livestock may stay in the land
that Moses gave you east of the Jordan, but all your fighting
men, fully armed, must cross over ahead of your brothers.
You are to help your brothers until the Lord gives them rest,
as he has done for you, and until they too have taken possession
of the land that the Lord your God is giving them. After that,
You may go back and occupy your own land, which Moses, the servant
of the Lord, gave you, east of the Jordan toward sunrise.' Then
they answered Joshua, whatever you have commanded us, we will
do, and wherever you send us, we will go. Just as we fully
obeyed Moses, so will we obey you. Only may the Lord your God
be with you as he was with Moses. Whoever rebels against your word
and does not obey your words, whatever you may command them
will be put to death. Only be strong and courageous. Now this part of the story of
the conquest of the promised land gives us some insight into
the difference between having God's rest and experiencing God's
rest. Now this story actually begins
back in Numbers chapter 32, so turn back there. Numbers 32. I guess we could say Numbers
31, but I'll just quickly say in the 31st chapter of Numbers,
the Lord commanded Moses to take vengeance on the Midianites.
Now, the Midianites lived on the east side of Jordan. They
were not in the land of Canaan. What the Lord sent Moses to do
was not for the purpose of providing land for any of the 12 tribes
of Israel. It was simply to take vengeance
on them for their rebellion against the Lord. And so they did that. And as we'll see, as we go through
this book more and more, did not fully obey the Lord, because
when the Lord would tell them to go in and take vengeance,
what he intended was that they kill essentially everyone. Now
that's pretty offensive to our modern ears. And actually, if the Jews had
done this, if Moses had told them to do it, simply upon his
own thinking, you know, the Midianite didn't treat us right, so we'll
show them, you know, that wouldn't have been right. They were sent
there as the hand of God's justice against a people who had rebelled
against God. And I realize that other cultures
and stuff that, you know, for example, right now, Muslims,
some Muslims, are very militant, and they claim that when they
go out and kill and destroy, that they're doing what their
God tells them to do. Well, why would we think that's
any different with Moses? He said God told him. Well, the
only thing we have to go on is faith. It's written in the scriptures,
and the scriptures say God told Moses to take vengeance on the
Midianites, and they did, and that involved killing nearly
everyone, destroying their cities, In fact, they first went there
and they just killed the fighting men. You know, and militarily,
that makes sense. But when they got back, Moses
said, well, did you keep all the women alive, you know? And they said, yes. And he said that they were to
put to death all women who had been with a man. In other words,
the only ones that were to be preserved were virgins, which
they could take for themselves. And he went so far as to say,
kill the boys. In other words, he didn't want
any to grow up and become fighting Midianites. And we suppose that
all of that was done, it never says it explicitly. But after
that was done, we read in chapter 32 of Numbers, the Reubenites
and Gadites, who had very large herds and flocks, saw that the
lands of Jazer and Gilead were suitable for livestock, so they
came to Moses and Eleazar the priest, and to the leaders of
the community, and said, Adaroth, Dibon, Jazer, Nimra, Heshbon,
I don't know if I'm pronouncing these right, but Alila, Sebum,
Nebo, and Beon, the land the Lord subdued before the people
of Israel are suitable for livestock, and your servants have livestock. If we have found favor in your
eyes, they said, let this land be given to your servants as
our possession. Do not make us cross the Jordan. Now Moses, did not think that
was good. He says, Moses said to the Gadites
and Reubenites, verse 6, Shall your countrymen go to war while
you sit here? Why do you discourage the Israelites
from going over into the land the Lord has given them? This
is what your fathers did when I sent them from Kadesh Barnea
to look over the land. After they went up to the valley
of Escol and viewed the land, they discouraged the Israelites
from entering the land the Lord had given them. The Lord's anger
was aroused that day, and he swore this oath because they
have not followed me wholeheartedly. Not one of the men 20 years old
or more who came up out of Egypt will see the land I promised
on oath to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Not one except Caleb,
son of Jephunneh, the Kinezite, and Joshua, the son of Nun, for
they followed the Lord wholeheartedly. The Lord's anger burned against
