Contemplative Bible Reading

Exodus 32:5-6 (New Living Translation)

5 Aaron saw how excited the people were, so he built an altar in front of the calf. Then he announced, “Tomorrow will be a festival to the Lord!”

6 The people got up early the next morning to sacrifice burnt offerings and peace offerings. After this, they celebrated with feasting and drinking, and they indulged in pagan revelry.

Moses is up on the mountain somewhere, out of sight, unseen for just a little too long for the impatient people. Aaron builds a golden calf and an altar.

“Tomorrow,” Aaron proclaims. “A festival to YHWH (Jehovah) the creator.”

All right. We are ready. What happens? Pagan revelry. Hmmm. How did they go from good intentions to, well, something they didn’t intend or something like that?

Before we condemn too much, let’s recall that these people had lived in Egypt for 20 generations. You pick up a lot of pagan revelry and festivals in 20 generations. Should this result be a surprise?

Since Christ was on the cross, we have lived through about 100 generations. How much of our Sunday services are, well, you know, sort of pagan revelry? Oh, no! Not us! We worship just like the Christians in the first century. We have, well, uh, we have, well, we don’t have anything that tells us what they did. And besides, they lived in a pagan world and who knows what they did.

Religious festivals. Religious services. We do what we do. We trust in the grace of God. Let’s have some humility and realization as we do what we do. And let’s thank God constantly for His forgiveness.

2 Samuel 12:29-30 (New Living Translation)

29 So David gathered the rest of the army and went to Rabbah, and he fought against it and captured it. 30 David removed the crown from the king’s head, and it was placed on his own head. The crown was made of gold and set with gems, and it weighed seventy-five pounds. David took a vast amount of plunder from the city.

Let’s try to follow this one…David,  chosen and empowered by God, conquered a city. David took the gem-covered golden crown of the conquered, a.k.a., the loser and placed it on his own head. (“Wow! Don’t I look cool.”)

Do we need to go through this one again? David proudly wore the headpiece of the loser, the person God chose to punish.

How is it that we continue to do these things today? We conquer through God. Then we wallow in the mud of the evil  that God just enabled us to conquer. We treasure the treasure of the loser and the lost and the evil. Will we ever learn? God, please help me in my unbelief.

Genesis 37:26-27a (New Living Translation)

26 Judah said to his brothers, “What will we gain by killing our brother? … 27 let’s sell him to those Ishmaelite traders.

What gain is there in murdering our brother? Let’s sell him instead. At least that brings us some spending money.

What? Well, at least they were…No, this is awful. Already set on murder, they now think of slavery. There is money in slavery. There is no money in murder.

This reminds me of those hypothetical questions, which is worse…and this is followed by two illegal, immoral, unethical, etc. alternatives. The alternatives are both wrong. There is no better or worse between them. Don’t even think about that for a second.

Psalm 37:27 Depart from evil, and do good; (American Standard Version)

Pretty simple. What went wrong with the Joseph’s brothers? What goes wrong with us today?

Ezra 1:2 (New Living Translation)

“This is what King Cyrus of Persia says:

“The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth. He has appointed me to build him a Temple at Jerusalem, which is in Judah.

Strange words coming from the King of Persia, you know, one of the really rich and powerful fellas’ in the world. Everything the King of Persia has was given to him by Jehovah (YHWH) the God of heaven, the God of Israel—one of those puny little places that the King of Persia stomped on a weekend romp through the puny little places.

Strange indeed. Stranger still is how rare it is that I and other Christians today stand and say, “The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the money, lands, homes, and family that I have.” Strange indeed.

Ezra 7:26 (New Living Translation)

Anyone who refuses to obey the law of your God and the law of the king will be punished immediately, either by death, banishment, confiscation of goods, or imprisonment.

This is part of a letter from a Gentile ruler to Ezra, a Jew. Note the last word, imprisonment.

God’s law, what we call the Old Law for which The Ten Commandments are the core, did not have a prison. Persons were not punished by removing them from society, holding them in a place, and hoping they saw the light or had some stroke of genius that told them to behave once they returned to society.

God’s law had harsh punishments that were roughly equivalent to the offense. This is the “eye for and eye” concept. Steal an animal, you give back another animal. Kill a person, you die. Commit adultery, you die. (Wait a minute, how is that equivalent? A topic for another day.)

