Contemplative Bible Reading

Nehemiah 6:16 (New International Version)

When all our enemies heard about this, all the surrounding nations were afraid and lost their self-confidence, because they realized that this work had been done with the help of our God.

Nehemiah wrote these words as a small group of Jews are rebuilding Jerusalem after the captivity in Babylon. The work is progressing well – too well for many of the non-Jews in the surrounding area. Those other people were doing all sorts of things to slow the work and discourage the Jews. Their efforts fail.

One reason for the failure of the non-Jews is found in verse 9 of the same chapter:

They were all trying to frighten us, thinking, “Their hands will get too weak for the work, and it will not be completed.”

But I prayed, “Now strengthen my hands.”

Nehemiah and his kinsmen were depending on God. The non-Jews could see that and they were frightened.

Maybe such actions aren’t as out in the open or dramatic today. Nevertheless, I believe that these things still occur. People who don’t follow God, i.e., they don’t accept Him as their Lord, know He exists and know that ultimately He is in control. In times of crisis, self-confidence evades them and fear dominates. It has been this way since long before Nehemiah and will be this way long after I am gone.

Mark 6:36-37 (New International Version)

³⁶ Send the people away so that they can go to the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.”

³⁷ But he answered, “You give them something to eat.”

These statements are part of Mark’s recording of the feeding of 5,000 men. Verse 36 is what the Apostles say:

Send these people away to find some food for themselves.

Jesus replies:

No, you feed them.

I may be reading too much into this. But I see Jesus saying:

• be a servant
• be a shepherd
• be a leader
• be faithful

I hear Jesus saying this to me.

John 10:33 (New International Version)

“We are not stoning you for any good work,” they replied, “but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.”

Speaking here are Jews in Jerusalem. They are going to execute Jesus for a capital crime.

Jesus of Nazareth claimed to be the Son of God.

To claim to be the Son of God was the worst type of blasphemy. It was a capital crime deserving of execution by the community via throwing stones at the person until they died. These people had heard this guy Jesus from Nazareth claim to be the Son of God. They didn’t believe him. Hence, they were bound by their respect of the law of God to kill him right now. I admire their respect for the law of God; I lament their unbelief.

This Jesus was more than your usual guy drifting down from Nazareth to wander about Palestine. He healed people of their physical ills. He fed multitudes with a few morsels of food. He raised a few people from the dead. What is more than these physical impossibilities, this guy from Nazareth spoke to people in a manner and with words that changed their lives.

It is now the year 2010. To our day there are some who admire this man from Nazareth as a great teacher or a prophet or someone who showed us how to love other people. A fundamental item remains: either Jesus of Nazareth was the Son of God, the one anointed to restore mankind to the right relationship with God, or he was a raving lunatic deserving of death for his heresy.

The fundamental decision remains with us today. It remains with each individual. Was Jesus the Christ? Was Jesus the Son of God? Or was Jesus just another nut, just another blasphemer who deserved the death he experienced?

2 Samuel 14:14 (New International Version)

Like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be recovered, so we must die. But that is not what God desires; rather, he devises ways so that a banished person does not remain banished from him.

In this verse, a “wise old woman” is speaking to King David. David’s son Absalom has been banished from Jerusalem. Absalom is staying with his mother’s father in a distant place. Absalom is “banished” because he killed his half brother Amnon who had previously raped Absalom’s sister Tamar. This is a long, twisted story. Read about the ancestors, wives, and descendants of David. Then read 2 Samuel 13 and 14 – s l o w l y.

Notice how the wise old woman characterizes God:

he devises ways so that a banished person does not remain banished from him.

This is opposed to water spilled on the ground:

which cannot be recovered.

God desires the banished to be recovered. God desires forgiving and restoring those who by all rights have been set aside. Absalom had Amnon killed (he didn’t do it himself, but he ordered his men to do the murdering). Absalom “deserved” punishment.

I’ve never had a relative murder another relative of mine. I’ve never had a friend murder another friend of mine. I’ve never known anyone who murdered anyone with whom I had the slightest relationship. But I am not clean. I have held far too many grudges. I have let my anger and dislike for some person or another fester far too long. I have emotionally banished people to the farthest reaches of my heart. I have been much better at banishing than I have been at recovering the banished.

God, help me to more like you. Help me to desire recovering what to me appears to be water spilled on the ground.

John 10:22-23 (New International Version)

²² Then came the Festival of Dedication at Jerusalem. It was winter, ²³ and Jesus was in the temple courts walking in Solomon’s Colonnade.

