Contemplative Bible Reading

Ezekiel 22:7 (New Living Translation)

Fathers and mothers are treated with contempt. Foreigners are forced to pay for protection. Orphans and widows are wronged and oppressed among you.

The prophet is describing the collapse of a Godly people. The paragraph surrounding this verse includes many things such as these. Simply put, people are taking advantage of others who cannot protect themselves.

Shame. Shame. Shame. What else can we say?

I don’t run the show here. I have no shame here, right? Look upon others who have less and are less in the eyes of society. How am I acting? Where is my heart?

Psalm 19:9a (English Standard Version)

the fear of the Lord is clean,
enduring forever;

This is a different way to express the fear of the Lord. “Clean.” What does that mean? The next phrase states that a clean fear endures forever. Things that endure forever have usually achieved some sort of perfection. There are no defects that allow decay. Clean, no defects, ready for time.

Ever wipe a white board only to see faint lines where those dry erase markers left a little bit of ink on the surface? That board isn’t clean. It is cleaner, but not clean. It isn’t ready for enduring time.

How do we make ourselves clean? We can’t. We can allow the blood of Jesus to clean us and make our fear of the Lord endure. Simple, huh. Let Jesus do the work. Why do we resist the gift?

1 Chronicles 21:1 (New Living Translation)

Satan rose up against Israel and caused David to take a census of the people of Israel.

Satan attacks King David of Israel. What does Satan do? How does Satan “get at” David? What is the devious plot? What is the frontal onslaught?

Satan spurs David to count his stuff.

Let’s go through that one again. Satan causes David to count the blessings of God—the number of persons in Israel. And someone please explain how that is an attack from evil.

Here is one attempt: God wants us to be happy. God blesses us with and in ways that we cannot count. Let us enjoy. Really, let us simply enjoy. Count the stuff? Why? Besides, I can’t count that high.

Still, I sometimes want to count and recount just to make sure that I have counted correctly. I want to put a number on God’s blessings. I want to put a number on God. If I can put a number on God, I can measure God, and I can show God that I am bigger than God. “Hey God, you’re doing pretty good this week. You up’ed the count a little. Way to go, God.”

Of course all this counting God is silly. Worse, it is sinful. That is why Satan spurred David to count his blessings in an official census. How’d it work out? Not too good (see verse 13 “I’m in a desperate situation!” David replied…). I thank God that He doesn’t kill just about everyone I know in response to my silly, stupid, sinful, and all-too-frequent counting. Please God, help me in my unbelief.

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (New Living Translation)

4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

Let me strive to read the first three words and stop there until I “get it right.”

One way to read this—meaning one way that I have failed to read this up to now and suffered for it and hurt others—is that I must be patient with myself if I am to better love others.

“But I have this great stupendous thing I have to tell you that you really need to hear RIGHT NOW and I can’t hold it in any longer and YOU REALLY NEED THIS and I AM JUST THE PERSON TO TELL YOU AND…”

Not the words, thoughts, or deeds of a patient person. Not the words, thoughts, or deeds of a LOVING person. Please God, help me to love others; help my in my unbelief.

Job 1:1 (New Living Translation)

There once was a man named Job who lived in the land of Uz. He was blameless—a man of complete integrity. He feared God and stayed away from evil.

Such begins the Old Testament book that recounts the (hi)story of Job. A simple statement that describes the man. Note the last few words, “(he) stayed away from evil.”

Tempted by fill-in-the-blank? Stay away from it. Simple? Yes. Easy? Not always. Still, as the folks at Nike used to say, JUST DO IT. See it coming? Turn the other way.

1 Chronicles 12:32 (New Living Translation)

From the tribe of Issachar, there were 200 leaders of the tribe with their relatives. All these men understood the signs of the times and knew the best course for Israel to take.

This verse comes from a long listing of persons who decided to follow David as their earthly King. From Issachar, we have leaders who, and this is key, “understood the signs of the times and knew the best course for Israel to take.”

What a wonderful condition, to be led by persons who understood the present and how it should shape the future. I believe this is an excellent definition of wisdom. The ability to understand and proceed as God would have us. Please God, grant me such.

Psalm 97:1 (New Living Translation)

The Lord is king!
Let the earth rejoice!
Let the farthest coastlands be glad.

I am logical, scientific, rational, and all those boring things. A coastland being glad? Are you kidding? That is just a place where land meets water. How can it be glad? Yet, here it is, right in front of me.

There is much in the Old(er) Testament about how the creation—all of the creation—enjoying the blessings of God. I seem to understand that on some days, but there are plenty of other days where I shrug it off as some sort of poetic stuff that really doesn’t have to make any sense.

Still, here it is, right in front of us. All of creation rejoices as the Creator is in charge. The Creator knows what to do and how to keep it all spinning and in balance. Who are we to think that we can destroy or recreate any of it?

1 Samuel 12:25a (New Living Translation)

As for me, I will certainly not sin against the Lord by ending my prayers for you.

There are many ways to sin against God. How about this one: Not praying for someone.

“I’ll fix you, I won’t pray for you anymore!”

How silly. How arrogant. How sinful. How did the sin part get in there with the other two? Oh, the Bible tells me so per the above.

Do I “think” about other persons? Am I praying for them in my thoughts? Are my thoughts consumed in some other way? What am I doing? Please God, help me in my unbelief.

Psalm 103:15-17 (New Living Translation)

15 Our days on earth are like grass;
like wildflowers, we bloom and die.
16 The wind blows, and we are gone—
as though we had never been here.
17 But the love of the Lord remains forever
with those who fear him.

Simple verses that compare us and God. Grass. It grows when there is water. When the water is gone, the grass turns brown, dies, and blows away. So much for the grass.

The love of the Creator, well that is different. It remains and remains and remains and…

I love other translations: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases.

And there are moments on some days when I want to be God. I know what I’m doing and what I’m saying and … well, doesn’t work well. Still, I come back to those days too often. Please God, in light of all there is, please help me in my unbelief.

1 Samuel 10:25 (New Living Translation)

Then Samuel told the people what the rights and duties of a king were. He wrote them down on a scroll and placed it before the Lord. Then Samuel sent the people home again.

At long last, God’s people had an earthly king. This didn’t work out that well, but it was a welcome event.

Samuel the prophet addressed the people immediately. “These are the responsibilities and limits of King.” Notice, the King did not have the authority to say, “My word is law.” There were limits. Some kings…well, they didn’t hold to their limits. They knew better, and things didn’t work out well.

Still, God knew about power corrupting and absolute power corrupting absolutely. We learn that there is nothing new among us in the past few thousand years. Hmm, how about that? God invented us and has a pretty good—or is it faultless—concept of what we are and do.