Revering the Word
Numbers 32 Prioritizing unity over perceived fairness.
good morning everyone this morning we are in numbers chapter 32 and here we see something that I think could have gone much much worse but as a result of maturity of the people and of Moses this situation that takes place in numbers 32 I think goes much better than what I would have expected seeing some of the challenges and just just knowing people in general and even the people of Israel and their challenges this could have went really bad but here's a situation in numbers 32 the Israelites are still in the desert but they are nearing a time where they're about to head into the Promised Land and Ruben and Gad two of the tribes as well as the half tribe of Manasseh they see that on this side of the Jordan not the Promised Land they see that there is good land and for cattle and they happen to be very rich in cattle these tribes they had much of it and they said you know what we want to just stay here on this side because we've got a lot of cattle the land here is good for cattle so they go to Moses and say hey Moses can we just stay here now think about this they're about to have to go in and fight and God's gonna fight for them but to take the Promised Land obviously it'd be a lot easier to say ah you know the rest of you just go we're gonna stay here and think of the kind of division that that could create amongst the people of Israel perhaps a lot more of families and tribes would say hey we don't want to have to go fight either we'll just stay here and Moses is disturbed by their question and says hey do you remember how the spies went out and came back and said oh that land's too strong for us and only Joshua and Caleb were good spies and said no we can go in and take this land but as a result of the unfaithfulness of the spies you know they spent 40 years in the desert and and the generation of people died out in the desert because of their unfaithfulness and Moses is concerned that this is just another sign of unfaithfulness to God and not going to take the land that he's promised them and he's like this isn't good no you know we can't do this and and then they said no listen what we're gonna do is we'll we want to build a city and we want to build shelter for our children our wives and our flocks but we will go and fight and Moses hears what they has to say and says alright listen if you will go and fight until every one of the tribes of Israel has had victory and it has the land that they have coming to them which may take some time but if you will go and fight and do that then we'll go ahead and let you have this land on this side of the Jordan but if you don't your sin will find you out God will know that you were unfaithful and your sin will find you out and that that's kind of interesting right your sin will find you out there's a lesson there isn't there you know God knows our sin and sometimes the sins of our past have consequences and our sin finds us out and he's saying your sin will find you out if you're unfaithful to this now what I'm kind of so anyways they agree Moses agrees the tribes of Ruben and Gad in the half-trap of Manasa agree no listen we will honor that we'll go into the promise land all of our fighting men will go we'll fight we'll wait till there's complete victory and then we'll come back but they're still gonna get to leave their wives and children and and build some shelter now before they enter the promise land I would have thought this could have still created lots of conflict because imagine if you're one of the other tribes you know what about your families and children and your flocks right I mean it'd be kind of a nice advantage to leave your children and women behind before you have to enter the promise land I would think that you know this could have been something maybe a lot of them now they're gonna miss out on the land flowing with milk and honey and miss out on the land that's promised to them but you know when it comes to having your wives and children be a part of war or at least be in the vicinity of war it seems like it would have been a nice advantage to to leave them behind so it doesn't appear that this created at this stage a lot of conflict that you know Moses made the decision they agreed to fight and everyone kind of went along with this decision which I think shows some maturity on behalf of Moses and God's people that this didn't create some type of major conflict now this story comes up again later in Joshua chapter 22 so this is in Joshua 22 you know Joshua is the one who leads them to take the promise land and Joshua how many chapters is it it's only might be just 20 now 24 chapters so in Joshua 22 they've conquered all the land has been conquered and people have been given their allotment and now the Gadites the Rubenites in the half tribe of Manasa they kept their word in fact it says in Joshua 22 here then Joshua summoned the Rubenites and the Gadites and the half tribe of Manasa and said to them you have kept all that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you and have listened to the voice and all that I commanded you you have not forsaken your brothers these many days to this day but have kept the charge of the commandment of the Lord your God and now the Lord your God has given rest to your brothers the rest of Israel as he spoke to them therefore turn now and go to your tents to the land of your possession which Moses the servant of the Lord gave you beyond the Jordan so going back across the Jordan again back to where they were in the desert only be careful now listen to this is such a great word and we'll see a lot more of this in the book of Deuteronomy which I actually really I love that that book only be careful to observe the commandment and the law which the which Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you