Today’s passage is Numbers 7: 48-89. Over the next six days the other six tribes bring the identical offering of silver and gold dishes, incense, fine flour and animals for fellowship and sin offerings. When Moses entered the tent, God spoke to him from between the cherubim on the cover of the ark of the covenant.
Between the Cherubim
When I read the number of new and heavy dishes that the twelve tribes offered, I felt sorry for the Kohathites who now had more things to carry and no ox-drawn wagons to help. But I realized that was a thoroughly humanistic thought.
God gives us what me need to carry and then helps me carry it. Sometimes I think I have more than I can manage but I don’t. I’m just looking for an excuse to do what I want. Whenever I begin to think there’s not enough time, I look at my week and track my time.
What do I do every hour I’m awake each day?
I don’t even have to wait a week to check, I simply look at just one day.
Today, for instance. I had to supervise three classes for an absentee teacher and prepare some material for two of those classes.
I had to deal with six students who had been caught drinking at a singing club on the weekend and write letters to their parents.
I also had a safety issue to look into.
At the end of the day, my wife told me she was going to the chiropractor, which meant I could stay longer at school.
It was a great opportunity to finish my QT but I read the sports reports on Federer’s latest tennis tournament instead.
I was seeking the news of the world instead of focusing on God’s word and his news for me.
Moses heard God speaking between the cherubim on the cover of the ark of the covenant.
I hear God speaking through his word in the daily passage and the QTin questions.
My willingness to engage in conversation with God was lacking today.
I was more interested in tennis, which will not help me in my relationship with God nor help me give a hand to someone else’s salvation.
Part of my problem is that I think I need a certain amount of time to do my QT and reflect on the Word in my life, but I never tell myself just how much time that is.
I leave it vague, saying it needs to be somewhere between, oh, twenty minutes and two hours.
But what I remember is the two hours, which then is a burden and almost impossible to find and therefore I have the excuse not to finish what I start in the morning until later. Sometimes “later” is near midnight!
Moses hearing God speaking to him in verse 89 spoke to me today. God is there in his Word, speaking. My job is to attend, to listen. To listen I need to stop doing other things. Today I didn’t.
Application: to pray for God’s help to finish my QT, which I start after I wake, before I eat lunch.
Lord, let me not be more interested in the numbers on a scoreboard than I am in your book of Numbers. Let me trust in hearing your Word in the time you give me.
