Contemplative Bible Reading

Leviticus 16:17 (New Living Translation)

17 No one else is allowed inside the Tabernacle when Aaron enters it for the purification ceremony in the Most Holy Place. No one may enter until he comes out again after purifying himself, his family, and all the congregation of Israel, making them right with the Lord.

The words “purify” and “made right with God” appear half a dozen times in various forms in this chapter. The words describe animal sacrifices conducted by Priests at the Tabernacle.

These things can become complicated with lengthy descriptions of “do this exactly this way and do that exactly that way.” Things were messy—they brought in animals and slaughtered them. There was blood everywhere. It was something that we just don’t do and can’t really imagine.

And these horrible messy things purified people and made them right with God (for a while at least).

God sent the Son to earth to live with us sinners and be executed by sinners. There was blood everywhere. That was horrible and messy and worse than I can imagine. That happened one time and settled everything for all times. That purified us and made us right with God.

Me? I only need to accept it. Then I can live without all the filth that we have when we are not pure and right with God. No fun? That depends on the perspective. Is impurity fun? That depends on the perspective. Is being wrong with God no fun? I think it is. Let’s be right with God.

Titus 3:2 (English Standard Version)

3 For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another.

Yuck. What life. Hated by others and hating one another.

I sometimes ask young adults to experiment with something: For the next week, hate everyone you see. Look at them and hate them as hard as you can hate. Come back and report how your life was.

No one has yet to perform the experiment. Yet, many of us have lived this experiment for a day or a minute or a second. Yuck. What a life. This is a horrible, terrible, tragic life.

Nevertheless, Paul tells Titus that Paul once lived this way. It was foolish and he was a slave to passions passing his days in malice and envy. Remember, Paul used to hunt for people who believed that Jesus of Nazareth was the Son of God. Paul tracked them down and killed them. He was passionate about this pursuit of deadly execution. Gosh, that must have been a horrible life.

Paul goes on here with one of the biggest “BUTs” in the history of writing:

But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us…

Oh my. How can we ever thank God for that? We don’t have to live like that anymore. We don’t have to hate and be hated. We are freed from that slavery. Please God, help me in my unbelief.

Joshua 2:23-24 (New Living Translation)

23 Then the two spies came down from the hill country, crossed the Jordan River, and reported to Joshua all that had happened to them. 24 “The Lord has given us the whole land,” they said, “for all the people in the land are terrified of us.”

The spies return. They report, “We have the logistics, the technology, and the manpower, the land is ours.”

Uh, er, well, no, that’s not what they said. Instead, “all the people in the land are terrified of us.”

Consider the events prior to that statement. Twelve men wandered around the land gathering fruit. Well, not so terrifying. Why were the people terrified? Because God caused them to be.

Whoa. God put terror in the minds of hundreds of thousands of people. That’s pretty powerful, huh?

I write this post today on the third day of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Do you have some time to pray today? How about this one, “God, please put peace and tranquility in the minds of the soldiers on both sides. Fill them with compassion.”

And I guess we can pray that everyday about just about everyone in the world. That includes anyone we can think of who goes into tense and harmful situations. That means the fella’ who has a brick in his hand and sees an unbroken window owned the “them” as well as the policeman called to grab that fella’ who just broke a window and stole a pair of expensive Nike shoes. And that includes me as I walk into the office to learn that someone disapproved of my request to do something or other and I’m trying to find a way to get back and …

Pray for peace, love, compassion, and the many things we should all have everyday. God terrified the people of the land. God can put thoughts and feelings into everyone everyday. Let’s ask.

2 Timothy 3:1-5 (New Living Translation)

1 You should know this, Timothy, that in the last days there will be very difficult times. 2 For people will love only themselves and their money. They will be boastful and proud, scoffing at God, disobedient to their parents, and ungrateful. They will consider nothing sacred. 3 They will be unloving and unforgiving; they will slander others and have no self-control. They will be cruel and hate what is good. 4 They will betray their friends, be reckless, be puffed up with pride, and love pleasure rather than God. 5 They will act religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly. Stay away from people like that!

