GUIDANCE

Today’s Reading: Numbers 8-9

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).

The Tabernacle of Moses replica was set up at Crossroads in Burlington, Ontario, for the summer of 2012. This is looking from just in front of the divide of the Holy of Holies through the Holy Place toward the Outer Courts. The Golden Lampstand is on the right, and the Table of Showbread on the left.

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

Key Verse: Numbers 9:15

Now on the day that the tabernacle was raised up, the cloud covered the tabernacle, the tent of the Testimony; from evening until morning it was above the tabernacle like the appearance of fire.

Our reading begins with the arrangement of the lamps so that they give maximum light in the Tabernacle. The lamps enabled them to see with their physical eyes. Guidance when it’s dark is provided this way; there was light like the appearance of fire above the Tabernacle at night (verse 9:15). There is an inner light described here (verse 9:8). Hearing from God brings insight. That inner light shines for us as we read God’s Word each day. For example, we can observe that the Levites are a type of Christ as they represent the people before God (verses 8:17-18). In the Bible, this is called “typology”. There are many examples of this illumination so that we may see Christ with greater understanding as we read the Old Testament. To show how this works in the light of our reading, I suggest you read now Romans 8:29 and Colossians 1:15-18. Jesus is revealed in this light as the Firstborn among God’s children and the Firstborn in all creation.

PRAYER FOR TODAY:

Lord Jesus, please shine the Light of Your presence so that I may see You always. As we saw in our reading two days ago, You make Your face shine upon me. I love You Lord, and see both outwardly and inwardly that You love me. Thank You for revealing Yourself to me. Amen!

100 PERSONAL WORDS:

One of my favourite places to visit in Israel is the ruins of Caesarea, the place where Pontius Pilate had his seat of power as Roman Governor. Back in the 1960’s, when I first visited there, great sand dunes covered what we now can see. Through the centuries, sand from the Sahara Desert had blown into the sea and been transported from the south coast to the east coast. Then the winds blew the sand into piles along the shore. There were, for example, so-called scholars who claimed the story of Pilate was fiction. But then, in the 1970’s, as much of the sand was removed, a large stone was discovered with an engraving which revealed the accuracy of the Biblical account. To show this fact, I arranged for a replica of this stone to be displayed in our Expo ’86 Vancouver Pavilion of Promise. Later, as we opened the Crossroads Centre in Burlington, the same stone was displayed, along with replicas of many archaeological discoveries, all of which help us to see that if God’s Word is true as history, and it is, then it is also true when the Light of the World shows us eternal truth.

Yours, to help us “Walk in the light as He is in the light” (1 John 1:5-7),

David