“Lessons from the Wilderness, pt.2 (Deuteronomy 2:4 - 3:29)", Will DuVal | 2/1/26
Deuteronomy 2:4 - 3:29 | 2/1/26 | Will DuVal
INTRO: Start this morning with a question: as you look back over your life, and think about the LESSONS you’ve learned along the way, what are some of ‘em that you would LOVE to be able to impart to your kids, your grandkids, to others, to help them avoid having to learn the HARD way, like perhaps YOU did? In no particular order, here are just a few that came to mind for me:
*Yes, it IS possible to staple your finger, and NO, the girls in class will NOT think it’s impressive (but YES, it does HURT to REMOVE it!).
*Do NOT throw water balloons at moving cars when it’s near-FREEZING outside. YES, the windshield will break, and NO, you cannot outrun the police, if and when they get involved.
*Make friends with your Jewish neighbors. Cuz you never know when you’re going to adopt a baby boy in the middle of a global pandemic, when the hospital isn’t performing “elective surgeries” and you’ll need a referral for a good mohel for an at-home circumcision.
*Don’t hold on to resentment. It’s like drinking poison and expecting it to hurt the other person.
*Refuse to be the victim of someone else’s sin; it doesn’t have to define you.
*Don’t ever go near PORNOGRAPHY. FLEE from it.
*Marriage wasn’t designed to make you happy, but to make you HOLY, and to bring GOD glory, as you “submit to one another out of reverence for Christ”.
*Don’t run from God. Best case scenario: He’ll just track you down anyway and you’ll waste time you could have enjoyed in His presence, where TRUE happiness and fulfillment are found.
My list could go on, as I’m sure yours could. And as we know MOSES’s could. Indeed, Moses is going to CONTINUE his list for us this morning, reminding the children of ISRAEL of all the lessons God had to teach their PARENTS the HARD way, over their last 40 years now in the Sinai wilderness. Here’s a quick RECAP from part ONE last week:
First: 1) We must TRUST God’s PROMISES. (1:6-8; 2:24-25)
When God vows, “See, I have set the land - a GOOD land, flowing with milk and honey - before you”; “I know the plans I have for you; plans to PROSPER you and give you a FUTURE; I know it may be HOT and HARD here in the wilderness, and it’s difficult to SEE the light at the end of the tunnel, but TRUST me. I am WITH you. And I’m LEADING you to a place that’s gonna make all this wilderness WORTH it, and in the MEANTIME, I’ve got a REASON - a purpose - for having you here in this WILDERNESS for now; this isn’t just WASTED time; this life isn’t just a WAITING room for Heaven. I am teaching you, growing you, molding and shaping you so I can USE you for my OWN glory and good purposes,” says the Lord, EVEN when you can’t see it. Will you TRUST it? That He’s “working ALL things together for your good”, and for HIS glory.
Second, 2) We must SHARE God’s WORK. (1:9-18)
Moses learned pretty quickly that he couldn’t lead Israel on his own. Not only did he need GOD’s help and strength; he needed fellow leaders to help shoulder some of the burden as well. So too is God calling US - calling YOU - to step up.
Third, 3) We must FOLLOW God’s INSTRUCTIONS. (1:19-2:3)
That was the bulk of last week. God led them to the edge of the Promised Land, Kadesh Barnea, and said, “Now go in, TAKE it.” But instead they sent SPIES, to scout it out, “Is it TAKE-able?” And they decided “NO”, even though God had said, “YES; with me, ALL things are possible! I’ll even do the fighting FOR you!” But they faithlessly disobeyed. And turned what should have been an 11-day trip into a 38-year TREK, as they then suffered the consequence of their disobedience.
The Bible says, “we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what he is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.” (2 Cor 5:10) So we strive to live lives of obedience, holy and pleasing unto the LORD… and when we fall SHORT, we better make sure that of ALL the 1,776 commandments in the Bible, we’re at least following the MOST important one: ““What must we do, to be doing the works of God?”, the crowd asked Jesus in John 6:28. And he answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”” Whosoever BELIEVES in me, in Jesus, shall NOT perish but have everlasting life. You better obey THAT one, friends.
So three important lessons down; five to go this morning.
