Contemplative Bible Reading

1 Kings 6:35 (New Living Translation)

These doors were decorated with carvings of cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers—all overlaid evenly with gold.

People understand symbols. See the outline of an apple with a bite taken out of it? What does that symbolize? We all know.

The verse above is describing part of the interior of the Temple that was being built by King Solomon. These three symbols—cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers—were found throughout.

The cherubim was the angels, the highest form of spiritual being.

The palm tree was living and growing and supplied much of what people needed for life. Remember how people spread palm leaves on the ground for the entry of Jesus?

The open flower was nature at its best—open, blossomed, beautiful, but temporary.

People of the day understood the symbols. God was spiritual—far better than man. God understood the physical—where we lived day by day with things for sustenance and other things for inspiration.

All these things came together when Jesus the spiritual Son came to the physical earth to give us spiritual grace and bless our physical lives here. All foretold by a few carvings on a few doors.

Exodus 6:9 (English Standard Version)

Moses spoke thus to the people of Israel, but they did not listen to Moses, because of their broken spirit and harsh slavery.

Moses is speaking to his relatives, the Israelites who are slaves in Egypt. They have been in Egypt 400 years. For the most recent few generations, they have been under harsh and forced labor.

Their spirit was broken. Their discouragement was something few of us today understand.

With a broken spirit came the inability to hear a messenger from God.

I don’t have a broken spirit. I know some persons who do. Some of us know persons who have a broken spirit. Clogged ears often come with a broken spirit today as 3,000 years ago.

Pray for healed and healthy spirits. Open ears and hearts usually come with them. With open ears come great possibilities for hearing and accepting the Good News that changes lives.

2 Corinthians 5:21 (New Living Translation)

For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.

There are a few places in the Bible where one sentence summarizes the entire thing. We should take note of these sentences. There are many ways to discuss this. Let’s try one.

The last phrase is a miracle (one of several in the sentence). The last phrase tells us that the sacrifice of Jesus makes us right with God.

How can I be right with God? Are you kidding? Me? My life is abhorrent to God. There is nothing in my life that appeals to God. Yet, here it is. I am right with God.

What did I do to deserve this? Nothing. What can I do to keep it up? Nothing. Nothing at all. Jesus did it. It is done. I am right with God.

Whoa. Now what am I suppose to do? Well, readers and followers of Jesus, that is what the vast majority of the rest of the New Testament discusses. Mankind’s search for what to do now that we are in this state of right-ness with God.

John 20:8-9 (New Living Translation)

Then the disciple who had reached the tomb first also went in, and he saw and believed— for until then they still hadn’t understood the Scriptures that said Jesus must rise from the dead.

Jesus has been crucified and buried in the tomb. On the first day of the week various persons discovered that Jesus was no longer dead.

These verses tells us that the Scriptures, i.e., what we call the Old Testament, had foretold that Jesus would die, be buried, and would rise from the dead. The followers, however, didn’t understand what had been written. They didn’t understand that Jesus would rise.

Today, we have all sorts of written words. We have the full Bible in front of us. We have published commentaries containing tens of thousands of words for every word in the Bible—ten thousand words explaining every single word. And then we have all these extra works on the Internet in commentaries and contemplations such as this one.

Do we understand? Do we understand what was written thousands of years ago? It is right in front of us, and we have so much leisure time to read and understand. Do we understand?

Sorry, but my answer is, “Probably not.” The followers of Jesus were pretty smart. Yet they didn’t understand. Am I any smarter, wiser, or more understanding? Probably not. God, please help me in my unbelief.

2 Samuel 12:10 (New Living Translation)

From this time on, your family will live by the sword because you have despised me by taking Uriah’s wife to be your own.

The prophet Nathan is delivering a message from God to King David. David’s despicable act with Uriah and Bathsheba was over. Now comes the punishment.

God punished David. That was only the start. God punished David’s descendants for generations. War plagued David’s reign as king.

Solomon came next, and even though he had a 40-year reign of peace, he path to kingship was marred by a bloody sword inside his family. As soon as Solomon died, his heir to the throne began wars that went on until the kingdom ended in exile in Babylon hundreds of years of bloody swords later.

And this was all recorded in the history of the people. Great-great-great…grandsons could read of David and understand why their lives were miserable. Did they curse David? Did they realize they had a choice in altering but not erasing history?

