Contemplative Bible Reading

Zechariah 8:23 (Revised Standard Version)

Thus says the LORD of hosts: In those days ten men from the nations of every tongue shall take hold of the robe of a Jew, saying, `Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.'”

This is a prophetic verse from the Old Testament. It speaks of God’s chosen people – the Jews. It speaks of a time when all the nations will see that God’s people are different. They are truly God’s people.

I believe I can move this to today’s language and the Christians. Will people look at me and say, “Let us go with you, for we have noticed that God is with you.”

That is a challenge to me. Do people see God the Father, Jesus Christ the Son, and the Holy Spirit with me? Is there anything different about my life that would attract people?

God, help me to truly allow you to be in my life every day and in every way. Guide me so that people will want to be with me because they see that You are with me.

Haggai 1:6 (Holman Christian Standard Bible)

You have planted much
but harvested little.
You eat
but never have enough to be satisfied.
You drink
but never have enough to become drunk.
You put on clothes
but never have enough to get warm.
The wage earner [puts his] wages
into a bag with a hole in it.”

The last phrase of this verse caught my attention. Putting my money into a bag that has a hole in it.

Several years ago, my family visited the Grand Canyon. My youngest son was about 12 years old at the time. He was carrying a backpack to hold his lunch and water. He was also carrying a handful of small game pieces to a card game he played.

We walked down into the Grand Canyon for a couple of hours. We stopped to sit every half hour and rest. On the way back up we stopped at these same places to rest. At one rest stop on the way up, we found some game pieces on the ground. What a treasure! Then we learned that those pieces had fallen out of my son’s backpack.

He had put his treasures in a backpack that had a hole in it. Somehow we had found what we had just lost.

Our lives can often become like this walk in the Grand Canyon. We find things we treasure for a short while. We think that we are keeping them safe for our enjoyment. Often, however, our lives have holes in them. Our treasures just fall out onto the ground.

How silly can we be? We work as hard as we can to find treasures that merely fall onto the ground. We ignore the true treasures in our lives – the people God sends our way to bless us and receive blessings from us.

Note to readers: you may have noticed that the subject verse is the same one I wrote about last week on December 15th. This is unusual, but shows once again that on one day something in a verse will strike me, then on another day something else in the same verse will do the same.

…

Haggai 1:6 (New International Version)

You have planted much, but have harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it.

I am considering this verse in light of my current situation. (1) Am I happy? (2) Am I content? (3) Is there anything terribly wrong in my life at this time?

The answer to question (3) is “no.” The answer to questions (1) and (2) are not so definite in my mind. I don’t like those answers.

Sometimes I find myself not thinking about what is happening in my life. I think so much about so many things that I neglect thinking about my own life. That doesn’t make any sense. I want life to make sense (is that a silly notion?).

Count your many blessings is a phrase from an old Gospel song. Name them one by one is another phrase. Perhaps I should think more on that old Gospel song and less on some of the things that occupy my mind.

Recently my wife told me that “I take things so seriously.” That is probably part of my temperament. I should do more things that are light-hearted – more things that I don’t take so seriously.

Titus 2:7a (New International Version)

7 In everything set them an example by doing what is good.

Model the bahavior that you want others to live.

I have heard that increasingly in the past couple of years. If I want people to listen, I slow down, shut up, and listen myself. If I want people to understand me before making their point, I need to understand their view first before pressing my own.

The verse from Titus echoes this idea. Be an example, be a model of doing what is good. Let others see that behavior.

Will other people follow my model? Often they will not, sometimes they will. How often? What are the percentages? What is the return on investment?

These are good questions. Are they the right questions? Does Paul encourage us to ask these questions? I don’t think so. I believe Paul is encouraging us to do what is right. What others will do is between them and God. What I do is between me and God. As for me, I will try to do what is right.

Genesis 1:14-15 (New International Version)

14 And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth.” And it was so.

The phrase that caught my attention today comes from verse 14 above. It is lights in the expanse of the sky… let them serve as signs to mark seasons…

God put the stars, including our sun, in the sky to mark the seasons for man. What a wonderful gift.

Today, we take for granted that we have watches, clocks, and calendars. (I often hate the calendar as that is a device that runs my life at work. If only people would live for now instead of for the blasted calendar.) Calendars are everywhere. Everyone knows the day of the week, the date of the month, the month of the year. It is no surprise when summer begins. We count down the number of shopping days until Christmas.

This precise knowledge of day and time did not occur until the last several hundreds of years or so. For the vast majority of human history, people struggled to know the season. This meant people didn’t know when to plant crops so that food would be available before the season made plant growing impossible. If you didn’t plant lucky, you died.

