Contemplative Bible Reading

2 Samuel 14:25-26 (New Living Translation)

25 Now Absalom was praised as the most handsome man in all Israel. He was flawless from head to foot. 26 He cut his hair only once a year, and then only because it was so heavy. When he weighed it out, it came to five pounds!

In the Old Testament is the (hi)story of David’s son Absalom. It seems that Absalom lived and died by his hair. The verses above describe the thickness and weight of his hair. Everyone wanted hair like that, or so it seems.

Then, the thickness and strength of his hair brought death.

2 Samuel 18:9 (New Living Translation)

9 During the battle, Absalom happened to come upon some of David’s men. He tried to escape on his mule, but as he rode beneath the thick branches of a great tree, his hair got caught in the tree. His mule kept going and left him dangling in the air.

The enemies of Absalom found him hung up in the tree and killed him. Note that his hair was so thick and strong that it held the full weight of his body and military armor that he wore. That is strength. That is strength that he did not want at that time. Come on hair, break loose so I can get away!

The hair didn’t break away. Absalom was killed. His glorious hair led to his death.

I guess I could write about pride and arrogance and reliance on things that make us beautiful in life yet bring death. Absalom is an example that warriors still use to force “GI haircuts” and such. This brings calls of “utility over beauty” and things like that.

Absalom was a handsome young man with great hair. Nevertheless, he was not chosen by God to be king. He fought God. The outcome was predictable. Please God, help me to accept what wonderful things you have deemed for me.

1 Kings 8:59 (New Living Translation)

59 And may these words that I have prayed in the presence of the Lord be before him constantly, day and night, so that the Lord our God may give justice to me and to his people Israel, according to each day’s needs.

These words were spoken by King Solomon on the occasion of dedicating the Temple. I have read the above verse some 30 to 40 times over the last 30-something years. And this year I noticed the last phrase, “according to each day’s needs.”

And the first thing that hit me was the Lord’s Prayer with one sentence given below:

Matthew 6:11 (King James Version) 11 Give us this day our daily bread.

There it was: daily needs and daily bread. It all connects. Sometimes it takes 30-something years for a person like me to notice. It is all there folks. How complete and thorough is God? How much higher and greater is God than me? There is no measure.

Deuteronomy 6:24 (New Living Translation)

24 And the Lord our God commanded us to obey all these decrees and to fear him so he can continue to bless us and preserve our lives, as he has done to this day.

Moses is delivering the law from God to the people. (The prior chapter listed the ten commandments.) Wrapping up the commands, Moses adds that we obey so that God, “can continue to bless us and preserve our lives, as he has done to this day.”

(1) Obedience brings blessings from God.

Let’s ponder that one for a moment or a lifetime or two.

(2) Obedience continues the blessings that have been coming from God.

Same pondering as with (1).

I guess we could try disobedience to see what that brings. The historical records show that didn’t turn out well for the people. Still, they continued in disobedience. I can assume that I am smarter and would have done so much better, but really? Am I that smart? Nope.

Let’s start with (2). God has blessed. I would be a fool to look at my life and claim something stupid like, “I did it all on my own!” Nope, the pleasant life I have is a blessing from God.

Now to (1). God will continue to bless. I don’t have a rosy day everyday. Nevertheless, any rational examination of my life reveals I have it much better than the great majority of persons on planet earth.

Thank you God for blessing me. Help me in my unbelief. Help me to be a bit more worthy today than I was yesterday.

1 Kings 21:7 (New Living Translation)

7 “Are you the king of Israel or not?” Jezebel demanded. “Get up and eat something, and don’t worry about it. I’ll get you Naboth’s vineyard!”

Queen Jezebel is talking to her husband, King Ahab. King Ahab wanted a vineyard from a neighbor named Naboth. Naboth wouldn’t sell, so King Ahab was dejected.

Queen Jezebel was quite practical. “We are King of Israel!” This is a simple matter. We don’t have to listen to some neighbor who wants to hang onto his family land. We are King! Squash the neighbor like a bug. We are King!

