May 2007

God is full of surprises; I've just thrown out the beginnings of this month's article.
I'm shaking my head and saying "God are you sure? The one complaint I hear from
people starting out on bible reading is those long lists of names. Who can get through them?!"Three times the Israelites are listed by tribe--just the leaders thankfully. When
they leave Egypt there are 600,000 men, when they get to Mount Sinai they take another
census and there are 600,000 men; 38 years later they take another census before going into the promised land. Guess how many men? Same number. They have been in a desert for forty years,they're living on something called manna(translated what is it), they've had rebellions resulting in many deaths, and yet their numbers have stayed the same. It must have been a God thing.
If you were an Israelite reading those lists, well that was aunt Mary's father or maybe that
name was my great grandfather, and maybe my friend Joe is a descendant of Joash.Try thinking of these guys as your ancestors to make better sense of this part of the book.Now maybe you will understand this memory verse: Isiah 51:1 "Listen to me, you who seek the lord: Look to the rock from which you were hewn, And to the hole of the pit from which you were dug." New King James Version
Some of those ancestors were taken out from the pit of sin and saved by the hand of God. Read Exodus this month. Some of the people rebelled against God, not once but twice. It resulted in the deaths of 38,700 men. It really was a God thing.After you see all the trials those men and women had to go through to get to the promised land maybe you'll appreciate how important those lists are. Making the list was truly an honor!
Keep reading your bibles so you can make the list of God's book of life.That's in revelations.