Contemplative Bible Reading

Jonah 4:5-11 (New International Version)

⁵ Jonah went out and sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city. ⁶ Then the LORD God provided a vine and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the vine. ⁷ But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the vine so that it withered. ⁸ When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die, and said, “It would be better for me to die than to live.”

⁹ But God said to Jonah, “Do you have a right to be angry about the vine?”
“I do,” he said. “I am angry enough to die.”

¹⁰ But the LORD said, “You have been concerned about this vine, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. ¹¹ But Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city?”

These verses end the story of Jonah. He has escaped the great fish, preached in Nineveh, and, through the power of God, brought about a great spiritual awakening in that great city. Jonah makes a little shelter and sits. God raises a vine to give Jonah shade and then raises a worm to kill the shade. Jonah was comforted; Jonah was cussing.

Once again, read the entire story, God brings home a point to Jonah.

You care about a vine and a worm, but you don’t care about 120,000 people.

I want to scream, “Come on God. Give Jonah a break here. He went to Nineveh, he preached your word, he helped those people. Give him a little shade and rest!”

Truly, God’s ways are not our ways, and God’s thoughts are not our thoughts. Let’s try to understand God’s ways (these are merely frail human guesses). First, God did all this. The part Jonah played was minuscule, and Jonah didn’t want to play his part. Second, foremost in God’s sight are the souls of the 120,000. A vine? A worm? Shade? Are you kidding? Third, we humans tend to be short sighted. We see what is right in front of us and what affects are comfort right now. We usually fail to lift our sights far enough to see the big things.

God, help me to see a little more of what you see every day.

Luke 10:21 (New International Version)

At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure.

At this time, “the 72” had returned to Jesus. They were happy and astounded at what they had been able to do with power from God. Note Jesus’ reaction:

Jesus was full of joy.

Jesus was happy. The savior of the world was happy that some of His followers had proceeded in faith to do things that could not be explained.

As a follower of Jesus, I should be like Jesus. Am I full of joy? Am I happy? Am I a grouch instead? If I open my eyes everyday I can see things that cannot be explained. I can see things that are done in faith. And I can be happy.

Ezekial 22:6-12 (New Century Version)

⁶ ” ‘Jerusalem, see how each ruler of Israel in you has been trying to kill people.⁷ The people in you hate their fathers and mothers. They mistreat the foreigners in you and wrong the orphans and widows in you.⁸ You hate my holy things and dishonor my Sabbaths.⁹ The men in you tell lies to cause the death of others. The people in you eat food offered to idols at the mountain places of worship, and they take part in sexual sins.¹⁰ The men in you have sexual relations with their fathers’ wives and with women who are unclean, during their time of monthly bleeding.¹¹ One man in you does a hateful act with his neighbor’s wife, while another has shamefully made his daughter-in-law unclean sexually. And another forces his half sister to have sexual relations with him.¹² The people in you take money to kill others. You take unfair interest and profits and make profits by mistreating your neighbor. And you have forgotten me, says the Lord God.

This passage contains a list of terrible sins the people were committing. Let’s list them:

1. kill people
2. hate parents
3. mistreat foreigners
4. wrong widows and orphans
5. hate holy things
6. dishonor Sabbath
7. tell lies
8. eat food offered to idols
9. take part in sexual sins
10. hateful acts with neighbor’s wife
11. shameful treatment of daughter-in-law
12. sex with half sister
13. kill others for money
14. take unfair interest and profits

These are awful. Wait a minute, who slipped in number 14? Taking interest and profits does not belong in a list with killing, hating, lying, breaking the religion, and mistreating widows and orphans. There must be a mistake here.

Sorry. There is no mistake here. God considers taking unfair interest and profits as bad as killing, hating, and the rest. Hmmm. Perhaps I’ll have to think on this one a while. Perhaps many of us should think on this one a while. As best as I can tell, all of these things carry forward from the time of Ezekial to today (maybe #6 has dropped away).

We may have to watch how we deal with others in business.

Zechariah 8:23 (New International Version)

²³ This is what the LORD Almighty says: “In those days ten men from all languages and nations will take firm hold of one Jew by the hem of his robe and say, ‘Let us go with you, because we have heard that God is with you.’ “

The LORD is speaking through the prophet Zechariah. The LORD is promising better times for the Jews. There will be a day when people will want to walk with the Jews because

we have heard that God is with you

This is a simple reason for wanting to be with someone. The LORD is with that person. Blessings will abound.

Fast forward to today. The LORD is with Christians. Do non-Christians see the LORD with us? Do non-Christians want to hold them hem of our robes and walk with us? If these answers to these questions are “no,” perhaps we should examine how we live as Christians.

Jeremiah 29:7 (New International Version)

Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.”

The prophet Jeremiah is writing to the Jews who are exiled in Babylon. This is an awful condition. They had been conquered, captured, and transplanted to the other side of the world to a strange culture. People there did everything differently; people there routinely violated the laws that God had given His people.

And given all this, God through Jeremiah instructs them to pray for the prosperity of Babylon. Sorry, this doesn’t make any sense. If anything, God should have wanted the evil Babylonians to perish and the Jews to rise up in revolt and dethrone their captors. Right? Isn’t that the way it should have been?

God has His own ways and His own sense of time. At the right time, God did punish the captors in His way at His time. For now at least, God tells His people to ask that the captors prosper. The reason was simple – God intended for His people to survive their exile and return to their land. God knew that a prosperous captivity was the means to his intent.

God still has His own time and His own ways. I doubt that I understand much of them, but I pray that I will at least understand that God has them. I pray that the place where I live prospers. Prosperity has its evil temptations; that is certain. Prosperity also has its blessings for me, my family, and all those around me.