Ah, the reality of political power. There are those who do not hesitate to use the power any which way that pleases them.

Jezebel arranged some friends to lie about Naboth and have him killed. It all seemed legal enough if you were watching from afar. The insiders knew the truth. Jezebel was Queen. We are King! Squash people like bugs and move on happily ever after.

It is a shame that there were people like Jezebel in positions of earthly power way back when. It is a shame that we have the same today—a terrible shame. Sometimes it is difficult to live under these conditions. Let us not imitate what we see.

Numbers 27:12-13 (New Living Translation)

12 One day the Lord said to Moses, “Climb one of the mountains east of the river, and look out over the land I have given the people of Israel. 13 After you have seen it, you will die like your brother, Aaron,

God is talking to Moses. Go do this. Then you will die. Wait a minute. Step 1: do something. Step 2: die.

If I don’t do Step 1, Step 2 won’t happen to me, right? Maybe? Is there a trick here or something? Who wants to die?

Moses did Step 1. Step 2 happened.

I have known people who were ready to die. I have known people who were happy to die. Life was too tough and had been too long already. Let’s move on.

This is not a happy topic. Is it? I don’t want to die, yet.

Still, Moses obeyed. Moses did Step 1 and Step 2 followed. Moses obeyed. What faith.

Judges 21:25 (New Living Translation)

25 In those days Israel had no king; all the people did whatever seemed right in their own eyes.

This sentence appears four times in the book of Judges. There are many explanations and interpretations of it. Some reflect good on the people while others reflect bad.

There are times when it is best for individual followers of God to do what they believe is best. These followers need no instruction from someone else. They are following God and they continue to follow God in what they decide to do. Some human leaders lead people in the wrong direction in some situations. It is better not to follow them.

There are times when it is best for individual followers of God to follow the lead of a person provided by God. The leader from God knows better.

During the times recorded in the book of Judges, it appears that most of the people were weak in how they followed God. For one reason or another, they just didn’t have what it took to tell right from wrong and do what was righteous.

I can sit here in the coffee shop this morning and proclaim that us coffee shop dwelling Christians of 2024 have what it takes to tell right from wrong and do what is righteous. Please, quiet the laughter at the foolish arrogance of that statement.

Let’s return to the subject at hand and the time of the Judges. The people were looking for a man to sit in a fancy chair and show them righteousness. No one appeared. The people floundered about with some of them being righteous. The cream, however, didn’t rise to the top.

It took a prophet named Samuel, born miraculously of a dejected mother, to be righteous and show righteousness. God eventually told Samuel to anoint a man as king. God then told Samuel to anoint another man to replace the first man after the first man strayed away from God’s instructions. A long list of kings followed. Some were worth following while many weren’t.

God remained faithful and steadfast the entire time to this day. Thank you God. Please keep guiding me in my weakness.

Numbers 14:17 (New Living Translation)

17 Please, Lord, prove that your power is as great as you have claimed…

This is probably one of the stupidest things every said by any person at any time.

It is part of the (hi)story of the people traveling the desert after escaping Egypt and entering the land promised by God. The scouts returned with tales of a land that could not be conquered. The people wanted to kill a couple of scouts who said God would deliver the land despite the challenges.

Everyone is in an uproar. This is a full-fledged riot and coup. God appears in a cloud. Moses, a humble and devout servant, opens his mouth and says, “Come on God, prove yourself to me.”

Are you kidding? A person telling God to prove God’s worth? What kind of stupid is that? It is the kind of stupid that marked an otherwise great man. Moses was the almost perfect servant of God. Moses did the impossible through faith in God. Moses stood up to the most powerful ruler of the most powerful nation on earth. Moses walked by faith, not by sight. Moses endured. On and on I can write about the worth and accomplishments of Moses.

Yet Moses stands here and says this.

Fatigue wins again. Moses was tired physically, mentally, and emotionally. Fear wins again. This was a riot and a coup. The crowd would kill Moses in its frenzy. Frailty wins again. Sometimes us humans succumb to being human. We just can’t do it.

