Contemplative Bible Reading

Hebrews 5:1-2 (New Living Translation)

1 Every high priest is a man chosen to represent other people in their dealings with God. He presents their gifts to God and offers sacrifices for their sins. 2 And he is able to deal gently with ignorant and wayward people because he himself is subject to the same weaknesses.

The events of this past week were…well, what word do we use? Startling. Disgusting. Worrisome. Weeping. I guess we could find an adjective for every letter of our alphabet.

Then we consider the above verses.

The High Priest—the one person standing between regular folks and God—was subject to the same weaknesses as the regular folks. A brotherhood of weakness.

God sent His Son to earth in human form to feel these same weaknesses.

And then we see what we saw this week, this past year, and every year of our life. People acting like, well, let’s use the adjectives. And lest we forget, they have the same weaknesses that I have. Yes, but…

Yes, but what? Yes, but I don’t act out like that. I may feel that way, but ooops. Jesus tells us about the sameness of “feel that way” and “act that way.”

Oh, that. Yes, oh, that. We are in a brotherhood of weakness. We weep at how these weaknesses are expressed. We pray for better in others and in ourselves. We thank God for His grace and peace that pass all human understanding.

Genesis 2: 8 (New Living Translation)

Then the Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the east, and there he placed the man he had made.

As the (hi)story of the creation continues, we read that God the Creator planted a garden and put Adam in that place.

We see earlier in verses four and five, “When the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, neither wild plants nor grains were growing on the earth.”

The Garden of Eden did not exist. There were no food-providing plants on the earth. There were no homes on the earth. Hey, consider that, Adam was homeless. He was the only person on the planet, but he was homeless.

In addition to creating everything, God created a garden. God planted plants for food and planted plants for beauty. God was the first botanist. God was the first farmer. God was the first home builder.

Adam was along for the ride.

Hmmm, not much has changed. When we step back and look at things, God provides, and we are along for the ride. Sort of keeps us humble, or at least it should keep us humble. Most of us seem to struggle with that as we are so proud of our great accomplishments.

Please God, help me with humility. Help me in my unbelief. And thank you for showing us botany and farming and home building and everything else.

Matthew 2:13-14 (New Living Translation)

13 After the wise men were gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up! Flee to Egypt with the child and his mother,” the angel said. “Stay there until I tell you to return, because Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”

14 That night Joseph left for Egypt with the child and Mary, his mother,

This is part of the (hi)story of the birth and childhood of Jesus. The wise men had visited with their gifts. Most believe that Jesus was about two years old at this time.

An angel comes to Joseph. The angel says to go to Egypt because Herod is going to kill Joseph’s son Jesus.

Well, that sure sounds bad, but Egypt? I mean, Egypt? That place? Things hadn’t been good in Egypt for a long time, and you know, these moves take time and there’s a lot to consider, and …

Joseph took Mary and Jesus and left that night. Such was the faith of Joseph. He could have waited until “things got bad” and when the news reported that Herod was looking for baby boys and when … No. That night.

Hear. Believe. Act. Right now.

Please God, help me in my unbelief. Give me just a small portion of the faith of Joseph.

Deuteronomy 13:5 (New Living Translation)

The false prophets or visionaries who try to lead you astray must be put to death

God is instructing the people with regards to prophets or visionaries—literally persons who predicted the future and the future came true. These were persons who had words from God that were relayed to the people. These where not traveling charlatans or fakes.

Put them to death if they try to lead to people astray, that is lead them in the wrong direction.

Hmmm, we have to watch out for people who lead us the wrong way. Why, they may have our kids doing such-and-such and we’d have trouble right here (in River City).

No. God isn’t talking about liberal theology or fanatic theology or whatever we call something that isn’t what we’ve always done. This is not a license to kill those we find disagreeable.

The verses earlier, state what “leading astray” means. It is when they say,

‘Come, let us worship other gods.’

Oh, well, sure, we would uh not like fellas’ like that. And that is the end of this. Disagreeable? Live with it. Not liking the details? Live with it. And love at all times.

Philippians 3:3-4 (New Living Translation)

3 For we who worship by the Spirit of God are the ones who are truly circumcised. We rely on what Christ Jesus has done for us. We put no confidence in human effort, 4 though I could have confidence in my own effort if anyone could. Indeed, if others have reason for confidence in their own efforts, I have even more!

Let’s focus on the last phrase of verse 3. I don’t like this. Americans don’t like this.

We put confidence in human effort.

This is the American way, the American dream. I work hard. I go to school. I get a job. I show up everyday and I…I…I…I.

And this passage tells me that the writer disregards all that. Well, he wasn’t an American so…He was a Christian and he exhorts Christians in all places at all times. Rely on Christ Jesus and what Jesus did for us—all of us in all places at all times.

Thank you God for my blessings. Thank you God that I was born at this time in this place. Prevent me from counting my circumstances as anything more than they are, just something that happened.

