Contemplative Bible Reading

Job 37:23-24 (New Living Translation)

23 We cannot imagine the power of the Almighty;
but even though he is just and righteous,
he does not destroy us.
24 No wonder people everywhere fear him.
All who are wise show him reverence.”

People everywhere fear God. Those select few who are wise revere God. Why do the masses fear God?

God is just and righteous.

Let’s wait a moment now and consider this. God is just and righteous. Wow! That is great, right? Everyone should love God for this justice and righteousness. This verse, however, tells us the opposite—everyone fears God because of that.

Sigh. Back to us and our failings. We are rarely just and righteous. We fear the Creator who is one way, but we are something else. The Creator will discipline us until we become like Him, right? Huh? Maybe. Who knows?

Fear. We fear God because we fail to be like God, and we know we fail. Sometimes the fear leads us to deny God exists. If the just and righteous God does not exist, I have nothing and no one to fear. Well, that’s safe.

Well, that’s just plain childish. We know God is there. We know God is always just and righteous. God allows us to choose our reaction. We can worship or we can fear or deny.

Please God, help me to adore and worship you.

Job 36:26 (New Living Translation)

Look, God is greater than we can understand.

We find this statement in one of the more contemplative (hi)stories in the Bible.

God is great. God is so great, we cannot understand God. We cannot truly know God, because God is just…well, God.

There are days when I wonder in amazement.

There are days when I hate this!

I want to understand. I want to…well, I want to be equal to God. Actually, I want to know all there is to know about God so that I will be greater than God. How silly and childish can I be? (Don’t answer that. The answer is pretty darn silly and pretty darn childish.)

This statement—God is beyond our understanding—comes in the middle of a long discussion among some pretty smart fellas. Their pretty smart conclusion is that even though they are pretty smart, they aren’t even close. And I am not even close.

Perhaps I should concentrate my understanding on the simpler encouragements God has given me: love my spouse, love my children, love my neighbors, be thankful. Please God, help my in my unbelief.

1 Peter 3:3-4 (New Living Translation)

3 Don’t be concerned about the outward beauty of fancy hairstyles, expensive jewelry, or beautiful clothes. 4 You should clothe yourselves instead with the beauty that comes from within, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is so precious to God.

Women should not wear fill-in-the-blank-with-your-favorites.

And while we are at it, men should not wear same-blanks.

A few years ago, a man in our church died. He was in his 30s; he left behind a wife and two small children. Many people stood at his memorial service and spoke of him with tears and laughter.

Some people talked of how the young man helped them find jobs. Some spoke of an old car the young man gave them so that they could go to work and have hope. Some spoke of how the young man contacted others who provided clothing and food and shelter. Some spoke of how the young man spoke kind words that lifted their spirits on blue days.

Not a single person said anything like, “That guy was a sharp dressed man.”

What would someone say about me?

Isaiah 35: 5-7 (New Living Translation)

5 And when he comes, he will open the eyes of the blind
and unplug the ears of the deaf.
6 The lame will leap like a deer,
and those who cannot speak will sing for joy!
Springs will gush forth in the wilderness,
and streams will water the wasteland.
7 The parched ground will become a pool,
and springs of water will satisfy the thirsty land.
Marsh grass and reeds and rushes will flourish
where desert jackals once lived.

These verses tell what will happen with the Lord God returns. Incurable maladies will be cured. But that is a figure of speech. It is about healing the spirit and hope. Or is it?

There is the part about springs in the wilderness and marsh grass. Figure of speech or reality?

How about both? How about the physically blind having their sight restored. How about long dormant springs being freed with a few cracks in the rocks. Why not?

And how about hope being restored. People changing their feelings and attitudes towards God and towards one another.

I believe these verses have figures of speech AND have literal fulfillment. Why not? Is God too small to physically, mentally, emotionally, and any other -lly we can imagine to what God wishes for us?

Isaiah 1:5 (New Living Translation)

Why do you continue to invite punishment?
Must you rebel forever?
Your head is injured,
and your heart is sick.

God is sending a question to the people through the prophet Isaiah. Simple question:

What are you doin’?

Their lives were bringing pain and suffering. Their minds were sick; their hearts were sick. Notice how their rebellion hurt both thought and emotion. Notice how God understands that some of us lean towards emotion while some lean towards intellect. It doesn’t matter as both were hurting and hurting themselves.

God the Creator, hmmm, that means God created us. God knows us. God advises us to do what is good for us, good for our hearts and minds.