Israel and he made them wander in the desert 40 years until
the whole generation of those who had done evil in his sight
was gone. And here you are, a brood of
sinners standing in the place of your fathers and making the
Lord even more angry with Israel. If you turn away from following
him, he will again leave all this people in the desert and
you will be the cause of their destruction. That's pretty serious. He's saying that the unwillingness
of the Reubenites and the Gadites and the people of the half-tribe
of Manasseh, their unwillingness to cross the Jordan and possess
the land that God gave them and to find their inheritance in
that land, that that was like the unbelief of their forefathers
in as much as they were discouraging the other nine and a half tribes
from entering in, from crossing the Jordan and entering in. So,
in verse 16 it says, they came up to him and said, we would
like to build pens here for our livestock and cities for our
women and children. But we are ready to arm ourselves
and go ahead of the Israelites until we have brought them to
their place. Meanwhile, our women and children will live in fortified
cities for protection from the inhabitants of the land. We will
not return to our homes until every Israelite has received
his inheritance. We will not receive any inheritance
with them on the other side of the Jordan, because our inheritance
has come to us on the east side of Jordan. Then Moses said to
them, If you will do this, if you will arm yourselves before
the Lord for battle, and if all of you will go armed over the
Jordan before the Lord until he has driven his enemies out
before him, Then when the land is subdued before the Lord, you
may return and be free from your obligation to the Lord, and notice
this, and to Israel. And this land will be your possession
before the Lord. But if you fail to do this, you
will be sinning against the Lord, and you may be sure that your
sin will find you out. Well, the Gadites, Reubenites,
and such, they went on to say that they would do exactly as
they had promised. Now, just as a reference point, let's
go over to chapter 34 of Numbers in verse 13. Excuse me, verse
10. Now he is describing, God here
is describing the land of promise that he had sworn on oath to
give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Here's the eastern boundary.
For your eastern boundary, run a line from Hazar Anon to Shefim. The boundary will go down from
Shefim to Riblah on the east side of Ein and continue along
the slopes east of Kinnereth. Then the boundary will go down
along the Jordan and end at the Salt Sea. This will be your land,
its boundaries on every side. Moses commanded the Israelites,
assign this land by lot as an inheritance. The Lord has ordered
that it be given to the nine and a half tribes. because the
families of the tribe of Reuben, the tribe of Gad, and the half
tribe of Manasseh have received their inheritance. These two
and a half tribes have received their inheritance on the east
side of the Jordan of Jericho toward the sunrise. The Lord had 12 tribes. There is no tribe of Joseph,
But he had two sons, and so each one of his sons received a tribal
allotment, but they actually referred to them as half-tribes. The half-tribe of Manasseh and
the half-tribe of Ephraim. Now, here they are some 38 years,
as I understand it, after the first rebellion. When they first
came to the land of promise and through unbelief, they would
not enter in. Through fear caused by unbelief,
they wouldn't enter in. So the Lord swore on an oath,
you won't enter my rest. And so they went here and there
in the wilderness until everyone 20 years old and above died. The only two who didn't were
Joshua and Caleb, because they had believed and they were ready
to enter in. But the ten other spies had said
no, and the people went with those ten other spies. But now
they're back to this area. They're again presented with the land before them, and the
Lord says, go in, this is the land I am giving you. However, as we read, before they
were ready to go into that land, God had told them to execute
vengeance on Midian. And in the process of that, these
from the tribe of Reuben the tribe of Gad and the half-tribe
of Manasseh. It says they had large herds,
cattle, sheep. And that land on the east of
Jordan, which is outside the promised land, outside the land
of rest, it looked to be the best land
for having cattle. And so they said, let us have
this. And essentially, God, through
Moses, said, OK, you can have your allotment over there. But
God never did change the boundaries of the land of promise. They lived east of the Jordan,
which means they lived outside the land of promise. Now, they
were quite willing to cross the Jordan, go in there, fight the
enemies of the Lord and of the people of the Lord. They were
ready to do that. Promised they would do that.
