Tag: pass over

48.u. Wilderness – 13. “Then you shall give them the land of Gilead for a possession”

 

Num 32:26  Our little ones, our wives, our livestock, and all our cattle shall remain there in the cities of Gilead, but your servants will pass over, every man who is armed for war, before the LORD to battle, as my lord orders.” So Moses gave command concerning them to Eleazar the priest and to Joshua the son of Nun and to the heads of the fathers’ houses of the tribes of the people of Israel. And Moses said to them, “If the people of Gad and the people of Reuben, every man who is armed to battle before the LORD, will pass with you over the Jordan and the land shall be subdued before you, then you shall give them the land of Gilead for a possession. However, if they will not pass over with you armed, they shall have possessions among you in the land of Canaan.” And the people of Gad and the people of Reuben answered, “What the LORD has said to your servants, we will do. We will pass over armed before the LORD into the land of Canaan, and the possession of our inheritance shall remain with us beyond the Jordan.” And Moses gave to them, to the people of Gad and to the people of Reuben and to the half-tribe of Manasseh the son of Joseph, the kingdom of Sihon king of the Amorites and the kingdom of Og king of Bashan, the land and its cities with their territories, the cities of the land throughout the country.

The possession of the land of Gilead was on the condition of their faithfulness to their promise. Moses told Eleazar to make sure they honored their promise before granting them Gilead. Numbers 32:33 introduces another tribe – actually, half the tribe of Manasseh – who were likewise content to settle on the lands east of the Jordan River. In total, two and one-half tribes received their possession of land east of the Jordan River. (Guzik)

Concerning the settlement of these tribes, observe, that they built the cities, that is, repaired them. They changed the names of them; probably they were idolatrous, therefore they should be forgotten. A spirit of selfishness, of seeking our own, not the things of Christ, when each one ought to assist others, is as dangerous as it is common. It is impossible to be sincere in the faith, sensible of the goodness of God, constrained by the love of Christ, sanctified by the power of the Holy Ghost, and yet be indifferent to the progress of religion, and the spiritual success of others, through love of ease, or fear of conflict. Let then your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. (Henry)

We will pass over armed before the Lord into the land of Canaan,…. This is repeated again and again, for the confirmation of it, assuring that it should be strictly performed according to the true intent of it:

that the possession of our inheritance on this side Jordan may be ours; that is, that the possession and inheritance they desired, and which had been granted them, on conditions to be performed by them, might be ratified and confirmed unto them on their fulfilment of them. (Gill)

I really don’t know what to say about these tribes and their want to stay out of the promised land. Yet, then again I might. When we have an option for something less hard and more certain than the alternative we mostly choose the less hard and more certain. I wonder how many times God has set something before and we look ahead with all of the uncertainties and hard work and say: “I just make do here”.  

It is good for our hearts and minds to be ever-longing for the promised land – Eternity in Heaven! Being content with and having more desire for things of this world than eternity in heaven is not grasping hold of the promise. It is like saying I will help you get there but I personally want to stay on this side. 

Keep your eyes focused on Jesus and eternity in heaven and don’t let the things of this world entice you to forget it or put it aside.

39.x. “Battles and blessings”

 

 

Genesis 49:19  “Raiders shall raid Gad, but he shall raid at their heels.

Numbers 32:29  And Moses said to them, “If the people of Gad and the people of Reuben, every man who is armed to battle before the LORD, will pass with you over the Jordan and the land shall be subdued before you, then you shall give them the land of Gilead for a possession.  However, if they will not pass over with you armed, they shall have possessions among you in the land of Canaan.”  And the people of Gad and the people of Reuben answered, “What the LORD has said to your servants, we will do.  We will pass over armed before the LORD into the land of Canaan, and the possession of our inheritance shall remain with us beyond the Jordan.”

