Contemplative Bible Reading

Lamentations 1:22 (New Living Translation)

22 “Look at all their evil deeds, Lord.
Punish them,
as you have punished me
for all my sins.
My groans are many,
and I am sick at heart.”

The writer here is crying in sorrow. The people sinned for generations and are suffering for their choices. “Once a queen…now a slave.” “All her friends have become her enemies.” “Tossed away like a filthy rag.” The description goes on and on.

The writer suffered along with all the people. The writer’s enemies heard about his troubles and they were happy to see what God had done.

Now the writer cries for some sense of justice or fairness or something. Pain to his enemies will ease his pain. Right? Huh? Misery loves company? Something like that.

Pain and suffering clouds logic and thought and all sense of sensibility.

Me? I live the good life. I am rich beyond measure. I don’t suffer. Surely my blessings are the result of my upright living and moral superiority and … How stupid I am.

I guess prosperity also clouds logic and thought and all sense of sensibility.

I’m a sinner. I am not better than the people who disobeyed God and were the subject of the lamentations and sorrow recorded for us. I am saved by grace, a gift from an all-giving and all-blessing God. Thank you God, and please, help me in my unbelief and my all-too-often thought that I am blessed because I am so good.

Habakkuk 2:12-13 (New Living Translation)

12 “What sorrow awaits you who build cities
with money gained through murder and corruption!
13 Has not the Lord of Heaven’s Armies promised
that the wealth of nations will turn to ashes?
They work so hard,
but all in vain!

The prophet relays the proclamation of God to the people. Ashes. Not a pretty picture, but that will be the end of the wealth of nations. Those who trust in money, especially that money gained immorally, will see all that come to nothing but ashes.

In one respect it is a shame to see the result of so much effort blow away in the wind. In another respect, why not? God blesses us with ambition and the ability to strive for something. We work. Sometimes we see gain from our work. Those too are blessings from God.

Our short life here ends. Gravity and the erosion of wind and water wins. Man’s buildings fall and decay.

And then? An eternity of bliss with God for those who choose it. Thank you God.

Jeremiah 13:12 (New Living Translation)

12 “So tell them, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: May all your jars be filled with wine.’

The prophet Jeremiah is passing along words from God to the people. God is displeased with how the people are living. They disobey daily. As a punishment, God will give them jars filled with wine.

In the next sentence, the people are happy. Jars full of wine is a sign of good crops, plenty, and good times. No. Jars filled with wine means lots of wine in stomachs and lots of clouded thinking.

Loving, caring, Godly people disagree about the alcohol content of the “wine” mentioned in the Bible and used 2,000 to 3,000 years ago. Was that “wine” what we have today? I doubt it. Was the alcohol content similar? I don’t know. What’s the harm in a glass of wine a day? What’s the harm in a beer with dinner? Let the disagreements begin.

I know the words in this passage indicate that jars filled with wine brings drunkenness. What alcohol blood level content equals “drunk.” I don’t know. Alcohol is a depressant. It slows the mental and physical reactions. It can bring fog to the thoughts and lead to poor decisions.

At some times, in some places, on some ocassions, alcohol was used as a punishment from God.

Hosea 14:9 (New Living Translation)

9 Let those who are wise understand these things.
Let those with discernment listen carefully.
The paths of the Lord are true and right,
and righteous people live by walking in them.
But in those paths sinners stumble and fall.

I have always liked the concept of following God and the picture of following God by walking the same path that God walks. I think that comes from a teacher reading us the book “The Pilgrim’s Progress” by John Bunyan when I was 8 or 9 years old.

This verse tells us that the paths walked by God are true and right. Who wants to walk in a path that is false and wrong? Who wants to walk along a path that causes tripping, stumbling, and falling face down in the mud? Why would anyone want that? Still, many do. Still, I do on some days. Why?

Following God is how righteous people live. Am I righteous? On some days using some definitions of “righteous,” I am. Still, let’s be honest folks. I flop and fall and all sorts of bad on occasions and days and … gosh, how does God tolerate me? Still, God does tolerate me. I am on God’s path. Sometimes I follow closer than other times, but I am on God’s path.

Thank you God for the path.

Jeremiah 33:15 (New Living Translation)

15 “In those days and at that time
I will raise up a righteous descendant from King David’s line.
He will do what is just and right throughout the land.

The prophet Jeremiah is passing along a few predictions of the future from God. A new King is coming one day. The new king will be straight from the family line of David. The new king will…

do what is just and right.

Well, that is underwhelming, huh? I mean new infrastructure, better agriculture, treaties with foreign powers, something we can grab and hold and use? What use is this “just and right” business?

And why does God mention “just and right?” Simple. The recent kings and people lived unjust and unrighteous lives. God promises something different, something godly.

I should be a US Senator. Then I could write laws that would ensure just and right living. Perhaps President of the US. That would do it. That would fix things.

Perhaps I should hold a door open for someone and let them go first. Perhaps when a young couple walks by I should pray for them. Perhaps when I see a homeless person I should smile and talk to them. Perhaps I should do what is just and right moment by moment, day by day. I don’t know if any of that will change the world, but perhaps I will be a little more pleasing to God. Perhaps just and right from God through me will do some good.

Leviticus 25:23 (New Living Translation)

23 “The land must never be sold on a permanent basis, for the land belongs to me. You are only foreigners and tenant farmers working for me.

