Contemplative Bible Reading

Exodus 23:2-3 (New International Version)

² “Do not follow the crowd in doing wrong. When you give testimony in a lawsuit, do not pervert justice by siding with the crowd, ³ and do not show favoritism to a poor man in his lawsuit.

Here it is, The Peer Pressure Law. Simply stated,

Don’t follow the crowd in doing wrong.

How could it be any simpler? How could this not make sense to people? Yet, how often do people violate this? You have a few people bent on doing wrong, they stand up in front, they charge into their wrongdoing, and people follow them.

Then this statement is followed by a less simple, less direct, yet just as important clause:

do not pervert justice by siding with the crowd,

This statement is one of the foundations of America. In America, we have three branches of government: executive, legislative, and judicial. In principle (in principle mind you as sometimes people skid off the path of principle and, well you know, mess up) the executive and legislative branches are determined by the crowd – the majority. The judicial protects the rights of the minority.

There are many examples where the majority of Americans felt someone was guilty of a crime. A trial by jury of a handful of citizens found the person not guilty. The handful did not side with the crowd – end of story. O.J. Simpson comes to mind as does Muhammad Ali as do the Los Angeles Police officers associated with Rodney King.

Yea, but those guys were…Those guys were all found not guilty by a minority of people exercising justice.

Hmmm, sometimes that simple little peer pressure thing becomes a bit stickier than we would like.

Exodus 19:7-8 (New International Version)

⁷ So Moses went back and summoned the elders of the people and set before them all the words the LORD had commanded him to speak. ⁸ The people all responded together, “We will do everything the LORD has said.” So Moses brought their answer back to the LORD.

Here are the people of God at Mt Sinai. Moses has a few early chats with God and he comes to the people. Will they listen to the Lord? Will they obey? The response is quick, certain, and clear:

We will do everything the LORD has said.

Great! Now all they have to do is persevere, hang in there, keep that initial excitement going for the long term. Further reading shows that the initial excitement waned.

Initial excitement and perseverance. Some people have one; some people have the other, but few have both. I guess I am one of those persevering types of people. I don’t show much excitement for things at the beginning, but once I decide to do something I stay with it until the end.

People who become excited at the start of something give me that look. If you are like me, you what I am describing. It is that look where they want to ask, “Didn’t you hear what was said? Aren’t you excited? Why aren’t you acting like me?”

If they actually say those words aloud, I reply, “You now commit to this. Will you still be committed in 18 months?”

Silence usually follows.

I don’t divide the human race into (1) people who are initially excited and (2) people who persevere. I have, however, seen some people who lean one way and some people who lean the other. I believe that God wants us to have some of both qualities. I also believe that God understands the failings of the human condition. I am thankful that he extends His forgiveness and His grace to us to cover our  failings.

Genesis 27:41 (New International Version)

Esau held a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing his father had given him. He said to himself, “The days of mourning for my father are near; then I will kill my brother Jacob.”

Jacob and Esau were brothers. Like many brothers, they were not alike. It is obvious here that Esau didn’t like Jacob. I infer that wanting to kill your brother means you don’t like him.

Anyways, what was Esau’s reasoning for his grudge? Was it because of something Jacob had done? No, it was because of what their father had done.

Let’s run through this logic one more time:

• The father of Esau and Jacob had blessed Jacob instead of Esau.
• Esau didn’t like that.
• Esau hated Jacob.

What did Esau feel for his father? What did Esau say to his father? What did Esau plan for his father? Simple, Esau was going to wait for his father to die and then Esau would kill Jacob. Esau certainly didn’t want to kill Jacob while their father was still living. Esau didn’t want to upset his father.

This is nuts. This is, however, the human condition. We often hate one person because of what someone else has done. We don’t confront the person who committed the act that infuriates us. Instead, we hate the third person who received something from the second person. This is nuts.

God, help me to love each person I meet and love them for who they are. Help me to say the right words to the right person and not “punish” a person for the actions of another.

Genesis 37:19-32

¹⁹ “Here comes that dreamer!” they said to each other. ²⁰ “Come now, let’s kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns and say that a ferocious animal devoured him. Then we’ll see what comes of his dreams.”

²¹ When Reuben heard this, he tried to rescue him from their hands. “Let’s not take his life,” he said. ²² “Don’t shed any blood. Throw him into this cistern here in the desert, but don’t lay a hand on him.” Reuben said this to rescue him from them and take him back to his father.

²³ So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe—the richly ornamented robe he was wearing- ²⁴ and they took him and threw him into the cistern. Now the cistern was empty; there was no water in it.

²⁵ As they sat down to eat their meal, they looked up and saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead. Their camels were loaded with spices, balm and myrrh, and they were on their way to take them down to Egypt.

²⁶ Judah said to his brothers, “What will we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood? ²⁷ Come, let’s sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands on him; after all, he is our brother, our own flesh and blood.” His brothers agreed.

²⁸ So when the Midianite merchants came by, his brothers pulled Joseph up out of the cistern and sold him for twenty shekels of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt.

²⁹ When Reuben returned to the cistern and saw that Joseph was not there, he tore his clothes. ³⁰ He went back to his brothers and said, “The boy isn’t there! Where can I turn now?”

³¹ Then they got Joseph’s robe, slaughtered a goat and dipped the robe in the blood. ³² They took the ornamented robe back to their father and said, “We found this. Examine it to see whether it is your son’s robe.”

This is the history of how Joseph’s brothers sold him as a slave. That was a terrible thing to do to anyone let alone to your own brother. Then again, Joseph was an arrogant little…be that as it may.

I noticed that even for a group of brothers who were doing terrible things to their little brother, they did have a sense of right and wrong.