Yet, God stays with me. Blessed be the Lord. Please God, help me in my unbelief.

Numbers 13:31 (New Living Translation)

31 But the other men who had explored the land with him disagreed. “We can’t go up against them! They are stronger than we are!”

This is part of the (hi)story of the people entering the land God promised them. Scouts surveyed the land and reported back to Moses and the people. Above is what most of the scouts reported. The people in the land were stronger than God’s people. God’s people didn’t have a chance against them.

That was a correct report.

Everything in the land was of advantage to the occupants. They had lived there for generations. They knew the territory and how to defend it. They had interior lines of logistics. They had defensible cities. They were rested, not having traveled through the desert. They had greater numbers, greater industry, greater everything.

The majority of the scouts gave a correct report.

The majority of the scouts, however, lacked faith in God. A couple of the scouts told the people that Jehovah God was with them. The people of the land could not defeat Jehovah God. Those two scouts had faith. Combining facts and faith produced a second report that was also correct.

Facts versus faith. Gosh, do we have to choose? I don’t think so. The example was facts and faith gave the more correct (correcter?) answer.

Odd thing about faith. I can believe that something will happen when I cannot see any reason why it should. But then again, I can see reason. I can look at history and see many examples of how faith prevailed. Hence, I always have facts to combine with faith. But then again, I don’t.

This can be confusing. Faith and facts. God didn’t create fools, but God created faith as well as facts. Yes, this can be confusing. God, help me in my unbelief.

Ruth 4:9-10 (New Living Translation)

9 Then Boaz said to the elders and to the crowd standing around, “You are witnesses that today I have bought from Naomi all the property of Elimelech, Kilion, and Mahlon. 10 And with the land I have acquired Ruth, the Moabite widow of Mahlon, to be my wife. This way she can have a son to carry on the family name of her dead husband and to inherit the family property here in his hometown. You are all witnesses today.”

Boaz was a good man. He showed kindness to many people beyond what was required in the law. He was kind to Naomi, a widow with no sons and a daughter-in-law widow from Moab.

As shown above, Boaz married Ruth the Moabite widow. How good is that? Well, Ruth was a Moabite. The Moabites showed disdain of the people as they came out of Egypt. Moabites were prohibited from entering the Temple.

Boaz married an outsider.

Was that wrong? Many people could have considered it wrong. It was probably wrong for Naomi’s sons to marry Moabite women. God chose the people and wanted them to avoid entanglements with other people, i.e., outsiders.

Good came from this marriage. King David descended from this marriage. That was good. Still, Boaz did something that was questionable. Who am I to judge? Who am I to judge the actions of a person I see today? I don’t know the future. I don’t know what might happen in four generations. I have plenty of worries in my own life.

Boaz is kind to the widow Naomi and the widow Ruth. Pray that good comes of it. Same advice today.

Numbers 13:30 (New Living Translation)

30 But Caleb tried to quiet the people as they stood before Moses. “Let’s go at once to take the land,” he said. “We can certainly conquer it!”

This is part of the (hi)story of the people leaving slavery in Egypt and going to the land that God promised them. A group of men went into the land to see what and who were there. Many of these men reported the abundance of agriculture in the land, but also the abundance of people who had easily defended positions. The people could not invade and conquer.

Caleb, one of the men sent, says the above. “We can certainly conquer it!” he boasted with great confidence.

Caleb was correct. History showed that the people conquered those defensible positions held by the people in the land.

Caleb was sort of correct. History also showed that initial invasions into the land were military disasters.

Caleb and the other spies of the land forgot God. Without God, invasion failed. With God and with 40 years of wandering around the desert, invasion succeeded.

Note that Caleb did not mention God in his confident boast of success. Perhaps something is lost in the translation. The people were in a bad situation facing large armies in defended positions. Military scientists can explain why invasion would fail.

What about God? God enables all that God endorses. Things happen that defy explanation; that is why they are called super-natural.

Let’s not forget to mention God in our boasts and fears. Sure, our sentences will be longer, but we will be stating the truth based on faith and past events.