Contemplative Bible Reading

Psalm 119:97-99

97 Oh, how I love your instructions!
I think about them all day long.
98 Your commands make me wiser than my enemies,
for they are my constant guide.
99 Yes, I have more insight than my teachers,
for I am always thinking of your laws.

Way down into Psalm 119 we find this expression of thanks. God, thank you for teaching me.

I read the Bible. I have read it start to finish every year since 1988. Why? Because I am better than you? Because it is part of a plan to do something? Because … let’s list the reasons. No, no, and no.

I read the Bible because of the reasons given above. The Bible makes me smarter than my enemies.

And please paraphrase the old cartoon about, “We have met the enemy and it is ME.”

The Bible makes me smarter than ME. I do far fewer stupid things when I read the Bible than when I don’t.

Ha! You might say. You still see me doing plenty of stupid things. Well, that is true, but ask yourself, “How stupid would Dwayne act if he didn’t read the Bible?”

Let’s not go to that place. Let’s try to stay with the results of reading the Bible. Thank you God for making the Bible available to me and most of mankind. Let’s note that there are more people on earth today who can read and have access to a Bible in their own language than ever before in the history of history.

Praise God. Just imagine how bad things would be otherwise.

Genesis 50:20 (New Living Translation)

You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good. He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people.

This is part of the (hi)story of Joseph and his brothers. The brothers planned to kill Joseph and lie to their father about it (Murderers and liars, and you thought your siblings were mean to you as a kid?). Instead, “all they did was just” sell their brother to some passing merchants who would use and abuse him for the rest of his life. Again, your siblings were mean to you? Ha!

Anyways, years later, Joseph confronts his brothers. Joseph had the power to snap his finger and the brothers would all be executed—a just outcome for their treachery. And note that in many places in the Bible that is what happened. Kings snapped their finger and many others were executed.

Instead, Joseph tells his brothers what we read in the verse above. “You intended evil, God intended good.”

And guess which came to pass? The intentions of man or the intentions of God? Well, duh, God ruled. God overruled man. Nothing new to see here. Keep moving.

Well, let’s pause a moment and observe the obvious. God’s intentions always come to pass. God’s intentions may not agree with my schedule. I doubt Joseph was thrilled with God’s ways during 13 years in a filthy Egyptian prison. Nevertheless, God’s intentions come to pass.

Rats! Why can’t God abide by my schedule? Probably because my schedule is short-sighted and wrong. Just like the intentions of Joseph’s brothers were short-sighted and wrong.

God, grant me patience and humility to accept Your intentions and Your schedule.

Psalm 69:5-7 (New Living Translation)

5 O God, you know how foolish I am;
my sins cannot be hidden from you.
6 Don’t let those who trust in you be ashamed because of me,
O Sovereign Lord of Heaven’s Armies.
Don’t let me cause them to be humiliated,
O God of Israel.

The writer bemoans his foolishness. The writer is sinful and no matter how good he acts, those sins are plain to God.

The prayer of this sinner is one of shame. Those around the sinner knows that he proclaims God but still fails daily. Please God, he asks, don’t like this say-one-thing-but-do-another life cause others to scoff at the belief in God.

People see me. They see what I try to be and they see what I really am. Do they shrug and say, “Told you. That Christianity stuff is phony. Just a bunch of liars, cheats, and con artists who want something from you.”

Still, the writer has good in mind. The writer knows that his actions can do the opposite of what he desires. He still looks to God and asks that he be better.

I guess that is a pretty good thing for me to do each day. Look to God and ask for help. I can’t do this by myself. I need God’s help. That help can come in many forms. It can be a smile of encouragement or the helping touch of a hot cup of coffee in cold arthritic hands. The blessings from God cannot be counted and are often not recognized. Still, they are here. Thanks be to God.

Genesis 45:3 (Christian Standard Bible)

Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph! Is my father still living?” But they could not answer him because they were terrified in his presence.

This is part of the (hi)story of Joseph and his brothers. After many years and twists and turns, Joseph is a ruler in Egypt and his brothers come trying to buy food so their families will not die.

These brothers plotted to kill Joseph. Instead, they sold him. Joseph did well and rose in position, but then went to prison. Joseph then left prison and rose in power in Egypt.

Now Joseph reveals himself to his miserable brothers.

They are doomed. Trapped in a foreign land, they learn they are the mortal enemies of an all-powerful person. Surely a terrible death awaits them. They cannot speak. They are terrified.

Being terrified is mentioned many times in the Bible. It is a feeling of overwhelming fear. There is no escape. The cavalry won’t come over the hill; the rescue party won’t arrive in the nick of time. It is over.

Being saved is mentioned many more times in the Bible. Hopelessness becomes hope. Lost becomes found. Death becomes life. This goes on and on.

This is the good news from God. We aren’t speechless and terrified. We are alive. Oh God, help me to live daily as if I truly understand and appreciate this.

Genesis 22:8 (New Living Translation)

8 “God will provide a sheep for the burnt offering, my son,” Abraham answered. And they both walked on together.

This is part of the (hi)story of Abraham and his son Isaac. God told Abraham to take Isaac up the hill and sacrifice him. This is a crazy story with many twists, turns, and lessons.

One of the major lessons is that Abraham and Isaac are on this mission from God—they are doing something God told them to do. Abraham and Isaac do not have what they need to complete the mission.

