Bryan Richardson

Stayed

Re:Verse reading–2 Kings 5 (day three)

Is this the time to take money?

Three people lose it, one keeps his mind steady. King Joram sees disaster looming should he fail to reverse the illness of his oppressor’s top general, now in his care. That general, Naaman, livid with rage at the Israelites’ lack of respectful protocol, dismisses the entire nation as inferior. Gehazi, himself driven by ethnic disdain and greedy to exploit Aram’s wealth, manipulates and deceives Naaman, then lies about it. Each of these people sees a moment–and hope–drawing to a close: Joram’s luck has run out; Naaman’s sickness has doomed him to worthless backwaters; Gehazi desperately grasps at the security of riches to outrun poverty’s reach. In the middle of these occurrences stands Elisha, who can see reality: With God, each circumstance is not an end but, a beginning. It’s not doom, but dawn.

Voice

Re:Verse reading–Ruth 2:1-12, 17-23; 4:1-14 (day three)

May your family be like that of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah.

What happened after Ruth’s encounter with Boaz at the threshing floor? Eyebrows went up all over Bethlehem, that’s what. Yes, Ruth and Boaz took steps to keep it quiet, but it ended up in the Bible anyway. News like that tends to get out. That’s not to say a sexual indiscretion occurred; it is to say that unless Ruth were to become the mother of a rich man’s baby, the sinkhole of abject poverty in which she and her mother lived would swallow them whole. Whatever the original plans with the inebriated Boaz, Ruth ended up in the crucial moment just being straight up with him rather than trapping him in scandal: “Make me your wife.” She took the risks, and her strength won the day. The town took note. Our Savior’s lineage owes as much to scandalized or sexually exploited women—Rahab, Tamar, Ruth, Mary, each of whom spoke with courageous voices—as it does to the men who make up that same family tree. God raises up women whom this world has attempted to silence.

Right

Re:Verse reading–Genesis 37:14-28, 50:15-21 (day three)

Here comes that dreamer!

We mostly can’t be trusted with the future, though one can find exceptions. Many prophets—not all, but many—have stewarded their knowledge of the future with great skill. But they tend to have difficult lives and die early. So yeah, the future’s a hard thing to handle well. What happened when the deficient trustee of prophetic insight was a vision-casting, favorite-son-status-occupying, flashy-attire-flaunting seventeen-year-old kid? In a family already prone to scheming, that kid’s pontificating came off as one more threatening agenda. Joseph was right about the future, you know. But rightness is a most dangerous quality. The arrogance that often accompanies it will harm others. Hardship—not least his brothers’ damnable human-trafficking transaction—transformed Joseph’s arrogance into wisdom. And in God’s providence he became a life-saving steward of the future.

Faith

RE Verse reading–Genesis 22:1-19 (day three)

He said to him, “Abraham!’”

Each of Abraham’s names for God—God Most High, God Almighty, God Everlasting, among others—arose over the better part of a hundred years from difficult, often violent experiences that progressively revealed to Abraham something hitherto unknown about the character of God. All of which is to say that when God’s Moriah directive came down, it didn’t arrive in a vacuum. As shocking and fearsome as this communication was, Abraham knew the one speaking––and that’s all he knew. But by now that was enough. Indeed, the writer of Hebrews gives us a window into Abraham’s thinking: He wouldn’t put it past God to possess the ability to raise the dead. So up Moriah he went. On the basis of what (or whom) he knew, he went where he did not know. This is faith.

Beyond

Re:Verse reading–1 Samuel 28:3-20; 31:1-6 (day three)

Why have you disturbed me by bringing me up?

The spiritual side of reality is nothing if not consistent with the material side. Except for being dead, Samuel is his same old self, delivering his same old word to Saul: No. Really, of course, Samuel is alive—just not occupying the same dimensional space as Saul anymore. But the thing that we often get a little fuzzy on is just how much these two sides of reality affect each other. We act as if the life beyond this life is a kind of fancy reset button. Turns out, though, that Jesus really knew what he was talking about: Whatever you bind on earth is bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth is loosed in heaven. In other words, this life really matters eternally. Live accordingly.

Precipice

Re:Verse reading–1 Samuel 25:1-34 (day three)

“May you be blessed for your good judgment.”

When all the ideas that attract your attention start to sound like counsel you would give to yourself, when searching for guidance becomes seeking permission, when your mentor becomes your cheerleader, stop. You’re about to fall off the cliff. It will happen soon. A wise man gives good advice. A wiser man recognizes good advice. Look at David’s life and start taking notes.

Now

Re:Verse reading–1 Samuel 24 (day three)

But David and his men went up to the stronghold.

Saul wept nostalgic tears. The golden times of David’s service in Saul’s household—those were the days. Too bad he didn’t understand: The past is a good teacher, but it’s a terrible coach. It can remind us where we’ve been, but it can’t urge us on in the direction we must go. The future’s coming, and only those who make peace with the present will live well in that future. Does that mean satisfaction with the present? Hardly. It means understanding that you start with what you’ve got, not with what you wish you had. David’s present wasn’t a good one, but it was what he had. Saul withdrew into his memories. David went up to the stronghold. That wasn’t his future, but it’s how he would get there.

Smithing

Re:Verse reading— 1 Samuel 20:1-17, 30-42 (day three)

Then they kissed each other and wept together.

Let’s face it, it’s more fun to argue about whether Jonathan and David were gay than actually to pursue the intimate friendships that will show the love of Christ to a world that’s lost its way. While we’re at it, though, let’s all beware the temptation to read back into the scriptures the controversy du jour. To identify homoerotic overtones in the friendship of these men is to ignore the ancient social conventions that made room for the kind of demonstrative affection that is alien to our thinking save in sexualized settings. They were not lovers, they were friends. We used to know what that means. And we can again. But it will take work—deeper than occasional girls’ nights out, higher than gym time with the brahs. Iron won’t sharpen itself.

Third

Re:Verse reading–1 Samuel 18:1-16, 19:1-7 (day three)

David eluded him twice.

Yeah, David wasn’t going to stick around for a third chance to duck. Two spears into the mentoring program, Saul’s orders opened up an opportunity to get out of there, and David was off to the front. There would be no third spear. Saul had squandered yet another season of God’s generosity. Even in the sad decline of Saul’s reign, the goodness of God allowed Saul the dignity of teaching a young and capable apprentice, an opportunity that shined a redemptive beacon in the twilight of his kingship. A chastened man would have recognized that redemptive possibility. A chastened man would have cautioned David to take a different path than he had taken. A chastened man would have provided the king-to-be with hard-won wisdom. Saul was not that man. Are you?

Clarity

Re:Verse reading–1 Samuel 17:1-11, 26-32, 38-51 (day three)

“What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and removes this disgrace from Israel?”

One can make a case that this question is actually rhetorical—that David is exposing these concerns as paltry diversions and absolutely beside the point: “The enemy commences with chest-pounding triumphalism against a God-delivered and God-shepherded people, and the best you can do is drool over the wanted poster?” Saul had proven himself unwilling or unable to provide any spiritual context for Israel’s predicament. Spinning fantasies of rewards and glory for some imaginary hero was all that kept Saul’s scared soldiers from deserting. David stepped into the breach, clarifying the issue: The biggest danger they faced was not the end of their self-governance, but the end of their knowledge of God. Fear Goliath, and Goliath is all you’ll find.