Daily Bible Readings YLT March 3rd

The precision of God's instructions for the work of the moving and setting up of the Tabernacle is that of a mighty adminstrator, a perfect Director, giving clarity and decisive commands of great authority to the leaders he has chosen to work under Him: Moses and Aaron and the princes who were heads over their tribes, also as chosen by God. When we follow God's commands, we are secure, we are well ordered, we are clear about our way, about how to proceed, day by day.What a personal approach this is that God has: everyone is in a right place and doing the task they are commanded to do. The ensuing peace and order is great. For us, our job is to listen to God and know that He will guide us throughout our day if we will listen to Him and keep checking in with Him as our day advances. Jesus said: I only do what I see the Father doing. "Believest thou not that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The sayings that I speak to you, from myself I speak not, and the Father who is abiding in me, Himself doth the works" John 14:10.We are to be so in tune and attuned to God that what we speak is what God chooses to speak through us, and to know that the Holy Spirit abiding in us will do the works that He chooses through us.How do we do this? How do we become attuned to the mind of God? Read God's word. "Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind" Romans 12:2 Do not give your mind to other input than God's. Ask God if what you are choosing to do is what He wants you to do. If God says "No", then obey it. This is to be a servant of God. Mark's Gospel shows us Jesus as the perfect servant, the odedient servant, obedient unto death, the suffering servant, acquainted with grief, the son of the Father who always does what the Father commands, "Yet not my will but yours be done". Luke 22:42Moses too is the servant of God, a forerunner and signpost to Jesus: the commands go from God through Moses, "And the sons of Israel do according to all that Jehovah hath commanded Moses, so they have done": a perfect chain of command and resulting order. The repetition in the words of Numbers in so many places shows the consistency of these instructions, that no tribe is treated differently, they are all numbered in the same way according to God's command, except for the Levites whom God says are not to be numbered in their midst. "Appoint the Levites over the tabernacle of the testimony, and over all its vessels and over all tha tit hathr, they bear the tabernacle and all its vessels and they serve it and round about the tabernacle they encamp." (Numbers 1:50)Among all God's people there will be those called by God who minister to the people as the servants of God. "I Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, (1 Cor 1:1)Oh that we might learn this obedience to God. To be in His presence to hear his commands, as Moses did. Again and again in Numbers, we hear the words, "God spoke to Moses ..." We need to practise this listening, to fine tune our hearing to the voice of God coming from within us. O for a closer walk with Thee. "O most merciful redeemer, friend and brother, may I know thee more clearly, love thee more dearly, walk with thee more nearly, day by day" Prayer of St Richard of Chichester