And they fulfilled their promise. But once they'd fulfilled their
promise, they headed back east. Now, who are these people? Who
do they represent to us? I think we find in these, that
the people of these two and a half tribes, they are not unbelievers
like their forefathers were. They did worship the Lord. They knew who he was. They were
certainly no more idolatrous than anybody else among the people
of Israel. They were zealous. for the worship
of the Lord, as demonstrated by their willingness to fight
for the land of promise. But they never found their possession
there. Who is that? Well, I think it
is In all reality, I think the best way to look at this is to
realize that all 12 tribes bundled together represents every one
of us. You know, here we are as believers
in our Lord Jesus Christ, and I've heard people say, you know,
when Jesus Christ said, it is finished, all salvation was done. I know what they mean, but brethren,
salvation's not done yet. I mean, if this is the finished
product of God's salvation, it ain't much, is it? He's not
done. When our Lord said it is finished,
it meant that the work that He was sent to
do was finished. Redemption was accomplished.
Atonement was accomplished. But that takes care of what we
might call the legal and personal issues that God has with His
elect in regard to their sin, but they're still at war with
Him. So there was more to be done. The Spirit must come and
give them spiritual life so that they understand the Gospel and
believe it. And then the Spirit must remain
with them. You know, there's a doctrine called the Perseverance
of the Saints. And it's not a horrible title,
but I think to understand what is meant by that, it'd be better
named the Perseverance of God. Because He that began a good
work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ. We persevere
only because God perseveres. But this business of salvation,
our salvation, will not be complete until we are in His presence
without fault, full of joy, completely conformed to the image of the
Lord Jesus Christ. That's when salvation's done. Our present situation, we find
that in our spirits, In that part of us, which I believe is
what was meant when God said, let's make man in our image, the Lord Jesus said to that woman
at the well, God is spirit. So if we're made in his image,
we have a nature called spirit. And that's the nature through
which we can commune, fellowship with God. But when Adam sinned,
that nature died. And whether that means it, you
know, died in the same sense we talk about our bodies dying,
or just it was a metaphor that it became so corrupt and so messed
up that it could no longer do what it was designed to do. The
point is, is we lost the ability to know, love, and believe God. In the new birth, that problem
is completely remedied. You who have been born of God,
if you've really experienced what the Lord called being born
again, spiritually, there's no flaw in you. God has created a brand new,
as it were, spirit. Trouble is, it's still attached
to this flesh and God has done nothing to that. And so we are like that man who
said to the Lord, I believe, help my unbelief. Do you know
what that saying means? I mean, I do. When the father
of that boy possessed of a demon, you know, the Lord said everything's
possible to him who believes, you know, and he goes, oh, I
believe, help my unbelief. And isn't that your experience,
child of God? You believe, but oh, you're unbelief. You believe, but you also don't believe. And what it is, in your spirit
you believe completely, in your flesh you don't believe at all.
And whichever nature dominates at any given time, dominate your
way of thinking at any given time is, well, how you feel about
faith in your consciousness. And so people say to me, well,
do you believe? I say, yes. I take it as a given. I take it because the scriptures
have said it. I take this gospel that I preach,
I take it as a given. That God exists, I can't prove
it. I take it as a given. Did Jesus Christ die for sins
according to the scriptures? I take that as a given. Do I
always feel those things to be true? No. As I've mentioned before, just
because of the nature of my thinking, if thinking is what you want
to call it, I've laid on my bed at night wondering
if there even is a God. You say, oh, no believer would
ever do that. Well, if that's true, I'm not a believer. But
I'm not the only one that said that. You wonder if anything
is true. And so these Gadites and Reubenites
and the half-tribe of Manasseh, they represent that aspect of
the believer, shall we say, that is not fully convinced. And why weren't they convinced?
They were not fully convinced because they had something, cattle,
and lots of it. And by that, I suppose we're
intended to understand they had more cattle than the other tribes
did. They had cattle, and they didn't want to lose it. And they, in the process of fulfilling
the Lord's command to destroy the Midianites, they looked around
and said, you know, this is a good place to raise cattle. We're
staying here. It's not that they didn't believe
God's promise about driving out their enemies before them in
the land of promise. They, just like us, got their
eyes full of natural things. Now, here's the interesting thing.