The Festival of Dedication doesn’t mean much to me. I recently learned that this festival is today known as Hanukkah or the Festival of Lights. Wikipedia has a good article on Hanukkah. From Wikipedia we have,

From the Hebrew word for “dedication” or “consecration”, Hanukkah marks the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem (Second Temple) after its desecration by the forces of the King of Syria Antiochus IV Epiphanes and commemorates the “miracle of the container of oil”. According to the Talmud, at the re-dedication following the victory of the Maccabees over the Seleucid Empire, there was only enough consecrated olive oil to fuel the eternal flame in the Temple for one day. Miraculously, the oil burned for eight days, which was the length of time it took to press, prepare and consecrate fresh olive oil.

Hanukkah is not described in the Old Testament. The Jews, however, believed it was a miraculous occasion and celebrate it to this day.

Let’s note a few things and at the same time try not to infer too much.

• An event that was not recorded in scripture is regarded as a miracle from God.
• Jesus, as a Jew, participated in this festival.
• This little note in John’s Gospel provides yet another link between Christians and Jews.

For much of my life, I believed that events recorded in the Bible were important (I still do) and that events not recorded in the Bible aren’t important. I am changing my opinion on the second part. There have been many events not recorded in the Bible that many  people regard as miraculous. It is easy to relegate these events, and these people, to the large pile of human vanity. “Those people didn’t recognize what they saw. They are merely superstitious or just plain silly.” Such disregard for people isn’t very loving and the Bible clearly teaches about the importance of loving one another.

Jesus noted this Festival of Lights. I could infer that He approved of it and thus confirmed the miracle that originated the Festival of Lights. Perhaps that is inferring too much, and perhaps it isn’t quite a stretch. Regardless of what I infer, we have it recorded here that Jesus was in the temple courts at the time of the festival.

Maybe the third bullet is the most important for me today. My Lord and Savior was at an event that Jews still celebrate today. I can learn about the Festival of Lights and love those who celebrate it today. I confess that at age 50+ I know almost nothing about this event. That is my shame, one which I will strive to correct.

Loving others everyday in every way as I should is another thing I will strive to correct. I don’t know that I will ever master it, but I will strive to.

Isaiah 59:1 (New English Translation)

Look, the Lord’s hand is not too weak to deliver you; his ear is not too deaf to hear you.

This verse is a great comfort. The Lord is listening to me. He hears my prayers and my thoughts. The Lord is strong and active. He will do some of the things I ask of Him. It is a great comfort to know that a strong God is there listening to me.

This verse is a great challenge. It removes my ability for wishful thinking and gives me a responsibility for righteous prayer. I can wish for all sorts of things like

• I wish I wasn’t so forgetful
• I wish I could show up on time
• I wish I didn’t say so many bad things about other people
• I wish I could lend a hand now and then
• I wish so-and-so wasn’t so mean to me

But my Lord is strong and listens. Therefore, my wishes should be prayers prayed with the belief that God will hear them and do something. Everyone of these wishes, and everyone of the dozens more I didn’t list, should be a prayer prayed in faith.

The Lord’s hand is not too weak to

• improve my memory
• have me be more organized and punctual
• tame my tongue
• push me into helping
• change the lives of others around me

And perhaps most important, the Lord is not too weak to grow my heart so that I love those around me more today than yesterday.

God is not a “mail order” God where we send our wishes and have them granted. He is, however, powerful and He does listen. No task is too small or too great for Him. My challenge is to take my cares and worries of each day to Him and believe that He hears me and works in my life.

Mark 9:9-10 (New International Version)

⁹As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus gave them orders not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead. ¹⁰They kept the matter to themselves, discussing what “rising from the dead” meant.

This is a classic example of Jesus saying something that puzzled His followers. What in the world did Jesus mean when he said that he was to “rise from the dead?”

Here are some possibilities:

1. rise from the death of the power of sin to live a sinless life
2. rise from a separation from God the Father to be restored to a perfect relationship with God
3. rise from a physical death to be alive physically once again

I am pretty sure that there are more possible explanations. I am almost certain that over the centuries people have considered other possible explanations and debated them at length. In hindsight, possible explanation #3 seems most likely to me. I believe #3 because we are told that Jesus actually died (many witnesses to that), was buried in a tomb (sealed by the local government and guarded by an army), and later appeared alive (many witnesses to that as well).

I am not discounting other explanations as to what Jesus meant when he said “rise from the dead.” The physical rise from the dead is the one I believe most. Sometimes the simplest explanation, i.e., it means what it sounds like, is the one we should consider.

