When God allows you to determine how you will walk out your faith, just remember that what he permits is not always what he will bless. Never make a choice that sacrifices long-term blessing for short-term comfort. Stay alert if the choice is between better and best—and go for the best!
The Journey // Focus: Numbers 32:5-8, 13
The men of Gad and Reuben asked Moses, “If we have found favor with you, please let us have this land as our property instead of giving us land across the Jordan River.” But Moses responded, “Do you intend to stay here while your brothers go across and do all the fighting? Why do you want to discourage the rest of the people of Israel from going across to the land the Lord has given them? Your ancestors did the same thing when I sent them from Kadesh-barnea to explore the land….The Lord was angry with Israel and made them wander in the wilderness for forty years until the entire generation that sinned in the Lord’s sight had died.”
This section begins the Israelites’ decades-long conquest of Canaan as they settle the Promised Land. God was giving them a land that geologically would provide a great deal of security because of its natural borders: the Jordan River on the east, the Mediterranean Sea on the West, the desert on to the south and the Lebanon Mountains to the north. Israel’s enemies would not have the easiest time physically invading the land.
Moreover, God himself had promised this land to their ancestor Abraham. Now it was time for the fulfillment of that promise; the land was theirs by divine decree. It was not their land by United Nations declaration or bilateral negotiation or some grand land for peace swap. God said it belonged to Israel—now and forever—end of story.
It had taken several hundred years for God to fulfill that decree. God had declared that the current occupants, the various tribes of the Canaanites, would have to leave, but interestingly, that time would not come until, as he had declared to Abraham, the sin of the Canaanites had reached its limit (cf. my devotional blog on Numbers 31 regarding the sin of Canaan). The inhabitants of the land had grown intolerably wicked, and divine justice demanded their expulsion, by any means necessary.
Canaan was now ready for conquest, and the Israelites were about to possess their promise, a land flowing with milk and honey. Some of the twelve tribes of Israel, however, didn’t want to go in. They didn’t want to take ownership of the land. They prefered to stay on the east side of the Jordan where there were lush plains of grazing land. From their pastoral perspective, this was the perfect place to feed their flocks, raise their kids and make a life.
Moses, however, didn’t take it kindly when the tribes of Gad and Reuben informed him of their hope to stay on the edge of the Promised Land. He charged them with being negligent in their duties to help expel the Canaanite nations on the other side of the Jordan River. He claimed their settling for the east would discourage the rest of the tribes forging ahead to lay claim to the west. He argued that they were simply repeating the same sin that kept their fathers out of the Promised Land. But after a good tongue lashing, he accepted their explanation for staying put as reasonable—not ideal, but reasonable. Yet even then, you get the feeling that Moses wasn’t totally comfortable with the idea, and his acceptance of their plan was couched in a severe warning about being unengaged in God’s mission for Israel in the years to come.
That’s the story. So what is the application for us today? Obviously there is a reason God included it in the Bible, so what are the take-away’s for us?
Perhaps there are many, but I will suggest this one: At times, God gives us a choice. Sometimes the choice is either this or that, and one is no better than the other. Then at other times, God says, “sure, you can choose, but what you want is less than my best.” So simply be aware that when God allows you to determine how you will walk out your faith, what he permits is not always what he will bless. At times God brings us to a place where the choice he allows us to make is not between good and bad, it is between better and best.
God’s deepest desire is to lead you to the best place a believer could ever hope for—but he gives you a choice. In that choice, don’t’ settle! Don’t surrender for second place. Don’t forfeit the potential for divine abundance because of a short-sighted desire for comfort and convenience. Don’t give up just shy of the thrill that awaits at the finish.
Too many Christians surrender to far less than what God has in mind for them just prior to the final push of obedience and sacrifice faith required to bring them into a land flowing with milk and honey. I am not sure what that means for you today, but I know that the choice you and I will face today and every day as we walk out our faith is settling for the good when God wants to give us the best.
Don’t settle, God has a land of promise for you!
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