This is The Law being passed from God to God’s people. Let’s talk about personal property and such. Oh wait, there doesn’t seem to be personal property as it relates to the land.

Uh, maybe there is a mistake in translation or something. Maybe not. Land is not bought and sold and passed on to heirs and held by a family. Everyone is a traveling foreigner and a tenant or renter working the land owned by someone else.

God owns all the land: permanently.

But I thought God gave the land to His people? We must have a different definition of “gave,” huh? No, we don’t. This is God’s creation. God “owns” what God created. God owns “my land” and “my house.” God owns “my wife” and “my children.” God even owns “my job.”

Well, that certainly is a different perspective. How do I change how I live based on that? I sure have a lot less to worry about. I sure have a lot less, period. Life changes when I replace “my” with “God’s.” There are days when I don’t like that. Please God, help me in my unbelief.

Revelation 2:2 (New Living Translation)

I know you don’t tolerate evil people. You have examined the claims of those who say they are apostles but are not. You have discovered they are liars.

John is writing to the (angel or messenger of) church of Ephesus. John commends them for not tolerating evil people.

Good. There it is! Don’t tolerate those evil people! Away with them! And there are so many evil people, where do we start? And, by the way, if we do away with those evil people, how will we tell them about Jesus?

Oh wait, there is more. (It pays to keep reading.) The intolerable “evil people” mentioned here are those who say they are apostles or teachers of Jesus, but they are not. They are liars when it comes to their relationship with Jesus.

Hmmm. Once again we see indication that there is a difference between the evil outside the Christians and the evil inside the Christians. One is tolerable reality and one is intolerable and should not exist.

We live in an age of tolerance. If someone excludes someone else, they are excluded because of their exclusion-ing. I didn’t make that up folks. If it sounds odd, well, we live in odd times.

God shows us that tolerance is intolerable in some places at some times with some people. Please God, grant me the wisdom to know where, when, and with whom.

Revelation 1:9 (New Living Translation)

9 I, John, am your brother and your partner in suffering and in God’s Kingdom and in the patient endurance to which Jesus calls us. I was exiled to the island of Patmos for preaching the word of God and for my testimony about Jesus.

This sentence is early in the Revelation written by John and kept at the end of our current New Testament. John preached the word of God and preached that the carpenter’s son from Nazareth was the Son of God sent to take away our sins. Because of this preaching, John was exiled to a little rock out in the Mediterranean Sea.

Patmos is still a little rock out there in no where. There are 3,000 persons living there today to host tourists who want to see the place of John’s exile. Still nothing happening there.

One of the lessons we can learn is that for a Christian, there is no exile. John probably lived in one of the many caves in the rock of the island. While there, John prayed and listened to what God told him. He recorded God’s words of the doom of Satan.

Paul was exiled to prison several times. While in prison, he prayed and listened to what God told him. He recorded God’s words for mankind.

Seems this “exile” business did the opposite of what some folks wanted to happen. They wanted to shut up some of these folks who talked about Jesus as the Son of God. The result was these folks wrote things that have been read by countless others over the last 20 centuries.

Is it possible to “exile” a Christian? Is it possible to send a Christian so far away that they cannot listen to God? It appears that exiling a Christian is impossible.

Stuck somewhere? Listen to God. Please God, help me to listen and do what it is you wish.

Ephesians 2:9 (New Living Translation)

9 Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.

Here we have a sentence I hate and love. I mean, I’m a good guy—always have been. I have always done good things. Look at me. (Seriously.) Being saved by God from evil is not a reward. It is a gift. God is graceful in salvation as a gift.

I get it. I understand all this. Still, look at me. I am a good guy doing things that good guys do. Surely there is some benefit in all this. I mean, sometimes I give up things I like so I can do good for others. That must bring me something, huh?

Sure, doing good brings lots of good to me. Satisfaction. Smiles. Hugs. Thanks. Salvation from God? Not in the list.

Why do all those good things? Some of the reasons were listed above. Another reason is that God gave me the resources to do good things. Not everyone in every place on earth in every year of the last 2,000 of them has had the resources to do good things. Wow! What a blessing!

Thank you God. Thank you for salvation that comes free. Thank you for all that allows me to do good things.

Galatians 1:11 (New Living Translation)

11 Dear brothers and sisters, I want you to understand that the gospel message I preach is not based on mere human reasoning.

This is taken from a letter that Paul wrote to Christians living in Galatia. Paul was a reasonable and reasoning person. The text of the Acts of the Apostles states that Paul had a custom of going to Synagogues and reasoning with people from the scriptures.

The gospel message, however, is not based on mere human reasoning. No one taught the gospel message to Paul. Instead, it is based on revelation from God.

This all makes sense. None of this makes sense. The reasonable Paul is not reasonable. The reasonable Paul lives by faith, by something unseen and un-see-able. He teaches good news from God.

We live in a scientific or post-scientific age (I lost track of these things). We live by electricity, central heat, central air conditioning, refrigeration, smartphones, smart TVs, reasonable everything. We revolt against all this on days when it is convenient, but the other 90% of the time we bathe in it.

Good news from God? Well, we enjoy the good news from the electric company, Apple, and Samsung. Those folks are reasonable. No wonder I need so much forgiveness for my unbelief.