I invite you to STAND… we’re gonna try and finish the rest of Deuteronomy chapters 2 AND 3 this morning, but we’ll start by just reading ch2, vv4-25; Hear the word of the Lord, to MOSES, and to US:
“[C]ommand the people, “You are about to pass through the territory of your brothers, the people of Esau, who live in Seir; and they will be afraid of you. So be very careful. 5 Do not contend with them, for I will not give you any of their land, no, not so much as for the sole of the foot to tread on, because I have given Mount Seir to Esau as a possession. 6 You shall purchase food from them with money, that you may eat, and you shall also buy water from them with money, that you may drink. 7 For the Lord your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands. He knows your going through this great wilderness. These forty years the Lord your God has been with you. You have lacked nothing.”’ 8 So we went on, away from our brothers, the people of Esau, who live in Seir, away from the Arabah road from Elath and Ezion-geber.
And we turned and went in the direction of the wilderness of Moab. 9 And the Lord said to me, ‘Do not harass Moab or contend with them in battle, for I will not give you any of their land for a possession, because I have given Ar to the people of Lot for a possession.’ 10 (The Emim formerly lived there, a people great and many, and tall as the Anakim. 11 Like the Anakim they are also counted as Rephaim, but the Moabites call them Emim. 12 The Horites also lived in Seir formerly, but the people of Esau dispossessed them and destroyed them from before them and settled in their place, as Israel did to the land of their possession, which the Lord gave to them.) 13 ‘Now rise up and go over the brook Zered.’ So we went over the brook Zered. 14 And the time from our leaving Kadesh-barnea until we crossed the brook Zered was thirty-eight years, until the entire generation, that is, the men of war, had perished from the camp, as the Lord had sworn to them. 15 For indeed the hand of the Lord was against them, to destroy them from the camp, until they had perished.
16 “So as soon as all the men of war had perished and were dead from among the people, 17 the Lord said to me, 18 ‘Today you are to cross the border of Moab at Ar. 19 And when you approach the territory of the people of Ammon, do not harass them or contend with them, for I will not give you any of the land of the people of Ammon as a possession, because I have given it to the sons of Lot for a possession.’ 20 (It is also counted as a land of Rephaim. Rephaim formerly lived there—but the Ammonites call them Zamzummim— 21 a people great and many, and tall as the Anakim; but the Lord destroyed them before the Ammonites,[a] and they dispossessed them and settled in their place, 22 as he did for the people of Esau, who live in Seir, when he destroyed the Horites before them and they dispossessed them and settled in their place even to this day. 23 As for the Avvim, who lived in villages as far as Gaza, the Caphtorim, who came from Caphtor, destroyed them and settled in their place.)
24 ‘Rise up, set out on your journey and go over the Valley of the Arnon. Behold, I have given into your hand Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land. Begin to take possession, and contend with him in battle. 25 This day I will begin to put the dread and fear of you on the peoples who are under the whole heaven, who shall hear the report of you and shall tremble and be in anguish because of you.’ [This is the word of God…]
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Lesson #4) We must REST IN God’s SOVEREIGNTY. (2:4-25)
That’s really the main thrust of vv4-25 here. What is God DOING here? He gives Israel careful instructions about what NOT to do, who NOT to mess with - “Don’t contend with the EDOMITES, the MOABITES, or the AMMONITES”; the descendants of ESAU (that was Jacob a.k.a. ISRAEL’s BROTHER), or the descendants of LOT (who was Abraham’s nephew) - God says, “I’m not giving y’all ANY of THEIR land, those 3 nations; I assigned THAT land to THEM.” But then God says, “Here’s who you DO mess with: ‘contend’ with SIHON and the AMORITES; I AM giving you THEIR land. Cuz it’s NOT actually their land; it’s MY land. I’ve let them OCCUPY it for the past few centuries now, but ELSEWHERE, God tells us why He’s EVICTING them now, and giving the land to ISRAEL instead: because of the WICKEDNESS of the Amorites. God’s using Israel to PUNISH them, just like 8 ½ centuries later, he would use BABYLON to punish ISRAEL in the same way.
