Skimming Past The Cubits
When I first became a Christian, I struggled reading through the Old Testament.
The intense battles, the complete brutality of mankind, the rampant idolatry (Sounds a lot like today.)
You know what they say about history – it repeats itself.
I’m completely amazed at God’s long-suffering patience and mercy towards us considering that we, the human race as a whole, continually turn against Him.
There’s a lot of information about those battles to take in, and besides that, there are the “cubits.”
The what-its?
Starting in Genesis, we read about the cubit lengths required for Noah to build the ark. These measurements were precise, per God’s specific instructions.
As mind-boggling as they can sometimes be, a “cubit” is a very real description of measurement used by ancient civilizations.
More specifically, a cubit is an ancient measurement of length based on the distance from the elbow to the tip of the longest finger. – Ark Encounter, Williamstown, Kentucky.1
Cubits appear in other Bible books as well.
Sometimes, I got lost in all of those figures. In essence, you could say that in my earlier Bible readings, I ended up skimming past the cubits.
But not now.
There’s nothing in the Bible, including the measurements, that aren’t important and purposeful.
There are many reasons to follow our Sovereign God’s instructions to the “T”, including showing our obedience and reverence to Him.
Delight In His Word
Reading the Bible is not only rewarding, it’s a complete joy for me. Thinking about the treasures in His Word has given me a lot of insight into God’s character.
“We” are His.
Consider the following:
Skimming Past The Cubits No More
If you’re a new believer, my advice to you is to not read through the Old Testament without a Biblical commentary.
There’s a great online, completely free, audio and written commentary from pastor David Guzik that you might like. It’s one of my favorites. His commentary starts at the bottom of the landing page. I’ll link to it right here!
These free resources can help you better understand the sometimes difficult-to-read Bible passages.
You’ll see for yourself the very practical applications for today.
Facing Our Giants
My dream has always been to go to Israel, but in the meantime, I found the next best thing.
There are some excellent Christian teachers who did travel thousands of miles to the Biblical locations where our readings took place.
How cool is that?
Do you remember the account of David and Goliath in the Valley of Elah?
Please read about this account of true events if you haven’t already.
In 1st Samuel, Chapter 17, we read that Goliath – the taunting, freakishly tall, giant from the Philistine army – used to call out to the Israelites across the Valley of Elah to dare anyone to fight him.
No one stepped forward except for David (the shepherd boy). He wasn’t a fighter in the traditional sense. Even so, he had a powerful weapon.
He was armed with a few smooth rocks, a sling, but even more importantly, the Lord God was on His side. David conquered that giant with a stone’s throw.
A miracle? You bet!
I thought you might enjoy the following lesson about David and Goliath – taught right in the actual location of the Valley of Elah.
I loved watching this!
Facing our giants may seem impossible, but as Christians we know that, nothing is impossible with God.
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1 Description of cubit measurement, courtesy of Ark Encounter. n.d. Web. Acccessed July 29, 2021. https://arkencounter.com/noahs-ark/cubit/
2 Scripture quotation is from the New American Standard Bible (NASB) Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation.
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