Contemplative Bible Reading

Jeremiah 30:22 (New Living Translation)

You will be my people,
and I will be your God.

This is a short and simple statement. God is talking to the people through the prophet Jeremiah. At the time, the people were in bad shape. They were scattered among several nations in exile. Their disobedient lifestyle caused their nation to crumble to the point where foreign armies walked in, picked the healthy people, and took them away to be servants, accountants, merchants, and do lots of things the rich conquerors didn’t want to do.

A better time will come for the people. They will realize that Jehovah the Creator will be their God. The people will worship and serve Jehovah. They won’t worship other gods any longer. Life will be better. Society will be better. People will be happier and healthier.

Gosh, that sure sounds better than being deported to a place where you don’t understand anything anyone says, everyone spits on you, you do jobs you don’t like, and conditions are just … rotten.

I guess we can still choose what to do. Well, life here in America is pretty sweet. What’s the problem? Look around. All sorts of people pay no attention to God and they are doing just fine. Maybe so. Maybe not. Are people content? Happy? Satisfied? Have a good relationship with their kids? Maybe so. Maybe not.

This is all so simple and all so complex. There is much happening that we don’t see. Perhaps all this happiness is more than what we let people see of our lives. God, however, sees. Do I want Jehovah the Creator to be my god?

Isaiah 30:21 (New Living Translation)

Your own ears will hear him.
Right behind you a voice will say,
“This is the way you should go,”
whether to the right or to the left.

God is speaking to the people through the prophet Isaiah. God will teach the people when they will listen. God, with God’s perspective and understanding, will tell them to go to the right or to the left.

Imagine that. God—all seeing and all knowing—will tell me which way to go, what to do, what to say (what NOT to say), and on and on. What a blessing. All I have to do is … forget myself and listen to God.

Uh, er, well, that last part, uh, er, I don’t know about that one. You see, I’m here and I know what is happening here, and God is ancient and maybe a little behind the times, and God isn’t on TikTok or whatever is new this weekend and I, uh, er, well, you know.

Nope. Wrong. Wrong again.

I believe God talks to me. There are many ways God talks to me. Sometimes by reading the Bible, sometimes in prayer, and sometimes through a guy sitting on a sidewalk trying to stay warm in the winter. God tells me the way I should go. Am I listening? Am I following the directions? Am I ignoring one of the greatest gifts given to mankind? Please God, help me to listen and obey.

1 Thessalonians 1:8-9 (New Living Translation)

We don’t need to tell them about it, for they keep talking about the wonderful welcome you gave us and how you turned away from idols to serve the living and true God.

Paul and his fellow missionaries are writing to the Christians in Thessaloníki (I think that’s how to spell it). Paul tells these Christians what the other Christians in the region think of them and feel about them.

One of the things we often gloss over in this introduction to the letter is the Christians in that place had turned away from idols and turned to God. That is no small matter. They completely changed their lives. I never experienced this drastic a change. Most Christians in America have never experienced this drastic a change.

In their past, these Christians woke each morning and bowed to a statue. They believed the statue could alter the course of human events. They believed the statue could bring rain and bountiful crops and good business. Often, they statue would cause their political leader to be nice to them.

This was not superstition—wink, wink, wink while mumbling some words. This was a true belief in the power of a thing to do the unthinkable.

These people tossed those things into the trash and looked instead to God. They recognized that God had the power over creation. They recognized their right relationship with God and that the sacrifice of Jesus made them right with God.

That was a miraculous change in the lives of these people long ago in a place whose name I can’t spell. Let us ponder that one for a while. Thank you God for giving me examples of how You change lives.

Isaiah 30:22 (New Living Translation)

Then you will destroy all your silver idols
and your precious gold images.
You will throw them out like filthy rags,
saying to them, “Good riddance!”

God is talking to the people through the prophet Isaiah. The people have been disobedient. God, however, tells them that if they return to God, God will be there for them.

Repentance and return to God will cause the people to destroy their idols of silver and gold. All those precious metals will be like filthy rags. “Good riddance!” Finally, done with that junk. It was a complete waste of time and everything else. Why did we ever have those things sitting around?

