Contemplative Bible Reading

1 Samuel 16:14 (New Living Translation)

14 Now the Spirit of the Lord had left Saul, and the Lord sent a tormenting spirit that filled him with depression and fear.

Here is the moment when King Saul’s life led to God favoring David instead. This is a horrible tragedy in the life of King Saul.

First, the Spirit of the LORD leaves Saul. Horrible. What a cavity that leaves in a person.

Second, the LORD sends a tormenting spirit in to Saul. Many translations use the words “evil spirit” in this place. I like “tormenting spirit” as that tells me the result of this spirit. Saul is tormented day and night. How awful.

This spirit fills Saul with depression and fear. Let us not extend this too far. I know persons today who are diagnosed with depression. They are not happy. Are they tormented by a spirit sent from God? I don’t know, but I should not assume they are.

Let us return to Saul. His life is miserable from this moment forward. His life ends on the battlefield as he literally falls on his own sword. Helpless. Hopeless. Tormented.

And this came from God. God torments persons? Why? This is life when we turn away from God—when we reject God. Instead of God living in us, we have a void, a cavity or canyon in our center. I don’t understand how all that works. I see that it is horrible. I see it in persons around me.

Please God, allow each person to permit Your spirit into their lives. Keep us from the torment suffered by Saul.

Genesis 18:13-15 (New Living Translation)

13 Then the Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh? Why did she say, ‘Can an old woman like me have a baby?’ 14 Is anything too hard for the Lord? I will return about this time next year, and Sarah will have a son.”

15 Sarah was afraid, so she denied it, saying, “I didn’t laugh.”

But the Lord said, “No, you did laugh.”

God is chatting with Abraham and his wife Sarah. Let that sink in for a moment before reading further.

Abraham and Sarah are old—90+ years old. God tells them that Sarah will have a baby this year. Understandably, Sarah laughs or scoffs at this idea.

God asks, “Why did Sarah laugh? Why did Sarah doubt the power of God to produce a baby?”

Sarah denies her understandable, perfectly reasonably laugh. I mean, how many times have you seen a 90-year-old woman have a baby? Well, they are talking to God, and we know what God can do or at least we think we can imagine what God can do.

Now we go back to consider this. Abraham and Sarah are chatting with God. They are talking directly to God. Really? How often does that happen? And Sarah thinks she can hide her laugh from God. Hide her laugh from God? Really? Where did she get that idea? Her reaction to God’s promise is reasonable. Her reaction to God’s knowledge of her laugh is just plain silly. She flips from reason to silliness in a second.

Sigh. We can shake our heads at Sarah. How could she possibly think she can hide her laugh from God? God knows all. Especially here where God is right in front of them.

And yet, I think I can limit what God knows about me. I think God only knows what I tell God directly. How silly is that? How foolish is that? I can tell God, “I didn’t laugh. I didn’t do that or this or some other thing.”

Oh foolish me. Please God, help me in my unbelief.

Psalm 24:3-6 (New Living Translation)

3 Who may climb the mountain of the Lord?
Who may stand in his holy place?
4 Only those whose hands and hearts are pure,
who do not worship idols
and never tell lies.
5 They will receive the Lord’s blessing
and have a right relationship with God their savior.
6 Such people may seek you
and worship in your presence, O God of Jacob.

There are many things in this section of a Psalm. Who may stand in the presence of God in His holy place? Those with

1. pure hands and hearts,
2. who do not worship idols, and
3. who never tell lies.

Okay…well, wait. How did number 3. get in the list? Okay, I don’t lie. Well, I guess we have to decide what counts as a lie. I mean I don’t tell everyone everything. That would take a lot of time, so I kind of combine events and people and all to make the point and… That’s just exaggerating or “fibbing” or something, right?

Sigh. “Never tell lies.” I guess that is pretty clear. I don’t need to fiddle around here and find ways to make it into something complicated and nuanced or whatever.

Simply tell the truth. Okay, I can summarize things and ask the other person if they want me to go into all the details. Let’s be honest. Let’s be clear. Let’s keep our hearts pure and live in the presence of God.

Job 17:3 (New Living Translation)

You must defend my innocence, O God,
since no one else will stand up for me.

