Contemplative Bible Reading

Genesis 4:26 (New Living Translation)

When Seth grew up, he had a son and named him Enosh. At that time people first began to worship the Lord by name.

Other translations use the phrase, “they began to call upon the name of the LORD.”

Man came to view God the creator as … well as God and not someone living around the corner. Note how Adam and Eve met with God and thought of God. That was changing here. That became much closer to our relationship with God today.

And now we have the concept of worship. “Worship” mean a million things to a hundred different people. At this point in history, people first began to worship God as the Creator. How did they do that? Please, give the details in the footnotes or something, okay, God? Help us out here!

No details (and where would you put footnotes in a scroll anyways, but I digress). So what do I do? How do I worship properly? I suppose if I were clever or wise enough I could give an answer that works for people in the Arctic Circle in the year 1500 and people in the US of A in the year 2018. I know it has something to do with the heart. Hmmm, that is not helpful, but, at the same time, the answer.

Deuteronomy 28:65 (English Standard Version)

And among these nations you shall find no respite, and there shall be no resting place for the sole of your foot, but the Lord will give you there a trembling heart and failing eyes and a languishing soul.

God is telling His people what fate they will have if they don’t follow Him. It is awful. God doesn’t tell them of the place they will be, but describes their soul. They will languish.

languish: lose or lack vitality; grow weak or feeble; suffer from being forced to remain in an unpleasant place or situation.

Awful. Simply awful.

Notice how God describes punishment and reward. God speaks of the soul and the condition of the spirit of a person. The surroundings don’t matter. We could be in 21st century Manhattan or 17th century London or on a planet years in the future. The soul always has and always will be the condition of man.

How is my soul? How is my relationship with God?

Judges 13:8 (New Living Translation)

Then Manoah prayed to the Lord, saying, “Lord, please let the man of God come back to us again and give us more instructions about this son who is to be born.”

Please God, send us a person to give us more instructions. Hmmm, how often do we pray and request this? Please send someone who will talk to me about God. Please send someone who will talk to me about a coming Savior. Please send someone who will give me hope for the future and peace for the present.

And, by the way, what would help us to be happy and at rest? Coincidence? Just a shift in priorities, I suppose, but a major shift.

Ecclesiastes 9:11 (New Living Translation)

I have observed something else under the sun. The fastest runner doesn’t always win the race, and the strongest warrior doesn’t always win the battle. The wise sometimes go hungry, and the skillful are not necessarily wealthy. And those who are educated don’t always lead successful lives. It is all decided by chance, by being in the right place at the right time.

Chance. I don’t like this verse. I prepare. I work. I am ready. I am skillful. I am educated. I’m not really fast, but you get the point.

Why is all decided by chance? Come on God, give me a break, okay?

Pause and notice that this discusses SUCCESS, not happiness. A lot of practices lead to a happy life. A happy life is not necessarily a successful life. The definition of success changes with the ages. Does the same happen to happiness? I think not.

Once again, time to admit that God is God and I am not.

Job 42:12-13 (New Living Translation)

12 So the Lord blessed Job in the second half of his life even more than in the beginning. For now he had 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 teams of oxen, and 1,000 female donkeys. 13 He also gave Job seven more sons and three more daughters.

Throughout the (hi)story of Job, we are told of how his friends gave him bad advice and his wife…whoa, his wife. She told him to curse God.

How did Job’s life end? He had ten more children. We aren’t told the details, but it seems that Job had ten more children with this same woman.

Seems like Job loved his wife.

Job 2:8-9 (New Living Translation)

8 Job scraped his skin with a piece of broken pottery as he sat among the ashes. 9 His wife said to him, “Are you still trying to maintain your integrity? Curse God and die.”

Job’s misery. Yikes, that sounds painful. Job’s faithful wife chimes in with some advice. She talks about maintaining integrity and concludes with, “Curse God and die.”

How would cursing God help? Can a person simply choose to die?

Perhaps something is lost in time and translation. Her advice makes no sense to me. Perhaps if I were in Job’s miserable condition the words would help. Sitting here sipping coffee, I fail to find the connection.