Yes, why did we ever have those things sitting around collecting dust? That was all they did; collect dust. That’s how they became so filthy.

Many things of this world are just like that. Junk collecting dust until it is filthy. God gives us things to enjoy, and we righteously enjoy them in God’s will and God’s grace. Sometimes, however, well sometimes we fall in love with some of these things and just… We wake one morning wondering where we are and what we are doing.

Please God, help me to wake every morning looking to You. Help me to enjoy the things You give me without treasuring them beyond all reason.

Ecclesiastes 7:29 (New Living Translation)

But I did find this: God created people to be virtuous, but they have each turned to follow their own downward path.

The writer reminds us of a simple yet critical thing: God created us to be virtuous.

Well, that’s nice. What does that mean? And, so what?

The definitions of virtuous and virtue vary. They mostly have to due with high moral standards. That’s nice, and we have to note that moral standards vary from culture to culture. What is morally good in one culture can be bad in another. Universal standards across all the peoples of the earth? Well, maybe there are some.

Since, however, this note comes from a Hebrew in the Old Testament, we can look to the moral standards stated by God threw various highly esteemed persons to God’s people.

In relation to relations among persons, we have the basic things like: tell the truth, respect others’ property, respect others’ families, respect others’ lives, etc.

God created us to do these things. Pretty simple. Why can’t we do them? Well, we, uh, er, well, you know. We, just can’t seem to do them. Yet, God created us to live this way. Who am I to argue with the Creator? When you ask that question, I am stumped. Either I believe God created or I don’t.

Proverbs 22:29 (New Living Translation)

Do you see any truly competent workers?
They will serve kings
rather than working for ordinary people.

This section of Proverbs begins with, “Listen to the words of the wise; apply your heart to my instruction.”

Next are a series of “Don’t do this and don’t do that” as those things go against God’s will. Then we have verse 29 given above. Opposite of all the “Don’t do” things is “do be competent,” as competent workers will serve kings.

Well, that’s nice, but we don’t have kings in America and what’s the use of all that? No, we don’t have royalty in America, or do we. We do have lots of “powerful” people with lots of money and influence and all that.

Do I want to work for American royalty? Why not. They have influence. If I work there, I can have influence for God on those who influence others.

Perhaps this is naive. Really? The competent grass cutter guy influence the person who has enough money to not cut his own grass? Whether the royalty is in Washington D.C. or Tickfaw, La (a real place), they are influential.

Joseph, a convict out on a work program, influenced Pharaoh and saved millions of lives that begat billions of children through the centuries. Naive? Fairy tale? Or maybe that was the miraculous power of God working through someone who was despised by his own family and left to rot in a dungeon. Oh, perhaps that can repeat itself. Perhaps it does repeat itself daily.

Lord, help me to be a competent worker despite my circumstances.

2 Corinthians 10:3 (New Living Translation)

We are human, but we don’t wage war as humans do.

Paul writes to the Christians at Corinth long ago. In this short sentence, Paul states two simple and significant facts:

(1) We (followers of Jesus Christ) are human. This is great. We are created by God in the image of God. How good is that? It is very good. Then again, we have all the faults and weaknesses of the human flesh. Rats. I feel jealousy, pain, hatred… Must I continue the list of bad things that come with being human? I will stop for now.

(2) We (followers of Jesus Christ) are different. We act differently. In Paul’s example, we wage a war against sin and the powers of sin in a manner that is different from how other folks wage war. We seek God. We pray. We encourage one another. We keep one another close. Other followers keep me from wandering off into the ways of other humans.

Thank you God. Thank you for creating me in your image. Thank you for giving me everything as a human to enjoy what humans enjoy. Thank you for providing a way for me to live as a follower of Jesus Christ would live instead of a sinful life. Help me to always encourage fellow followers and be encouraged (and slapped a bit now and then) by fellow followers.

Exodus 16:4 (New Living Translation)

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Look, I’m going to rain down food from heaven for you. Each day the people can go out and pick up as much food as they need for that day. I will test them in this to see whether or not they will follow my instructions.

