Word of Salvation – March 2014

 

Numbers 32 – SETTLING FOR GOD’S SECOND BEST

By Rev. John Westendorp

(Sermon 32 in a series on Numbers)

Scripture Reading: Numbers 32:1-30.

Singing: Book of Worship 63 / 210 / 379 / 237

 

Introd: Choices have consequences. That’s a lesson parents often try to get through to their children.

Some children find it very difficult to learn that lesson. Some adults have never learnt the lesson.

Choices have consequences:
Good choices generally have good consequences and bad choices bad consequences.
Sometimes our choices have short-term consequences.
If I stuff myself with junk food I’m likely to feel sick for an hour or two.
Other choices have long-term consequences.
If I experiment with drugs it may lead to a life-time of addiction that I will regret.

Choices have consequences.
They have consequences for ourselves but often also for others.
My parents migrated to Australia in 1950 and that had huge consequences for their life.
Any migrant can tell you how the choice to migrate has consequences.
But my parents’ decision to migrate also had consequences for me.
I’ve often wondered how different life would be if I had grown up in Europe.

Choices have consequences.
Some choices even have eternal consequences.
You may choose to reject the idea that Jesus is God and that He died to save us.
The consequence of that will be an eternity of regret, cut off from the love of God.
You may choose to accept the gospel and believe that Jesus is your Saviour and Lord.
Again the consequences are eternal – an eternity of joy in the presence of God.

In Numbers 32 Reuben and Gad make some choices… and those choices have consequences.

A] WHEN SELF-INTEREST DETERMINES THE CHOICE.

1. The decision that the tribes of Reuben and Gad make is not to cross the Jordan River.

They decide that they want to stay in the land that had been taken from Sihon and Og (Numbers 21).

The question is whether that was a good choice or bad choice.
Examine the reason for the choice and it’s not a real encouraging story.
Immediately the warning lights go on.

Their decision is dictated by their material needs and by the suitability of the land.
They have lots of cattle and the land East of Jordan is good grazing land.
So their choice is based on purely practical considerations. Cattle need grass to eat.

And there appears to be no consideration of the promises of God for them.
Remember please, that God was going to give Canaan to the twelve Tribes of Israel.
And now here are two tribes who say: The land east of Jordan will do for us.
Practical considerations and not the promises of God are the basis of their choice.

Furthermore it is motivated by just their own need and not the need of the wider community.
Hey… they were not the only people who had cattle and needed grass.
There were ten other tribes who also had needs. But practical self-interest triumphs.

Today it’s easy to make our choices on purely practical considerations… and God doesn’t come into it.
For example: decisions about schooling. It’s a good school with the latest in technology.
Well… okay they neglect Christian teaching… but we can make up for that at home.

2. There’s another interesting point that Numbers 32 makes right at the beginning of this story.

The stress in on what these people saw.
The Reubenites and Gadites… saw that the lands of Jazer and Gilead were suitable for livestock.

You may say… well of course they saw it… you’d be blind not to see it.
But the point that numbers is making is that their decision was based on what they saw.
Their choices were determined by what they saw and not on what they believed.
They saw good cattle country… and that determined the decision they made.

The problem is that when we go by what we see then we are choosing on the basis of now!
We look at the present… and we lose sight of the future.
So we choose on the basis of what our eyes tell us. That’s a constant problem in the Bible.

That began already with Eve in the garden of Eden.
Scripture says that Eve look at the fruit and saw how desirable it was.
So on that basis she made her choice: she took the fruit and ate of it.
We find the same thing in the story of Lot when Abraham called on him to make a choice.
We read that Lot looked and saw that the plain around Sodom was good for grazing.
So on that basis he made his choice and before long he was drawn into Sodom.

The point is that we should beware of making our choices on the basis of what we see with our eyes.
John in his letter warns us about “the lusts of the eyes”.
Abraham had a different way of making his choices.
Hebrews 11 says that he was content to live as a stranger and exile.
Because by faith he was looking for a city with foundations.

The Reubenites and Gadites did not see with the eye of faith the wonderful land of milk and honey.

All they were interested in was the here and now… what they could see with their eyes.

We must live by faith… and we must make our choices by faith… to include God in the picture.

And to put all of life into that big-picture framework of His Kingdom and His glory

We need to do that about our choices about where to live… and where to work… and which school.