Just like he used the EDOMITES to punish the HORITES…
and the MOABITES to punish the EMIM…
and the AMMONITES to punish the ZAMZUMMIM…
And the CAPHTORIM to punish the AVVIM…
By v23 there, Moses is listing people groups living hundreds of miles away now - “villages as far as GAZA”; modern-day Gaza STRIP - who Israel hasn’t even ENCOUNTERED yet, to date in the story; we think the “Caphtorim” is an earlier name for, reference to the PHILISTINES, as in, the ones DAVID would contend with 400 years later, the most FAMOUS of whom, of course, was GOLIATH; maybe THAT’s why they get mentioned here; God’s explaining what happened to the GIANTS, the “Rephaim”, aka Anakim, aka Emim, aka Zamzummim - they’re all GIANTS. They’re all descendants of the Nephilim, from Genesis 6, this race of part human, part DEMON giants, who God kept sending one nation after the next to DEFEAT and DISPOSSESS them of their land.
And lest we modern, “Enlightened” people doubt the historicity of the Bible’s account here (“Really? GIANTS?!”), we ought to remind ourselves that we’re still making scientific and archaeological discoveries about every DAY that call into question everything we thought we knew previously. So we might not have found their skeletons yet, but we’ll keep digging and until we DO, God’s people will keep TRUSTING that this is HIS word and it is therefore trustworthy and TRUE. And what it’s teaching us here is that EVERY nation - yes, America included - we are ALL just tiny little pieces on God’s CHESS board, that HE’s moving - maybe from behind the scenes, but nevertheless, God is in TOTAL control of everything that goes on down here.
In Jeremiah 18, God sent the prophet down to the potter’s house, and told him to watch how the potter took the clay and if he didn’t like how the vessel he was working on turned out, he just REWORKED it into something NEW. God told Jeremiah to warn Israel, “That’s what I do with entire NATIONS.”
Daniel 2:21 - God “removes kings and sets up kings”
Psalm 103:19 “The Lord has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all.”
Later in Deuteronomy, ch32 v8, Moses will explain that God “gave to the nations [each] their inheritance, when he divided [UP] mankind, he fixed the borders of the peoples”.
The apostle Paul explains in the NT - Acts 17:26 - that “[God] made from one man [Adam] every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined the allotted [TIME] periods and the [geographical] boundaries of their dwelling place[s]”.
I know we got some patriots here, and I am too, but y’all do know that America is only TEMPORARY, right? That as far as “nations” go, we’re like a TEENAGER, a PRE-teen; only 250 years old?! Egypt, Iran - they’ve been around for over 5,000 years! And as far as this LAND goes, God gave it to the Paleo-Indians first, then the Clovis people, then the Native Americans, and only then to European colonizers. And maybe a Democrat’ll get elected and swing the pendulum, throw the borders WIDE open, and God will give it this land to Central and South Americans. Or China will decide they want it, and God’ll give it to them. Who KNOWS?!
Here’s all we DO know for sure: our GOD is SOVEREIGN. He’s playing chess; we’re just the pieces. He’s the potter, we’re the clay.
And here’s what ELSE we know, Church: God is GOOD. He is TRUST-worthy. So whatever plans He DOES have, whoever DOES get elected, whoever IS the next global superpower… we Christians just don’t lose a whole lotta sleep, because we know through it ALL, our GOD is still on HIS throne; He sits enthroned ABOVE the nations and He rules over ALL. And He’s working it ALL together for our GOOD.
Do you BELIEVE that, Christian? Not just in your head; in your HEART. How about in your BODY? Psychologists today say “the body keeps the score”; if I gave you a CORTISOL test (that measures your STRESS), or took your BLOOD pressure, your HEART rate, tracked your SLEEP deprivation - what story do THEY tell? Are you REALLY resting in God’s sovereignty, and His goodness?
When your child gets sick?
When your husband loses his job?
When your wife asks for a separation?
When your parent passes away?
When life doesn’t go according to YOUR plan; will you trust GOD’S instead?
I bet Israel was REAL confused when God let - v14: “the entire generation, that is, the men of war”; everyone with any COMBAT experience - God made sure all of THEM were dead, before sending Israel into BATTLE; I’m sure they were perplexed. But God wanted to know: “Are you gonna trust in your combat experience, or in MY promise, to fight FOR you?”
