Year 4, Day 122: Numbers 7

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: Obedience

• Obedience: Genuine and satisfying obedience comes out of our identity.  Our true identity comes only from Father.

This is a really neat and challenging passage in which I can speak about obedience.  If you read my theological commentary from three years ago, you will find that I spent much time confessing that sometimes I find myself struggling to find meaning in the rote.  After all, Numbers 7 is a very rote chapter in which meaning seems to be hard to grasp.

Sometimes it is difficult to plunge through the same thing day after day and find meaning.  Sometimes it is difficult to find meaning in the daily routine that doesn’t change, the daily tasks for which there is no gratitude, the spiritual pursuits whose fruit often seems so small.  Like this chapter from Numbers, sometimes the mundane can be so uninspiring.

However, this is where the idea of obedience comes into play.  If the Father is where spirituality starts and if my identity truly comes from Him, then my obedience is important.  I need to be obedient to what God wants of me – especially in the mundane and rote tasks of life.  Obedience to my devotions may produce small daily fruit, but after a year or two that small daily fruit is a profound heap!  Obedience to my daily routine may not feel like it is producing results, but that daily routine produces a repeatable rhythm that others can learn from, imitate, and become discipled!  Quite often it is actually obedience among the mundane that ends up producing the greatest fruit in the long run.

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