Job is speaking to his friends. He is literally sick and tired of it all. He is frustrated, but what he says is often correct.

“Please God,” cries Job. “God alone cares for those who follow God. Please take care of me.”

When it all boils down to nothing but what is left at the bottom of the pan when all the water boils away, God is the source of all I have. I look to God, not to myself or my friends and family. I look to God. Please God, defend me. Please God, help me. Please God, help me to understand that you are here with me. I am not alone. Everything may be bad, but I can lean on you for whatever it is I need. And what I need may be just one more breath or just one more beat of my heart. Then we move on to something else.

That wasn’t easy for Job to say in his circumstances. That isn’t easy for each of us to say in our circumstances here and there, now and then. Still, it is true. Still, we pray that God gives us the wherewithal to call on God when we struggle with life and our own unbelief.

Job 1:18-19 (New Living Translation)

18 While he was still speaking, another messenger arrived with this news: “Your sons and daughters were feasting in their oldest brother’s home. 19 Suddenly, a powerful wind swept in from the wilderness and hit the house on all sides. The house collapsed, and all your children are dead. I am the only one who escaped to tell you.”

This is from early in the (hi)story of Job. Satan is taking away all the wonderful things God gave to Job—with God’s permission. One calamity after another occurs. Here, a messenger arrives and tells Job how all his children are killed in a wind storm.

The wind hit the house on all sides and it collapsed on Job’s children.

Consider the quickly rising waters of the tidal surge in a hurricane. There is no water in the house, but water is pressing against all sides from the outside. It appears that the house implodes from the force of a vacuum, but it is merely crushed by the weight of water on all sides.

The same thing happened here from the wind storm. But how does wind hit a house from all sides all at once? How do we have storm winds from the north, south, east, and west all at the same time? That doesn’t happen. That was a dastardly miracle—a supernatural act performed by Satan.

Let us dislike Satan. Let us also fear Satan.

I don’t like this lesson—Satan has supernatural powers. Satan can do things that go beyond the physical laws of nature. Let us understand and fear that. In our post-post-post modern world, let us acknowledge that there are things we cannot explain with the physical laws of nature. Miracles from God bless us. Supernatural acts by Satan curse us.

Ephesians 1:18 (New Living Translation)

I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the confident hope he has given to those he called—his holy people who are his rich and glorious inheritance.

Paul is writing a letter to Christians in Ephesus. Paul describes his prayers for those Christians.

• Turn on the lights! (the really bright LED lights that are so bright you can’t look at them)
• Enlighten the hearts
• Bring understanding (not how Paul always seems to tie feeling of the heart with understanding of the brain)

God has given the believers a confident hope. Hoping is different from wishing. I wish for tasty banana splits that have zero calories. I won’t ever get those. I hope for warm weather in June. I have an expectation of that. Hope means a desire with an expectation.

God gives us a confident hope. We want to know God. We hope to know God. God tells us that, “Yes, you will know me.”

There are few “ifs,” “ands,” or “buts.” Seek God. We will know Him. What a great promise.

2 Kings 22:11 (New Living Translation)

11 When the king (Josiah) heard what was written in the Book of the Law, he tore his clothes in despair.

By accident, Hilkiah the high priest had found a copy of the Book of the Law—the law that God had given to the people. They brought a copy of the law to King Josiah and read it to him.

Josiah was so surprised and ashamed that he tore his clothes. I can hear him screaming in anguish, “But no one told me that this is what God wanted us to do!”

It had been so long since anyone had read the law. It had been so long since anyone had followed the law. It had been so long… Can you imagine a point in the future when people forget Christmas? When people forget that people used to do something different on Christmas?

There are other (hi)stories of other kings when someone found a copy of the law and read it to the king. Those other kings burned the copies so that no one would know how godless they had become. Not this king. This king went the other way.

Sometimes we need a reminder. Sometimes we need someone to bump into us and let us know that we should love that person across the coffee shop even though their kid just spilled and yelled and upset my morning. The floor can be cleaned and so can the clothes. No one needs to despair as Josiah did. We are all under the grace of God. Some of us haven’t accepted it, yet. Some of us haven’t been told about it, yet. Nevertheless, it is there waiting for us.