I’m sure Israel wondered why God couldn’t just give them the land of EDOM… or MOAB… or AMMON… “God, these all seem like nice places to settle down…”. But God said, “Keep MOVING. That is not my plan for YOU; I’ve got something even BETTER in store for you. So don’t SETTLE for anything less than the best, MY best, MY will for you.”
Listen: I’m sure if JOSEPH had gotten to write HIS story, he wouldn’t have chosen SLAVERY in Egypt. And then his whole family would’ve died back in Hebron, during the famine, and the Bible would’ve been a lot shorter and SADDER.
Even JESUS prayed, pleaded, “Father, if it’s possible, let this cup [the CROSS] pass from me; nevertheless, not my will, but your will be done.”” (Mt 26:39).
Is that our prayer, Church? “Not MY will, but YOURS be done, Lord, cuz I trust that YOUR plan is even BETTER than mine… even when I don’t understand it.”
Lesson #5) We must FIGHT IN God’s STRENGTH. (2:26-2:37)
Let’s READ it; picking up in v26 now:
26 “So I sent messengers from the wilderness of Kedemoth to Sihon the king of Heshbon, with words of peace,
Pause there for a second - was Israel supposed to offer PEACE to Sihon? God said, “Pass PEACE-fully thru Edom, Moab, Ammon…”, but HESHBON? God told them to “FIGHT!”.
But the good news for ISRAEL - and for US - is even when we STRUGGLE to be faithful to the LORD, HE remains faithful to US:
V27: we offered PEACE, saying, 27 ‘Let me pass through your land. I will go only by the road; I will turn aside neither to the right nor to the left. 28 You shall sell me food for money, that I may eat, and give me water for money, that I may drink. Only let me pass through on foot, 29 as the sons of Esau who live in Seir and the Moabites who live in Ar did for me, until I go over the Jordan into the land that the Lord our God is giving to us.’ 30 But Sihon the king of Heshbon would not let us pass by him, for the Lord your God hardened his spirit and made his heart obstinate, that he might give him into your hand, as he is this day.
Not only did God not give UP on Israel amidst their doubt; He redeemed their sin and actually worked it INTO His good plan for them. As He does with MY sin, and YOUR sin. Now, that doesn’t mean we go out and SIN, just cuz we know God’s gonna somehow manage to bring GOOD out of it ANYWAY. But it DOES mean we can rest easy, knowing that NO amount of sin from US can thwart God’s plans for our GOOD.
v31: And the Lord said to me, ‘Behold, I have begun to give Sihon and his land over to you. Begin to take possession, that you may occupy his land.’ 32 Then Sihon came out against us, he and all his people, to battle at Jahaz. 33 And the Lord our God gave him over to us, and we defeated him and his sons and all his people. 34 And we captured all his cities at that time and devoted to destruction every city, men, women, and children. We left no survivors. 35 Only the livestock we took as spoil for ourselves, with the plunder of the cities that we captured… The Lord our God gave all into our hands…”
Now, a lot of people STRUGGLE with passages like this (“we devoted EVERYONE to destruction - men, women and children…”). Daniel Block, in his commentary, offers NINE explanations that I thought were helpful; I’ll try and summarize them succinctly (pp98-99)
“As Creator and Sovereign over all, God can do ANYTHING he wants with anyone and be RIGHT in doing so… He accounts to NO ONE for his actions…” (And really, friends, that’s the ONLY explanation we should NEED, namely, that God doesn’t OWE us an explanation! But Block adds 8 more…)
“The ways of God are a mystery. We will never completely understand him. “my ways are not YOUR ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways” (Isa 55:8-9).
(This one may help the most) “The Canaanites [and the AMORITES here; some scholars like Block treat them interchangeably; they] were EXTREMELY wicked, and their annihilation represented God’s judgment for their sin.” We’re talking child sacrifice, gang rape… really terrible stuff.
This wasn’t God’s GENERAL policy toward non-Israelites; this was a very specific punishment for a very specific PEOPLE.
Remember: “The Canaanites suffered a fate that ultimately ALL sinners [deserve]: the judgment of God… Apart from the GRACE of God, we are ALL Canaanites.”