Then there is the part about integrity. Job served God. A person of integrity would serve God always regardless of anything and everything. Job’s wife tells him to forget this integrity. Do something completely against everything you have ever done. Bad advice, but at least it makes sense.

Isaiah 37:7 (New Living Translation)

“Listen! I myself will move against him, and the king will receive a message that he is needed at home. So he will return to his land, where I will have him killed with a sword.’”

The prophet Isaiah is speaking to King Hezekiah about the King of Assyria. The King of Assyria was about to trample God’s people. That King had all the soldiers and might and everything needed to trample a puny little people.

How does God defeat the mighty King of Assyria? A rumor. “You are needed at home.” Five little words that lead the King of Assyria to his death. Consider that for a while—five little words. Not much, huh?

Funny how God changes the course of human history with something so simple. Funny how God can use me to say a few little words to someone that changes their lives. I know God has used others to say a few little words that changed my life. God does move in mysterious ways His wonders to perform. Too bad I don’t notice these ways that are all around me everyday.

Esther 6:6 (New Living Translation)

So Haman came in, and the king said, “What should I do to honor a man who truly pleases me?”

Haman thought to himself, “Whom would the king wish to honor more than me?”

I love to read the (hi)story of Esther and those around her in the royal court. Haman is the model of the antagonist for all history. He is also the model of arrogance for all history. Two models for all history in one person, not bad for a bad guy.

Here, Haman asks himself, “Who would the King honor more than me? Of course, me. I am the greatest servant to the King who ever lived. Long live me!!!”

Haman died shortly thereafter. He wanted honor too much and put himself in a position to die.

Today? Well, not much has changed in a few thousand years. Daily I see folks who want to be honored just a little bit too much. The good folks are ambitious. The bad folks are just a little too ambitious. The extra-ambitious folks succeed for a while, but…

Me? Oh, finally got to me. Sigh. Rats. I fall into this too easily as well. I just can’t seem to accept the uncountable blessings of God as they are. There must be something more for me, right? Who deserves such-and-such more than me? Here comes Haman. There goes Haman.

Ephesians 3:19 (New Living Translation)

May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.

The Bible bounces back and forth among the concepts of feeling and knowing. This verse uses “experience” and “understand.” This is not a matter of “either…or,” but one of “both…and.” Those are the kinds of things that appear on inspirational poster that folks put on the walls of cubicle farms in the 1990s, but they are real here.

It isn’t enough to feel the love of God. It isn’t enough to know everything in history and the Bible. We should strive for both.

And, more importantly, we should not chastise folks who don’t have the one thing we have. That is the main problem we have. I want others to be the Christian that I am, and I want them to be “my kind of Christian” now (not next year or next week, NOW).

Who am I to tell others… Of course there is no answer to that question. It is difficult to  experience the love of Christ and to fully understand what that means in my life. Sounds like a good thing to request in prayer a few dozen times a day.

2 Samuel 18:6-8 (New Living Translation)

6 So the battle began in the forest of Ephraim, 7 and the Israelite troops were beaten back by David’s men. There was a great slaughter that day, and 20,000 men laid down their lives. 8 The battle raged all across the countryside, and more men died because of the forest than were killed by the sword.

This is the short description of what some call The Battle of the Wood of Ephraim. 20,000 men died that day. Why? Because a man wanted something that God had not given him.

Not much of a reason for 20,000 men to die. How about the widows and orphans and the ensuing suffering that lasted tens of thousands of lifetimes? Yes, that was there. No much of a reason for all that, was there?

Absalom, the son of King David, wanted to be King. He led a rebellion. A battle ensued. The rest is a miserable history. All because a man wanted something that God had not given him.

I am sure glad that I haven’t…let’s not go there, folks. We have all wanted something that God did not give us. Perhaps 20,000 men didn’t die because of it, but, most likely, we hated someone deeply because we didn’t receive what we wanted.

Humility, contentment…we don’t use those words often in the 21st century. That is too bad for us. Please God, help me in my unbelief.