Numbers 1-2 = Today's thoughts

Numbers 1-2  = Today's thoughts

It is often easy to forget that the God of the Universe is interested in our daily lives.  But he is down to some of the smallest of details.  The Israelites we learn are still camped at the base of Mt. Sinai as this new book opens; they are two years, one month and fifteen days since God led them out of Egypt. God calls for a census, he is about to establish his peoples army as well as redefine them as a people out of the covenant he made with Abraham.  God isn’t simply asking for a show of hands either, he wants people names written down, he wants them divided into their clans; he wants to know who his people are.  Sure he already knows the info but in this manner he is demonstrating to his people that as he establishes their nation they are individually significant, as well as significant as a tribe of Abraham.   Furthermore, he divides them into their tribes and reaffirms their subset identity as a small community within the whole; he gave them instruction on where to live and how to establish their camp/community.  While we aren’t really explained why here, you can be assured that if God has taken the time to develop the plan, there was a reason for it and it had their best interest in mind.  Remember, had he only wanted an army there would be no need for this detail, this segregation, this community planning.  God is in the details of our lives when we listen to what he is directing us to do.  The end of chapter one ends the same as chapter two, “The Israelites did everything the Lord commanded Moses”.  These weren’t requests, they weren’t open to interpretation, and they were commands given to produce a relational outcome that God was setting in motion for his people.  Today is no different, we don’t get to cherry pick the portions of the relationship we want to be a part.   The more I strive to be in relationship with him the less I am convinced of coincidence when I look at the circumstances of my life and I am honest with myself, it is orchestrated in a way that probably isn’t really me. Humbling and reassuring all at the same time.  Thanks be to God, he wants to be personally related to me, my family, my community, and my country.  Now we need to listen and follow.

 

Rob