In the Bible, “people assumed a sense of corporate identity that is difficult for modern Westerners to understand… Few ancients would have objected to the fact that the general population shared the fate of the king and children shared the fate of their parents.”
“God’s elimination of the Canaanites was necessary for Israel’s [blessing]”
“The Canaanites… had at least forty years of advance warning (as Rahab confesses, in the book of Joshua, ch2)... Rahab illustrates that ANY individual who declared faith in Yahweh would be SPARED.” And…
“God really does NOT play favorites… Deuteronomy warns the Israelites repeatedly that if they ever forget God and behave LIKE Canaanites, they will experience the same fate.”
So don’t feel too bad for them. Genesis 15 says God was patient with them for FOUR HUNDRED YEARS, while Israel was stuck down in Egypt, until “the iniquity of the Amorites [was] complete”. That’s how many CHANCES God gave these wicked people to TURN from their sin. But they refused. So they got what they DESERVED.
But the MAIN point of vv26 to 37 here is to exhort us to FIGHT in GOD’s strength. Notice the “BOTH-AND”ness of that: both OUR action AND God’s action. We must fight… and GOD must fight FOR us. That tension is repeated at least 3 separate times here:
*v31: “‘Behold, [God declares] I have begun to give the land over to you. [Therefore, YOU] Begin to take possession”
*v33: “the Lord our God gave [Sihon] over to us, and we defeated him”
*vv34-36: “we captured all his cities… We left no survivors… The Lord our God gave all into our hands.”
So which IS it? Did ISRAEL conquer them… or did GOD?
The answer is: “YES”. Both-And. Do YOU have to fight & kill the SIN that still lives in your heart… or does GOD?
“YES”. God commands us - Colossians 3:5 - to “Put to death what is earthly in you”, our sin… AND, He reminds us that we can only DO that, Romans 8:13, in HIS power; “by the Spirit [God’s Holy Spirit, at work, within us; by HIS Spirit] you [must] put to death the deeds of the body”.
We must fight… but in HIS strength.
ME trying to fight the GIANT of “lust”, in MY OWN strength; I am no match.
YOU fighting your PRIDE,
your insecurities,
your materialism,
your ANGER,
your hyper-criticism,
your doubt,
your anxiety…
You are NO MATCH.
But friends, every ONE of those “giants” is “no match” for our GOD.
We must fight… AND we must rely on the LORD to give us victory.
TOTAL victory. The word “ALL” is repeated SEVEN times here in vv32-37: “we defeated ALL his people…”; “we captured ALL his cities…”; “destroyed ALL the inhabitants”; “YHWH gave ALL into our hands”; “to ALL the banks of the Jabbok river”.
Moses is reminding us that God won’t stop until He has won us TOTAL victory; “until He has put EVERY enemy under His feet” (1 Cor 15:25). Which brings us to Lesson #6…
#6) We must ANNIHILATE God’s ENEMIES. (3:1-11)
Now that Israel has defeated SIHON king of Heshbon, now in ch3 Moses recounts their routing of OG king of Bashan, in very similar language; in fact, the word “all” is repeated TEN times now, in these 11 verses!
3:1 “Then we turned and went up the way to Bashan. And Og the king of Bashan came out against us, he and all his people, to battle at Edrei. 2 But the Lord said to me, ‘Do not fear him, for I have given him and all his people and his land into your hand. And you shall do to him as you did to Sihon the king of the Amorites, who lived at Heshbon.’ 3 So the Lord our God gave into our hand Og also, the king of Bashan, and all his people, and we struck him down until he had no survivor left. 4 And we took all his cities at that time—there was not ONE city that we did not take from them—sixty cities, the whole region of Argob, the kingdom of Og in Bashan. 5 All these were cities fortified with high walls, gates, and bars, besides very many unwalled villages. 6 And we devoted them to destruction, as we did to Sihon the king of Heshbon, devoting to destruction every city, men, women, and children. 7 But all the livestock and the spoil of the cities we took as our plunder. 8 So we took the land at that time out of the hand of the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, from the Valley of the Arnon to Mount Hermon… all the cities of the tableland and all Gilead and all Bashan… [and let’s just skip down to the parenthetical note in v11…]
11 (For only Og the king of Bashan was left of the remnant of the Rephaim. Behold, his bed was a bed of iron. Is it not in Rabbah of the Ammonites? [Apparently that was the one thing Israel DIDN’T take as plunder and COULDN’T manage to destroy; WHY? Not only was it made of IRON, it was] Nine cubits [in] length, and four cubits its breadth) – that’s 13 ½ ft by 6 ft.; now THAT is a king-sized BED! You figure Og was at LEAST 11 or 12 ft tall, to need a bed that size; the LAST of the purebred giants. Goliath was only 9 ft. 9, by comparison; he was a SHRIMP, compared to Og. “Don’t BELIEVE me?”, Moses says, “Go check his bed for yourself; it’s still on display in a museum in Rabbah to this day; it was so impressive, we kept it as a TOKEN of our victory.”
