Contemplative Bible Reading

Matthew 8:34 (New Living Translation)

34 Then the entire town came out to meet Jesus, but they begged him to go away and leave them alone.

This is part of the (hi)story of Jesus’ miracle of sending demons into a herd of pigs and then having the pigs crash into the lake to die. In addition, demon-possessed and crazy men become … well, like normal people again. This was indeed a miracle.

The reaction? The witnesses begged Jesus to go away and leave them alone. Huh? This is a miracle. Nothing can explain what had happened other than Jesus was from God and empowered by God. Surely the people would cling to this person from God.

Nope. Go away and leave us alone.

What is wrong with these people? They were people, just like the people in the coffee shop with me this morning. Power often brings fear. Good grief, this stranger wandering through town could do things that had no explanation. If he could make crazy men normal, he could make normal men crazy, right? Right.

Better safe than sorry. Get out.

Well, it takes some faith. It takes a bit of, “I don’t see this working out for me but, perhaps it will so, I will hang in here a few days to see.” Sometimes that is what it takes to overcome fear. It takes an invitation to hang in here for a few days to see. Sometimes that is what it takes to come to Jesus. Let’s give the doubters in our lives those few days.

1 Samuel 15:22-23 (New Living Translation)

22 But Samuel replied, “What is more pleasing to the Lord: your burnt offerings and sacrifices, or your obedience to his voice? Listen! Obedience is better than sacrifice, and submission is better than offering the fat of rams. 23 Rebellion is as sinful as witchcraft, and stubbornness as bad as worshiping idols. So because you have rejected the command of the Lord, he has rejected you as king.”

God is speaking to the people through the prophet Samuel. There is much in these sentences. Note the phrase, “stubbornness as bad as worshiping idols.”

Uh, perhaps there is a mistake in translation or something. Being stubborn is as bad as worshiping idols? Uh, well, there it is in black and white.

Let’s try this way of reading it. The people had a form of worship (burnt offerings and sacrifices) without true obedience and devotion. Obedience and submission were desired. The opposite cases were rebellion and stubbornness. The stubborn person offered the dead animals without anything in the heart.

The act of slaughtering animals had become an idol. The person worshiped the ceremony instead of worshiping God. This is sort of like, “I will bring home my paycheck, pay for the house, the food, the clothing, the orthodontist, and the travel soccer coach, but I won’t love my wife.” Or something like that. I will worship the duty and not love my wife.

The second way of looking at this makes some sense. Let’s not, however, disregard the first. Being stubborn is also a way of worshiping ME (I always do it my way) instead of worshiping God.

Exodus 23:33 (New Living Translation)

33 They must not live in your land, or they will cause you to sin against me. If you serve their gods, you will be trapped by the contemptible customs of their worship.

God is speaking to the people. When the people enter the land promised to them by God, they are to drive out the inhabitants. Don’t live with these people. These people have gods and idols to those gods. It is tempting, too tempting, to serve the gods of these people. If you serve those gods, bang, snap, crunch, trapped.

We are so advanced and educated now. We look at little groups of people here and there in the far flung corners of our planet. These folks have their superstitions where they fear what lurks beneath the waters and up in the mountains. How silly. We would never worship the gods of the mountain or of the river. Silly notions.

But, wait a minute, the women of the group sure look nice. And so what if I wear a bracelet that those women make and do a little of this and that? Surely, it is innocent or something. And before I know it.

Fanciful words from old movies. Again, we are in the 21st century. The above verse is 3,000 years old or something like that. Right?

Maybe not.

Exodus 14:16 (New Living Translation)

16 Pick up your staff and raise it over the sea. Divide the water so the Israelites can walk through the middle of the sea on dry ground.

This is part of the (hi)story of Moses leading the people out of Egypt on a 40-year journey to the land promised by God. I learned this as a child. The sea parted, the people walked through with walls of water on either side, and it all worked out just fine.

Try to back away from all those lessons in childhood. Read the words here: Divide the water so the Israelites can walk through the middle of the sea on dry ground.

Whoa. Are you kidding? Hold raise your walking stick up and point it a the big lake. The water will divide and the murky lake bottom will be so dry and solid that a million people can walk across it. And then this all happened just like that!

Whoa. Are you kidding? Just like that? Yes, just like that.