Do I understand that each day I can change my (hi)story? Please God, help me in my unbelief.

Genesis 39:6 (New Living Translation)

So Potiphar gave Joseph complete administrative responsibility over everything he owned. With Joseph there, he didn’t worry about a thing—except what kind of food to eat!

This is the early part of the (hi)story of Joseph, his owner Potiphar, and Potiphar’s wife. Potiphar had put Joseph, a slave, in charge of everything he owned. Under Joseph’s stewardship, the crops and livestock of Potiphar flourished. The rich man became richer.

This was the right hand man of Pharaoh.

Things were so good in the house of Potiphar that the only worry he had was, “What’s for dinner?”

Me? What’s for dinner? I’m richer than Pharaoh’s right hand man. Really? Yes? And so are most of the people I know.

Do we act like Potiphar? Do we act like Potiphar’s wife? Are we watching our household for brewing troubles? Or is tonight’s dinner all we consider?

God, help me raise my mind and heart above my stomach. Let not my blessings cause me to fall.

John 17:3 (New Living Translation)

And this is the way to have eternal life—to know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, the one you sent to earth.

Want eternal life? Who doesn’t. How do we get? What is the way? Where do we go?

Good questions. The verse above tells us in a few, simple words: know God and know Jesus, the one sent to earth.

When we know God, we are in eternal life. Sure, the present and frail physical body will fail in a few years, but the soul is already in eternal life with God.

Simple? Maybe. I cannot, however, understand all of this as my mind is too small to comprehend God and what God tells us about these things. Still, I can reach for this. I can reach for knowing God and knowing Jesus, the one sent to earth.

Thank you God for this “head start” on heaven. And that is a simple-minded, human-limited way of trying to understand it all.

John 16:23-24 (New Living Translation)

23 At that time you won’t need to ask me for anything. I tell you the truth, you will ask the Father directly, and he will grant your request because you use my name. 24 You haven’t done this before. Ask, using my name, and you will receive, and you will have abundant joy.

Jesus changes how we pray in His instructions to His followers. “You will,” i.e., in the future you ask God using my name.”

“You haven’t done this before,” i.e., “You haven’t prayed using my name before.”

Jesus concludes with, “In the future, ask, using my name, and you will receive, and you will have abundant joy.”

Perhaps this is a small point. Perhaps this is merely a change of format. Perhaps this is a miracle that we each enjoy each time we pray to God using the name of Jesus.

Let us joy in this miracle, often.

Genesis 3:7 (New Living Translation)

At that moment their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves.

Adam and Eve had just eaten the forbidden fruit. They now knew both good and evil. They knew they were naked.

They were embarrassed and felt shame. They immediately covered themselves.

Shame and embarrassment are odd things. You have to know something is right to know something is wrong. You have to know something is wrong to be embarrassed once you do wrong. You have to know that you have done wrong to be ashamed of your actions. Once ashamed you can repent and avoid the wrong. They seem to go around in a circle.

And then we go back and do it again.

What, oh what is wrong with us? We are doomed. We, however, are not doomed. The grace of our Savior keeps us clean in the Savior’s sight. Praise and thanks to God. Shame is not damnation.

Hebrews 11:8-10 (New Living Translation)

8 It was by faith that Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land that God would give him as his inheritance. He went without knowing where he was going. 9 And even when he reached the land God promised him, he lived there by faith—for he was like a foreigner, living in tents. And so did Isaac and Jacob, who inherited the same promise. 10 Abraham was confidently looking forward to a city with eternal foundations, a city designed and built by God.

Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are mentioned here. These are the patriarchs or the founding father, son, and grandson.

What was their home town?

Uh, well, they didn’t have one. Note the mention of “foundations” in verse 10. None of them had a home that had a foundation, a concrete slab, even those concrete blocks for homes that sit off the ground. Even single-wide trailers have those concrete things that keep them off the ground and out of the termites. Foundations.

The patriarchs lived in tents like immigrants in a detention camp. Not a great background for founding fathers, huh?

I sure have it better. My home has slabs and steel and all sorts of foundations. I live solidly right where I am. We all do. Isn’t that … well, different from the patriarchs? Ooooops, have we gone in the wrong direction here? Are we too settled and comfortable? Am I stretching this point a bit too far?

Maybe so; maybe not. Something to consider now and then as I sink into a comfortable chair in my comfortable house in my comfortable life. Too comfortable? God, help me in my unbelief.