But I want to try something here that might…

Proceed with caution. Please, proceed with caution. And God, please help us to know how cautious caution is and where the lines are the show caution, fear, hope, love, bravery, boldness, and all those subjective things that we tend to confuse.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.—The Declaration of Independence

The “founding fathers” of the United States of America declared their independence from the King of England and English rule. Perhaps you have heard the above words before, perhaps not.

In the first sentence, the founding fathers mention the Creator—Jehovah God of the Holy Bible.

Not all of the founding fathers were “religious” or “devout Christians” or whatever we might approve or not. Still, they used these words to describe how they viewed the human condition. They viewed the human condition with respect to the Creator God who created each soul as having access to the Creator and the opportunity of living with the Creator eternally.

The founding fathers had their failings and hypocrisy as we all have. Still, God is mentioned in the first sentence of the first document of America.

Something to remember.

Proverbs 22:2 (New Living Translation)

The rich and poor have this in common:
The Lord made them both.

The two phrases in this sentence seem to be opposite.

• God created us all equal in His sight (the second phrase).
• There are unequal people—some rich, some poor (the first phrase).

Hmmm, doesn’t make sense to me.

I believe it is a matter of perspective. The first phrase is from an economic perspective of the world where we judge or label people according to their bank balance. Some persons certainly have more money in the bank than others.

The second phrase is from God’s perspective—the value of a soul created in His image.

The first perspective sure is easier for me to use. I know that 10 is more than 2. Bank balances; simple and easy. Cars; Mercedes are worth more than Chevys. Simple and easy.

Value of a soul created in God’s image? Tough one for me. There are moments when I catch a glimpse of that value. The other 98.6% of the time…well, I don’t do so well.

Please God, help me in my unbelief. Help me to choose the right perspective.

Ecclesiastes 1:9 (New Living Translation)

History merely repeats itself. It has all been done before. Nothing under the sun is truly new.

So, what’s the use? The Bible tells us that nothing changes. Injustice, hate, sin—they just roll on and roll over us.

The key phrase in this verse is “under the sun.” That doesn’t mean “during the day when the sun is shining.” It means “life without God.” God was in the heavens up there with the sun. “Under the sun” was “down here where there was no God, no Creator.” (The writer wrote an exaggerated error to make a point.)

God, however, is here. One day God sent himself in the form of His Son to be with us and make us right with God. I don’t understand that statement, but I know it to be true.

History didn’t repeat itself.

God and His Son changed history forever. Thanks to God for this unfathomable act of grace.

1 Samuel 6:18 (New Living Translation)

The large rock at Beth-shemesh, where they set the Ark of the Lord, still stands in the field of Joshua as a witness to what happened there.

This sentence comes at the end of a (hi)story about how the Ark of the LORD (a treasure chest that held the ten commandments and a few other sacred items) had been lost to an enemy at the end of a lost battle. The enemy had returned the ark by placing it in a field next to a stone, a large rock.

“This rock”, proclaims the prophet Samuel, “is a witness to the events of this (hi)story.”

hmmm, a rock is a witness. Run that one by me again. Rocks are rocks; they aren’t alive, and they can’t witness events. Hmmmm, that isn’t how the prophet with a message from God described it. Perhaps I should reconsider my consideration of rocks.

There are many occasions in the Bible where rocks and dirt and such are described as if they were alive, i.e., they do things that people do such as witness events. The rocks are part of God’s creation. God can give the rocks the ability to do whatever God wants them to do. Well, I guess so, but I don’t know about …

No more “I guess so.” God said it, God did it, and God still does it. Please God, help me in my unbelief.

2 Peter 3:3-4 (New Living Translation)

3 Most importantly, I want to remind you that in the last days scoffers will come, mocking the truth and following their own desires. 4 They will say, “What happened to the promise that Jesus is coming again? From before the times of our ancestors, everything has remained the same since the world was first created.”

Peter warns the Christians of “scoffers” who will come and mock the truth.

The trouble is, these scoffers will be telling the truth, well, at least they won’t be lying.

Truth is, for the past several thousands years sun comes up, the sun goes down, it rains in rainy season, it’s dry in the dry season. My grandfather told me of his grandfather, and I tell my grandson about all of us, and the stories are the same.

That’s one of the problems with the truth: you can say things that are true, but not tell everything that is true, so is that the truth? Philosophy hurts the head.

Peter was warning the Christians of the scoffers and rightfully so. Saying things that are true and leaving Jesus out of the story, is not full truth. Peter goes on the explain how God views time and how we view time are different. Hmmm, now that we mention it, how we view just about anything is different from how God views those same things.

Please God, help me to consider the folly of how I view things. Help me to reconsider my views and the words that accompany them.