• Beating a spouse and children
• Dependency
• Just plain being a mean, hateful, selfish person

All seemingly impossible situations that are possible with God.

What happened to Peter? God sent an angel into the prison. The angel woke Peter and walked him out of the prison. Peter then went to a home where Christians were praying. The Christians didn’t believe it was really Peter because for Peter to be alive and out of prison was, well, you know…