Contemplative Bible Reading

2 Samuel 14:14 (New Living Translation)

All of us must die eventually. Our lives are like water spilled out on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again. But God does not just sweep life away; instead, he devises ways to bring us back when we have been separated from him.

A woman tells this to King David. She was sent to David with a story, probably fictional, about her family – a dead husband, one son dead at the hands of another son, no one else left alive. She begged for the life of her one living son (the murderer). David grants her the life of her son.

She continues the conversation and reaches the point of the ruse. She asks that David bring his son Absalom back into his home. David had banished Absalom, but missed him dearly.

I know people who have done this – banished an adult child from the family for some misdeed or other. Everyone suffers – the child and especially the grieving parent. Pride prevents the parent from welcoming home the child.

Side note: a parent is unlikely to win a life-long battle with a child. If nothing else, the parent will die of old age before the child.

The woman concludes her discussion with David with the words in verse 14. “Look at God,” she says, “he finds a way to bring us back when we have been separated from him.”

The unspoken words are, “Surely King David, you can find a way to bring your son back from this separation.”

God, help keep me from separating myself from others. When I have stumbled and separated, help me to bring people back into my life and destroy the walls I have created.

2 Chronicles 30:18-20 (New International Version)

¹⁸ Although most of the many people who came from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar and Zebulun had not purified themselves, yet they ate the Passover, contrary to what was written. But Hezekiah prayed for them, saying, “May the LORD, who is good, pardon everyone ¹⁹ who sets his heart on seeking God—the LORD, the God of his fathers—even if he is not clean according to the rules of the sanctuary.” ²⁰ And the LORD heard Hezekiah and healed the people.

These verses are from a passage about a time of renewal in Jerusalem. King Hezekiah has helped to turn the people back to God. The people come to Jerusalem to celebrate. Many of the people, however, have not been able to “purify” themselves in accordance with the law.

Hezekiah has a request of God:

God, these people have set their hearts on seeking You.

Pardon them for not getting everything right.

God hears the request and “heals” the people. What a wonderful lesson about God’s grace.

There are things that God encourages us to do. There are things that God asks us to do. There are things that God requires us to do. Being properly cleansed before entering the Sanctuary in the days of Hezekiah was something God required His people to do. Yet here, God pardons the people who missed a requirement.

I have heard many hypothetical questions about the scope of God’s grace. I have had answers for only a tiny percentage of those questions. You can easily conclude that I don’t fully understand God’s grace. I can read this instance in the days of Hezekiah when God’s grace covered a clear lapse in meeting His requirements.

God, help me to further understand the magnificence of Your grace. Help me to show a measure of Your grace to others.

Micah 3:11 (New International Version)

Her leaders judge for a bribe,
her priests teach for a price,
and her prophets tell fortunes for money.
Yet they lean upon the LORD and say,
“Is not the LORD among us?
No disaster will come upon us.”

Imagine these guys. They take bribes; they only do their jobs if you give them extra money, and they make up stories for money instead of telling people what God tells them. And given all that, they are confident that God will take care of them.

What is wrong with these people? The answer is simple:

they are not aware of themselves.

Self-awareness may be the greatest challenge that any leader has. To be able to see myself the way other people see me. Do people think I am friendly or a grouch? Am I happy or sad? Will they talk to me or avoid me?

Is my life difficult? Is my life easy? Compared to who? Compared to when?

Some days I am concerned about many things. I don’t sleep well. I stew on problems. Then I talk to someone and learn that my worries are silly compared to what many people face. I am not aware of myself.

I am confident that the Lord is with me. I am not confident about disaster avoiding me as I don’t know that God promises his followers a trouble-free life. I know many Christians who  have many troubles in their lives. That is part of life on earth.

Still, am I aware of myself?

God, help me to understand how others see me. Help me to live in a way that when people look at my, they see you reflected in my life.

