The Meaning Of Life

https://biblehub.com/nkjv/numbers/1.htm

As I said in my last post, there is nothing petty in the Bible, everything is in there for a reason. We may not understand the reason right now, or God may share the reason if we pray hard enough. If not, repent of you sins to when you get to Heaven, you can ask Him what the meaning is.

So, reading this may not be the most exciting, but you never know when you might need that information in the future. There is a lot of genealogy in these chapters that may seem mundane, but trust me, I’ve had to refer back to these books when I later find a name and I’m trying to place who they are a from whom they descended.

Chapter 1 takes a census of the people of Israel. As you can see, there are well over half a million children. The Bible also says these were the “men”, it may not have included women and children. Further, it describes the census as men over 20, or men who were capable of going to war. If it doesn’t count them, there may be a million-and-a-half to two million people altogether. Now you see why Moses was tired of handling all of the tribe’s problems, and his father-in-law Jethro told him he needed to make leaders within the tribes to handle the day to day problems.

And if God only counted the men over 20 as those who were capable of going to war, why do we take them as young as 18? And our rules also do not make sense. Young men today are not allowed to purchase a firearm until they are 21, yet if they enlist in the military, the government will give them one at the age of 18. Perhaps we should take God’s advice, and not allow service members in until they are 20?

And these chapters also list each tribe and who the head of each tribe in. And later, we will see how the promised land is divided between each tribe, and referring to a Biblical map often helps know where they were located and the cities that were located within each tribe.

Persevere, as Paul would say. Take it slow, read at your own pace, but don’t be like me. The first time I read through the Bible, I did so with the purpose of reading the Bible, and I did so without much thought or effort into comprehending what I was reading. Take it one chapter at a time if you have to. And as always, pray for guidance, pray for knowledge and understanding, and pray that the Holy Spirit teaches you the meaning of the Bible. And take if for granted, somethings we simply can not understand at the time, but it may come to you later.

This will be the 4th time reading the Bible, and I still find something new i missed, something that I now have understanding of that I didn’t understand before. And I’m sure that when I’m done and start reading a 5th time, I will learn and understand even more.

I once listened to Pastor Chuck Swindoll’s radio show, and he spoke about when he was theological school. One of the instructors was an aged Pastor that carried around this old ratty Bible that he had used for decades. He said one day after class, the old minister left the room, accidentally leaving his Bible behind. So Chuck, out of curiosity, went to the podium and began thumbing through the old man’s Bible.

He said that virtually every scripture was highlighted, the entire text was highlighted in fluorescent yellow. That, tells you which scripture is important, and what isn’t. It is all important.

Loving Father, as we study your word, which is the true meaning of life, we pray that you send your Spirit into us to be our teacher. We pray for wisdom, we pray for understanding. Every word You speak is precious, and we strive to not only learn it, but to carry it in our hearts. Amen.