THE CHILDREN'S QUESTIONS

I believe the first teenage question in the Bible was asked by a boy and the second by a girl. The boy enquired about the worship of God and the girl asked if she could help her brother.

The boy was Isaac and the sheep for an offering which he asked about represented the Lord Jesus who was in life and death fully pleasing to God. The girl, Miriam, was at the right place at the right time to be used of God. She asked to be of help to her little brother. We do not know what his earlier name was but he became called Moses and was later one of God's greatest servants.

God expects young people to be interested in His ways. He wanted the Hebrew children to ask about the Passover. For the Christian this is a sign of the shedding of the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish or spot. This has been done once for all and by it the believer is redeemed to God and sheltered from judgment.

After the Israelites crossed the Jordan into the land that God provided for them, they set up twelve great stones on the river bank. The children were expected to ask two separate questions. One was, 'what mean ye by these stones?' and the other was 'what mean these stones?'

The answer to the first question was that the water of the river was stopped a long way upstream whilst the Ark passed over Jordan. For the believing Christian this means that death had to yield when the Lord Jesus died and rose again. The answer to the second was that the people themselves had also crossed the Jordan on dry land. For us this means that the believer has been attracted after the Lord and is standing like one of the great stones in the new homeland of God's purpose.

Have you by faith followed the Lord Jesus?

J.C.Evershed

London