to love the Lord your God and walk in all his ways and keep his commandments and hold fast to him and serve him with all your heart and with all your soul so Joshua blessed them and sent them away and they went to their tents and what a great verse again we'll see that repeated in the book of Deuteronomy but numbers no excuse me Joshua 22 5 I love it I want to read it again only be careful to observe the commandments and the law which Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you to love the Lord your God and walk in all his ways and keep his commandments and hold fast to him and serve him with all your heart and with all your soul what a wonderful word so Joshua blessed them and sent them away and they went to their tents now what happens next is very interesting and it's kind of like what I expected could happen that there could be some division regarding this decision that you know but they were faithful and they went in and fought now what happens is when Gad and Rubenites in the half tribe of Manosse went back they built an altar now there's really only supposed to be one altar and that would be in the tabernacle that traveled with them and eventually that tabernacle is going to get a home in the temple through David and Solomon in Jerusalem and they're going to build a permanent place but you remember there are sometimes false altars that other people would have to other gods and there's really only supposed to be at least for the Jews in this season of history one true altar of God in the tabernacle so they built an altar and the the tribes that are on the side of the promised land that went in got victory they hear that Gad the Rubenites and the in half tribe of Manosseb built their own altar and they're like they're gonna start worshiping their own God and they're gonna start not having our altar be the only true altar but they're gonna make their own competing altar and they're upset they're like this is this is gonna be a problem this isn't right so they actually go to prepare for battle to go attack these these tribes that went back to their homes on the other side of the Jordan and this they they come to them and without you know throwing a stone first they say hey what's the deal with this altar and they're like I'm sorry listen hear me out we didn't built an altar to make sacrifices we're not gonna have any kind of false worship far be it from us to do that we are gonna honor Yahweh we know there's only one true place of worship however we're just building this as a witness to so that our future generations know that we follow God this isn't gonna be a place a false place of sacrifice it's just a witness that God gave us this land that we were faithful to go on and fight and that then God permitted us to go back we just want there to be some kind of record or witness so everyone knows that we honored the Lord and that's what this altar represents is just that remembrance and the people that came to fight them from Israel said you know what that sounds that that sounds good we're glad that you weren't actually making a false place of worship but you can see how things almost got out of hand and but it didn't it didn't and they went on living peaceably at this time and they went back to their places on in the desert on the other side of Jordan and Israel went back to its land and and life moved on but so I just think it's interesting to me that this situation ended up turning out well I think it could have been very dysfunctional and yet because Moses intervened originally and because they were faithful to honor coming in and fighting with Israel all the way to the end they honored their word everyone allowed for this exception to be made and didn't make it a point of contention it became close but it didn't actually bubble over and you know good for Israel good for Gad the Rubenites and the half tribe of Madison and all of them to just be mature about this and that this didn't turn into being something ugly and I think you know what's the lesson for us today I don't think life's always fair you know and in this situation it could have been deemed to not be completely fair right they were able to leave their wives and children behind and build some fortifications before they went into the promised land and no other tribe was able to do that and yet it didn't end up creating division and I think that's important that we that we are mature that way you know not not everything's always gonna be fair not everything's always gonna be equal even among God's people and we need to strive for unity with one another and not allow things to divide within the body of Christ and I think they did a good job of that here so be careful there are many there are many areas that can create division if we will allow them to but if we give grace and if we're mature and saying you know what it's not worth it maybe someone did get a benefit maybe someone got something that I wish I would have had but you know what it's not worth creating division over and I'm just gonna be mature about it and I'm gonna trust God for my allotment I'm gonna trust God for what he's gonna give me and you know what he doesn't give us all the same today everyone's not gonna have the same amount of things the same amount of blessing even it just doesn't work that way but ultimately we all can share in the same blessing of heaven because we believe in Jesus so we have to we have to learn to have peace with one another and peace with God even though sometimes things aren't always going to be fair so there you have it we see Israel actually act maturely here and as a result there's not greater division and I applaud them and their leadership in handling these things well may we may we learn to handle things well to an honorably so that we can be united God bless you all