Contemplative Bible Reading

1 Samuel 26:5 (New Living Translation)

David slipped over to Saul’s camp one night to look around. Saul and Abner son of Ner, the commander of his army, were sleeping inside a ring formed by the slumbering warriors.

This is part of the (hi)story of David staying one step ahead of King Saul in Saul’s pursuit to kill David. That was a sad state of affairs. In this (hi)story, we have this scene where David slips into Saul’s camp to find the King and the commander of the army surrounded by slumbering warriors.

Warriors? Slumbering? Huh?

There are all sorts of ideas about this scene. Perhaps God put the warriors into a slumber so that David could approach Saul and show how David respected God’s King. The slumber was God’s way of illustrating how David was a man after God’s heart. Perhaps.

Still, warriors? Slumbering? What was wrong with these guys? They were to protect the King given to them by God. They failed miserably. Why, if I had been there, I would have…surely done better than this, huh?

Probably not. I see this as one more illustration of how fatigue wins. It is simply, “I know what to do, but, I’ve had a tough couple of days and I need to just take a nap and rest and then…”

Tired? We all become tired. Notice fatigue. Go to another Christian and ask for help. Some of these tired warriors could have taken turns slumbering and doing what they should be doing. Christians can turn to other Christians and take turns resting and recreating. God gave us a church—a gathering of Christians so that we can take turns. Let’s not neglect that gift of God.

Acts 17:30 (New Living Translation)

“God overlooked people’s ignorance about these things in earlier times, but now he commands everyone everywhere to repent of their sins and turn to him…”

In the sentences preceding this, the readers are informed of God’s history with mankind. In this sentence, we read the prior ignorance was overlooked. No longer.

Simple instructions: (1) turn away from past sins and (2) turn to God.

Somehow we take these simple instructions and add a few hundred, “Yes, but” and “Okay, but.” There is no end to our, “but God, you gotta’ understand…”

Sorry. And I really mean, “sorry.” I am sorry about my sad state of affairs and my often-miserable actions. I am sorry that I can’t explain this to others in a way that they turn to God. I am sorry that my life isn’t the example it should be. I am sorry.

And I am grateful for the grace of God. The grace that means the Creator of all accepts tiny, sorry me. Please God, help me in my unbelief.

Luke 1:80 (New Living Translation)

John grew up and became strong in spirit. And he lived in the wilderness until he began his public ministry to Israel.

John (the Baptist) was born the son of a Priest of the tribe of Levi. His father was a Priest. John was to be a Priest.

We find John living “in the wilderness.” Harvard? Yale? Oxford? (Name your favorite favored and fancy place.) No. The wilderness.

How disappointed were his parents? How disappointed were his friends? What did everyone think of him?

Then the second part of the sentence, “…until he began his public ministry to Israel.” Oh, so this living in the wilderness led to a public ministry of service and preaching. John learned something or other while in the wilderness that helped prepare him for ministry.

We can take this “time in the wilderness” too far, and many in ministry have taken it too far and often say things like, “Well, when I worked at such-and-such church that was my time in the wilderness” as if the people in THAT place were wild and wooly and undeserving of the person’s brilliance.

Notice the positive: John grew while in the wilderness. He took advantage of the opportunity presented by the wilderness. Tough times taught lessons, and John listened.

Me? Am I in the wilderness or in retirement? Is retirement my wilderness? What does God send me today? Am I learning and growing from God’s lessons and blessings today? There are alternatives. God, help me in my unbelief and my choices.

1 Chronicles 18:14 (New Living Translation)

So David reigned over all Israel and did what was just and right for all his people.

Well that’s a pretty good summary of King David. He did what was just and right for all. I wonder what his approval ratings were? Was he popular? Was the economy growing?

We aren’t told about any of those things that seem to worry us these days. We’re just told “just and right.”

Well, we understand that the ancient world was much simpler and they didn’t have to worry about all the things we have to worry about and all the international entanglements that entangle us in his modern or post-modern world and …

Nope. Wrong. Life was really tough in the days of David. They had plagues (real ones, not like than pandemic of 2020) and famines (never had one of these in America in 240+ years). They were attacked by foreign armies every weekend or so.

Still, David was just and right and was recorded in history as a man after God’s own heart. Pretty good stuff to copy. Pretty good way to live.

1 Chronicles 18:7 (New Living Translation)

David brought the gold shields of Hadadezer’s officers to Jerusalem,

God had given King David yet another victory in battle. After the victory, David brought captured gold to Jerusalem to God.

David fulfilled God’s command to bring all the world’s gold to God, uh, er, wait, no, that’s not it. God never asked for all the gold or silver or diamonds. And why did David feel this was worth the trouble?

Uh. Well, it was obvious that valuables should be brought to God, right? Sigh. We do this all the time. We value things and we think God values them as well.

When one of my sons was about four years old, he treasured small, brightly colored balls. They were great fun. They were treasures in his world. I liked to see him happy, but I really didn’t think much of small, brightly colored balls.

Hmmm. This is the way it is we me and God. Gold, diamonds, whatever. I like these things. And I assume that God likes them, too. How childish of me. Please God, help me in my childish unbelief.

2 Kings 17:21-22 (New Living Translation)

21 For when the Lord tore Israel away from the kingdom of David, they chose Jeroboam son of Nebat as their king. But Jeroboam drew Israel away from following the Lord and made them commit a great sin. 22 And the people of Israel persisted in all the evil ways of Jeroboam. They did not turn from these sins

Read through the (hi)stories of the Kings. In Israel, king after king followed the sins of Jeroboam. He had erected places of worship and sacrifice that were not at the temple in Jerusalem. He had created a caste of Priests that were not Levites. He had violated just about everything God had commanded.

Generation after generation in Israel followed after the practices of Jeroboam.