Wrong:

• shed your brother’s blood

Right:

• toss your brother into a cistern
• sell your brother as a slave
• lie to your dad about everything

I mean, there was a limit to what the brothers would do to Joseph. It is odd how the brothers talked themselves into a new system of right and wrong. They were going to get back at Joseph; they thought about it a while, and they invented a new system of morals.

I suppose that we do the same today. When there is something that we really want, we invent a new system of morals to use, even if we only use that new system for a little while. Sometimes God’s sense of right and wrong just gets in our way.

God, help me to use your rights and wrongs and not my own.

Genesis 24:62-63 (New English Translation)

62 Now Isaac came from Beer Lahai Roi, for he was living in the Negev. 63 He went out to relax in the field in the early evening. Then he looked up and saw that there were camels approaching.

Ah.

This is something I should do more often. Relax in the field in the early evening. Sometimes I am too busy. I am not accomplishing anything of real value, but I am busy, busy, busy…

Relaxing is a worthwhile activity. It isn’t a waste of time that lazy people do.

God gave us the fields and the early evening. Let us accept His blessings.

Genesis 39:2-4 (New International Version)

² The LORD was with Joseph and he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master. ³ When his master saw that the LORD was with him and that the LORD gave him success in everything he did, ⁴ Joseph found favor in his eyes and became his attendant. Potiphar put him in charge of his household, and he entrusted to his care everything he owned.

Joseph had been sold as a slave by his brothers. He was put into the hands of an Egyptian named Potiphar.

It appears that Joseph was good at everything. Everything he touched went well. Joseph must have been a pretty smart guy to learn all that was around him and handle it smartly. Sounds pretty good, these words that I apply to Joseph. That is how we would describe Joseph today.

Now notice how Potiphar describes Joseph and remember that Potiphar is an Egyptian – not one of God’s chosen people:

When his master saw that the LORD was with him and that the LORD gave him success in everything he did

People didn’t use to say, “Joseph is a really smart guy.”

Instead, they said, “The Lord is with Joseph.”

Hmm, somewhere along the line we may have forgotten the Lord’s hand in every thing and every person.

Genesis 24:12 (New International Version)

Then he prayed, “O LORD, God of my master Abraham, give me success today, and show kindness to my master Abraham.

Such a simple prayer, such a simple request: give me success today.

This is easy to abuse. I’ll play the lottery and ask God for success. I’ll try all sorts of short cuts that could lead to all sorts of worldly “gains” that probably aren’t good for me in the long term but will sure feel good in the short term. God must sigh often when He hears our prayers.

This is easy to use as I believe God intended. The man praying was sent on a mission by Abraham. The mission would bring blessings to Abraham’s household. His prayer was simple:

God, give me success today.

I have to add a phrase to that for me, today:

God, point me in the right direction and give me success today.

Job 30:1 (New International Version)

But now they mock me,
men younger than I,
whose fathers I would have disdained
to put with my sheep dogs.

The book of Job is filled with eloquent speeches, and those speeches contain countless wonderful phrases on which to contemplate. I could comment on nothing but such phrases for a year or three.

Here is one from Job himself. He laments how these young men are making fun of him in his misery. He thinks little of those young me. He thinks little of their fathers. Job wouldn’t have put their fathers with his sheep dogs as his sheep dogs were at least good at herding sheep.

There must be times when God thinks of me this way – not even as valuable to Him as a good sheep dog. I guess I take that back. God is gracious in ways and means that I cannot fathom. Maybe if I were God, I would look down on lots of people as being less than sheep dogs. That is one of the many reasons I am thankful that God is God and I am me. He thought enough of me to send his son to die for me. For that, and many other reasons, I am eternally grateful.

Exodus 4:13 (New English Translation)

But Moses said, “O my Lord, please send anyone else whom you wish to send!”

This is from the history of when Moses was speaking with God at the burning bush. God had chosen Moses to return to Egypt and bring His people out of slavery and to the Promised Land. Moses, er, was a bit reluctant.

I find it comical the words attributed to Moses in the different English translations:

New International Version – But Moses said, “O Lord, please send someone else to do it.”

New Living Translation – But Moses again pleaded, “Lord, please! Send someone else.”

It is as if Moses is about to say, “Lord, I can’t go, the goat ate my homework.”

And, by the way, if you are looking for a way to ask your boss to have someone else do something that you, er, are a bit reluctant to do, use the King James Version:

And he said, O my LORD, send, I pray thee, by the hand of him whom thou wilt send.

That will confuse the boss.

Levity aside, I have no doubt that God has heard the same “please send someone else” a few million times since Moses. Look at the opportunity presented to Moses – be a hero to a people God has chosen. Be recorded in history and have people look to you for inspiration for several thousand years. How could he turn that down?

But I look at the marvelous things God has for me to do, and I often reply, “please send someone else.” Yes, God has patience with us His creation.

Isaiah 9:2 (New International Version)

The people walking in darkness
have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of the shadow of death
a light has dawned.

Note the next to last phrase of this verse, living in the land of the shadow of death. The last three words in particular caught my attention – the shadow of death.

Those words are from the 23rd Psalm:

Psalm 23:4

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death…

I thought the 23rd Psalm was the only place in scripture where we have those words – the shadow of death. Further searching shows me that these words in are a few other places in the Bible.

I guess among the Hebrews this is a well known phrase. What is the “shadow of death?” Does death have a shadow? To cast a shadow you must be in some light, right? I don’t know the answers to these and other questions we could ask about the shadow of death.

What I surmise is that this is a bad place. We don’t want to be there.

I also surmise that God conquers the shadow of death. Both of these passages show total despair of the Godly when in the shadow of death. They both also show the hope in God and the rescue that comes from God.