 Deuteronomy 33:20-21   And of Gad he said, “Blessed be he who enlarges Gad! Gad crouches like a lion; he tears off arm and scalp.  He chose the best of the land for himself, for there a commander’s portion was reserved; and he came with the heads of the people, with Israel he executed the justice of the LORD, and his judgments for Israel.”

In the days of Jeremiah (among other times), foreign armies oppressed Gad (Jeremiah 49:1). Yet victory would be his in the end. (Guzik)

“This has been the blessing of many a child of God – to fight, and apparently to lose the battle, yet to win it at the end.” (Spurgeon)

Concerning Gad, Jacob alludes to his name, which signifies a troop, and foresees the character of that tribe. The cause of God and his people, though for a time it may seem to be baffled and run down, will be victorious at last. It represents the Christian’s conflict. Grace in the soul is often foiled in its conflicts; troops of corruption overcome it, but the cause is God’s, and grace will in the end come off conqueror, yea, more than conqueror, Ro 8:37. (Henry)

When our battles and trials are made and fought within our own doing the outcome is bad for us. When our battles and trials are surrendered into the hands of God the outcome and victory is His and the blessing ours. God is all-knowing, ever-present, and all-powerful. We do well to remember this and subject the things of this world that afflict us into His hands and keep our eyes focused on Jesus Christ with our hearts and minds seeking to honor and glorify Him in all we think, say, and do.

17.o. Sitting at the feet of Jesus

John 12:1   Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. Here a dinner was given in Jesus’ honor. Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him. Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, “Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year’s wages.” He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it.

Luke 10:39   And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus’* feet and heard His word.

John 11:32    Then, when Mary came where Jesus was, and saw Him, she fell down at His feet, saying to Him, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.”

Mary has sat at the feet of Jesus and learned.  She sat at His feet in mournful surrender. And she sat at His feet and honored Him with oil.  How can we learn if we do not spend time listening with a desire to hear Him speak?  How can we surrender our broken heart at His feet if we don’t believe in His comfort in a time of grief?  How can we honor Him if we do not know and see His holiness and worthiness?

Outside of the betrayal of Jesus, Judas is only mentioned in the New Testament here for doing/saying something that would indicate his heart was not right. We do not know if the disciples knew that Judas was a thief.  This may have been hidden from them or not.  John indicates he knew he was helping himself to the money given to them and their ministry with Jesus.  Was it greed that overcame Judas’s heart?  Is this how satan took a foothold? We need to be mindful that sin is the fishing pond of satan.  Once hooked no amount of thrashing about will calm these troubled waters unless there is complete surrender to and belief in Jesus Christ.

9.y. “And tomorrow will be like this day, great beyond measure.”

Amos 6:1  “Woe to those who are at ease in Zion, and to those who feel secure on the mountain of Samaria, the notable men of the first of the nations, to whom the house of Israel comes! Pass over to Calneh, and see, and from there go to Hamath the great; then go down to Gath of the Philistines. Are you better than these kingdoms? Or is their territory greater than your territory, O you who put far away the day of disaster and bring near the seat of violence? “Woe to those who lie on beds of ivory and stretch themselves out on their couches, and eat lambs from the flock and calves from the midst of the stall, who sing idle songs to the sound of the harp and like David invent for themselves instruments of music, who drink wine in bowls and anoint themselves with the finest oils,

Isaiah 56:12    “Come,” they say, “let me get wine; let us fill ourselves with strong drink; and tomorrow will be like this day, great beyond measure.”

  Ezekiel 12:22  “Son of man, what is this proverb that you have about the land of Israel, saying, ‘The days grow long, and every vision comes to nothing’?