Why? What did Jeroboam ever do for the people that was so wonderful? Why didn’t the generations in Israel follow the ways of the LORD God who brought them from slavery in Egypt to a homeland?

Gosh, those people were…well, let’s apply just about any bad word we can find. Reminds me of us today. In our enlightened, scientific, post-modern, modern (you pick one or find your own favorite) world, the works of God are more obvious than ever. And we see these and follow God daily—NO WE DON’T.

We are worse than those in Israel who followed Jeroboam for centuries. Or we are just the same.

Why do we fail? Please God help us all in our unbelief. Help me in my unbelief.

1 Chronicles 13:2–3 (New Living Translation)

2 Then he (King David) addressed the entire assembly of Israel as follows: “If you approve and if it is the will of the Lord our God, let us send messages to all the Israelites throughout the land, including the priests and Levites in their towns and pasturelands. Let us invite them to come and join us. 3 It is time to bring back the Ark of our God, for we neglected it during the reign of Saul.”

For centuries the Ark of God the Ark of the Covenant was the centerpiece of spiritual life for the assembly of Israel. Time passed; generations passed.

People forgot.

We do that—we forget. Seems to be some human trait. We focus on the recent, and the recent seems to be a shorter and shorter period of time. While there is much to recommend in focusing on the here and now, there is much to recommend in remembering.

King David brought the Ark of the Covenant back from neglect. “Look,” he said, “this is our heritage. This reminds of us of how Jehovah God did things never seen before or since. All the other peoples of the world remember those things. Let us remember them as well.”

Now is the point in this little essay where I attempt to remark, “And what about us today?” Jehovah God the Creator—the God of the Holy Bible whom we worship—did things never before or since. Do we remember? Do we pause and consider? Other peoples of the world remember these things. Do we?

God, we humbly come before you. Continue to forgive our failings. Help us to live repentant and thankful lives and share Your blessings with those around us. Help us in our unbelief.

1 Kings 9:8-9 (New Living Translation)

8 “And though this Temple is impressive now, all who pass by will be appalled and will gasp in horror. They will ask, ‘Why did the Lord do such terrible things to this land and to this Temple?’

9 “And the answer will be, ‘Because his people abandoned the Lord their God, who brought their ancestors out of Egypt, and they worshiped other gods instead and bowed down to them. That is why the Lord has brought all these disasters on them.’”

This is a description of life in the ancient world. The people of the time understood spiritual matters—things that were supernatural, things that could not be explained by science and common sense.

These other people knew of Jehovah or YHWH, the god of the Israel. If the people of Israel turned away from their God, the result would be obvious to everyone else.

I believe that, regardless of what many say, people today still know there are spiritual matters—things that are supernatural, things that cannot be explained by science and common sense. I believe that people today still know there is a right and wrong as prescribed by supernatural beings. And they know that the supernatural being worshiped by Christians—God the Creator—established right and wrong and consequences for disobedience.

People today see the results of disobedience and still wonder, “Why?”

People still today are appalled and gasp in horror.

Luke 4:22 (New Living Translation)

Everyone spoke well of him (Jesus) and was amazed by the gracious words that came from his lips. “How can this be?” they asked. “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?”

Jesus had just begun the time in His life when we went to the local religious schools (synagogues) to teach. That was odd as Jesus was a carpenter, not an educated person. Jesus had probably been to these religious schools as a boy and had memorized large portions of the Torah. That is what good Jewish boys did, and from what we can read, Jesus was part of a good Jewish family.

Jesus knew much of the Torah (the first books of what we have as the Old Testament), but that was not what impressed persons. What marked Jesus was his commentary on these writings. Jesus explained the writings in a new way. He spoke gracious words.

The people were amazed at the gracious words of Jesus. Everyone who heard Jesus spoke well of Him.

Oh how soothing it would be to hear the voice of Jesus. If we had recordings or something, that would change the world. Huh, right?

Well, we have the words of Jesus recorded for us to read. And, oh by the way, the words of Jesus have changed the world. What? Yes, the words of Jesus have changed the world. And yes, we could all “do much better” in how we follow the words of Jesus. Still, please notice the words of Jesus at work in the lives of persons around us. Please notice the Spirit of God alive and at work. God is right in front of us. Thank you, God.

Matthew 9:36 (New Living Translation)

When he (Jesus) saw the crowds, he had compassion on them because they were confused and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.

Jesus saw the crowds. He felt compassion. Let’s examine the dictionary and try to understand the amazing meaning of this sentence and how it describes our Savior.

Compassion is a sympathetic consciousness of others’ distress together with a desire to alleviate it.

Sympathetic means to have the same feelings of other persons. You are angry and I am angry; we are sympathetic.

The crowds were confused and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Jesus felt the same way—confused and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.

Huh? Wait, Jesus confused and helpless? Yes. Jesus was dumped on earth with … folks just like us. Yikes. What a mess. Jesus was God and Jesus was human with all our human faults, confusion, and helplessness. Jesus was a Jew living in a nation occupied by a foreign army and ruled by foreign rulers who used the Jews for fun and profit. You had a bad day recently? Compare it to Jesus’ everyday life.

And the other part of Jesus’ compassion is that Jesus had a desire to relieve the suffering of the crowds. Did Jesus have the free will to avoid the crucifixion? Folks have discussed that for a few centuries. Jesus, however, didn’t avoid a painful death. He lived and died. He relieved the suffering of the crowds he saw and the suffering of all mankind since.

Sure, we all have bad days. Most of my bad days don’t compare to the bad days of ancestors who lived in the 1200s etc., but I have bad days. Jesus had bad days. Jesus has felt everything that I have felt. Jesus has wanted to relieve my bad days. Jesus did so much more than that. Thank you God.