Contemplative Bible Reading

Exodus 15:26 (New Living Translation)

26 He said, “If you will listen carefully to the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in his sight, obeying his commands and keeping all his decrees, then I will not make you suffer any of the diseases I sent on the Egyptians; for I am the Lord who heals you.”

Jehovah, one English name for the LORD who is the one and true God of these people, is speaking to the people through Moses.

Back in Egypt, there were plenty of diseases. The people lived from the annual floods of the Nile River. Floods are messy, disease-ridden events. I won’t go into detail, but yuck. All the muck and sewage run off and all that yucky stuff. Disease was common and everyone knew it was coming all the time.

Shift to the wilderness where a million people were living in tents in a giant camp. Disease? Ever heard of dysentery running through a camp? Gosh, what a mess.

But not here, not with Jehovah God. God heals those who follow. Pretty simple. Pretty miraculous to have a camp of a million people with no disease. Funny how we fail to notice the lack of bad things. Oh sure, the people noticed a lack of fresh water. They notice a lack of variety in the food. They weren’t hungry. They weren’t sick. They weren’t dying of starvation. Didn’t notice that lack, did they?

Do I? Ooops. God heals. God heals me daily. Thanks be to God.

Genesis 12:1, 4b (New Living Translation)

1 The Lord had said to Abram, “Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you. … 4b Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran.

God is speaking to Abram; God will later rename him Abraham.

God’s instruction is simple, “Leave.” Go to another land. Leave your relatives. It is time for you to go your own way and make your own legacy.

And Abram was 75 years old. Are you kidding? At age 75, pick up and leave? Start all over again? At 75? Crazy, right?

Abram did as God told him. Once again, followers of God do things that just don’t make any sense. Faith is sort of that way. Go ahead. Follow God. Yeah, but. No. Go head. Follow God.

Exodus 16:7a (New Living Translation)

7 In the morning you will see the glory of the Lord…

This is part of the (hi)story of the people wandering in the wilderness for 40 years before entering the land God had promised. There are about a million hungry mouths to feed every day, so God has a solution. Go out of the camp every morning and you will see the glory of the Lord.

Hmm, let’s see… a double sun rising. Nope. Well, a mysterious weather front falling from the sky that drives herds of animals to the camp for capture and eating. Nope. Caravans loaded with food where the owners are compelled to give food to God’s people. Nope.

Hmm, let’s see… small bits of something that you could bake, boil, fry, or fricassee (I don’t even know what that last word means, but you could do it to or with or something with that stuff the Lord provided).

The glory of the Lord is small bits of edible stuff. Huh? That’s glorious? Yes, it is. The sustenance of life in a place where such doesn’t exist. Dependence on God fulfilled. That is glorious.

I believe that there are little bits of the glory of the Lord in front of me everyday. All I have to do is push my ego out of the way and notice them. Please God, help me to see Your glory every day in the little bits of miracles you provide. Help me in my unbelief.

Genesis 3:8 (New Living Translation)

8 When the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man and his wife heard the Lord God walking about in the garden. So they hid from the Lord God among the trees.

There is something about hiding that we people do. There are games we play as children where hiding something or someone or ourselves is good fun. Then there is the hiding that Adam and Eve did in this (hi)story.

If you, in this case God, cannot see something. It doesn’t exist. If I cover a dirty frying pan with a towel, it doesn’t exist and I don’t have to scrub it. If I cover a hole in the wall with a picture, it doesn’t exist and I don’t have to patch the hole. If I hide among the trees, God won’t see me and won’t ask me about what I was doing talking to that serpent.

When a two-year-old child hides a mess from a parent, it is obvious to the parent what is happening. When a person hides sin from God, well, are you kidding? It is obvious to God. What Adam and Eve had done was obvious to God. They, however, resorted to hiding anyway. Silly. Foolish.

The good news is, we don’t have to hide any longer. We are forgiven. We won’t have to scrub that messy frying pan because God has already cleaned it. We don’t have to patch that hole in the wall because God has already fixed it.

There is something amazing about not having to hide our mistakes. We don’t make as many mistakes. That doesn’t quite make sense, but that’s the way it is in our human condition. Thanks be to God.

Exodus 16:29 (New Living Translation)

29 They must realize that the Sabbath is the Lord’s gift to you. That is why he gives you a two-day supply on the sixth day, so there will be enough for two days. On the Sabbath day you must each stay in your place. Do not go out to pick up food on the seventh day.”

The people of the LORD were stuck out in a wilderness. There were a million of them (a low estimate) and they needed food. God put food on the ground every morning. On the sixth day of the week, God put double on the ground. They people were to pick up enough for the sixth day and also the seventh day. On the seventh day, they didn’t have to gather food. They could sleep in. They could sleep it!

Yet, large numbers of them rose on the seventh day and went out to pick up food.

God’s gift was one day of the week where the people could rest. The people tried to work that day. Hey, this is free day. Relax. Yet, the people couldn’t relax. They needed to set aside something for a rainy day. That makes sense, right? Nope. Wrong. God told them that they wouldn’t have a rainy day as long as they were faithful to God.

Hmm. Be faithful. No rainy days. Doesn’t make sense. Much of following God and the workings of God doesn’t make much sense to me. It makes sense to God, but not to me. That is difficult for me to accept. Please God, help me in my unbelief.

