How Does A Miracle Start?

I'm reading again in The Chumash (Stone Edition) -- The Jewish commentary on the Pentateuch of the Old Testament -- and found this great idea:

You shall make a Menorah of pure gold, hammered out shall the Menorah be made, its base, its shafts, its cups, its buds and its blossoms shall be hammered from it. Six branches shall emerge from its sides, three branches of the Menorah from its one side and three branches from its second side, three cups engraved like almonds on the one branch...the buds and branches shall be on one piece...(Exodus 25)
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I am intrigued with the idea of how a miracle begins, at least as it is explained in The Chumash (Jewish commentary on the Pentateuch). The article begins with the construction of the Menorah for the tabernacle.
The text says that God's instructions for making the Menorah included that all its shapes and forms had to be made from one gold ingot: nothing could be made separately and then attached. It all had to be made of one piece. How could this be done? Hebrew tradition says that Moses could not visualize this and so God showed him a Menorah of fire. But Moses still despaired of being able to make it properly, and so God instructed him to "throw an ingot into a fire -- and then the completed Menorah emerged."

They base this on the idea that the Hebrew wording starts you shall make, and then the wording changes to shall be made.

So, the commentary reasons, Moses, once God showed him how to make the Menorah, actually began the process of crafting it, but then God assisted him. So when the ingot was cast into the fire as part of the normal work of crafting it, the work was completed miraculously by God.

This is so interesting. But the really great part is the rest of the paragraph:

This is how God typically performs miracles. First Man must do what he can, and then God comes to his aid. Similarly, at the time of the Splitting of the Sea, God commanded Moses to split the waters by raising his staff and it was only after Moses had done so that God performed the awesome miracle. In Egypt and throughout the years in the Wilderness, Moses performed acts that resulted in miracles; clearly only God makes miracles, but He wants man to initiate them


I am thinking about this now. It is such a simple idea: God wants us to initiate His miracles.....Jesus told the family and friends of Lazarus, "Take away the stone," and then he told Lazarus to emerge, alive, from his burial tomb.

Some men brought the paralyzed man to Jesus, and Jesus healed him.

The woman touched the hem of His garment.

"We only have five loaves of bread and two fish," the disciples said to Jesus. "Bring them here to Me," He said.

"Strike the rock," God told Moses.

"Choose some men and go out to fight the Amalekites. Tomorrow I will stand top of the hill with the staff of God in my hands" Moses told Joshua. And "Aaron and Hur held his hands up--one on one side, on the other--so that his hands remained steady until sunset. So Joshua overcame the Amalekites with the sword."

It's a simple concept -- God wants us to initiate the action and then He finishes, or completes it, in a way that is miraculous to us.


Of course nothing God does is miraculous to Him.

Another thought -- it must have something to do with obedience, too. We must eagerly obey God's command to get the benefit of the miracle.

Just more amazing thoughts to ponder on our Journey.....from the ancient rabbis! 

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The Right Time is Now!

 
                                                           

                                                                 Now is the Time!

God tells us to seek Him....Now!

"Seek the LORD while He may be found; call on Him while He is near" (Isaiah 55:6)

What are we to do?

Seek Him! When? Now! Why now? Because He is near!

Then in Jeremiah we read: 'You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart..seek Me...I will be found by you' (Jeremiah 29:13). What a promise!

Then Jesus says in Matthew 7: "seek and you will find."

Pretty obviously an urgent theme here!

And pretty obviously our amazing God WANTS TO BE FOUND!!!

He is not a God who hides Himself - Adam and Eve hid -- God did not.

He came to them so He would be found by them.

And our God never changes.

He wants to be found by us!

Are you speechless?

I am, and that doesn't happen often!

I'm Engraved! - Part 2

 

God's chosen people are, because of their sinful disobedience, living in  exile in Babylon. Their homeland is in ruins. They grieve and yearn to go back home! They cry: "The LORD has forsaken me, the LORD has forgotten me."