3. It seems to me that these folk try to dress up their choices to make them sound a little more spiritual.

Notice how they announce their decision to Moses and Eleazar in verse 4.
They speak of “the land the Lord subdued before the people of Israel”.
That sounds just a little more spiritual and pious than just “the lands of Jazer and Gilead”.
That lends some weight to their claims.
It makes their choice seem more like a good choice than a bad choice.

Later… after they have been rebuked by Moses they come back with a modified claim.
But they also put the religious part of their claim even more strongly.
They say in vs.19: “our inheritance has come to us on the east side of the Jordan”.

I think that if I was Moses I would have replied: Really! Who said so?
Had God decreed that these two tribes were to inherit the territory of Sihon and Og?
There is nothing in the Bible to even remotely support that idea.
This was just their way of staking their claim on this bit of turf… this patch of real estate.
And they dress it up with just enough piety to make it sound acceptable.

Over the years I’ve often experienced that as a pastor.
People come to me and tell me about certain choices they have made.
And if I dare to suggest that this may not be the best choice then they protest.
They will say things like: we believe the Lord is leading us in that direction.
Or: we prayed about it and God has given us peace about it. But it’s still a bad choice!

B] THE REBUKE THAT SUCH A CHOICE EARNS.

1. Bad choices need to be confronted. It’s an area where we need to challenge one another.

And Moses does exactly that. In fact Moses rebukes them for three things.

First, he rebukes them for making the comfortable choice… the easy choice.
Shall your countrymen go to war while you sit here?
It’s always tempting isn’t it to make the easy choices.
Because it is the comfortable choice that avoids the demanding responsibilities.

It’s much easier setting up the farm in Jazer and Gilead than fighting the Canaanites.
Milking the cows East of Jordan sure beats facing enemy arrows West of Jordan.

And that attitude still prevails in the church today.
Why does the church so often struggle to find volunteers?
Because there are so many who choose to take the soft option:
To let their brothers and sisters go to war against the enemy while they watch television.

I recall us asking a capable man in the church to give some once-off assistance.
His comment was: You’d better find someone else… I’m retired.
I think of those who often don’t come to worship because they say; Sunday is family time.
What better way to have family time than to be together in church as a family.

Here are two tribes who are prepared to let the other ten tribes face the enemy’s spears and arrows.

And Moses asks them: Why should you live in comfort while your brothers battle the enemy in Canaan?

I want to ask that question today of Christians who don’t want to get involved.

Your choices are making it just that little bit harder for others who are left to do the work.

2. A second reason Moses rebukes them is because half-heartedness is contagious.

It will lead people to say: Why should I suffer burnout if no one else wants to help?

Moses asks the Reubenites and the Gadites:
Why do you discourage the Israelites from going over into the land the Lord has given them?
Do you see how discouraging this would be for the other ten tribes.
Two whole tribes are not going to go with them.
What a disappointment for the rest of the people.

Perhaps these Reubenites and Gadites thought what so many have wrongly thought.
All the rest don’t really need us. They can manage fine without us.
Maybe they remembered that it had only taken 12,000 Israelites to wipe out the Midianites.
And the conquest of Sihon and Og had all gone so smoothly.
So the other ten tribes are more than competent to handle the conquest of Canaan.

Today in our society the Christian church is not terribly effective in its mission.
Why is that? Why is the church losing ground in so many places?
Surely part of the problem is that so many are prepared to leave the task to so few.

More than ever today we need God’s people to stand shoulder to shoulder in the work.
To roll up our sleeves and build the coming Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Let’s not discourage those who are active by our inaction.

Moses says: Why do you discourage the others from the work by taking the easy option?
What would happen if every one wanted to stay East of Jordan?
That would mean an end to the program God had them set out to fulfil for Him.

3. That brings us to a third reason why Moses rebukes them.

He links their choice back to Numbers 13 when Israel was about to enter Canaan the first time.
At that time the people refused to take up the challenge.
They listened to the ten spies who brought a bad report.
On that occasion the whole nation had failed to live by faith.
And the result was that they had spent 40 years in the wilderness for their troubles.

Moses now envisages a similar thing happening.
So he tells these people that he can see history about to repeat itself.
So that this generation too will be doomed to wander in the wilderness.
And these Reubenites and Gadites would be the cause of their doom.

Too often in our choices we repeat the mistakes of the past.

So we need to study the past in order to learn from it and not make the same mistakes.

The good thing is that this time… this new generation had learnt some lessons from the past.
And they respond positively to Moses’ rebuke.
It seems that they go away to reconsider their choices. And that’s encouraging.

