The Prophets and then there was Moses

I am currently reading through the Bible and I find myself this week in Numbers. Although there are a lot of laws and regulations in this book, there are also glimpses into Israel's history and their relationship with God.

It has been the desire of God that Israel be His people. From the covenant with Abraham through Isaac and Jacob to the release from Egypt and the years at Sinai, God had chosen Israel to be His people who were in affect a holy people that were chosen by God to be His people (Ex. 19:4-6). But despite this desire that God had to be Israel's God, the people of Israel found themselves grumbling and complaining over and over again. Most of the complaints were centered on them not trusting God. The ultimate display of not trusting God was the spies' report. Their lack of trust in God cost them 40 more years in the wilderness and their generation was not able to go into the Promised Land.

On one occasion we even find Aaron and Miriam grumbling against Moses. These two siblings of Moses seemed to have been jealous of the relationship that Moses had with God. In Numbers 12 we find the explicit difference between Moses and the prophets. What God tells Aaron and Miriam is that Moses has a special relationship with God. The Lord makes Himself known to them through visions and dreams (v.6). However, God speaks to Moses in a different way. God speaks to him "mouth to mouth" (v.8). There are no riddles and everything is clear for Moses.

Many books have been written (and I have read some of them) about hearing the voice of God. This post is not another tidbit of advice about how you can hear the voice of God. What I want to stress here is the willingness that God has to speak to us. He is interested in our daily affairs and he wants to be involved in our daily decisions.

Although we may not have the privilege that Moses had, we know that God is interested in what we do and what we have to say. Let's take a moment to invite Him to be a part of our day today.

Blessings-

John

AW Tozer on Worship

"We’re here to be worshippers first and workers only second. We take a convert and immediately make a worker out of him. God never meant it to be so. God meant that a convert should learn to be a worshipper, and after that he can learn to be a worker. The work done by a worshipper will have eternity in it."

---

A. W. Tozer, Gems from Tozer (Camp Hill, PA: WingSpread, 1979). 15.

Skiing in New York

This week I am skiing in New York at Holiday Valley. The conditions and weather are great. I am here with 2 of my brothers for our annual ski trip.

Blessings -

John

Walk - Part 2

The word walk is expounded in Genesis 6 when the author is describing the life of Noah. Verse 9 uses the same word in the same syntax (other than the fact that for Noah it is in the perfect and for Enoch it was in the imperfect) to describe the relationship that Noah had with God. When the two uses are juxtaposed to each other, we understand the relationship that Enoch had with with God. If Noah and Enoch were both said to have walked with God, then we know the following about Enoch since more is said regarding Noah:

1. Enoch was a "righteous" man
2. Enoch was "blameless" among the people of his time
3. Enoch found "favor" in the eyes of the LORD.

I still need to stay right here for a little bit. This adds a little more light to the life of Noah's grandfather.

Blessings-

John

Walk

I am reading in Genesis 5 the long list of genealogy from Adam to Noah and to be honest I am ready to skip over it. I choose to plug along and come to verses 22 and 24 and I stop. It says that Enoch walked with God. These questions prompted me to further study:

1. What does it mean when it says that Enoch walked with God?
   
2. Did he physically walk with God?
   
3. Why did this author include this?
4. What was so special about walking with God that caused Him to take him away?
5. Why is there not more said about Enoch? You'd think that if walking with God was so important then wouldn't there be more said of this?

What I know is that the verb is hitpael, imperfect and a preliminary definition with this in mind and in this context is to walk constantly with God. I am going to park here for a little bit. I'd love your thoughts, too.

Blessings,

John