What a list. It describes what people will do in the last days that will be very difficult times.

And who can argue with the acts in the list? My goodness.

Wait. In one of the early sentences is “disobedient to their parents.” Perhaps a mistake in translation or something. How does that rank down there with lovers of self, unloving, unforgiving, slander, cruel, hate, betrayal and all the other really bad things?

I mean, okay so we didn’t always obey our parents and we snuck around and fooled them (at least we thought we fooled them, ha!).

God wants us to respect those who have come before us. Not just love them—we are to love all, but respect and obey them. I often hear talk of, “When I was a kid, I was taught the wrong things at church and those older folks at church said one thing and did another and those older folks this and that and something else I didn’t like.”

Sorry. Wrong. Stop it. God puts that on this list. Go back in time and live the lives of those older folks and then judge them. Oh wait, I don’t have a time machine and a person transporting system or whatever it would take for me to go back and live their lives. And judging others is not my job. Hmmm.

Perhaps I should simply love, respect, and obey my predecessors in the faith. Please God, help me in my unbelief.

Leviticus 18 (New Living Translation)

This post is a bit different as I am considering an entire chapter instead of one sentence.

There are many criticisms of the Bible by some women. Women are not worth as much as men in transactions. Women obey their father, then obey their husband. They don’t have a “mind of their own.” Women are to “be silent” in some circumstances where men are allowed to talk.

This chapter teaches an unprecedented respect for women. Something that sets God’s people apart from the world. In the world, men did as they wished with women if for no other reason than men were physically stronger than women and could simply “push them around.”

Note how so many of the verses in this chapter tell men NOT to do things to women. The subject here is sexual relations. All the DO NOTs are about men towards women (your mother, your father’s wives, your sister, your half sister, granddaughter, stepsister, father’s sister, mother’s sister, uncle’s wife, et al.). A man having sexual relations with these women was physically possible.

God says, “NO! Respect women. I created you able to act in a detestable manner. Many peoples on earth do these things. You will not. THIS ALL CHANGES NOW.”

Many people criticize Christianity as a “Thou shalt not” practice where we “can’t have any fun.” Well, this chapter is a lot of “Thou shalt not” with a message of “Thou shalt respect women, no matter what everyone else on earth is doing.”

Romans 5:17 (New Living Translation)

17 For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and his gift of righteousness, for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one man, Jesus Christ.

As a kid, did you ever stay in bed on Christmas day because you were too tired to go to the Christmas tree and receive gifts? Probably not. I never did.

God tells us, “Here is the gift of righteousness. Here is the gift that allows you to be in God’s presence for eternity. Get out of bed and come receive it.”

“No, not today, God. I’m busy and tired and just can’t make it,” said many persons over the centuries.

Why do people respond like this? Here is one answer that I don’t like and is probably true far more often than I want to admit.

It is my fault. I misrepresent God in my life. I attach a lot of things to God’s gift that make it unappealing. I make people uncomfortable. I cloud the situation with a lot of stuff. I turn the gift into a contract. I… I… I… I… I could go on for quite a while.

I make a simple situation complicated. I cause other people to think and consider and weigh the alternatives and conform to my lifestyle and all sorts of things.

Please God, help me to keep the simplicity of your gift of grace simply your gift of grace and nothing else. Please help me to invite others into receiving the gift of righteousness.

Leviticus 18:3 (New Living Translation)

3 So do not act like the people in Egypt, where you used to live, or like the people of Canaan, where I am taking you. You must not imitate their way of life.

God is talking to the people. God tells them that they are different. They don’t act like the people around them act. They have a special purpose in God’s plans; they will behave differently.

“But everyone is doing it,” cried every teenager since the invention of the teenager in America in the 1940s.

“And if everyone jumped off a cliff, would you jump off a cliff?” replied every parent of every teenager.

No. You are different. You are set aside for a special purpose to serve God in a special manner. This is contrary to the human need to belong. This also abides by the human need to be unique or special.

Do we want to be special as God wants us to be special? Do we want to belong to the crowd when the crowd behaves in a detestable manner?