God grant me the wisdom to understand when it means just what it says and when it means something more. Most of all, grant me the desire to search, know, and love.

Luke 11:42 (New International Version)

“Woe to you Pharisees, because you give God a tenth of your mint, rue and all other kinds of garden herbs, but you neglect justice and the love of God. You should have practiced the latter without leaving the former undone.

The poor Pharisees. They meant so well and they did much good for some people. Here they are giving a tenth of everything they have as God asked. Note, they give a tenth of all their garden herbs. Can you imagine going through your kitchen and giving away a tenth of each spice you have in those little spice jars? How about giving away a tenth of your coffee and Cremora? The Pharisees would have done that. Jesus commends them for their attention to detail by telling them not to leave that undone.

Then, however, there are the tasks they neglect: justice to their fellow man and the love of God. For today, I will focus on justice.

In both the Old and New Testaments, God mentions justice often. I get the impression that justice is important to God. We can cheat one another. It isn’t hard to do; it is easy to do it without “being caught” by anyone else. God, however, sees us cheating one another; God sees us neglecting justice.

God gives each one of us plenty. God gives each one of us more than we can use and much more than we deserve. And then God watches us cheat one another by taking a little more from someone else. I can hear God sighing, “Don’t you have enough? Didn’t I give you enough?”

Yes, God has given each of us enough. He has given each of us enough

• money
• food
• clothing
• shelter
• health
• care
• humor
• love

I think the more important items are towards the bottom of this list. It is these that are the easiest to steal and be unjust with one another. Who is going to notice if I don’t love someone as much as I should if I am to be just with them? God will notice and He will wince and sigh. It is amazing how He will still forgive me and yet expect me to do better. And He will expect everyone else to deal more justly with me.

Justice – this is one of those things that if we all do as God asks we will all have a better life now and eternally.

Jonah 1:7-16 (New International Version)

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 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 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 to the LORD, “O LORD, please do not let us die for taking this man’s life. Do not hold us accountable for killing an innocent man, for you, O 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.

This is part of the (hi)story of Jonah. Jonah didn’t want to go to Nineveh, so instead turned the opposite way and fled (as if he could run away to a place that the Lord did not see him, but that is another contemplation for another day).

There is one sure way to gain the attention of professional sailors – a storm at sea. So God provided one of those storms. The sailors, believing in the supernatural, sought to learn who had offended a spiritual being and caused this storm. Jonah reveals himself as the cause. And Jonah says,

I am a Hebrew and I worship the LORD, the God of heaven

The reaction was simple:

This terrified them

This is another example, one of many, in the Old Testament of how people who were “outsiders” recognized the Lord. These sailors were not part of Israel; they had not descended from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Nevertheless, they knew about the God of Israel and had a special respect for that God. We see this fear and respect of the Lord again at the end of these verses:

¹⁵ Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm. ¹⁶ At this the men greatly feared the LORD

Throughout the history of man, people who are outsiders see the Lord and fear Him. They know that He does exist and they understand part of His power. One aspect of His power, one aspect that is often misunderstood today, is that He can wipe away all sin from a person and restore the perfect relationship between man and God that was intended from the beginning. The power to create and then calm a storm at see is puny in comparison. Now and then, God shows a tiny part of his power in a storm to get our attention.

Luke 10:38-42 (New International Version)

³⁸As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. ³⁹She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. ⁴⁰But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”

⁴¹“Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, ⁴²but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

Let’s all criticize Martha. Here she has the opportunity to converse with the Son of God in her home, and how does she start the conversation?

Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!

Gosh.

Now let’s all criticize ourselves. Have you ever heard someone say, “If I don’t do it, it won’t get done?” Or how about, “That John, if it wasn’t for him our building would have fallen to the ground by now?”

Loving and serving one another involves some logistics. Someone has to be somewhere at sometime with some materials to get something accomplished. Those are consequences of living in a physical world. Those consequences make it easy to lose sight of the first words of this paragraph:

loving and serving one another.

Such is what ensnared Martha on this one day recorded forever in the Gospel of Luke. Note that Martha was not just playing host to Jesus but to “Jesus and his disciples.” How many people walked into Martha’s home that day? 10? 20? 30? 40? We don’t know. Martha was being a wonderful, warm, and loving servant. We could all learn from her love.

And we can all learn that even the most loving of us can trip on distractions.

God, what you have asked us to do isn’t easy. We are to love, serve, and not be distracted with all that comes with those tasks. We often fail. Thank you that you forgive us our failings. Help us all to forgive one another as well.