1 Kings 18:46 (New Living Translation)

46 Then the Lord gave special strength to Elijah. He tucked his cloak into his belt and ran ahead of Ahab’s chariot all the way to the entrance of Jezreel.

Simple statement. The writer wants us to know that the prophet Elijah was able to reach Jezreel before Ahab did. Okay, but notice how. Jezreel was riding in a horse-drawn chariot. This wasn’t a horse-drawn Conestoga wagon that lumbered along at a walking pace. This was a fast vehicle that moved at a galloping-horse pace.

Old Elijah sprinted a distance faster than horses could gallop. Nonsense. Cannot happen. Yet, it did. How? God gave Elijah “special strength.” Elijah set a world record of some sort. This was a miracle.

Okay, a miracle performed 3,000 years ago one time with one prophet. That’s the kind of thing we expect with prophets in 3,000-year-old stories. Nothing like that happens today. Really? How do I know that?

Sometimes we read of adrenaline hitting someone in a moment of crisis as they lift a car off a child or burst through a wall into a burning building to save others. Adrenaline. That’s it. That’s what hit old Elijah. Adrenaline explains all these things. Isn’t it great that we understand these things? Why, we can eliminate the possibility of God working with us today like with Elijah. Right?

Wrong. At least I believe it is wrong. I believe that God still puts special strength in some people at some times in some situations. Sometimes it is a flash of brilliance in the mind. Sometimes it is inexplicable physical strength. Sometimes it is a flood of empathy in a heart that allows someone to offer a tender touch and a hug.

Oh, a hug to someone who doesn’t deserve but needs one? Yes, special strength from God.

Exodus 14:26 (New Living Translation)

26 He said, “If you will listen carefully to the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in his sight, obeying his commands and keeping all his decrees, then I will not make you suffer any of the diseases I sent on the Egyptians; for I am the Lord who heals you.”

This is part of the (hi)story of God’s people leaving Egypt and taking the long route to the land promised to them. Just a few days out of Egypt, they come to an oasis that has water, but the water is not good.

God helps Moses perform a miracle and make the water good for drinking. After this demonstration of God’s power, the word of God comes to the people in the above verse.

Listen to God and do what is right in God’s sight and you will have health.

Don’t listen to God and don’t do what is right in God’s eyes and you will suffer all the diseases that the Egyptians had recently suffered.

Hmmm, let’s think about this choice for a moment. Suffer all the diseases or be healthy. Of course everyone chooses health, right? Wrong. There are always some people—there are always some days in my life—where folks (where I) choose the other way and suffer.

What is wrong with us? Why do we choose the answer that is obviously wrong? Do we not take seriously the words of God? Do we “want to make our own mistakes?” (I never understood that path.) Do we simply love disease and the sympathy that others show us when we are ill?

I suppose there are many explanations. I suppose there are many excuses. Please God, help me in my unbelief. Help us all to believe and walk in the ways that are right in Your sight. Let us accept Your blessings.

1 Samuel 26:12 (New Living Translation)

12 So David took the spear and jug of water that were near Saul’s head. Then he and Abishai got away without anyone seeing them or even waking up, because the Lord had put Saul’s men into a deep sleep.

This is part of the (hi)story of David on the run from King Saul. In this episode, David and Abishai sneak into and out of King Saul’s camp. They proceed unnoticed because God had put Saul’s men into a deep sleep.

Notice several things here: some people sleep well on some nights because God helped them to do so. Tired? Need rest? Feel restless? Know someone else in that situation? Pray. Ask God for a deep sleep. God has the power to bring it. Too simple? Nothing is too simple for God—especially when it is needed.

Also note that God uses something so simple and so common to change world events. God caused soldiers to sleep so that David could walk through their camp and change history. Everyone sleeps (well, the great majority of us do almost) every day. It is common and basic. Yet God influences it when God wants.

And let’s extend this. If God uses something so common as sleep to change the world, God can also use other common, everyday, simple things to change the world. Things such as a cup of coffee, a piece of toast, a biscuit, a shoelace that is untied, a broken chair, an unmade bed, a dirty windshield, etc. How long a list can we make of common, everyday, simple things that can cause us to change our course and affect the lives of many persons?

Pray. God, use this or that or whatever it is to cause me to love others more and to do the things You want me to do.