Day 78

Numbers 7:66-9:14, Luke 2:41-52, Psalm 35:11-18

Before you think “Not again” as we start with more of the bowls at 130 shekels and the sprinkling dishes at 70, just have a heart for Aaron, he had 12 days of this!!! But only three today and now it is over.

What struck me today, nearly three months in, is the way that God talks – all the time. In fact he never shuts up! Which, although there may be some people who never stop, when it is God that is a good thing. He talks to Moses in the Desert, in the tent of meeting, in the tabernacle, you could almost imagine in the bathroom in the morning. And he tells Moses everything, these two seem to be best of friends the amount that they talk.

So why do we not here him so much today, why does it all seem a bit quite. It is sad that our first instinct would be to look to God and ask “hey, why have you stopped talking” when in reality it is God who has more of a right to ask “why have you stopped listening”. God is the same now as he was then and as he ever will be, that is one of the theological truths that we hold fast to. This means that he is still talking. But we on the other hand, have so much getting in the way, busy lives, TV, friends, computers, Facebook, Twitter, music and on we can go. There is so much clamouring for our attention that I think we often manage to crowd God out.

Good even sent his son down to reach out  to us and we started crowding him out. This is one of those great passages in the life of Jesus where, even at an early age, we see who he is – the Son of God. At the age of twelve, this little lad had all the teachers of the law and all the deep theologians wrapped around his little finger, they cannot have come away from seeing Jesus there without realising that they had had an encounter with God. They had spoken to God.

The one time that we often do turn to God and start listening is when we need him. We can probably find a time in our lives when we can really identify with the Psalmist today, when we feel as though our friendship has been spurned and we have been stabbed in the back. But the Psalmist finds his consolation in the Lord, he find a place where he can turn.

God provides that place for us, when people are turning against us we can turn to him. The challenge though is that we need to turn to him all the time. We need to listen for his voice and put aside the distractions, when we do we may here more from him.