Pray persistently, and ask, seek, find, and receive

The most important message I picked up from today’s readings overall is to pray persistently and to ask, seek, find, and receive.

My primary takeaway from each of the passages was this:

• Leviticus 19 & 20:  A punishment of death for every offense listed in chapter 19, reminders to not eat unclean food, and prohibitions to the priesthood in chapter 20.  
• Luke 11: “Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; everyone who searches finds; everyone who knocks will have the door opened.”
• Psalms 55: “Unload your burden onto Yahweh and he will sustain you; never will he allow the upright to stumble.”
• Proverbs 24:The best thing we can do when we are confronted with the ignorance and evil of others is to walk away, pray for them, pray for ourselves, and mind our own business.

Today in Leviticus we see a reiteration of the prohibitions on many things, accompanied by one punishment for all: death. This is basically a review of what we read in back in chapters 17 and 18, but this time accompanied by the punishment. Death as a punishment for every offense may seem harsh, but in this chapter of Leviticus we also read that some of the Israelites had taken up the Canaanite practice of sacrificing their children to the “god” Molech. If they were doing that, then we can also assume that the repeated instructions about not having sex with your relatives were not given as a “what if” scenario, but rather because people were probably doing those things, too. There was a lot wrong in the camp of the Israelites at that time. Again, the punishment they chose for these crimes was consistent with the cultural concerns and practices of that time, around 3000 years ago.

In Luke, Jesus teaches the disciples how to pray, and also tells them that effective prayer is regular, persistent prayer. He provides a parable to illustrate the point, and then goes on to tell us that to receive we must ask, and the way we ask is in prayer; that asking is prayer.

The rest of this chapter of Luke is an admonition against sitting on the fence in one’s beliefs and behavior. After having driven a demon out of someone who had been mute until Jesus did this, many of the people who observed this were amazed, but some of them (not being able to deny the miracle he had just performed) tried to attribute his supernatural powers to the devil. Jesus had just done a good thing for this man who had been mute but could now speak, but those who didn’t like his message, attributed his good deed to evil sorcery. Others, doubters who would likely never be convinced no matter how many miracles he performed, asked for yet more signs and wonders to prove he was the Messiah.

Jesus responds by saying, “Anyone who is not with me is against me.” This may seem like the opposite of what he said in Matthew 9:40 (“Whoever is not against us is for us”), but it’s not. In this context, the people attributing his good works to evil, and those who will doubt anything no matter how concrete the evidence, are actively working against Jesus and his message. In Matthew 9:40, the people he is speaking of are doing good deeds in the name of Jesus and are helping people. There is a great difference between these two things.

Jesus expounds on this by going on to compare what he is doing among the people with what Jonah did when he was sent to Ninevah (see the book of Jonah–it’s only three very short chapters, and just a few pages long). In the case of Jonah, the people of Ninevah repented when Jonah delivered his message. However, in the case of Jesus, most of the people for whom his message was primarily intended (the Hebrews) rejected his message, and ultimately killed him for it. He is especially hard on the leaders of the people, the Pharisees and the lawyers, and accuses them of blocking access to the message of God. He accuses them of looking good on the outside while being evil and wicked on the inside. He accuses them of glorifying the prophets that came before him with beautiful tombs when it was their own ancestors, people just like them, who killed them. Jesus does not mince words, and his arrow hits the mark, leading to his crucifixion later on. They didn’t like the truth he told about them, so they began to plot to kill him.

If it hadn’t been written about a thousand years before Jesus’ time, today’s Psalm could have been prayed by Jesus himself over the situation in which we find him in Luke 11. Coincidentally for today’s reading, this Psalm simultaneously teaches us how to pray when we are going through difficult times in which we are persecuted, harassed, harried, or misunderstood. The Psalmist knew that God can handle our complaints, and does not hold back his distress. He also prays with the fervent belief that God will come to his rescue. That is why I always say that Psalms teach us how to pray, and Proverbs teach us how to live.

In today’s Proverb we receive advice about how to handle the situation Jesus was in with the Pharisees and the lawyers. Jesus could have smitten them or something, but he didn’t. Instead, he provides us with an example. He tells them the unvarnished truth about themselves and then walks away. Proverbs 24 tells us what to do after we walk away. Instead of continuing to run the scenario over in our minds, or being angry that the wicked prosper, we are instructed to not be envious of them and trust God to sort it out.

Many might be tempted to try to persuade them to see the error of their ways, but Proverbs 24 warns us away from that. It describes all the ways in which God will sort it out while also protecting us from the fallout of their behavior. It also gives us all the reasons why such an effort would be entirely futile, as well as how dangerous people are, who are intent on doing evil.

Proverbs 24 ends with a little story about what happens when a lazy person ignores their work. I’ve always read this as the final word on what to do when we are outraged by the evil deeds of others, and hearken back to that verse about not taking a stray dog by the ears. The best thing we can do when we are confronted with the ignorance and evil of others is to walk away, pray for them, pray for ourselves, and mind our own business.

That’s what I got out of it. What did you get out of the readings today?

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This post is part of the series, “Read the Bible in a Year.”

To see other posts in this series, go to the Chronological Index of Read the Bible in a Year Posts.