  And God responds, "Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of My hands." (Recorded in Isaiah 49).

Thoughts from Charles Spurgeon:

"How can I have forgotten you, when I have engraved you on the palms of My hands? How can you forget My constant remembrance when the memorial is carved into My flesh? We do not know what to wonder at most -- the faithfulness of God or the unbelief of His people? He has kept His promises a thousand times, and yet the next trial makes us doubt Him.

  He never fails. He is never a dry well. He is never a setting sun, a passing meteor, or fading vapor. And yet we are continually troubled with anxieties, molested with suspicions, and disturbed with fears as if our God were the mirage of the desert.

  "I have engraved you." It does not say "your name."

The name is there, but that is not all. "I have engraved you."

  Consider the depth of this. "I have engraved your person, your image, your circumstances, your temptations, your weaknesses, your works -- YOU -- everything about you. I have put it all here."

Will you ever say again that your God has forsaken you when He has engraved you on His own palms?"

Those nail-scarred hands?

We can say, "No one who trusts in You will ever be disappointed." 

   -- Psalm 25:3

I'm Engraved! - Part 1

 What the Hebrews, exiled fugitives living in Babylon, felt about their Lord God:

"But Zion said, 'The LORD has forsaken me, the LORD has forgotten me.'"

Then hear God's reply, "Can a mother forget the baby at her breast, and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget,  I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of My hands; and your walls are ever before Me."

These comforting words are recorded for us in Isaiah 49. Read the whole chapter and praise God for His faithfulness -- not only does He promise to bring them back home, all mankind will witness it and know their God is their Savior and Redeemer! "Those who hope in Me will not be disappointed," He promises.

What a powerful image He gives them -- they are always in His sight! They are not forgotten -- they are engraved -- inscribed permanently on the palms of His hand! His eye is always on them.

Even when they feel abandoned and forgotten, they are always on His mind and never out of His sight!

(Remember 'Etch-a-Sketch'? A popular game introduced in 1960, selling for $2.99. It was a screen with some knobs we could turn and create a picture, then when we tired of it we could just shake it and the entire image would disappear and we could start over, making a new picture! Well, God does not view us as a temporary Etch-a-Sketch. God does not play games! We are part of His permanent program! He plans on being with us forever -- we will never be out of His sight! He can always see us right on His hands - His nail-scarred hands! We are not sketched, we are engraved!)

He also reminds them, "Your walls are always before Me," Yes, He also remembers that the walls of their beloved city, Jerusalem, are in ruins, and evil men have destroyed His temple. Their beloved homeland has been destroyed! He sees that, too! He understands their pain and suffering! (This is a perfect time to stop for a moment and read Psalm 137 and witness how God's people, exiled in Babylon, yearn to be home in Jerusalem, and not strangers in an alien land. God was mindful of their suffering. As you read the psalm, remember we are sort of like them...we, too, sometimes feel like we live in an alien land!)

Tomorrow - Part 2 - Words about being 'Engraved on His Hands' from Charles Spurgeon

David's Audience of One

 

                                                       David's Audience of One

When David brought the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem -- what a celebration!

"David, wearing a linen ephod, danced before the LORD with all his might, while he and the entire house of Israel brought up the Ark of the LORD with shouts and the sounds of trumpets...Michal, daughter of Saul, watched from a window. And when she saw King David leaping and dancing before the LORD, she despised him in her heart. She came out to meet him and said, 'How the King of Israel has distinguished himself today disrobing in the sight of the slave girls of his servants as any vulgar fellow would!'

And David said to Michal, 'It was before the LORD, who chose me rather than your father when He appointed me ruler over the LORD's people Israel - I will celebrate before the LORD.'"

David remembered who he was celebrating and who was his real audience  -- 

              The Audience of One! The only Audience that really matters!

We need to remember every day that our only important Audience is our Audience of One!  He's the One that matters!