In the
26th chapter of Numbers, God told Moses to take a census of the people. So Moses did, and the passage is filled with many unusual names, such as: Hanoch (vs. 5), Nemuel (vs. 9), Zerah (vs. 13), Ozni (vs. 16), Jashub (vs. 24), Helek (vs. 30), Zelophehad (vs. 33), Hoglah (vs. 33), Shephuapham (vs. 39), and Ishvi (vs. 44).
It is hard for us to read lists like this in the Bible, and yet there are several such lists. Maybe sometimes we wonder why God would bother to include these lists of names in His Bible. Maybe sometimes we wish we weren’t supposed to read them. But such lists remind us of a very important point: God knows their names!
When the Space Shuttle Columbia exploded a few years ago, President Bush gave a
speech in which he quoted Isaiah 40.26: "lift your eyes and look to the heavens. Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one and calls them each by name. Because of His great power, and mighty strength, not one of them is missing.”
Then the President said, “The same creator who names the stars also knows the names of the seven souls we mourn today.”
How amazing to think that even though there are billions of people on this planet, God still knows each of us by name. In fact, Jesus says that God even knows the
number of hairs on our heads.
This reminds us of how much God is concerned about us. Even though He is vast and mighty, even though we are tiny and so many, God still loves each of us.
And He knows our names.
(Photo source: AP)
