OBED EDOM

Obed-Edom is one sweet guy. You probably have no idea who I’m talking about. And it’s ok, I had absolutely no clue who he was either. This amazing guy was brought to my attention by this crazy/awesome preacher who came to our church last November (Pastor Bill Wilson)…you can hear the sermon directly from him here (November 28th.2010).

I have a slight fascination with Mr. Obed-Edom. He knows a secret, not ‘the secret’, but a secret. A secret, that really isn’t so secret but it’s a secret that if you’re like me (swimming in a sea of ministry/craziness/amazingness), you will hold this so called secret in high regard.

Some people know this secret. Maybe even you are ‘some of these people’. These people would always boggle my mind. ‘These people’ are men and woman who serve Jesus like crazy and never seem to get burnt out.

Obed-Edom was one of ‘these people’. Let’s look at some of the areas he served in…

Gatekeeper- 1 Chronicles 15:18

Musician- 1 Chronicles 15:21

Guard of the Ark- 1 Chronicles 15:23

Serving daily “doing whatever needed to be done each day”- 1 Chronicles 17:37

Seriously, go look at 1 Chronicles and highlight his name every time it shows up. Bottom line- this man knew how to serve.

Lo and behold, here’s his secret: Being immersed in the presence of God.

Back story-King David wanted to move the Ark to Jerusalem. He gathered up a small group of “all the able young men of Israel- thirty thousand” (hello MOG alert!). Apparently they didn’t do a very good job of the move because the ark almost fell to the ground and a guy touched it and immediately died (yah, putting your dirty, grubby hands on the Ark of the Covenant was a big no-no). So King David got a wee bit frightened and placed the Ark in the guy’s house…Obed-Edom.

2 Samuel 6:10-11

He was not willing to take the ark of the LORD to be with him in the City of David. Instead, he took it to the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite.

¹¹ The ark of the LORD remained in the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite for three months, and the LORD blessed him and his entire household.  ¹² Now King David was told, “The LORD has blessed the household of Obed-Edom and everything he has, because of the ark of God.”

The Ark was in Obed-Edom’s house for three months! The Ark’s normal place was in the Tabernacle in the Holiest of Holies. Inside the Ark was the presence of the Lord. (side note…learned this last night at Tuesday Night Teaching… Inside the Ark were the tablets where the 10 commandments were written on representing the Father, the manna from heaven which represents bread of life aka JESUS and Aaron`s staff which bloomed and represents the Holy Spirit..AMAZING!)

Not only did the presence of the Lord bless Obed-Edom and his entire household, it seemed to give him willingness/passion/energy/strength to serve God A LOT.

 And this is what I believe…if we are constantly in the presence of the Lord, He will give us the willingness/passion/energy/strength to serve Him. I think of times when I’ve been burnt out and I realize I wasn’t putting a high value on immersing myself in God’s presence.

^28-30"Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly." Matthew 11:28-30 MSG

So there’s the secret…

stay gold,

s.s.♥.