Numbers 17:10 (New Living Translation)

And the Lord said to Moses: “Place Aaron’s staff permanently before the Ark of the Covenant to serve as a warning to rebels. This should put an end to their complaints against me and prevent any further deaths.”

In Numbers 16, we have the (hi)story of people who complained that Aaron was being favored too much by God. Their complaints led them to violate God’s instructions. The disobedience led to death.

Complaints to disobedience to death.

In chapter 17, we have the (hi)story of the staffs from the 12 tribes—old, old sticks that were all dead. Aaron’s old stick, however, blossomed to life overnight while all the other old sticks simply remained old, dead sticks.

God told them to put Aaron’s miraculous stick in front of the Ark of the Covenant. Leave it there all the time. When people thought of it, they thought of how complaints lead to death.

That old stick with blossoms on it would prevent death. Funny how God chooses simple, common things to teach heavenly, spiritual lessons.

1 John 2:2 (New Living Translation)

He (Jesus) himself is the sacrifice that atones for our sins—and not only our sins but the sins of all the world.

The sacrifice of Jesus atones for my sins. Wow! That is a lot. Amazing grace, as the song says.

And wait, there is more: the sacrifice of Jesus atones for the sins of all the world.

Consider this one. Jesus didn’t die just me, Jesus died for everyone else, too. EVERYONE. Yes, even that fellow who is on TV and is absolutely despicable. And that person who writes those horrible stories in the newspaper. And that person who can’t stop posting those things on Facebook. And that person who cheated my football team with that bad call last weekend. And that person who…

Yes, and all those other persons, too. Hmmm. Well surely—no, Jesus atoned for that person, too. We can’t think of a person for whom Jesus didn’t atone. If they are a person, Jesus atoned for them.

Perhaps Jesus saw something in THAT PERSON. Perhaps I should reconsider THAT PERSON. And I should pray that THAT PERSON reconsiders ME as Jesus atoned for me, too.

Leviticus 6:4-5 (New Living Translation)

4 If you have sinned in any of these ways, you are guilty. You must give back whatever you stole, or the money you took by extortion, or the security deposit, or the lost property you found, 5 or anything obtained by swearing falsely. You must make restitution by paying the full price plus an additional 20 percent to the person you have harmed.

These verses are from the old law. That old law has fine detail about this and that and just about anything you could think of. And people had to know and obey and keep track of everything.

These verses contain a simple principle: if you take from someone, you have to give back what you took and a little more. The “little more” here is specified as 20%.

It isn’t enough to be even or give back what you took. You have to give more. Why more? Why not make it even and call it a day? No harm, right?

No. Sin costs something. Here it costs 20% more. Hurting someone else costs something. Putting someone through suffering of loss costs something.

This is tough. I mean, I said I was sorry, I gave a formal apology, isn’t that enough? No it wasn’t and it isn’t.

Well, how do we do all this? How do we live together and wrong one another and pay back everything plus 20%? Where am I going to get that extra 20%?

The questions go on and on. Solutions? Well, to start, don’t steal, don’t hurt the other person. Don’t sin. Don’t sin? (yet another question)

How about we do something instead of not do something. Instead of not steal and not all those other things, let’s love. Let’s live in justice and righteousness. Let’s be right before God and other folks. Please God, help me in my unbelief.

1 Peter 4:10 (New Living Translation)

God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another.

Peter is summarizing his first letter.

He has a word of great encouragement.

Everyone has received a wonderful gift from God.

He has a word of great commission.

Everyone should use the gift to serve one another.

• But I don’t know how—yes I do because God has given me that gift.
• But I don’t know what—yes I do because God has given me that gift.
• But I don’t fill-in-the-blank-with-any-excuse—yes I do because God has given me that gift.

God is excuse proof. God’s gifts are excuse erasers. Let’s just go do it. We are all fully equipped. Thank you God.

Exodus 2:11 and 2:19 (New Living Translation

11 Many years later, when Moses had grown up, he went out to visit his own people, the Hebrews, and he saw how hard they were forced to work. During his visit, he saw an Egyptian beating one of his fellow Hebrews.

19 “An Egyptian rescued us from the shepherds,” they answered. “And then he drew water for us and watered our flocks.”

These verses are about Moses. He had become an adult and began to explore the world of adulthood. Learning that he was Hebrew, the son of Hebrew slaves, he went to see his Hebrew kinsmen. The Hebrews were his own people (see verse 11).

After fleeing Egypt, Moses went to Midian where he rescued the daughters of Reuel from vandals. These daughters told their father that an Egyptian rescued them.

Moses is Hebrew. Moses is Egyptian. That makes no sense. That isn’t a good way to be, not knowing what you are or who you are to be. That is a good way to be, having the advantage of an Egyptian education and the closeness to God of being a Hebrew.

Sometimes God mixes us up. We aren’t sure what we are or who we are or where we are or anything. If, however, we are with God, we are fine. It is that first-and-only look to God instead of to this land or that culture or those friends or this education. Look to God first. Consider God first. All the rest seems to fall into place on some days. When it doesn’t fall into place the way I want at the time, look to God.