1 Thessalonians 5:3   While people are saying, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.

2 Peter 3:4  They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.”

Before Covid 19 how many would have been saying “and tomorrow will be like this day, great beyond measure.” Do you ever stop to think about all of those who have rejected God’s call to repentance?  I sometimes wonder what it is that keeps them from seeing and hearing what the Word of God calls out.  “COME UNTO ME ALL WHO ARE HEAVEY WITH BURDENS AND I WILL GIVE YOU REST”, “FOR GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD THAT HE GAVE HIS ONLY SON, THAT WHOSOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM SHALL NOT PERISH BUT HAVE EVERLASTING LIFE”, “I WILL RETURN AGAIN”, “WHERE I AM YOU SHALL BE ALSO”…. these Words of God call out great promises of salvation, redemption, hope, peace, rest, and eternity.  Likewise, there are plenty of scripture that have great promises of wrath, anger, and judgment.  It is one or the other.  There is no middle ground.  Belief in Jesus Christ, repenting of sin, trusting in, clinging to, and relying on Jesus Christ, growing in understanding, knowledge, and wisdom through God’s Word, and seeking and desiring to humbly serve honor, and obey Him is the choice of those who will be in eternity with Him.  Others will not.  Because of their rejection of Jesus Christ, they will spend eternity in torment forever and ever.  Know that we will be held accountable for how we live and just like in times of Amos, people would not believe judgment was at their doorstep.

Waiting beside My doors

Psalms 95:4  In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also. The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land.

Psalms 135:6     Whatever the LORD pleases, he does, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps.

Psalms 65:6  the one who by his strength established the mountains, being girded with might;  who stills the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves, the tumult of the peoples,  so that those who dwell at the ends of the earth are in awe at your signs. You make the going out of the morning and the evening to shout for joy.  You visit the earth and water it; you greatly enrich it; the river of God is full of water; you provide their grain, for so you have prepared it.  You water its furrows abundantly, settling its ridges, softening it with showers, and blessing its growth.  You crown the year with your bounty; your wagon tracks overflow with abundance.  The pastures of the wilderness overflow, the hills gird themselves with joy,  the meadows clothe themselves with flocks, the valleys deck themselves with grain, they shout and sing together for joy.

Genesis 1:9-10     And God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so.  God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good.

Proverbs 8:29     when he assigned to the sea its limit, so that the waters might not transgress his command, when he marked out the foundations of the earth, then I was beside him, like a master workman, and I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always,  rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the children of man.  “And now, O sons, listen to me: blessed are those who keep my ways.  Hear instruction and be wise, and do not neglect it.  Blessed is the one who listens to me, watching daily at my gates, waiting beside my doors.  For whoever finds me finds life and obtains favor from the LORD,  but he who fails to find me injures himself; all who hate me love death.”

Jeremiah 5:22     Do you not fear me? declares the LORD. Do you not tremble before me? I placed the sand as the boundary for the sea, a perpetual barrier that it cannot pass; though the waves toss, they cannot prevail; though they roar, they cannot pass over it.

Psalms 97:5    The mountains melt like wax before the LORD, before the Lord of all the earth.

Micah 1:4    And the mountains will melt under him, and the valleys will split open, like wax before the fire

Job 9:5     he who removes mountains, and they know it not, when he overturns them in his anger,

Nahum 1:5    The mountains quake before him; the hills melt; the earth heaves before him, the world and all who dwell in it.

We take a piece of wood and make something out of it – our creation.  God made the micro cellular seed structure for every tree species, the means for nutrients, the means for respiration, photosynthesis ( and while we think of this He made the sun and the earth too).    We look at what we or others have put together as something creative and maybe inspiring.  Some architects even go down in history as leaders of their time.  Books are written about them.  And yet we only need to open our eyes to God’s creation to see the awe inspiring magnitude of Him.  We are a creation of His.  He has given us life and free will to choose to praise, honor, serve, follow and obey Him.  Those who choose this path, He gives life (eternal).  Those that choose to reject Him, He gives death and torment eternal. “And now, O sons, listen to me: blessed are those who keep my ways.  Hear instruction and be wise, and do not neglect it.  Blessed is the one who listens to me, watching daily at my gates, waiting beside my doors.  For whoever finds me finds life and obtains favor from the LORD,  but he who fails to find me injures himself; all who hate me love death.”