The answers are simple while sitting here in a coffee shop—nice and comfortable drinking a good cup of hot coffee. At other times, however, the answers aren’t so simple.

Please God, in these other times when I cannot accept the simplicity, help me. Help me in my unbelief.

2 Timothy 2:14 (New Living Translation)

14 Remind everyone about these things, and command them in God’s presence to stop fighting over words. Such arguments are useless, and they can ruin those who hear them.

“Them’s fight’n words” is a famous expression, or its used to be.

Let’s see, we shouldn’t argue over the meaning of words. What about words in the Bible? Are they important enough to “argue” over?

Let’s read further. The next few sentences discuss “correctly explaining the word of truth.” Well, ahem, I know the word of truth and I am explaining it correctly and if you disagree then you don’t understand the truth and you are not as good as me and … whatever else I can say that makes me feel good and you feel bad.

Oh, perhaps not.

A couple of sentences later we have,

Avoid worthless, foolish talk that only leads to more godless behavior.

Do my words lead to godless behavior? If so, my words are useless arguments that ruin those who hear them. The discussion (argument) can continue endlessly. My words lead to godly behavior. Your words are godless. Simple, huh?

Not so simple. Not so favorable to me at all times. There are times when Christians disagree over words. There are many times when Christians disagree with non-Christians over words. Am I moving towards God? If not, I need to stop and pray for wisdom.

Genesis 27:21-22 (New Living Translation)

21 But when Reuben heard of their scheme, he came to Joseph’s rescue. “Let’s not kill him,” he said. 22 “Why should we shed any blood? Let’s just throw him into this empty cistern here in the wilderness. Then he’ll die without our laying a hand on him.” Reuben was secretly planning to rescue Joseph and return him to his father.

This is part of the (hi)story of Joseph, his coat of many colors, his jealous brothers, and redemption.

The brothers of Joseph were going to murder Joseph and lie to their father about what happened. They had a foolproof plan. There were no witnesses. They had a solemn pact to “stick to their story.”

Then there was Reuben. For some reasons, he was going to rescue Joseph from the brothers. How did Reuben do it? He lied. He had a plan to rescue Joseph and he “kept it secret.” He flat out lied about what he was going to do.

Instead of standing up and saying, “This is wrong. We will not murder our brother. Stop this foolish talk. Get back to work,” he said, “Let’s not hit him or stab him or club him to death. Let’s put him in this hole where he will die slowly. Same result, just less blood.”

Why didn’t Reuben stand up and say what was obvious and righteous?

Reuben was probably afraid. The brothers were to murder Joseph. There was nothing to stop them from murdering him as well. They were murderers. That’s what murderers do.

Reuben told a lie. That is what liars do.

Well, it all worked out for the best and … No. Reuben sinned to stop a sin. Still, he sinned. But but but… Sure we can justify and appreciate the bad situation and how one lesser evil prevented a greater evil and all that. And Reuben could have been murdered just like Joseph was to be murdered.

Still, it was wrong. We live in a world where wrong is everywhere. I do a little wrong here and there to keep big wrongs and that is…it is wrong. Tough situations; tough decisions. Please God, help me in my unbelief.

Ephesians 4:21-24 (New Living Translation)

21 Since you have heard about Jesus and have learned the truth that comes from him, 22 throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception. 23 Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. 24 Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy.

Paul is writing to Christians in Ephesus. There are many sentences in this section of Paul’s letter encouraging the Christians to be “like Christ” instead of like all the folks living around them. Those folks lust and crave after every shiny object and every pretty person they see. Get this; get that, and grab it all.

“Stop that childish behavior,” says Paul.

But it is more than that. It is more than “good clean living.” Put on the new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy.

In the eyes of many, Christians behave. That is one reason people sort of like us some of the time. We cut our grass, put our trash cans at the right spot on the right day of the week, and everything else to keep up the property values in the neighborhood. We are nice folks. Good neighbors.

There is more to it. I shouldn’t be satisfied with that. Let the Spirit of God renew our thoughts and attitude. This happens daily, hourly, minute by minute. I have the strength of God in me. I can do and be much better. Please God, help me in my unbelief.