When I was in college, the freshman class had to go to a special devotional time for the first 2 weeks of school at 7:00 every morning. This was because they wanted to make sure that your personal time in the Word was going to be beneficial during your college years, so they wanted to set a good ground work. One of the first things I remember from those couple of weeks (besides that I didn’t really want to drag myself halfway across campus at 6:45am) was a lesson taught by Dr. Les Ollila. He encouraged us to begin building a biography of God. Each time we came across something that we learned about God, we should write down what it was that we learned and what passage it came from. There was even a handout to help you keep them all in one place.

Some passages make this very easy. When you read through Psalm 47 today, you probably picked up on some of these. God is described as terrible (an old use of the word that means something close to the modern word “formidable”), He is a great King. He is authoritative. He is praiseworthy. He is sovereign (he reigns). He is holy. He is a protector. That’s seven, and I’m sure there are more, I just quickly summarized.

Other passages are not quite as easy to pick out God’s character traits, but any time we are reading the Bible, we are reading God’s Word, so God Himself is communicating to us, and in turn, we can learn about His character. When you come to Numbers 2-3 and you are reading about the tent placement of the different tribes, and who was supposed to be the captain or leader, how many there are, how they are supposed to set up their tents, it may be hard to see the character of God in that, but trust me, it’s there.

First, you have to see that, indeed, this is coming directly from the Lord (v. 1), so anything coming in this passage is going to be directly revealing what God Himself wants. Each family was supposed to pitch or set up his tent by his own standard. That doesn’t mean he could do it however he wanted, it’s the old word for a flag. (Think of the song “Who Is On the Lord’s Side.” The line “’Round His standard ranging, vict’ry is secure…” This means following the flag representing God’s army into battle). So each family was supposed to set up their tent near their tribe’s flag, with the ensign or insignia of their father (think of like a family crest) displayed to identify who lived there.

Additionally, we see the order that every tribe was supposed to set up as they circled around the tabernacle. All of these details might seem mundane, but what do they tell us about God?

First, they were to set up around the tabernacle, with the place of worship at the center of the camp. This gave it a place of protection from attacks from the outside, and the place of highest prominence within the camp. God expects us to place worship at the place of preeminence in our lives. He is a jealous God. He does not want other pursuits to take the priority that rightfully belongs to Him.We also see that God is a God of order. He cares about the little details like how and where they set up their tents. We should seek to have order in our lives, not just because it makes life easier, but because it is representative of the orderly God we serve. He is very detailed and very concerned that things are done a certain way. That’s why 1 Corinthians 14:40 says, “Let all things be done decently and in order.”Even when (or especially when you are reading through tougher passages, look hard to see what you can learn about God! What can you put in your Biography of God today?