Isaiah 29: 15 (New International Version)

Woe to those who go to great depths
to hide their plans from the LORD,
who do their work in darkness and think,
“Who sees us? Who will know?”

How foolish. The thought that we can hide our plans from God, that we can go someplace where he cannot see us and not know what we are planning. How dark does it have to be so that God cannot see through the dark to find us?

But then there is the opposite side of this.

When we plan to do something for God’s glory, He knows it. When we are trapped in darkness, He sees us. He knows our thoughts and hears our prayers. There is no place we can go physically, there is no place we can be emotionally and spiritually that is too far from God. He will be there with us.

God, help me always to remember your sight, your reach, your hearing and knowledge. Don’t let me fool myself into thinking that I can hide from you. Always have me to remember that you are with me and blessing me.

2 Kings 19:35 (New International Version)

That night the angel of the LORD went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning—there were all the dead bodies!

Sennacherib king of Assyria had laid siege to Jerusalem. The city was about to fall into his hands. Judah’s King Hezekiah humbled himself and prayed to God. God sent an angel…

185,000 men died in camp in one night at the hand of the angel

That is about the same number of the Americans who died fighting for both sides during our Civil War. I cannot imagine what people felt and thought the next morning when they awoke to the sight. What did the people in Jerusalem do with the dead bodies? What about the possessions of the dead? How did the living move on? The questions never end.

I could speculate for a long time on these and other questions. One thing I hold as almost certain:

The living knew that something super-natural had happened.

They didn’t go looking for water borne disease or chemical warfare or some odd alignment of the stars or something else. People knew there were gods and angels and other super-natural beings. They could find no other explanation.

Today, we would find another explanation. We are too smart, too scientific, too logical, too confident in our own selves to look to something else.

God, help me to hold onto the wonder of you. Help me to always understand that there is more to life here than I can see, touch, feel, and sense.

2 Chronicles 29:11 (New International Version)

My sons, do not be negligent now, for the LORD has chosen you to stand before him and serve him, to minister before him and to burn incense.”

This is a statement made by King Hezekiah of Judah. He has recently ascended to the throne and is attempting to revive the people to worshipping the LORD after years or apathy.

The highlighted verse is his last statement to the people.

…do not be negligent now…

Now is the time for these people to do right by God. Now, not tomorrow or next year, but now.

I am one of those people who like to be prepared. Being prepared often means taking the time now to prepare for the future. It is easy for me and those like me to spend some much of “now” preparing for “later.” We tend to forget about doing “now.”

God, help me to do “now,” now instead of later.

Hosea 6:6 (New International Version)

For I desire mercy, not sacrifice,
and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.

This is one of those passages that sticks with me; it has for years. I believe God is telling us that he cherishes what is in the heart more than what we do with our hands and our things.

Let’s look at the two words I put in the title of this post.

mercy : [< Medieval Latin merces (reward, compassionate action) < merx (merchandise); influenced by Latin miserere < miserêrî (to have pity)] compassionate action or treatment; relief from distress; a tendency from personal character to act compassionately; to be ruthful, to show forbearance or kindness. In Scripture and in the Christian faith, mercy means the giving of grace to people who don’t deserve it, or showing compassion to someone you have power or authority over. (from spirithome.com)

and from dictionary.com

ac?knowl?edge
–verb (used with object), -edged, -edg?ing.

1.to admit to be real or true; recognize the existence, truth, or fact of: to acknowledge one’s mistakes.

2.to show or express recognition or realization of: to acknowledge an acquaintance by nodding.

3.to recognize the authority, validity, or claims of

Isaiah 10:1-2 (New International Version)

¹ Woe to those who make unjust laws,
to those who issue oppressive decrees,

² to deprive the poor of their rights
and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people,
making widows their prey
and robbing the fatherless.

Let’s start with verse 2: depriving the poor, withholding from the oppressed, preying on widows, robbing the fatherless. I certainly don’t do any of those things. Well, maybe if I gloss over these things quickly enough I can satisfy myself that I don’t do any of those things. Do I give freely to the poor, oppressed, widows, and fatherless? Well, I give, but how much? And more importantly, how do I give? Cheerfully? Full of love? Grudgingly?