That did not mean that they were not God's people. It does not
mean that they did not, that the Lord did not give them rest,
because it says the Lord did give them rest. But while he gave it to them, it was not necessarily something
that they experienced the way those who went right into the
promised land did. Now look over Matthew chapter
11. we'll see our Lord essentially setting out this
same principle, beginning in verse 28. Come to me, all you
who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn
from me, or it could be translated learn of me, For I am gentle and humble in
heart and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is
easy and my burden is light. Now notice he says, come to me,
I will give you rest. Then he says, take my yoke upon
you and learn of me and you will find rest. Everyone who comes to Christ
is given rest. It is theirs as an inheritance. It belongs to them. And they
have every right under the gospel to experience that rest to the
full. But here's the thing, not everybody
that comes to him is as anxious to take his yoke upon them. Now
his yoke is not another burden like the law was in times past. A yoke is how you put two animals
together. And there is a wondrous thing to
behold in this being yoked to Christ. Under the law, if you'll remember,
you could not plow a field with an ox and a donkey. You could
not yoke an ox and a donkey together. You say, well, that's kind of
a silly rule, isn't it? Yeah. If it was simply a rule. But it was not simply a rule.
It was designed to teach us something. If you're going to yoke two animals
together, both of them have to be the same kind of animal. And
what the Lord is teaching by that, just as the same thing
if you're going to weave cloth, you've got to use the same fabric
for the, what was it, the warp and the same fabric for the wolf
or whatever it is. You can't weave a fabric of,
or a cloth out of two different kinds of animals. fabrics or,
you know, it can have wool and linen and all that. At any rate,
it's showing us that this business of salvation cannot be a combination
of works and grace. It's got to be two works animals
yoked or two grace animals. And the Lord, when he says, take
my yoke upon you, what is he saying there? And you come to
me, I'll give you rest. But here's how you can find it.
Take my yoke upon you. Now, what's the Lord saying about
those who come to him? He's saying they should take
his yoke. That means he counts them to be like him. We may act like donkeys. But he says we're oxen. and therefore
it is suitable that we should be yoked to him. Also, you can
imagine this, and I'm not, you know, an agricultural expert,
but I assume one way they teach draft animals how to do that,
they'll take an experienced one and then yoke him to an inexperienced
one. And he'll be young, you know,
the inexperienced one's younger, maybe not even fully grown. Well,
in those cases, who's really doing all the pulling? The old,
experienced one. And our Lord Jesus Christ, when
we are yoked to Him, here's a reason that His burden is so light.
He's doing all the pulling. We're walking along. We're yoked to Him, but we're
not helping Him get His work done. We're not the strength
behind what's happening. But as we walk along with Him,
we learn of Him, we learn about Him. And that's how we find rest. Now, what is His yoke? Well,
it is the Gospel. It is that whole system of salvation
by grace, not by works. It's that whole system of faith
rather than works. Now the Gadites and them, they
were going by what they could see, but Paul says we live by
faith, not by sight. But the thing is, because we're
both spirit and flesh, we do some living by sight as well.
And to the degree that we live by sight rather than faith, we're
on the east side of Jordan. No less the people of God, no
less secure, but not enjoying the promises like those who may
rely upon the flesh less. You see, when we do theology,
we draw very bold lines. But we have to be careful as
we apply it to people, because people are not the ideal. This
is why Paul says, let your moderation be known unto all. Some people,
they'll draw such strict theological lines, and I tell you, if you
set one toe outside their particular theological distinctives, they
figure that you're bound for hell. Friend, none of us believes
perfectly. None of us understands perfectly. But the Reubenites, the Gadites,
they were going to live their life primarily according to the
wisdom to natural wisdom, and that did not put them outside
of God's mercies. They just didn't enjoy it. Here's an interesting thing.
When they got in this land and the work of conquest had been
done, they assigned cities of refuge. You know what the Lord
did? He put a city of refuge east of the Jordan. Now you talk about a gracious
God. He could have said, listen, you
all chose that land, so if you need a city of refuge, you're
gonna have to come across and get over here. In this business
of grace, it's always God going beyond, beyond. what we would expect of Him,
even according to His promises. He promised blessedness within
the promised land, but here's these two and a half tribes,
figure they're going to stay on the east, what does God do?
Give them up? No, He puts a city of refuge right over there. And
here we are living our lives partly by the wisdom of the Spirit,
partly by the wisdom of the flesh, and what does the Lord do? He
still plants the city of refuge, Christ Jesus, in our minds, and
we can run there. Oh, what a God we serve. What foolish Reubenites, Gadites,
and Manassites, I guess you'd call them. But foolish as they
were, God counted them among his people. All right, we'll
quit there for today.