Sometimes we do ourselves a disservice by learning things as children instead of learning them as adults. Sometimes all these movies with all these gee whiz computer video things warp our brains into believing that the miraculous is just ordinary old stuff.

This was a miracle lived by a million people. And it was a miracle that destroyed an armored column of Egypt’s finest soldiers. There is no physical explanation. This was a miracle of a God who performs miracles. I cannot fathom the power of God.

Please God, let me never take your abilities for granted. Let me always be awe struck at the thought of you.

Obadiah 1:15-16 (NLT)

1:15 “The day is near when I, the Lord, will judge all godless nations! As you have done to Israel, so it will be done to you. All your evil deeds will fall back on your own heads. 16 Just as you swallowed up my people on my holy mountain, so you and the surrounding nations will swallow the punishment I pour out. Yes, you will drink and stagger and disappear from history.

God is speaking to the people of Edom through the prophet Obadiah. The people of Edom crushed the people of Israel. They crushed them too much and enjoyed the killing too much. Edom will be punished.

The punishment of Edom will be such that it will disappear from history.

Ever visit Edom? Did you see Edom in the recent Olympics? Will Edom be in the coming World Cup of football? E-who?

Israel exists. Many folks hate the nation of Israel and want to crush it. Nevertheless, Israel exists. Hmm. Perhaps that fella’ Obadiah knew something. Perhaps he repeated the words God told him and, well, there you have it. It is written in some dusty old scroll or whatever they wrote words on. Those words and ink and paper or whatever survived a few thousand years and here we are. What was written has happened.

The world is complicated and complex and all sorts of things that make it all difficult to understand. I get a headache on those occasions when I try to figure it out. How could all this happen? How could those writings survive? How could what was written come to pass? As I said, I get a headache when I think about it.

Please God, help me in my unbelief.

Exodus 1:11-12 (New Living Translation)

11 So the Egyptians made the Israelites their slaves. They appointed brutal slave drivers over them, hoping to wear them down with crushing labor. They forced them to build the cities of Pithom and Rameses as supply centers for the king. 12 But the more the Egyptians oppressed them, the more the Israelites multiplied and spread, until the Egyptians began to live in dread of them.

The time of Joseph the ruler of Egypt is gone. Folks have forgotten Joseph and the famine and all those things. That’s something that we people do—forget. The Israelites or descendants of Jacob have prospered, had lots of babies, and grown as a large minority in Egypt. What do you do with such a growing minority? Well, you want them to diminish. And the Egyptians do what people often do.

Choose a course that accomplishes the opposition of what you want.

Huh? Yes. We often do this. We want an outcome. We look at the options. We choose one that accomplishes the opposite of the desired outcome. This is especially true when God is blessing a group of people we want to crush.

The Egyptian plan worked the opposite of the desired so well that the Egyptians came to live in dread of the Israelites.

If you work against God, you’re gonna’ fail. If you use the best human expert advice, you’re gonna’ fail. Perhaps one day we will learn. Perhaps not.

Haggai 1:14 (New Living Translation)

1:14 So the Lord sparked the enthusiasm of Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the enthusiasm of Jeshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the enthusiasm of the whole remnant of the people. They began to work on the house of their God, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.

This is part of the (hi)story when the people were attempting to restore the Temple in Jerusalem. The building had been neglected. It basically became a warehouse of stuff.

This was a difficult task. It was possible, but difficult. Just work hard and get ‘er done. What was needed was some motivation and desire, i.e., some wanta’.

God sparked the enthusiasm of the leaders and the whole remnant of the people. They began to work.

In human history, we see people accomplishing amazing things. We also see more examples of people just sitting on the porch and saying, “Oh woe is me.” The difference is motivation, desire, some wanta’.

We read in black and white that sometimes, in some places, in some situations, God sparks the enthusiasm. God provides the motivation and desire. I am not writing that all great achievements of man come from the spark of God. I am writing that some great achievements of man come from the spark of God. Sometimes, we have the faith in what we are doing. We believe that God wants us to do something. We are sparked. We allow ourselves to be used by God.

Please God, spark me this and every day.

Genesis 47:22 (New Living Translation)

47:22 The only land he did not buy was the land belonging to the priests. They received a regular allotment of food from Pharaoh, so they did not need to sell their land to buy food.