Let’s pause at that point: God says, “Go do this.” I don’t have what I need to do this. Still, God says, “Go do this.”

Uh, er, God, wait a minute here. Uh, I need a while to gather resources. You know, lots of things that are necessary for this.

No. God says, “Go do this.” I need to start on this. But how will… God will provide.

This makes no sense. I mean, a miracle would have to happen… Oh, this is God. God deals in miracles all the time. And God will provide the miracles needed for me to, “Go do this.”

It is my job to take the first step just like Abraham and Isaac took the first step. God provided a miracle or fifty along their path. God will do the same for me.

1 John 3:7-8 (New Living Translation)

7 Dear children, don’t let anyone deceive you about this: When people do what is right, it shows that they are righteous, even as Christ is righteous. 8 But when people keep on sinning, it shows that they belong to the devil, who has been sinning since the beginning. But the Son of God came to destroy the works of the devil.

This is all pretty simple. To be righteous, do what is right in the eyes of God. To be wrong, do what is right in the eyes of the devil.

I’ve always thought of this as two paths. Walk on one path that follows God. I stumble and fall behind some days. I run ahead joyfully on other days. I, however, am on God’s path. Walk on the other path that follows the devil or Satan.

Choose.

This is all pretty simple. But, but, but… Nope. No ifs, ands, buts, nevertheless, however, in as much, or all of those things. God made us smart. We can think of arguments and try to wiggle our way back and forth and straddle the two paths set before us. Sorry. It doesn’t work that way.

This is all pretty simple. Let’s not try to wiggle and waggle and all that stuff.

Exodus 25:8 (New Living Translation)

Have the people of Israel build me a holy sanctuary so I can live among them.

God is speaking to the people of Israel through Moses. God wanted the people to build a special place—a holy sanctuary. That place had requirements of entry of special people who had special jobs and entered on special occasions. The following text lists all those special things.

Then we come to the question, “Why should the people build a holy sanctuary?”

Simple, so God could live among the people.

Note, this is a time after the people had escaped slavery in Egypt. They were on a journey that would last two generations. This was neither a nice place nor a nice circumstance. Still, God wanted to live among God’s people.

Let’s run that one by one more time: God wants to live with God’s people.

Little poor pathetic me? God wants to live with me? That makes no sense. We all have a special place in the heart of the Creator God. Of all the magnificence of God’s creation, God wants to be with me and us.

Please God, help me to live worthily of this special place. Give me the humility to try.

2 Corinthians 10:4 (New Living Translation)

4 We use God’s mighty weapons, not worldly weapons, to knock down the strongholds of human reasoning and to destroy false arguments.

The writer is telling the readers in Corinth about some of the ways that God has made Christians different (if we accept that). Once different, we destroy false arguments using God’s mighty weapons. We don’t use the human weapons of rhetoric and logic and all that stuff some people study at great length.

We pray. We love. We embrace. Wait, are those weapons? If you want to think of them as weapons, go ahead. They are some of the tools God gives us by God’s power. The world cannot withstand those things. Think not? Look around. Those who followed that poor carpenter’s kid from nowhere Nazareth are still here. There is no earthly reason why that should be the case, but it is.

Hmmm, maybe if we think of it that way. One of the necessary things for me is to accept that God has made me different. I need to act like God made me different. I need to claim God’s promises and live them. Some days I’d rather just throw rocks through a window and spray paint a car. Wrong. Pray, love, embrace, and so on. The tools are there in front of me.

1 Chronicles 21:30 (New Living Translation)

30 But David was not able to go there to inquire of God, because he was terrified by the drawn sword of the angel of the Lord.

This is the conclusion of the (hi)story of God sending an angel to destroy Jerusalem as punishment for one of David’s sins. 70,000 people had died suddenly from a plague. Stop and consider that one. 70,000 people dead. What do you do with the dead bodies? How do the cries of anguish of the families sound?

The angel had descended upon Jerusalem to destroy the city. David met the angel of the Lord at a famous spot in the city. David was terrified by the sight of the angel.

Consider David. He was a warrior. He killed and killed and killed other warriors in brutal hand-to-hand combat. That was gruesome and horrific. I cannot imagine what David had experienced. I cannot imagine messin’ with David. He could be a terrifying person himself.

Yet, David was terrified by the sight of the angel.

The angel of God was more horrific than anything David had lived on the field of battle. If David was terrified, I would melt to a puddle of goo at the sight of the angel of God.

Yes, we read of angels encouraging and blessing people. Still, angels can be terrifying.

1 Thessalonians 3:12 (New Living Translation)

12 And may the Lord make your love for one another and for all people grow and overflow, just as our love for you overflows.

The writer to this church is sending a written prayer. The writer prays that everyone in this distant church loves one another more each day. Two things here I can do everyday:

1. Pray that each person I meet loves others more each day.
2. Love everyone I meet more each day.

As I consider these two things, there is no thing and no person with the power to stop me from doing either of these. It is up to me alone. Gosh. No excuses. Don’t ya’ just hate it when you don’t have any available excuses?

Don’t ya’ just love it when you discover that God asks us to do things that we can all do? God isn’t asking me to literally move a mountain or part an ocean. God only asks that I love others and pray that others love others. And when I fail, God tells me, “Try again tomorrow. I am still here for you.”

Thanks be to God for grace, mercy, and unending love.