In the world today you can find many places where through the centuries men erected markers to watch the stars. Stonehenge in England is one example. There are many others including the pyramids in Egypt and South America. The large stones of Stonehenge were set to coincide with the changing seasons. The people could watch the sun rise next to certain stones and know what time of year it was.

These people were not worshiping the sun and stars as some have conjectured. Instead, they were using the gifts of God to live. The lights in the sky marking the seasons allowed people to plant crops and perform other duties of life at a time that permitted survival.

In some ways it is a shame that man has the technology to know what time of day and what season of the year we are in. We no longer need faith in the lights marking the seasons. We no longer depend on the gift from God mentioned in Genesis 1:14.

We do, however, still depend on and enjoy many other gifts from our creator.

Exodus 7:1 (New International Version)

Then the LORD said to Moses, “See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron will be your prophet.

Moses didn’t really want to talk to Pharoah. He made lots of excuses. God kept encouraging Moses. He gave Moses the ability to perform miracles that would astound the Egyptians. Still Moses wasn’t so sure about all this.

The verse above reassured Moses yet one more time. I have made you like God to Pharoah

This is like Genesis 1:27 where we are told

So God created man in his own image

God has made me, you, all of us like a God in the eyes of His creation.

That is pretty significant stuff.

Philippians 1:9-11

9 And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, 10 so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.

I have heard a lot of talking lately about relationships and truth. These verses seem to tie the two together.

Paraphrasing verse 9:

This is my prayer: that your love may abound in truth

How does love abound in truth? I suppose a person who feels that relationships (love) are paramount can point to this verse and say that truth (knowledge) cannot exist without relationships. In the same manner, a person who feels that truth is paramount can point to this verse and say that relationships cannot exist without truth.

So what is right? I suppose that both are a little right and a little of an exaggeration.

What I see is that Paul is praying for both. He prays that we have love (relationships), and that the love abounds in truth (knowledge). One without the other is not what we need. One without the other is not Paul’s prayer.

I pray that I may know what God wants me to know. I pray that I may show God’s love to my fellow man.

Matthew 23:23 (New International Version)

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.

Ah, these poor guys. The teachers of the law did their jobs too well in one sense. They taught the law; they enforced the law, and they made the law the most important thing in the world. They made sure that they contributed a tenth of everything, including a tenth of the mint, dill, and cummin they had.

Can you imagine taking the pepper out of your pepper shaker on your dining room table, separating a tenth of it, collecting that carefully, and then donating that to charity? That is what these guys were careful – very careful – to do.

They succeeded too well. They concentrated so much on a tenth of this and a tenth of that to where they could no longer see the more important matters.

These more important matters were justice, mercy, and faithfulness.

They no longer had the heart to see that justice was done in their society. They no longer had the heart to have mercy on people who needed it. They no longer had the heart to be faithful – to believe in a God that they could not see.

Their heart was gone.

It is easier to concentrate on things that I can see, touch, taste, smell, and hear. It is easy to work so hard on these concrete things. And there are only so many hours in a day. Dividing out a tenth of my mint, dill, and cummin takes a lot of time and energy.

Will I have anything left for justice, mercy, and faithfulness?

Genesis 22:8 (New International Version)

Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together.

This passage is from the story of when God told Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac. Abraham obeys, and God intervenes at the right moment after He sees Abraham’s faith. The verse given here is Abraham speaking to his son. Isaac had just asked his father where they would find a lamb for the sacrifice.

God provides, and then Abraham sacrificed. Abraham “sacrificed” what God had given him.

I think the situation today is the same. As Christians, we sacrifice things for God. But all those things came from God. All He asks us to do is gave up a small part of what He gave us. He isn’t asking us to give up things that we did by ourselves.

What could be easier?

Matthew 5:16 (New International Version)

In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.

This verse is the basis of the children’s song “This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine.” I sang that hundreds of times while growing up. It’s a nice song. Too bad that as adults we tend to forget the song and its meaning.

I ask myself, “what have I done lately that will cause someone to praise God?” Ouch. Tough question. Well?

I can give a number of pretty good answers. I give money to a church and to missionaries. Those are real things and they are good things. But does that cause anyone to praise God? Ouch again.

What have I done lately with people face to face that is an example of selfless service? Something that I didn’t do with an agenda in mind? Something that simply causes someone to say, “That is a Christian. Maybe there is something worthwhile in following Christ?”

God, help me to find some of that light shining everyday and do it.