This is part of the (hi)story of manna: the food that God gave the people for 40 years while they were in “the wilderness” and would have otherwise dropped dead from hunger. Each day, the people would walk out of their tents and pick up as much food as they needed for the day. One day; one day’s food. A miraculous, life-saving gift every day.

What could be better than that? What could be simpler than that? What could possibly go wrong? Well, plenty could go wrong.

And this gift was a test. God wanted to see if the people could follow simple instructions. Let’s review the instructions, “Each day the people can go out and pick up as much food as they need for that day.”

Hmmm, let’s see… How complicated is that? I mean, if you can assemble a bicycle, you ought to be able to follow those instructions. Right? Wrong. Plenty of the people failed this test (See a later note on “tests.”).

What is wrong with us? God gives us some pretty simple things to do. Love one another. Simple enough, huh? Love God. Simple enough, huh? Why can’t we follow the instructions? Why is it that I have to figure and figure and figure out some way to do something I want that sort of violates the instructions and “voids the warranty?”

The good thing (the GREAT THING), the miraculous thing is God forgives me. The grace of God covers me when I violate the warranty. Thank you God.

Testing: yes, God used the gift as a test for the people. Note: God did this. God does not tell me, “Dwayne, put some tests out there in front of people to see if they live up to your standards and are worthy of coming to God.” It is not my place to “test” anyone else. But I should … nope. But I like to … nope. And nope to that other one as well. Love one another. Simple.

Psalm 61:2-3 (New Living Translation)

2 From the ends of the earth,
I cry to you for help
when my heart is overwhelmed.
Lead me to the towering rock of safety,
3 for you are my safe refuge,
a fortress where my enemies cannot reach me.

Many years ago, I would travel to far places. I would tell people, “It wasn’t the ‘last place on earth,’ but you could see the last place on earth from where I was.” I was at “the ends of the earth” mentioned in verse 2.

It was common that once or twice each month I would eat something that just wasn’t right. I would have twenty four hours of pain and misery until my body rid itself of the the bad stuff.

Pray. Yes, I would pray in moments of pain. At the ends of the earth, God was with me. I would pray. God would give me comfort of one type or another. God was my safe refuge.

Enough war stories from an old man whose memory is colored with too much nostalgia.

Pain? Yes, people all around me are in pain. Someone said something. Someone gave “a dirty look.” Someone ignored. Pain? Yes, insufferable pain brought on by daily enemies.

God is a fortress where my enemies cannot reach me.

Let us all take refuge in that fortress. Let us never forget that the fortress is there always.

Exodus 16:23-24 (New Living Translation)

23 He told them, “This is what the Lord commanded: Tomorrow will be a day of complete rest, a holy Sabbath day set apart for the Lord. So bake or boil as much as you want today, and set aside what is left for tomorrow.”

24 So they put some aside until morning, just as Moses had commanded. And in the morning the leftover food was wholesome and good, without maggots or odor.

Moses is passing along God’s instructions for the use of the manna. Manna was free food that simply appeared every morning in the wilderness. This is how God fed the people for 40 years.

Leftovers spoiled. If a person gathered too much manna and had leftovers for the next day, the leftovers would be inedible.

Leftovers didn’t spoil one day each week. The people were to gather double manna on the day before the Sabbath or the rest day. They would awaken on the Sabbath to leftovers that were really good. They didn’t even have to walk around and pick up food. It was right there.

Wait. Leftovers spoil six days a week, but are okay on the seventh day. Make sense? No, it didn’t make sense. It was a miracle.

Right there in front of everyone was a miracle on the seventh day of the week; a miracle every week. Wow!

Blah, blah, blah. So what? Same old thing every week for 40 years. So what?

Gosh. How did God tolerate these folks long ago? The miraculous power of God was right in front of them everyday and double every week. How could they act like we act today? Wait, is that right? Yes, we act the same way today.

Everyday the miracles of God are right in front of us. Blah, blah, blah. So what? So this is a big deal. Please God. Help me every morning to awaken with my eyes open to see your miracles and your blessings.