Luke 4:20-21 (New International Version)

²⁰Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, ²¹and he began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

Jesus had returned to His home town of Nazareth. He was in the Synagogue – the local Jewish religion school. He had read some of the scriptures, what we call the Old Testament, and was about to discuss what He had read.

Notice his physical posture – He sat down.

Jesus does this on many occasions in the New Testament. In Matthew 5, the sermon on the mount, He did not stand to speak. Rather, He sat down to speak. Sitting to speak goes against everything taught about public speaking. Nevertheless, that is how Jesus did it. He usually sat to speak.

Perhaps we should rewrite all the public speaking books about physical posture. Perhaps we should humble ourselves a bit when we are speaking to a group. Perhaps we should place ourselves on the same level as our audience. Perhaps we should simply sit down when we speak to others.

Jeremiah 9:4-6 (New International Version)

⁴ “Beware of your friends;
do not trust your brothers.
For every brother is a deceiver,
and every friend a slanderer.

⁵ Friend deceives friend,
and no one speaks the truth.
They have taught their tongues to lie;
they weary themselves with sinning.

⁶ You live in the midst of deception;
in their deceit they refuse to acknowledge me,”
declares the LORD.

In these verses, these sad verses, the prophet Jeremiah describes what is happening among the people of the Lord. This is a time of disobedience. The people “know better;” they don’t have to obey the law that the Lord gave them.

Here are the friends:

• beware of them
• slanderers
• deceivers
• none speak the truth
• liars
• weary because they sin all the time

Here are the brothers:

• not trustworthy
• deceivers

This would be a dreadful place to live. Such is life when people don’t obey the Lord.

There are times when people seem to believe that, “Hey look. I can cheat on God and get away with it. See, lightning didn’t strike me. Ha ha ha.”

Disobeying God doesn’t bring lightning out of the sky to zap us. Instead, disobedience brings about a community like the one Jeremiah describes – a dreadful, distrusting, grimy community. Lightning out of the sky would be much kinder.

Psalms 78:72 (New English Translation)

David cared for them with pure motives; he led them with skill.

When I read this yesterday, a sense of peace came over me. This describes David, who at times in his life was a great leader of his people. He knew what had to be done and he was able to have his people do that. Many times what they had to do was difficult and not pleasant, but they followed David.

How did David lead so well? Two big items, he:

cared for them with pure motives

led them with skill

Depending on my mood, I would write that one of these characteristics is more important than the other. I don’t know that I would ever claim that one or the other was not important. The combination and balance of the two is paramount. I have seen many skillful leaders who led only for personal gain. I have seen pure, loving leaders who tripped over their shoe laces daily. Neither of those types of leaders was effective. Both of those types led people into great harm.

At times, David was a great leader.

Ezra 7:18 (New International Version)

You and your brother Jews may then do whatever seems best with the rest of the silver and gold, in accordance with the will of your God.

These are the words that Artaxerxes the King wrote to Ezra. Artaxerxes is sending treasures with Ezra back to Jerusalem to help rebuild the wall and the Temple. In verse 17, Artaxerxes instructs Ezra,

With this money be sure to buy bulls, rams and male lambs, together with their grain offerings and drink offerings, and sacrifice them on the altar of the temple of your God in Jerusalem.

Take care of the Temple, and whatever is left, do what seems best per the will of God.

This strikes me as what God encourages us to do today. He gives us treasure – plenty of treasure – for our lives. Then, what is left after our needs are met, we are free to do with what we see best per the will of God. God trusts us with deciding what to do with the remainder. God is generous. He gives us plenty and then gives us the authority to decide what to do with the plenty.

God, thank you for all these gifts. Grant me also wisdom to know your will and use the rest accordingly.

Jeremiah 22:3 (New International Version)

This is what the LORD says: Do what is just and right. Rescue from the hand of his oppressor the one who has been robbed. Do no wrong or violence to the alien, the fatherless or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place.

The prophet Jeremiah is delivering a message from the Lord to His people.The message is incredibly simple:

Do what is just and right.

There are many such admonitions from the Lord to His people in the Old Testament. He wanted His people to be just, to live justly. I think God wants to same from Christians today.

Let’s consider how many people live today:

Buyer Beware: You buy a used car from an enthusiastic salesman. The mechanic at the dealership assures you that all is well with the car. Three months later you need to pay for major repairs as the engine falls out of the car. This happens all the time. This is the way things are.

Bait and Switch: An item is on sale at a store. There is a big, big, big reduction in price. You arrive at the store, and the item on sale is all sold out, but there are similar items there. The price of the similar items hasn’t been reduced as much. This happens all the time. It is marketing, and that is the way things are.

Fudge the Numbers: You are doing a spreadsheet of accounting for a business trip. You want the numbers to show that you are owed $5 instead of you owing $5. You add a little here, subtract a little there, and the numbers come out the way you want. This happens all the time. This is the way things are.

I believe that these little examples of everyday occurrences infuriate God. This behavior is not right. This is not just. Someone is cheating someone else of a little bit here and there. I could list a dozen more examples, but what’s the big deal? The big deal is:

The Lord has a different standard for His people.

God isn’t interested in what happens all the time. God isn’t interested in the way things are. God wants much better for us and from us. God wants to restore the perfect relationships that He created. That is why He sent His Son to die on the cross. To restore those perfect relationships.

If I do my expense report to reflect exactly what happened – no fudging the numbers – I won’t restore the perfect relationships that God intended. I will, however, be doing my little part in my little life. That will be more pleasing to God; that will improve my life on this all-too-unjust world.