Often that is precisely what doesn’t happen.
Sometimes the elders of the church have rebuked someone for some bad choices.
But sometimes their counsel is strongly rejected.
I’ve heard it said: Who are you to tell me how to live my life?

In Numbers 32 the men come back and they are still just as determined about their choices.
But they do come with a compromise solution.
They will first settle their families down here East of Jordan.
And then they – the men of war – will go with Israel and join them in battle.
They promise not to return home until all Israel receive their inheritance.
And that is how history eventually unfolds.

C] THE CONSEQUENCE OF CHOOSING SECOND BEST.

1. Let’s consider then the outcome of this choice of the Reubenites and Gadites.

Were the consequences of their choice good consequences or bad consequences?

I tend to be suspicious about the consequences being good.
For one thing it seems obvious to me that in this whole matter God is not consulted.
Moses does not enquire of the Lord. He accepts that compromise arrangement.
And it seems that the Lord also permits it. There is no intervention on God’s part.

I can think of one good outcome of this choice of Reuben and Gad.
And that is that Israel’s territory was effectively enlarged.
That good grazing land East of Jordan came under Israel’s control.
So the boundary of the Promised Land was effectively enlarged.

And yet I have some serious reservations about this choice made by these two tribes.
It created disunity in Israel. There was a sense in which it now became a divided nation.
And so it’s not surprising that after Solomon the nation split into two.
In some small ways the seeds of that break-up of the nation were already sown here.

I said earlier that our choices have consequences not only for ourselves but also for later generations.
Here was a choice that was driven by self-interest and pragmatism.
But hundreds of years later Israel was still reaping the fruit of that bad choice.
It reminds us that in our choices we need to think long terms… not just about immediate needs.

2. Let me also spell out two other ways in which this choice had consequences.

Let’s look at how this choice impacted the other ten tribes and then how it affected their own lives.

One of the most serious outcomes of this choice was that it made life in Canaan more difficult.
It meant that the other ten tribes were often too thinly spread.
We later read of the problems Israel had in occupying its territory.
There were entrenched clans of Canaanites that stayed in the land till the time of David.

Right throughout the time of Joshua and the Judges these people were never eradicated.
And they continued to tempt and seduce Israel.
Their idol worship was something Israel got sucked into time and again.
How much different it might have been if all twelve tribes had occupied Canaan.

Here is reminder that our choices have consequences for other people.
That’s still the case in the church today.
If your choices are motivated by self interest that will impact other people.
Paul found that out and he lamented it in his letter to the Philippians.
He said: For everyone looks out for his own interests, not those of Jesus Christ.
That’s why he calls them to stand together: contending as one man for the faith of the gospel.
Take the wellbeing of the whole church into consideration.

3. But this choice also had some serious consequences for these two tribes themselves.

First it meant that for seven years these men were to be away from their homes and families.
Seven years – because that’s how long it took Israel to claim Canaan.
They also robbed their families of some wonderful experiences of God’s power and grace.
Their families missed out on seeing the walls of Jericho come crashing down.
They were not there to see Rahab and her family saved by God’s grace.

When the fighting was all over this division in Israel also led to a serious misunderstanding.

As they returned home they built an altar by the Jordan (Joshua 22). But that almost led to a civil war.

But most serious of all was the lack of security that they themselves later suffered.
That territory East of Jordan was much harder to defend than Canaan proper.
Canaan had some natural barriers like the Jordan River to help in its defence.
The area East of Jordan was much more vulnerable. It had already exchanged hands twice.
First Sihon had taken it off the Moabites then Israel had taken it off Sihon.
It was generally the first part of Israel’s territory to suffer from enemy attacks.

All this makes us realise that these two tribes had really settled for what was second-best.
God’s best for them was across the Jordan in the Promised Land.
That was the heritage God had promised to Abraham’s descendents.
But their choice was second-best; the land of Jazer and Gilead. With that they were content.

It’s always a serious temptation to be content with second-best.

That’s ultimately why some people reject Jesus and the church… they are so content with life now.

They have the idea that life couldn’t possibly get any better than this.

C.S Lewis put it well. He said: “We are half-hearted creatures, fooling around with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot understand what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.” Let’s not settle for second best.

I want to conclude by pointing you to Jesus. Satan tempted Him to settle for second best.
But in the wilderness He resisted the easy option. He chose the way of the cross.
And because of that we now get to inherit wonderful blessings.
Because Jesus didn’t choose second-best, we now know that for us the best is still to come.

Amen.