.Good Morning Yamon Ki Yesepar and Nevim Arith Hayomim:

Mark 9:37: “Whosoever shall receive one of such children in my name, receiveth me: and whosoever shall receive me, receiveth not me, but him that sent me.”

Yesterday before, I was called up to speak at a worship service, I sat in the back of the balcony area watching the service.  I believed God wanted me to observe the worship rather than participate as I felt He was going to show me something interested.  As I sat watching the worship I suddenly notice a little child, no more than three or four years old, run out to a little open area along the side of the auditorium and began to spin around in a circle.  Immediately my spirit was quickened and I knew this was why God wanted me to observe rather than participate in the worship service.

The first thing I noticed was that the father did not restrain his child from “playing around” during a worship service.   The father was not worshipping with the rest of the fellowship, at least not like they were, he was too focused on his child and sat away from the rest of the fellowship and just enjoyed the music and the spirit of worship while he kept his eye on his child.  I really felt that God’s heart was warmed by this and as a result this father was receiving God as God was receiving this child.

The child was really too young to understand the dynamics of worship.  She was just participating in the joy that she was feeling around her and as I meditated on various passages of Scripture that came to mind, including Mark 9:37, I realized she was worshipping God just as much as the adults standing around were worshipping God.  I recalled reading in Jewish literature how children would often worship God by spinning around in a circle.   I then thought of II Samuel 6:14 where David danced before the Lord in front of the Ark of the Covenant.  The word in Hebrew here for danced is kavar which means to spin around in a circle.  This is why David’s wife had a fit over this demonstration as he was acting like a child. I often wondered why David suddenly began to dance or spin around before the Ark. Perhaps there were some children along the way spinning around and David sensed the presence of God upon them and he too began to spin around with them.  This
child may not have known she was worshipping God, nor did the father know that he too was worshipping God as he observed his child.  Not only that I found that by just observing this child basking in joy of the Lord by spinning around in a circle I was moved to tears like I would be if I were in a very intense and intimate moment with my God.

Is this what Jesus meant when he said: “whosoever receives one of such children in my name; receives me.”  In the Aramaic the verse reads: “whoever receives a child like this in my name receives me.”   Yet the first time the word for received is used in this verse, there is a Daleth before it indicating the word that. The word is also followed by the preposition Mem which could give a rendering of: “Whoever receives from that child in my name will receive me.”    Hence we could render this as: “Anyone that receives a child like this in my name receives me.”   This smacks of an old Eastern idiom which expresses the idea of one “who receives a child like I receive a child.”  It sounds almost like Jesus is saying that a child, in its innocent, natural way and unrestrained expression of the joy of the Lord is God’s way of directing us in our worship.  It is very easy to turn our worship into a script and a method to keep things orderly
and in control.  We are told to stand, lift our hands, sing, close our eyes etc. as an expression of true worship.  Then in the midst of our nice, proper, holy stance a child runs out and begins to express his or her joy by spinning around in a circle.  Immediately the parent will lovingly put a restraining hand on the child and bring the child back into a proper stance that is less disruptive.

As I observed this child yesterday I could not help but think that the spirit in this father was instructing him to let the child alone so that God could pick her up like Jesus picked up the child  in Mark and hold that child in His arms and love on her.  I sensed that the father watching his daughter spinning around in a circle out of pure joy found his heart being warmed.  Maybe he realized it or not but somehow his spirit knew that his daughter was in the arms of Jesus and by letting Jesus receive his daughter, he was receiving Jesus Himself.

In Aramaic the word received is identical to the Hebrew word received which is quval.  Quval is used, as in II Kings 5:15 to indicate one being in the presence of a prophet, king or God.  I believe what Jesus was really saying in this passage is that anyone who will allow a child to come before the presence of God in the name of Jesus,  even in childlike behavior, will themselves enter into the presence of God.  As that father allowed his daughter to enter the presence of God, in her childlike way, this act brought him and this poor slob watching all this into His presence as well.

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