Of GOD’S victory. I referenced 1 Corinthians 15:25 already: “God [will] destroy every rule and authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.”
Every power that sets itself up in OPPOSITION to God: every addiction, every disease, every vice, every demonic force…
Every SIN. We don’t stop fighting until we have rooted out - until GOD has rooted out - every sin from every nook and cranny of our hearts. Which is to say, we NEVER stop fighting, KILLING, our sin. Cuz IT never stops fighting BACK, does it? Raise your hand - I’ve been doing this a WHILE now; I’ve only ever had ONE guy raise his hand and try to tell me that sin really isn’t a problem for him anymore, since he came to Christ… which proved that PRIDE was a MASSIVE problem for him!
Friends, our SIN doesn’t QUIT. So neither can we. “Be killing sin, or it’ll be killing you.” God warned Israel, remember back in Numbers 33:55? “If you DON’T utterly annihilate these enemies, “then those of them whom you let remain shall be as barbs in your eyes and thorns in your sides, and they shall trouble you in the land where you dwell.” And they DID. When Israel eventually went in and TOOK the land, they FAILED to finish the job, of eradicating God’s enemies, who continued to “trouble” them for CENTURIES to come.
Friends: we don’t COMPROMISE with sin; we KILL it. We don’t ACCOMMODATE it; we ANNIHILATE it.
Lesson #7) now: We must SERVE God’s PEOPLE. (3:12-22)
v12: “When we took possession of this land at that time, I gave to the Reubenites and the Gadites the territory beginning at Aroer… 13 The rest of Gilead, and all Bashan… I gave to the half-tribe of Manasseh…
We’re gonna skim over some of this; you can re-read the FULL account of Moses divvying up the land east of the Jordan to these 2 ½ tribes back in Numbers 32 if you want. But then Moses reminds them in v18…
18 “And I commanded you at that time, saying, ‘The Lord your God has given you this land to possess. All your men of valor shall cross over armed before your brothers, the people of Israel. 19 Only your wives, your little ones, and your livestock… shall remain in the cities that I have given you, 20 until the Lord gives rest to your brothers, as to you, and they also occupy the land that the Lord your God gives them beyond the Jordan. Then each of you may return to his possession which I have given you.’ 21 And I commanded Joshua at that time, ‘Your eyes have seen all that the Lord your God has done to these two kings. So will the Lord do to all the kingdoms into which you are crossing. 22 You shall not fear them, for it is the Lord your God who fights for you.’
What a BEAUTIFUL word, a HOPE-filled reminder of ENCOURAGEMENT that must have been to Joshua, Moses’ successor. “Yes, there are still more enemies AHEAD of you; but NO, God won’t ever STOP fighting for you.”
Maybe some of YOU need that reminder this morning. As you CONTINUE battling some besetting sin in your life, that you just can’t seem to shake. You need to be reminded that “he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” (Ph 1:6)
As you continue WRESTLING with the grief of LOSS in this present wilderness, you need to be reminded that a day is coming when God will “wipe away every tear from [our] eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things [will] have passed away.”” (Rev 21:4). That God really is preparing a place for us that’s gonna make ALL the suffering and heartbreak of THIS life WORTH it, make it PALE in comparison to the ETERNAL weight of glory that God has in store for us (2 Cor 4:17).
