Today’s Scripture Reading
(November 18, 2018): Numbers 32
Supernatural Ministry author
Kris Vallotton argues that “You can sacrifice and not love. But you cannot love
and not sacrifice.” Love always requires sacrifice. You cannot move into a
relationship and somehow think that everything is always going to go your way;
that life will continue without compromise or sacrifice. And this is true about
our romantic relationships and our platonic friendships. All relationships
require some sort of sacrifice, or it is not really
a relationship.
As
the story of the Exodus of Israel draws to a close, the end of the journey
comes quicker for two and a half tribes. The tribes of Gad, Reuben, and half of
the tribe of Manasseh petition Moses to end their journey on the East side of
the Jordan River. For these people, the journey ends here and now. They will
build their new lives outside of the land had been promised to them.
But
their story of sacrifice wasn’t finished. While Gad,
Reuben and the half-tribe of Manasseh would build their homes on the east side of the Jordan
River, they committed that the men of the tribes would continue on the journey
with the rest of the descendants of Jacob. They would arm themselves, cross the
Jordan, and for the next eight years,
they would fight alongside their brothers for a land in which they would not
have an inheritance. It would be eight years where the bulk of their time would
be spent away from their homes and their families, and away from the building
of their new lives on the other side of the river.
Moses’s
original concern was that these tribes were simply repeating the error of those
who had led the tribes before them; that they were afraid to enter the land and
did not have the faith or will to place their trust in the God who had
delivered them out of Egypt. But as the Transjordan Tribes, literally the
tribes who settled on the other side of the Jordan from the Promised Land, make
their commitment to arm themselves and cross the Jordan with the rest of
Israel, Moses’s fears seem to be laid to rest.
Gad,
Reuben and the half tribe of Manasseh would make the sacrifice of spending time
away from their families by crossing the Jordan with the rest of Israel. This is important, but not everything that
Moses needed to hear. The rest that Moses required was that they would cross the
Jordan into Canaan armed. Gad, Reuben and the half tribe of Manasseh would not
be spectators in what was about to happen, but rather they would be active in
the process.
We
are still called to do these two things. We are called to cross into the
culture that surrounds us; this is the land that God continues to promise us. We
are to cross into the heart of our culture, not as spectators, but as active
participants. And there will be a sacrifice
on our part as we prepare to take the land.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Numbers 33
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