ENQUIRING CHILDREN

God expects young people to be interested in His ways and in His people. I am sure that the children in the city of Tyre joined, perhaps sorrowfully, with their Christian parents in having to say 'goodbye' to Paul, Luke and others in their journeyings. No doubt, as they all knelt down on the sea-shore and prayed, the children felt what a privilege it was to know something about the testimony of the Lord Jesus.

Centuries before these events, it was expected that the Hebrew children would ask about the feast of Passover which celebrated the time when the people of Israel came out of the land of Egypt. For the Christian it is a sign of the shedding of the blood of Jesus 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.

When the Israelites later crossed the river Jordan into the land of God's purpose, twelve great stones were set up on the river bank. The children were expected to ask two separate questions about these. One was, ''What mean ye by these stones?" and ''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 crossed the Jordan. For the Christian this means that death had to yield when the Lord died and rose again. The answer to the second question was that the people themselves had also crossed the river on dry ground. For us this means that the believer has been attracted after the Lord and is standing like one of these great stones in the new homeland of God's purpose.

Have you in spirit followed the Lord Jesus?

J.C.Evershed