Contemplative Bible Reading

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.

Genesis 2:18–20 (New Living Translation)

18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is just right for him.” 19 So the Lord God formed from the ground all the wild animals and all the birds of the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would call them, and the man chose a name for each one. 20 He gave names to all the livestock, all the birds of the sky, and all the wild animals. But still there was no helper just right for him.

Here is a recording of a failure of God—in a sense, a failure.

God did not want Adam to be alone. Adam needed a “helper who is just right for him” (other translations use other words instead of “helper,” and that is a discussion for another day).

God created all the animals—quite a feat to do so in a way that the animals didn’t wipe out one another. God then brought all the animals to Adam for naming.

While doing so, God noticed that none of the creations were “just right for him.”

Hmmm, first try, none just right. Let’s try again, huh?

The second try produced Eve; perfection, wonderful perfection.

I suppose there are lessons here for us. Something about try something, learn, try something else. Patience. Perseverance. Things like that.

And maybe the lesson is that God moves in mysterious ways, His wonders to perform. Something about how I just don’t understand the ways of God, and that isn’t my job. Mine is to obey, awe, and love.

Isaiah 2:1-5 (New Living Translation)

1 Out of the stump of David’s family will grow a shoot—
yes, a new Branch bearing fruit from the old root.
2 And the Spirit of the Lord will rest on him—
the Spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and might,
the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.
3 He will delight in obeying the Lord.
He will not judge by appearance
nor make a decision based on hearsay.
4 He will give justice to the poor
and make fair decisions for the exploited.
The earth will shake at the force of his word,
and one breath from his mouth will destroy the wicked.
5 He will wear righteousness like a belt
and truth like an undergarment.

How many ways can we discuss these verses of magnificence? The Savior will come.

The Savior will be wise, smart, knowledgeable, respectful.

The Savior will judge according to truth, judge fairly, judge righteously.

The wicked will be destroyed by the Savior’s words of truth.

All the earth will shake when the Savior speaks.

Again, there are many ways to discuss this. Consider this one—no human will rise up with these attributes. We humans just don’t measure up to this standards. Don’t expect it and don’t be too disappointed when we don’t see it. Only the Savior. The rest of us can adore the Savior and attempt to live up to the Savior’s standards. Reach them? Nope, sorry.

Genesis 41:50 (New Living Translation)

During this time, before the first of the famine years, two sons were born to Joseph and his wife, Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera, the priest of On.

This is a key part of the (hi)story of Joseph in Egypt. He married Asenath. They had two sons: Manasseh and Ephraim. Those two sons were counted among the sons of Jacob and took an equal place among the 12 tribes of Israel.

Wait a minute. Asenath, the mother of these two honored boys and the wife of the savior Joseph, was the daughter of an idolatrous priest. Potiphera led the worship of Egyptian idols.

Talk about “being unequally yoked with an unbeliever” (see 2 Corinthians 6:14), this is about as bad as it can get. Right?

At this point, I am supposed to throw in a brilliant “yes, but consider.” Sorry, I don’t have one. Of course there is, “yes, but God was working in Joseph’s life and God had a plan and God would…” We can always go to the words of the song, “God moves in mysterious ways, His wonders to perform.” And we can always claim “God is working here” when we see a Christian enter an ill-advised marriage or business partnership or fill-in-the-blank-with-an-impending-disaster.

In the case of Joseph, it worked. We can always cite cases where it didn’t work. In my (sometimes) humble opinion, I side on the safe side. Marry smartly. Associate smartly. And “smartly” means “Godly.”

And more than anything else, whatever situation we find ourselves, let’s look to God. God will give us today what we need today. And that is a blessing far greater than anything we deserve.

Hebrews 2:16-18 (New Living Translation)

16 We also know that the Son did not come to help angels; he came to help the descendants of Abraham. 17 Therefore, it was necessary for him to be made in every respect like us, his brothers and sisters, so that he could be our merciful and faithful High Priest before God. Then he could offer a sacrifice that would take away the sins of the people. 18 Since he himself has gone through suffering and testing, he is able to help us when we are being tested.

Jesus didn’t come to earth to help angels. Perhaps angels didn’t need help—I doubt that, but can’t prove that doubt. No, Jesus came to help the “descendants of Abraham,” i.e., the Jews and the Gentile nations (see many other passages for that assertion).

As part of helping us, Jesus had to endure “suffering and testing.” Jesus had to join mankind in this sorry state. Daily we suffer. Daily we face tests. We fail the tests often—some days much more than others. It is difficult to pass a test when you have a headache, i.e., when suffering from this life.

Thank you God that we don’t have to pass all the tests or even pass a few of them. Thank you for grace.