God so Loved the World that He Gave His Son: The greatest Spiritual battle ever fought – part forty seven
If you have been following by blog for very long at all, you have heard me talk about our morning routine of Bible reading and discussing what we just read. Over a period of time Shirley and I have truly become lovers of the Old Testament; and often times our discussion centers around the Old Testament reading for that specific day. We love it when the Holy Spirit gives us a little “Golden Nugget” of understanding from what we just read. Sometimes that nugget of understanding comes from something Shirley says, and sometimes it comes from something I said. Rarely, if ever, does He give it to both of us at exactly the same time. Well… coming from that perspective, allow me to set-up what happened to us on Tuesday of this week:
As I mentioned before, the Old Testament has become very special to us. However… there are some passages in the Old Testament that would often leave us shaking our heads. Many of the instructions from God seemed to be so long, tedious, and repetitious that they were difficult to read and concentrate on. For example: Counting the number of fighting-age men in each of the tribes of Israel. Why do we need to know that? Or… what is the procedure and sacrifice for having an infectious skin disease. Or… when God would show them that it was time to pack up and move, and which specific people were tasked with moving which specific parts of the Tabernacle? It is this last example that caused us to pause and take notice on Tuesday morning! Here is the exact passage of Scripture that we were reading, and I have underlined and made bold, the portion that really caught our attention:
Numbers 7:1-9 (NLT2)
1On the day Moses set up the Tabernacle, he anointed it and set it apart as holy. He also anointed and set apart all its furnishings and the altar with its utensils. 2 Then the leaders of Israel—the tribal leaders who had registered the troops—came and brought their offerings. 3 Together they brought six large wagons and twelve oxen. There was a wagon for every two leaders and an ox for each leader. They presented these to the LORD in front of the Tabernacle. 4 Then the LORD said to Moses, 5 “Receive their gifts, and use these oxen and wagons for transporting the Tabernacle. Distribute them among the Levites according to the work they have to do.” 6 So Moses took the wagons and oxen and presented them to the Levites. 7 He gave two wagons and four oxen to the Gershonite division for their work, 8 and he gave four wagons and eight oxen to the Merarite division for their work. All their work was done under the leadership of Ithamar son of Aaron the priest. 9 But he gave none of the wagons or oxen to the Kohathite division, since they were required to carry the sacred objects of the Tabernacle on their shoulders.
When I read this passage, I looked at Shirley and humorously said, “When did they add that to the Bible?” Her response blew me away. She replied, and I quote, “I know… I was just thinking the same thing.” It seems that after the countless number of times we have read this passage, we both had it imbedded in our minds that the Israelites carried everything by hand. The fact that they had carts and oxen to carry the load had escaped us.
We talked about how it builds our faith when the Bible seems to speak directly to us! The thing that really caught our attention was the fact that we were both mentally at the same place at the same time, and the Holy Spirit knew that we were both ready to hear from Him. The fact that He was speaking to both of us at the same time, about the same thing, was an awesome feeling!
Okay Lord… You have our attention now. What do You want us to see here?
Well… He certainly didn’t disappoint us!
You know how a television series will leave you with a “Cliff Hanger” at the end of the season? They are hoping that you will have a “can’t wait attitude” looking forward to episode one of the next season!
Well… I’m going to be like that TV series and say, “What was it that the Holy Spirit shared with Mike & Shirley? What was it that made such an impact on them? Tune in to next week’s blog post and, if the Good Lord’s willing, and the creek don’t rise, find out the conclusion to this exciting story!”
Seriously… You won’t want to miss what the Holy Spirit showed us!