Don’t lose sight of Him

“Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord GOD, “when I will send a famine on the land— not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD.”

Psalms 74:9  We do not see our signs; there is no longer any prophet, and there is none among us who knows how long.   How long, O God, is the foe to scoff? Is the enemy to revile your name forever?   Why do you hold back your hand, your right hand? Take it from the fold of your garment and destroy them!   Yet God my King is from of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth.

Exodus 12:13   The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.

Judges 6:17   And he said to him, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, then show me a sign that it is you who speak with me.

Ezekiel 20:12   Moreover, I gave them my Sabbaths, as a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the LORD who sanctifies them.

Hebrews 2:4   while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.

1 Samuel 3:1    Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the LORD in the presence of Eli. And the word of the LORD was rare in those days; there was no frequent vision.

Micah 3:6   Therefore it shall be night to you, without vision, and darkness to you, without divination. The sun shall go down on the prophets, and the day shall be black over them;

Can you imagine what it would be like if there was a famine of hearing God’s word?  A time where He pulled back and gave no signs, visions, or spoke with His children.  It is hard to imagine in a time when His word is so readily available.  I wonder if we intentionally choose to act as though His word is not there.  It is available but we seem to see no need to spend time in it.  We easily lose sight of our purpose this side of eternity in exchange for carefree living now.  His word is a light unto our feet, a refuge for our heart and soul, and a guide to know and understand His purpose for our lives.  Do not neglect the gift of His word or seeking to have no other purpose than to humbly serve, honor, follow and obey Him.  Now is the day of commitment, now is the day of redemption, now is the day of turning away from that which is not pleasing to God, now is the day.

Living for God

Psalms 68:1   God shall arise, his enemies shall be scattered; and those who hate him shall flee before him! As smoke is driven away, so you shall drive them away; as wax melts before fire, so the wicked shall perish before God!

Numbers 10:35   And whenever the ark set out, Moses said, “Arise, O LORD, and let your enemies be scattered, and let those who hate you flee before you.”

2 Chronicles 6:41   “And now arise, O LORD God, and go to your resting place, you and the ark of your might. Let your priests, O LORD God, be clothed with salvation, and let your saints rejoice in your goodness.

Psalms 7:6  Arise, O LORD, in your anger; lift yourself up against the fury of my enemies; awake for me; you have appointed a judgment.

Isaiah 42:13  The LORD goes out like a mighty man, like a man of war he stirs up his zeal; he cries out, he shouts aloud, he shows himself mighty against his foes.  For a long time I have held my peace; I have kept still and restrained myself; now I will cry out like a woman in labor; I will gasp and pant.

Isaiah 51:9  Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD; awake, as in days of old, the generations of long ago. Was it not you who cut Rahab in pieces, who pierced the dragon?  Was it not you who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep, who made the depths of the sea a way for the redeemed to pass over?

Psalms 78:66  And he put his adversaries to rout; he put them to everlasting shame.

Jeremiah 23:40    And I will bring upon you everlasting reproach and perpetual shame, which shall not be forgotten.’

Enemies of God, those who reject Him, have a place reserved.  A place of everlasting reproach and perpetual shame.  What is important for us to know is that there is also a place for those who believe, trust, and hope in Him.  These are called children of God.  They have chosen and committed to humbly serving, honoring, following, and obeying Him.  They have been promised peace, love, hope, joy, rest, and the indwelling Holy Spirit to lead and guide them this side of eternity.  Children of God have been promised a future place in eternity where there is no more death, no more pain, no more sickness.  Do you wonder how a child of God should live?  What would their life look like from the outside?  There should be a difference that is visible.  Their actions should be such that honor is given to God.  When our eyes are on Him and our heart’s desire is to hear His whispers of guidance and we obey His leading, there is a difference in attitude, speech, thoughts, and actions.  Live your life to bring honor to Him every moment of every day.  This is our full and only purpose this side of eternity.