From a Distance...

The Universe from Johannes Torp on Vimeo.

Do you remember the song that Bette Midler sang, “From A Distance?”

From a distance the world looks blue and green,
and the snow-capped mountains white.
From a distance the ocean meets the stream,
and the eagle takes to flight.

It is interesting to think about how God must view us sometimes… one could easily feel insignificant watching the above video. To think that a planet so small could garner the attention of One so amazingly beyond compare… One Who created planets so immense that earth is not even a speck in their shadow… and to think One so magnificent could really be interested in the every-day organization of our daily lives. Perhaps the Israelites felt the same. They had been led through the wilderness for nearly 40 years, were now asked to take another census, given specific instruction about how and where to camp and how to move as one unit. The first two chapters of the book of Numbers can be a seemingly weary (if not out-right boring) task for the reader. It gives very specific detail about how and where the tribes must camp around the tabernacle. One artist rendition looks like this…



However, it is another example of how we are sometimes “too close to the forest to see the trees” type of situation. The above artist only took into consideration where the camps would be in regards to the tabernacle which is placed in the center of camp. No thought was given to HOW MANY people lived in each particular camp. No thought was given to tribes being given only a CERTAIN WIDTH in which to camp. Tribes could only camp on the ordinal points of the compass (an example would be the tribes that made up Judah… they were to camp east of the Levites but only as wide as the Levite camp... and then they could take whatever length they needed for the population of the tribes that made up Judah.) Therefore, upon closer investigation, paying attention to the numbers of the tribes and the exact locations given by God in which they were to camp… one can see “from a distance” what God had planed for his people… not only in their time… but a for-shadowing of His salvation for our time as well. Below is an aerial view of what one would see if viewing the nation of Israel from a mountain with them camped in a valley below (perhaps this is the very picture that Balaam saw in Numbers 22-24).



Perhaps we are not so insignificant after all…

Peace, Troy