Monday, 5 June 2017

Bamidbar - In the Wilderness

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"Bnei-Yisrael will encamp, each man with his own camp, each with his own standard, according to their own divisions. ^53 The Levites are to camp around the Tabernacle of the Testimony, so that there will be no wrath unleashed on the community of Bnei-Yisrael. So the Levites are to maintain care of the Tabernacle of the Testimony." Numbers 1:52-53

"Each man with his own camp, each with his own standard..." For many readers this powerfully communicative statement may easily get lost in the numbers around it.

One could spend many hours discovering the great applicational truth behind camping around the testimony. And, how the Levites had to help protect Israel from its Tabernacle of the Testimony because its holiness.

For our purposes here, all we need for this time, is to look at this simple truth. We are called to camp under our own standard (flag). In other words, we are called to be ourselves - to be who we are - within the community.

We know that part of this calling is meant to be lived as ministers (Ephesians 4). And, for this we need to be equipped. But, in the process of equipping, it is important to be who you are in the community. G-d made you who you are to be His testimony to others.

Your personality, your characteristics, your peculiar traits - these are meant to be used for His glory ... as ministers and equippers let us remember what G-d taught Israel through Moshe.

Being who you are in G-d's economy, means being who you are in holiness; as we see, holiness protects us from G-d as well as connecting us to Him. Thus, we must remember our challenge today: .be holy and be ourselves.