Today's readings from the One Year Chronological Bible Reading Plan are Numbers 7:1-89.
This chapter basically describes the offering brought by each tribe of Judah - twelve times over! The exact same words, the exact same verses are repeated twelve times. Five verses repeated twelve times. That's 60 verses when 5 would've sufficed right? Obviously not. I know that the repetition means that this is important. I'm just not sure exactly what it is that's important.
Is it stressing the people's obedience? Each tribe was to bring exactly the right offering, one tribe per day for twelve days. And they did.
I couldn't find any commentaries on this passage on Bible.org or on the John Piper website, or anywhere else online for that matter! So, if anyone else has some thoughts I'd love to hear them!
Numbers 7:89 "When Moses entered the Tent of Meeting to speak with the Lord, he heard the voice speaking to him from between the two cherubim above the atonement cover on the ark of the Testimony. And he spoke with him.
From the NIV Life Application Study Bible
Imagine hearing the very voice of God! Moses must have trembled at the sound. Yet we have God's words recorded for us in the Bible, and we should have no less reverence and awe for them. God sometimes spoke directly to his people to tell them the proper way to live. The Bible records these conversations to give us insights into God's character. How tragic when we take these very words of God lightly. Like Moses, we have the privilege of talking to God, but God answers us differently - through his written Word and the guidance of his Holy Spirit. To receive this guidance, we need to seek to know God as Moses did. (emphasis mine)
How thankful I am for God's gift of His Word to us in the Bible and for His incredible gift of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit inside each and every one of us who have accepted Him as our Lord and Saviour. What an incredible gift!
To truly benefit, to truly grow, we need to seek to know God. And how to we do that? Through prayer and the reading and studying of God's Word. Through the pursuit of discernment. Based on my cousin (ValleyGirl) Tammi's chapter by chapter book review and recommendation (the same posts are what prompted me to start this blog in fact!), I purchased The Pursuit of Discernment by Tim Challies and I'm in the process of reading it now. I would highly recommend it!
And this is why I'm so thrilled that we're doing this blog together. It has given me the accountability I need - with the exception of about 2 days, I have been feasting on the Word daily for the first time in my life. I am feeling a hunger to learn more, to dig deeper, to understand His Word more than I ever have.
For the past few months I have been coming alongside my dearest friend in a time of her deep personal grief/loss/hurt. In order for me to be the friend she needs right now, I have to be rooted in the Word, I have to be standing on His promises, I have to be grounded in the Truth. I have no doubt that last year (the first year I read through the Bible in a year) and this year have been preparing me to be better equipped to be the friend she needs right now. I know this is not a coincidence. Of course I know that studying the Word and growing in knowledge and relationship with Christ will have a huge impact on every relationship and every area of my life - but this is one that jumped out at me in particular, especially due to the timing of it all.
Tomorrow's readings: Numbers 8:1-9:14 and Leviticus 1-3.
3 comments:
In addition to Bible.org and BibleGateway, I like to search BlueLetterBible sometimes. I found a few thoughts there which I thought were interesting:
a. His offering was one silver platter:
Each leader brought a silver platter and a silver [bowl], each full of fine flour mixed with oil as a grain offering; a gold pan with incense, a bull, a ram, a male lamb, a young goat, two oxen, five rams, five adult goats, and five more lambs.
i. Each silver plate weighed about three pounds, each silver bowl about two pounds, and a gold shovel about four ounces.
ii. Clearly, this was generous giving. God must show "Promised Land" people how to be givers - one of the best measures of one who has moved from a slave mind-set to a Promised Land mind-set. The slave by nature is a taker, because he is often unsure of provision. Promised land people are generous, because they trust in a God who promised to meet all their needs.
b. His offering was one silver platter:
Each tribal leader brought exactly the same offering over the twelve days.
i. Clearly, this was humble giving. By requiring the same gift from every tribe, God made sure that no tribe or tribal leader glorified himself through his giving. We must resist the tendency to give in order to be seen of men. Promised land people care about God’s glory, not their own.
c. This was the dedication offering for the altar from the leaders of Israel:
Each offering is recorded exactly the same way - seemingly, “wasting” space in the Scriptures. God’s purpose is to draw attention to each tribes offering, though they were all the same.
i. Clearly, godly giving is always noticed by God, even if it is the same or less than many other gifts. God sees and “records” every gift given in a right heart, even if it is only worth two mites (Mark 12:42-44). Every gift from a promised-land kind of heart is noticed by God.
I like that last part best ~ that God notices and loves everything we do specifically for Him, whether big or small, and even if it's the same as what someone else has done.
PS. Glad to hear you're enjoying the book! I learned a LOT!!
Thanks for sharing that Tammi! All those points are great - generous, humble and each one noticed by the Lord.
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