Numbers 32-May 29
Sin and mistakes are inevitable in this life. This does not mean that we casually accept sin (see yesterday’s text and devotion!) but it does mean that we need grace for our shortcomings. However, the wise person is one who is able to learn from his own sin and the sins of others. It is foolish to sin against God at all, it is even more foolish to continue in the same rebellion after we have paid the consequence! This is the lesson we can take from Moses in Numbers 32.
Numbers 32 records for us the account of the people of Reuben and Gad. These two groups were blessed with a “great number of livestock” (v. 1) and were struck by the appeal of the land of Jazer and Gilead. These two localities were evidently quite spacious but they were also outside of the borders of the Promised Land. Consequently, the journey to Jazer and Gilead was complete before the conquest of the Promised Land by the people of Israel. This presented a potential problem for the nation of Israel as they would potentially lose a large contingent of their force as they entered into the Promised Land to take it in battle.
On the surface this may not have seemed like a huge issue for Israel. After all, God was for the people and He had promised to give this land to them. Did God need the people of Reuben and Gad? Of course the answer is no! However, Moses was concerned. His anxiety did not arise out of fear of God’s inadequacy, instead it arose because Moses was fearful of making the same mistake twice!
While the stated reason of the people of Reuben and Gad seems to have been truthful (as far as we know), Moses knew enough about people to know that the reason or motivation behind their desire not to enter in the land could very well have been fear brought on by a lack of faith. If this were the case, then the very same sin that caused the Israelites to wander in the desert for 40 years (unbelief) could have reared its ugly head again.
It was because of this fear that Moses reminds these two tribes of the necessity of their continued obedience in fighting alongside of the rest of Israel to take the land that was promised. Of course, in the text we read that they consented to continued involvement and God delivered on His promise to give Israel the land, but the lesson we should take away from this text is to learn from our past.
As we follow the Lord, mistakes are inevitable. These mistakes will lead to consequence as God does in fact discipline those He loves (Hebrews 12:6), but the wise among us will only have to experience that correction once! May we learn from our mistakes and even the mistakes of our forefathers in our journey with God. Also, remember that because of Christ we are offered grace for our missteps. While there are still temporal consequences for our sins, the ultimate consequence of eternity apart from God has been satisfied! Therefore, we confess our sins with humble regret but bold confidence that we will be forgiven (1 John 1:9) and we pick up with the resolve to learn from our past and improve in our future!