Childlike Listening


The Old Testament has the following description of Moses in the presence of the Lord:

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

There are a couple of things that caught my interest in this passage. Notice that Moses did not go to speak to God but to speak with God. So much of the time our prayers and our praise and our worship are uni-directional. We are talking to God.  But Moses went to meet with God. He had the expectation that he was going to speak with God. The writer of the book of Hebrews says that
for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
Hebrews 11:6

As we draw near to God, we too need to come in faith – faith believing that you are going to meet with someone real and faith that He will reward you in some way as you seek Him.

A Jewish rabbi recently taught me the other thing about this
passage. In Jewish tradition, cherubim are angels with child-like faces. Art has followed that tradition, creating hundreds of sculptures and paintings depicting cherubim as these little angels with the faces of children. Notice that God spoke to Moses above the mercy seat and between the two cherubs. Jewish tradition taught that God spoke to Moses between these two cherubs to teach us that if we want to hear from God, we must become like little children.

Artist's depiction of the Big Bang
I love teaching my grandchildren about God and about science. On New Year’s Eve we have a tradition of taking the grandchildren for the evening. This past New Year’s Eve I happened to mention the Big Bang and found that they didn’t know what it was. They thought it was a TV show. Over dinner, this idea that there was a beginning of the universe captured the curiosity of my 12 year old grandson. He peppered me with questions about what we know of the Big Bang. One thing children are is hungry for learning. Are you hungry for getting to know God better? It is out of that child-like hunger and curiosity that God speaks.


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