Enough of me, let’s jump up to verse 1, things that governments do (not me): unjust laws, decrees that oppress people. I’m not in the legislature, so I am not guilty of any of these things. Well, I guess I do vote and send those people to the legislature who maybe then pass these oppressive laws.

When will God give me a break?

Oooops, He sent His Son to die for me so I would be clean in His sight. I guess that is a pretty big “break.”

God, help me to realize everyday the “break” you have given me. Help me to see the blessings I have. Let me give freely to those who don’t have all the material things that I have. More importantly, help me to lavish love on these and other people the way you have lavished love on me.

Jonah 1:3 (New International Version)

But Jonah ran away from the LORD and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the LORD.

Another verse from one of my favorite histories in the Bible.

Jonah didn’t want to do what the Lord wanted him to do. So what did Jonah do instead?

He ran away.

Look at a map of the ancient world (this site has such a map), and you will notice that Tarshish is in the exact opposite direction from Nineveh. You will also note that Nineveh is in modern-day Iraq, but that is another history.

You know the history: Jonah boarded a ship, God sent a storm, Jonah was cast into the sea, swallowed by a great fish, spit out after three days, and so on.

Running away from God didn’t work.

Funny how we rarely seem to learn from history. We still try this routine. We know what God wants us to do, but that doesn’t suit our personal agenda, so we go in the opposite direction hoping that somehow God won’t notice what we are doing. How stupid can we be? God not notice?

God, grant me wisdom. Help me to understand Jonah’s plight. Help to to really and truly understand that no matter how many doors I close and how many things I do to give myself “privacy” that you notice that I am running away. Help me to understand the futility of my own agenda, and instead do your will.

Let me break with the theme of this blog (noticing one or two verses here and there) and instead discuss an entire Bible story – the history of Naaman.

This history is told in 2 Kings chapters 5 and 6.

2 Kings 5:1 (New International Version)

Now Naaman was commander of the army of the king of Aram. He was a great man in the sight of his master and highly regarded, because through him the Lord had given victory to Aram. He was a valiant soldier, but he had leprosy.

Let’s bring this up to date. Suppose we have man who won the Heisman trophy in college, the Medal of Honor in a war, and then became a General. And that General had AIDS. Oh rats, what a blemish on what is otherwise a great and respected hero. That was was Naaman. He was highly honored, but he had the AIDS of his day – leprosy. No one would go near him.

The story continues:

2 Kings 5:2-3

² Now bands from Aram had gone out and had taken captive a young girl from Israel, and she served Naaman’s wife. ³ She said to her mistress, “If only my master would see the prophet (Elisha) who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.”

Now enters the second great character of this history – the captive Jewish girl from Israel. Recall, that while she was a Jew, the Israelites had rebelled and broken away from the Kingdom of Judah. The people in Israel didn’t go to the Temple to worship as God commanded, but instead created their own place of worship, their own gods, and their own “worship.” And this girl was not smart enough, not strong enough, not something or other to avoid capture. She was a loser.

Still, this captive girl knew enough about God and how the prophets served God to recommend the prophet Elisha. She knew that the true God was with Elisha, and God and a prophet could do something for Naaman. She had great faith in God and she took a chance and acted on that faith. Imagine what would have happened to her had she recommended Naaman go to someone who would do nothing for him.

The story is a classic “all is well that ends well.” Naaman goes to Elisha, does what Elisha says, and he is healed. Great things follow the healing.

How does God take a disease ridden “hero,” add in a captive girl from an idol-worshiping nation, and have everything turn out well? He is God, and we are not. We just don’t see God’s work coming.

God, thank you for working in our lives. We just don’t see it coming most of the time. We don’t believe it will come most of the time. Thank you for your wisdom and your patience with us.