“And when Moses went into the tent of meeting to speak with the Lord, he heard the voice speaking to him from above the Mercy Seat that was on the Ark of the Testimony from between the two cherubim and it spoke to him.”
– Numbers 7:89
Can you just imagine that scene? Moses goes into the Tent of Meeting while everybody else is outside standing in awe of the fact that there’s a man who’s meeting with God. Moses starts to speak with him and there this voice comes from above the Mercy Seat and starts speaking to him. Can you imagine? What is going through your mind? Like are your knees shaking or what? Maybe you’re on your knees at this point.
When we open up the Bible we find the very words of God. May God help us to focus on His Word and meditate on it day and night.
This Verse Calls Us to Focus on God’s Word
You’re listening to the voice of God speaking to you and you don’t kind of lose your train of thought there, you don’t get distracted there, like you are totally glued into every single thing God is saying. Your mind is not wandering, you are focused, to say the least, ’cause you are hearing from God. Nobody else gets to do this. You are getting to hear from God. You’re the only person at the camp that has this privilege, that has this joy. And so, ah, you’re overwhelmed by it, you’re listening to it and you’re praying, “God, help me to obey what you said. God, help me to do what you said.”
Numbers 7:89 Heightens the Value of the Bible
And in this picture in Numbers 7:89, I give you a picture of what you and I now get to experience on a daily basis. Every single one of us who is in Jesus, every single one of us who has a relationship with God. Through his word, and don’t underestimate this, when you open up the Bible, this is God speaking to you and me. God’s voice speaking to us by his Spirit, through his word. We are having a supernatural conversation with God when we open his word. Like, don’t cease to be astounded by that, don’t cease to be amazed by that, don’t become too casual with that reality.
Be overwhelmed by the fact that God speaks to you and to me and that we get to hear him, like, let’s focus, keep our focus. May our knees tremble. May we many times just fall on our knees, even while we’re reading the word, listening to it because we know this is God speaking. And may our hearts just be compelled to say, God, help us to do this, everything you tell us to do. Help us to hear it. Help us to focus on it and help us to obey it. God, we don’t take your word lightly. God, we praise you for your word.
Numbers 7:89 Thanks God for the Power of His Word
What a joy, what a privilege that right now I get to just say Numbers 7:89 and know this is from you. You are speaking this, even right now on this podcast. You are speaking to us through Numbers 7:89. All glory be to your name for this privilege of hearing from you. That it’s not just one person, but it’s all of us. All of us have access to your word through Jesus. What a privilege, what an honor, God.
Help us to focus then. God, help us to focus on your word, help us to meditate on it day and night. Help us to memorize it, help us to hear it, help us to obey it, help us to do it. God, we pray you would help us to revere your word. To listen closely to it and to live our lives in total obedience to it. God, please may it be so. Give us, give us a reverence and respect and awe for your word as it is spoken to us. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