God’s grace today: commit a crime in society, pay the penalty in that society as its rules dictates. That is what the ruler was writing to Ezra—the penalties of that society in that place at that time.

Oh, and then there is the rest of God’s grace: treat another person badly—not just commit a crime, but don’t fully love that person—you are guilty enough to die and suffer eternally. God, however, will cover that with the blood of His Son. Sounds like a pretty good deal. Sounds like something I don’t fully comprehend.

Luke 1:34 (New Living Translation)

Mary asked the angel, “But how can this happen? I am a virgin.”

This is a familiar verse and a familiar (hi)story. This little phrase summarizes much of our relationship to God.

Really, God. You can do that?

Yes, God can. Yes, God has, over and over. Yet, we continue to ask, “How can this happen?”

Can God cure my mother’s dementia? Can God remove mental illness? Can God stop cancer worldwide? Yes to all the above.

Let us, however, consider the big things. The really big things.

Can God have me look upon a stranger and see a loving, caring person? Can God have me look upon a, well, you know, one of those people at work who just grate me the wrong way everyday, and see a loving, caring person? Can God help me realize my blessings?

Those are some of the really big things. And I wonder, how can this happen? It can happen through God. God has given me what I need for these things that just can’t happen.

John 10:24 (New Living Translation)

The people surrounded him and asked, “How long are you going to keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.”

The people didn’t know—for sure. The people wanted to know—at least they claimed to want to know.

Hey Jesus, hit us with a baseball bat (again, did they have baseball bats in Judea 2,000 years ago?). Spell it out. Draw us a picture. We are a bit dense.

Jesus’ reply was sort of, “What do you think of these miracles I’ve been doing? What do you think about the prophecies and my life? A little coincidence?”

Today? We aren’t any better. We look back on those folks and shake our heads. How could they have been so dense? But, really, what do we do? We have good days where we believe and we live like we believe. Then we have other days. That is why I often conclude these little writings with something like, God, help me in my unbelief. God, end the suspense and really get me to live always like I should, like I really believe.

Suspense, it is still with us.

Genesis 6:11 (New Living Translation)

Now God saw that the earth had become corrupt and was filled with violence.

Just before the flood, the earth—the whole place—was in bad shape. God was sorry, some versions say “heart broken,” about His creation. Corrupt is one word used in most translation. That means depraved or immoral.

Note the word that comes with corrupt. Here it is—violence. Of all the descriptions of the bad state of affairs, God chooses violence. I have the feeling that God is heart broken when He sees his creation beating itself to a pulp.

Now consider world history or the history of man in this world. Violence? War? Yikes. We have a scant few years here and there when someone is not smashing someone else in a war. Now consider the condition of God’s heart.

This is not a good picture, folks. What have we done? And yet God came here to be with us and save us. Praise God for his unending grace.

Isaiah 40: (New Living Translation)

1 “Comfort, comfort my people,”
says your God.
2 “Speak tenderly to Jerusalem.
Tell her that her sad days are gone
and her sins are pardoned.
Yes, the Lord has punished her twice over
for all her sins.”

3 Listen! It’s the voice of someone shouting,
“Clear the way through the wilderness
for the Lord!
Make a straight highway through the wasteland
for our God!
4 Fill in the valleys,
and level the mountains and hills.
Straighten the curves,
and smooth out the rough places.
5  Then the glory of the Lord will be revealed,
and all people will see it together.
The Lord has spoken!”

The glory of the Lord will be revealed. The Savior is coming. Prepare everything. The time of punishment is over.

It was all predicted. How did the world react? Not so good. Those stupid people. Hmm, they acted just the same way we would act today. Not much improvement over a few thousand years of civilization or however we describe ourselves.

Notice that the Lord is coming from the wilderness. Why? Why not from Manhattan? And where is “the wilderness” today? How would we recognize someone coming from that place? Lots of questions, few answers. I guess that shows how much “smarter” God is.

Tomorrow is Christmas Day. Fundamentalist Christians (that’s an old term, but I guess it still fits some of us some of the time) talk about how Jesus really wasn’t born on December 25th and all that stuff that is true but sort of ruins the spirit for a lot of folks. Sigh.

Here is something I find good about the Christmas season: I can look at someone I don’t know, smile, say something kind, and people won’t think I’m a nut. There is some good in that, so let’s enjoy it.