This is part of the (hi)story of the seven-year famine in Egypt and how Pharaoh had Joseph administer the distribution of food. During a part of the famine, Joseph bought the land of the Egyptians with a food-for-land exchange. Exempt from this were the Egyptian priests.

Note, Egypt had priests. These were people who conversed with the Egyptian gods for the Egyptian people. Yes, the Egyptians were religious people. They believed in the supernatural, i.e., things that could not be explained by the natural sciences. And remember, the Egyptians built the pyramids and conducted all sorts of impressive civil engineering projects. They were experts in the natural sciences.

The Egyptians were educated, accomplished, and were not a bunch of superstitious folks bumping into the walls.

They were, however, practicing idolatry. They worshiped the sun, the moon, the stars, the river, the desert, etc. They had priests to converse with all these gods or idols. They were held in high esteem, and that is shown in the verse above in how they owned land, received a regular allotment of food from Pharaoh, and were not involved in the food-for-land exchange.

Still, they worshiped the wrong things. They did not worship Jehovah, the one true God who created everything. Pharaoh told Moses he did not know Jehovah. I suspect that some of the Egyptian priests had heard of Jehovah. Still, religious does not equal belief in God.

There are people today who follow the practices of the Egyptians. They believe in the supernatural, but not in the one true God. There are inroads to reaching these religious people. Please God, help me to find these people and point them to You.

Numbers 10:13-16 (New Living Translation)

13 When the people set out for the first time, following the instructions the Lord had given through Moses, 14 Judah’s troops led the way. They marched behind their banner, and their leader was Nahshon son of Amminadab. 15 They were joined by the troops of the tribe of Issachar, led by Nethanel son of Zuar, 16 and the troops of the tribe of Zebulun, led by Eliab son of Helon.

This is part of the (hi)story of the people traveling from Egypt to the land promised them by God. There were about a million people (maybe two million) in a camp. They would break camp and “set out” on their journey. Pack up all the stuff and walk. Mundane life.

Note who walked first: troops or soldiers or men armed for a fight.

This wasn’t just a walk through no man’s land. There were people in the areas surrounding the trail. Some of these people didn’t like visitors. Some of these people liked visitors as a source of poll tax. Some of these people liked visitors as the visitors were weakened by travel and could be killed and robbed, i.e., easy pick-ens.

This walk required armed protection. Who trained this army? Who armed this army? Who was in this army? This was a bunch of former brick layers, farmers, and herders turned into walkers. Army? Where?

Faith provided the army. Fear provided the army. Love provided the army. Those troops in the front protected their wives and children who walked behind. This was actual sacrifice for your family. This was not a picnic or a family hike.

And sometimes I worry if I have saved enough money to provide for my kids and grand kids. These guys were willing to be stabbed to death and lie dead in the desert.

Thank you God that I have such an easy and blessed life.

Genesis 43:18 (New Living Translation)

The brothers were terrified when they saw that they were being taken into Joseph’s house. ‘It’s because of the money we found in our sacks last time,’ they said. ‘He plans to pretend that we stole it. Then he will seize us, make us slaves, and take our donkeys.’

This is part of the long (hi)story of Joseph and his brothers. The brothers sold Joseph into slavery and prison. Through many hardships and years of struggle, Joseph becomes a ruler in Egypt with the power of life and death. The brothers no nothing of that rise to power.

Joseph sets up his brothers for a big fall. The evidence shows that they stole from the government of Egypt. They are in big trouble. The brothers realize their situation and lament about being taken as slaves to toil under cruel masters for the rest of their lives.

And they will also lose their donkeys.

Huh? What? Faced with the end of the lives, they lament the loss of their donkeys.

Huh? What? Donkeys? Of all the things to contemplate, they think of their donkeys? Isn’t that like us, like me? There are major problems on the horizon, and I am concerned about spilling a little of my coffee and not getting every penny’s worth of it this morning. Really?

There are big things in life and there are things that are not so big. Why is it that I open my mouth and mention those little things that mean nothing? What do other people think of me when I mention that I will lose my donkeys?

There are many question marks in the above. Answers are lacking. I guess that’s part of my life as a believer trying to be closer to God. Stop asking questions and start doing what is righteous. Donkeys? They are worth something, but they are not worth much compared to cruelty to me and my brothers. Please God, help me to see the big things as big and the rest as donkeys.