Bible Trivia?

Many years ago, I was in the midst of some earnest prayer. I don’t remember what the cause of my serious prayer time was, but I remember getting a revelation as a result. I am not known for my great memory of past events, so it is significant that I can remember this. I was driving an empty school bus at the time, and my attention was drawn to the gravel on the shoulder. It was impressed upon me that the sovereign God who made all things knew the position of every stone in that gravel. The Word says He knows the number of hairs on our heads, so I shouldn’t have been surprised. What I took away from that moment and I remember to this day is that nothing is without significance. Nothing. Not hair. Not gravel. Nothing.

I’m reading through the books of Moses in my daily devotions just now. I have asked myself repeatedly why God had so many very specific rules and regulations for His people. Many Christians consider Leviticus and Numbers boring if not insignificant. But if nothing is without significance, the minutiae of Levitical law has meaning. At the very least we can see that it was God’s way of demonstrating His holiness – His separateness – and requiring the same thing from His people. The detailed instructions for slaughtering sacrificial animals, the precise architectural design of the tabernacle, their clothing, the ritual cleansings all add up to a ton of trivia. Or does it?

The Scripture declares numerous times that the Word of God is true. Every word is God-breathed to use Paul’s explanation. Jesus said that God’s Word is truth. So, if there is truth in every word, nothing is without significance. The thing is that some of the truth seems incidental. Consider Balaam, a prophet of God (so Scripture says) who lived during Moses’ time and was called on to prophesy against Israel. It’s an interesting story in itself with angelic appearances and talking donkeys, but I find something else interesting. God had a prophet on the border of Canaan. In Moses’ day. Curious.

That was not the only time a spokesman for God shows up. Abraham met a mysterious character after he defeated the alliance that had attacked his nephew, Lot. He was returning home in the land that was to become Israel when the king of the city of Salem (later called Jerusalem) met him. This king, also identified as a priest of the one true God, was called Melchizedek. His name means king of righteousness. His city name, Salem, means peace, so he was also the king of peace. King of righteousness and king of peace. We learn from the writer of Hebrews that Jesus’ priestly ministry was after the order of Melchizedek. Curious.

Then there is Moses’ father-in-law. He was called the priest of Midian. Remember that at this time, there was no temple. The tabernacle with its altar had not been built. Yet God had priests ministering to various people who were not among His chosen. We do know that sacrifices to God were being offered as early as Cain and Abel. Cain’s murderous anger was because his sacrifice was not accepted while Abel’s was. This presupposes some instruction from God as to what would be acceptable. It also opens the door to the need for priests to explain and perhaps perform the sacrifices. They were out there, but we know little or nothing about them. And curiouser.

Here is another piece of trivia that hides a larger purpose of God. In Numbers 25 when the Israelites started mixing with the Midianites and worshipping their god, Phineas, the son of the high priest, speared an Israelite named Zimri and his Midianite wife, Cozbi, to stop the plague God had inflicted killing 24,000 of His people. You might wonder why those two were named specifically. We learn a couple verses after the incident that Cozbi was the daughter of the Midianite king. More than likely, Zimri was making an alliance through marriage – a common practice – and tripling his violation of God’s command: don’t marry their women, make no alliances, and do not worship their gods.

There are other examples of trivia that is not at all trivial. My point is that in God’s Word, nothing is without significance. Like most believers, I struggle to read through Old Testament passages that are not exciting stories like crossing the Red Sea or David sling-shotting Goliath. But Paul’s statement to Timothy proves true if we read with purpose and the Holy Spirit’s guidance: “All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness.” (Italics mine.) So, get into the Scripture; make a plan to read every day with Holy Spirit illumination. You never know where a piece of “trivia” will open a new insight into God’s Word.