GOD AT THE CENTRE

Today’s Reading: Numbers 2

Click scripture link to read online or HERE to listen online (then click the symbol of the audio speaker above the scripture portion on the right-hand side).

At Timna Park, 20 miles north of Eilat, a life-sized replica of the Biblical Tabernacle has been constructed in the same area where the original Tabernacle may have stood. While no original materials (e.g., gold, silver, bronze) have been used in the replica, the model is accurate in every other way based upon the Biblical description.

GOOGLE MAPS – To see where the photo was taken, click HERE.

Key Verse: Numbers 2:17

And the tabernacle of meeting shall move out with the camp of the Levites in the middle of the camps; as they camp, so they shall move out, everyone in his place, by their standards.

What could’ve been a two-week journey became a forty-year time of testing, learning, rebelling, and finally conforming to God’s plan. We find parallels in our lives. Moses kept detailed records of people and events and was careful to journal all that happened. They had prepared for this while still in Egypt. Originally, the Children of Israel and Pharaoh thought this was to be just a camping trip for several days. Even if that had been the case, the logistics of moving over one million people required organizational genius. Their tents would’ve covered several square miles. What a sight it must have been. The Ark, the Tabernacle and the spiritual leaders were always at the centre. The way in which they were to travel and camp was a constant reminder that God was to occupy the central place in their lives.

PRAYER FOR TODAY:

Lord God, I ask for Your help in organizing my life so that You are always at the centre. I desire You to be the focal point of my attention. Please grant me the grace to be conscious of Your presence 24/7. In Jesus’ Name I pray. Amen!

100 PERSONAL WORDS:

As long as I can remember, God was honoured daily in our family life. My mother and sisters read to me from Hurlbut’s Stories of the Bible for Children (click here for an online version). I prayed every evening before bed, “Now I lay me down to sleep…” During the years of the Second World War, when my Dad was away, Mother led in daily Bible reading and prayer at the breakfast table. Dad arrived home in time for Christmas of 1944 and took over those duties. I never questioned that God was at the centre of our lives. Mother died when I was 12, and Dad and I were home alone a lot that year. He soldiered on with the same pattern of life. He also made lumpy porridge, and I tried not to complain. I would see his Bible open at the place where he was reading for his private devotions when I arrived downstairs each morning. The importance I place on this daily blog had its roots back there, I’m sure. I told one of my grandsons recently, “David Shaheen, if you were the only one reading my blog, I would get up early every morning and do it just for you.”

Yours, for God at the centre,

David

P.S. David Shaheen’s Dad, Rev. Nizar Shaheen, covers the world with the message of Jesus Christ in the Arabic language several times each day on satellite to home dishes, over the air, and on social media. His wife, our daughter Ellen, works alongside him in the Light for All Nations ministry. HERE is their website.