Contemplative Bible Reading

Jeremiah 16:13 (Christian Standard Bible)

So I will hurl you from this land into a land that you and your fathers are not familiar with. There you will worship other gods both day and night, for I will not grant you grace.

Through the prophet Jeremiah, God is telling His people of their coming punishment. Things will be bad. They will be confused day and night because they will live in a place where noting is familiar.

And then things will be worse.

God will let the people worship other gods. They will holler and sing and dance and perform rituals in front of polished rocks and carved sticks. They will feel like they are doing something, but only doing nothing. Well, worse than nothing. They will be magnifying their sins. God will allow them to do such.

And then things will be worse.

There will be no grace—no favor from God. That’s about as bad as it can be. Favor from God can overcome everything. Just a little favor from God can do the unimaginable. No favor from God? That’s just plain…well, just plain rotten and miserable and hopeless.

Thank you God for your grace, for your favor.

Isaiah 9:7 (New Living Translation)

His government and its peace
    will never end.
He will rule with fairness and justice from the throne of his ancestor David
    for all eternity.
The passionate commitment of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies
    will make this happen!

This is describing the coming government of the…

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Good economy? Secure borders? Those aren’t mentioned. Fairness (many translations use “righteous” or being right by God) and Justice.

Those are oft repeated descriptions of good governing. I guess we don’t talk about those things much anymore. Plus, not many folks seem to like the definitions of fair and just given in the Bible. How times have changed, or have they?

1 Thessalonians 4:12 (New Living Translation)

Then people who are not believers will respect the way you live, and you will not need to depend on others.

Depending on other persons can be a dangerous thing. If I owe too much to another person, they control my decisions.

Well, if I owe the mortgage company for the next thirty years… Can I live within that? Many of us have, and we were fine. Some of us slipped and fell and … things didn’t go so well. We took jobs with the wrong people in the wrong places and strayed.

Dependence on other persons and other things can be a dangerous things. Let us strive to remain out of danger.

Genesis 18:13-14 (New Living Translation)

13 Then the Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh? Why did she say, ‘Can an old woman like me have a baby?’ 14 Is anything too hard for the Lord? I will return about this time next year, and Sarah will have a son.”

Of course not. There is nothing “too hard” for the Lord. He caused an old woman to have a baby. Impossible, yet trivial.

My problem with this “nothing is too hard for the Lord” truth—and it is MY PROBLEM—is that the Lord doesn’t to do the impossible things of my choosing at a time of my choosing. I can create a long list of “things that aren’t to hard for the Lord” that I want the Lord to do today.

Why doesn’t the Lord’s list of things agree with mine? Doesn’t the Lord listen to me? Doesn’t the Lord know the value of the things I want accomplished?

The Lord can do. The Lord hears. The Lord knows. Perhaps my vision of the consequences of my list is a bit blurred. Perhaps—definitely, not perhaps—I am not God, and I want to be on some days.

Exodus 12:30 (New Living Translation)

Pharaoh and all his officials and all the people of Egypt woke up during the night, and loud wailing was heard throughout the land of Egypt. There was not a single house where someone had not died.

What a horrible night. Try to imagine this. Growing up in Sunday school and all that … this was a story of victory. God punished the bad guys—they lost. The good guys won after 400 years of suffering.

Step back as an adult and consider this. Consider the houses on your street, on your road. Consider one morning where someone had died the night before in every house. It is almost unimaginable.

This was the worst night in mankind’s recorded history.

Why? How did this happen? What went wrong?

One person—Pharaoh—one ruler was stubborn. One person misruled. One person. hhhhmmmmm I am one person. I don’t think I can bring death to every house in a community in one night, but what might I do that brings suffering?

And what might I do that brings joy, peace of mind and heart, and a calm sense of good to one other person and one community? And I don’t have to do this all by myself. Jesus is with me. Hmmm. Consider that one a while, please and pray for me that I might consider it as well.

Matthew 14:29 (New Living Translation)

“Yes, come,” Jesus said.

Sometimes the more powerful and meaningful messages Jesus gives us are also the briefest (hint to all of us who like to talk and talk and write and write and …).

This is what Jesus tells Peter right before Peter steps out of the boat and walks on water towards Jesus (consider that statement for a while).

Now I am going against what I just advocated:

“Yes.” Jesus is positive. Being a follower of Jesus is a positive, active life now and forever. It isn’t a “don’t do this don’t do that” existence. It is YES.

“Come.” It is obvious which way Jesus wants us to move. He wants us to move towards Him. The Creator wants me to be near Him. What a compliment. What an opportunity.

Yes, there is much in two words. Yes, there is much about our Savior in two words.

Romans 1:21, 12:2 (New Living Translation)

As a result, their minds became dark and confused…Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.

There are a lot of words between these two statements in Paul’s letter to the church in Rome. Sometimes, it helps my little mind to understand better by removing all the in-between words for a moment.

In the world, our minds become dark and confused. God frees us from copying the filth of the world and transforms us, changing the way we think.

Pretty simple, huh? Pretty remarkable, almost unbelievable, huh?

That is how God works. God often takes the simple but impossible path. Thank you God. Please, help me in my unbelief.

Genesis 24:62-63 (New Living Translation)

62 Meanwhile, Isaac, whose home was in the Negev, had returned from Beer-lahai-roi. 63 One evening as he was walking and meditating in the fields, he looked up and saw the camels coming.

How do I spend my evenings? Here is how Isaac spent his.

He walked and meditated in the fields.

Well, uh, er, you have to understand that Isaac lived in a simpler time and well, you know, that was what they did back then, and uh, I, er, well no one would expect me to uh, and, you know, I don’t have any fields, and…

Yes, Isaac lived in a simpler time when everyday was a struggle to keep your family members alive. If they became ill, they died, so you did everything to keep them from catching a deadly cold. Simple?

Still, this is how Isaac spent his evenings. Me? No excuses. Do I spend my evenings with God? Praying? Meditating on the word I have to read? Frittering time watching you know what?

It is my choice.

Hebrews 13:3 (New Living Translation)

Remember those in prison, as if you were there yourself. Remember also those being mistreated, as if you felt their pain in your own bodies.

The writer is concluding a letter sent to Jews. This request seems odd, but consider the nature of the prison:

Gentiles invented prisons. Jews did not have any form of jail or prison in the old law.

Those Jews in prison were suffering a shameful treatment. The Gentiles had taken over the world and were administering their punishment on any Jew who was in prison. Outsiders dominated them.

Consider that last statement. Ever had someone waltz in from out of town, take over, and impose some external law? No, me neither. I can’t imagine that, but that was what the Jews were suffering.

There is much unjust oppression in the world today, in the US today, in my town today. Let me remember the oppressed as if I were oppressed myself.

Matthew 14:29 (New Living Translation)

“Yes, come,” Jesus said.

So Peter went over the side of the boat and walked on the water toward Jesus.

We know the story. Peter walks on water. Then, when we looks away from Jesus, he sinks.

Let’s pause a moment to consider this “walking on water” thing. We tend to go past it quickly since we all heard the story when we were kids, but stop and consider it.

Jesus suspended gravity for Himself—recall that Jesus was also walking on water. And Jesus suspended gravity for Peter, another person who was a distance away and not touching Jesus, i.e., not in the grasp of Jesus.

No one knows how to do that. No one is even close to doing that.

Let us not gloss over the wondrous power of the Savior. Not for a moment. Ever.