But here’s the MAIN point of vv12-22: UNTIL that day, God has LEFT you here in the wilderness to SERVE OTHERS.
Reuben, Gad & half of Manasseh had just WON their inheritance; did God say, “Go ahead and ENJOY it; you’ve earned it. You don’t have to worry about the other 9 ½ tribes, and the land WEST of the Jordan; that’s THEIR battle, THEIR problem…” - No! “We’re ALL in this together…” We really ARE our “brothers’ (and SISTERS’) keepers”.
Let me offer you just one very practical application of this principle for us: and I’ll try and SOFTEN it by acknowledging that this is a generalization, okay; I can think of a small handful of ladies here who are WONDERFUL exceptions to this. But in GENERAL, our women over the age of 50 here could be doing a better job of serving the women, young moms, UNDER the age of 50. Perhaps you got YOUR “inheritance”, the empty nest, and now you’re content to just sit back and enjoy it, and leave the other 9 ½ tribes to fend for themselves, “Not my land, not my problem”; “Not my kids, not my problem”.
Women 50+ should be the largest demographic of volunteers in our kids ministry.
You should be the FIRST ones to sign up for the meal trains, when all these younger women keep having babies, cuz you oughta remember what it’s LIKE to have a newborn, how nice it is to not have to worry about dinner for a night.
The first ones to volunteer free BABYSITTING… and not to ME. This isn’t some selfish plug; I’ve got IN-laws in town. But Thad & Nikki Yessa should NEVER have to pay for babysitting. And not just pastors either; imagine if an older woman here took it upon herself to recruit OTHERS who were willing to serve our young families, and there was a LIST of folks we could call, willing to give up just one night a month, for an affordable date night.
You’ve got YOUR inheritance; now how are you serving OTHERS in the pursuit of THEIRS?
You’re SAVED?! Praise GOD! He’s delivered you OUT of the kingdom of darkness into His marvelous LIGHT! Now what are YOU doing to help rescue OTHERS?
ARE we “going and making disciples of all nations”, or at LEAST, of all NEIGHBORS; will we cross the STREET to tell someone about JESUS, and the hope and eternal LIFE that they can enjoy in Him? We of all people - like Reuben & Gad - we know how GLORIOUS the inheritance truly is; now how badly do we want to SHARE it with others?
Finally, Lesson #8) We must SUBMIT TO God’s PLAN. (3:23-29)
V23: Moses recalls “And I pleaded with the Lord at that time, saying, 24 ‘O Lord God, you have only begun to show your servant your greatness and your mighty hand. For what god is there in heaven or on earth who can do such works and mighty acts as yours? 25 Please let me go over and see the good land beyond the Jordan… 26 But the Lord was angry with me because of you and would not listen to me. And the Lord said to me, ‘Enough from you; do not speak to me of this matter again. 27 Go up to the top of Pisgah and lift up your eyes westward and northward and southward and eastward, and look at it with your eyes, for you shall not go over this Jordan…”
I started by asking you a question; let me END with one now:
What do you do when you feel like you’ve done all you could to OBEY God in all SEVEN of these ways we’ve outlined these past two weeks…
Moses DID trust God’s promises…
Moses DID share God’s work…
He DID follow God’s instructions (all but that ONE little instance, at the rock at Meribah)
Moses RESTED in God’s sovereignty…
He FOUGHT in God’s strength…
He didn’t QUIT til God’s enemies were destroyed…
And NO ONE served God’s PEOPLE more than Moses.
And THIS is how God REWARDS him? “ENOUGH from you… you shall NOT enter the land”...?
When we strive our hardest to live for God, and He STILL doesn’t work things out for us the way we wanted, will we TRUST that His ways really ARE “higher” than ours, and humble ourselves underneath GOD’s will?
Let me just encourage you: it ought to be infinitely EASIER for us than for Moses, because UNLIKE Moses, you and I have been PROMISED entrance into OUR Promised Land; 2 Timothy 4:18 “The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom.” And Christian, that promise ought to give us all the hope we need to endure, to press on for another day here in the wilderness, WHATEVER God may choose to bring our way. We can trust Him.
Let’s pray…