Ephesians 5:8-9 (New Living Translation)

8 For once you were full of darkness, but now you have light from the Lord. So live as people of light! 9 For this light within you produces only what is good and right and true.

Paul is writing to the Christians in Ephesus. He is writing about the change that has overcome them by following God, i.e., the Lord. Paul explains one part of this change by writing about light. It is like a light from the Lord has replaced the darkness that used to be in in them.

“Live as people of light,” Paul encourages. The light is in you, live like it.

And here is the bonus. That light within people produces only what is good and right and true. Let’s consider that for a moment. The Lord has put something in me that produces good and right and true. I don’t have to work and study and try for years to achieve that. It is there. God put it there. I just have to get out of the way and let it be. It is like standing aside so a light shines. Just stand to the side. Simple, but somehow I mess it up. God, help me in my unbelief.

Exodus 5:2 (New Living Translation)

2 “Is that so?” retorted Pharaoh. “And who is the Lord? Why should I listen to him and let Israel go? I don’t know the Lord, and I will not let Israel go.”

Pharaoh, the most powerful man in this part of the world at this time, is talking to two representatives of dirt-poor slaves. That is amazing in itself that God would arrange such an unlikely meeting.

Moses and Aaron requested that Pharaoh let this huge group of slaves walk out of town to worship their god called Jehovah.

“What?” was the response of Pharaoh. “Let these people go? Are you crazy? Why I haven’t even heard of this god Jehovah. Who is this Jehovah?”

Pharaoh was educated and religious. Pharaoh had learned of many gods in the known world in addition to the dozens of gods in Egypt (the god of the sun, the god of the river, etc.). Pharaoh, however, had not heard of this Jehovah the god of this people called “children of Israel” or “children of Isaac.”

Pharaoh would soon learn of Jehovah. Pharaoh would soon see the all-powerful nature of Jehovah. Pharaoh would soon regret his ignorance.

Exodus 18:10-11 (New Living Translation)

10 “Praise the Lord,” Jethro said, “for he has rescued you from the Egyptians and from Pharaoh. Yes, he has rescued Israel from the powerful hand of Egypt! 11 I know now that the Lord is greater than all other gods, because he rescued his people from the oppression of the proud Egyptians.”

Jethro is the father-in-law of Moses. Jethro speaks to Moses after God has brought the people of Israel from 400 years of bondage in Egypt to freedom. That is an amazing thing!

Jethro is not part of the families descended from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He is an in-law or something. Yet Jethro has this insight: Jehovah, the god of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is greater than all the other gods. Jehovah whipped all those Egyptian gods by showing power over the sun god, the river god, etc. Jehovah rescued the people that Jehovah designated as his people.

Folks, this is an old story, and we know how it ends. Consider, however, what it means. 400 years in captivity in a foreign land. That was the wrong place to be and that was too long. Civilizations and people vanished in history. We have a few “ghost towns” in America. In ancient times, they had ghost peoples and ghost civilizations. The descendants of Abraham, the people chosen by the God Jehovah should have disappeared and become one of those ghost peoples that might have been written in one line in an ancient text. Instead, Jehovah rescued them, brought them to a land promised to them, and this all lives today.

That is an amazing thing from history. That is an amazing thing today.

Jehovah is greater than all other gods.

Luke 7:47-50 (New Living Translation)

47 “I tell you, her sins—and they are many—have been forgiven, so she has shown me much love. But a person who is forgiven little shows only little love.” 48 Then Jesus said to the woman, “Your sins are forgiven.”

49 The men at the table said among themselves, “Who is this man, that he goes around forgiving sins?”

50 And Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

This is the conclusion of the (hi)story of the immoral woman who knelt at the feet of Jesus and washed his dusty feet with her tears. She then dried the feet of Jesus with her hair and poured perfume on them.

By anointing the feet of Jesus, the woman was setting Jesus apart for a sacred purpose. That is what pouring expensive liquid on someone mean to the Jews. It is like us today standing when an important person walks in the room. The standing shows our respect and honor for the person. (Some of us still do those things.)

This immoral woman had faith, a belief in something not seen because it has not yet happened, that Jesus was the Christ, i.e., the one appointed to take away the sins of the world. She had an active faith in that she knelt there and did these things for and to Jesus.

At the protest of Simon the Pharisee, Jesus explained that the faith of the woman in those things spiritual brought spiritual salvation.

It is at the is point where I am supposed to conclude with a significant thought or two. How about this one? Sometimes, by faith in God, we do things that just aren’t done in a polite society (do we remember what a polite society was?). When questioned, we answer humbly and in truth. Yes, this is unusual, but I do this in the name of God. I think we can do that. Let’s have a little more faith in our lives.

Romans 12:21 (New Living Translation)

21 Don’t let evil conquer you, but conquer evil by doing good.

Paul is writing to the Christians in Rome. Paul spends a few paragraphs on the subject of love and loving others. He concludes with this statement. Conquer evil with love.

Recently in America, someone was killed. Some Americans found the deceased to be virtuous and commendable. Some Americans found the deceased to by vile and distasteful. Hmm,

• Those folks disagree with me.
• Those folks are evil.

The first point is objective and correct. The second point is subjective and open to question. For a moment, let’s suppose “those folks” are really evil. Hmm, Paul tells us what to do next.

Let’s ponder this for a moment. Half of America believes the other half is evil. All Americans follow Paul’s instructions. Now all Americans love all Americans and do good towards them. How about that situation?

Let’s try it.