Numbers 32 Bible Study | Episode 823

December 4, 2024

Hope Alive: Applying God’s Word to Your Daily Life

Numbers 32  Bible Study | Episode #823

I am Chad Harrison, and I am the teaching pastor of Lake Community Church and had been serving as a pastor for 25 years. I'm also a practicing attorney. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word and find God's will for your life. The purpose of studying scripture is that you might know the character of Jesus Christ, and that you might see the world from the Father's perspective. That you gain wisdom that changes your life. I pray in the name of Jesus right now that God would open His word to you and allow you to see Him and to know Him. To know His will, that you might glorify Him and that you might walk in faith and power each day, especially today. In Jesus name.

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Transcript

This is Chad Harrison, and you're listening to hope alive, applying God's word to your daily life. Hi, this is Chad Harrison, and I am the teaching pastor of Lake Community Church and have been serving as a pastor for 25 years. I'm also a practicing attorney. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word and find God's will for your life. I pray in the name of Jesus right now that God would open up.

His word to you and allow you.

To see him and to know him and to know his will, that you might glorify him and that you might walk in faith and power each and every day, especially today, in Jesus name.

Well, good morning. Welcome to Lake Community Church's morning Bible study. We are in numbers, chapter 32. Numbers, chapter 32. And you go, well, what verses? Well, this is one of those stories that that is just needs to go together. It needs to all go together. And it's an important story for believers. Now, understanding something is important. The promised land is a picture of entering into God's rest, which hebrews talks ABOut. And it is the understanding that the promised land is the place of the filling of the HoLY spirit. And it's the place where you take possession of God's promises, where you. Where you take possession of the things that God has prepared for you in your life, and you build your heavenly reward. There it is. It is the place of conquering. It is the place of becoming, becoming all that the children of Israel are supposed to be. And THEn, of course, us becoming all that the church is supposed to be. And so this idea of entering the promised land, oftentimes, in many of our older songs, crossing the Jordan river was a picture. For whatever reason, they thought that that was a picture of going to heaven. Well, when we go to heaven, there's not going to be giants in the land, and we're not going to have to fight battles. That's the. The picture or the symmetry is not correct for that. It is literally going into the promised land and being filled by the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit leading you to take possession of the promises of God. That's what it's about. Now, when we get here, we already talked about last, last few bible studies. They conquered some people outside of the Jordan river. Now, sometimes people will say that the people that didn't go in, and these are the Reuben and Gad, the tribes that didn't go in, they suffered for that and ended up being people that did not worship God like they should. Now, your proximity to God can cause that, and you need to understand that you go, well, God's everywhere, right? But when I, in my own heart, don't place myself where I should be, which is in his throne room, when I don't place myself where I should be physically, which is with his people, when I don't do that, the proximity of God to my heart grows wider and wider. And so, Goddess and his closeness to God, a person's closeness to God will determine how much of the promised land they can't take, how much of the rest they experience, how much of the treasure that God wants to us to store up in heaven is stored. And so if you're feeling that you're not close to God, well, I would say, first of all, look at, look at the sermon preached on 915 24. And it deals with whether or not you have a relationship with God. Because you do, the real issue is not your relationship. The real issue is your exercise and of your faith and these tribes. Because the promised land is not inside the Jordan river. The promised land is not inside the Jordan river. If you look at what God promised Abraham, it is a land that stretches all the way into Syria, Lebanon, what is modern day transjordan, the arabian peninsula, down into Sinai, all the way to the border of Egypt. That's the promised land. It's a huge area. It's an area that's probably somewhere in the neighborhood of five to ten times, maybe even bigger than that. The land that we understand to be Israel today, it is a huge area. And it was promised to the children of Israel by God. And by the way, when the, when the new Jerusalem comes down from heaven, it's going to be huge. Really, really big, magnificently big. And that, that, that new Jerusalem is proportionally the size it ought to be for the kingdom. That ought to be the promised land. And so the taking of the tribes of midian and some of the amorite tribes outside the promised land on the east side of the Jordan river was proper. And that was a part of the promised land also. So understanding that outside of the Jordan river is a part of God's promises to his people is important. So when we study this, it says, now, the children of Reuben and the children of Gad had a very great multitude of livestock. And when they saw the land of Jazar, the land of Gilead, that indeed the region was a place for livestock. This is the area that they taken outside of the Jordan river. When I say outside on the east side of the Jordan river, it says, the children of Gad and the children of Reuben came and spoke to Moses, to Eliezer, the priests, the leaders of the congregation, saying, Atron, D, Bon, Jazer, Nimrah, Heshboth, Elia, Sheban, Nebo and Bean. The country which the lord defeated before the congregation of Israel is a land for livestock. It says this a flat plain. It's a great place to, to raise livestock, and your servants have livestock. Therefore, they said, if we found favor in your sight, let the land be given to your servant as a possession. Do not take it. Do not take us over the Jordan. What they said was, is, let us have this land as our possession. Let us take this land. Now, that's a problem because they're not going to be able to. That's a problem because they're not going to be able to help the children of Israel if they're on the other side of the Jordan. And Moses told them that, shall your brethren go to war while you sit here? And he says, why are you discouraging the heart of the children of Israel from going over to the land which the Lord has given them? He's saying, that's what your fathers did, saying that they didn't want to go and cross the Jordan river. And so it says that the Lord's anger aroused against them because they didn't want to go. And he says, why are you now being a stumbling block to them? And he does. And look, you have risen in your father's place, a brood of sinful men, to increase still more the fish anger of the Lord against Israel. What he's saying is, when you get your, your promises, when you get your rest, when you get your land, you're not done that you, you can't, you can't stop serving God because you've arrived. Whether you think you've arrived spiritually, whether you think you've arrived financially, whether you think you've arrived socially, you can't stop serving God just because you think you've arrived, just because you've reached a place of comfort. And they saw the land that they had taken outside of the Jordan river, and they said, we want to be on this land. And Moses says, no, we all go together. Now, understanding that in the modern context, taking this picture, this spiritual, this true picture, this true story, but a spiritual picture for us in the New Testament. So many people, when they feel like that God's blessings are upon them, they quit doing God's work. They quit fighting the battles that are the faith, and they quit doing kingdom stuff. They quit engaging in what God has as his work for his people, as his works of faith that he wants them to continue to act out. He wants us to continue to walk by faith. Well, Moses says, if we give you this land outside of, if we give you this land outside the Jordan river, you're going to be discouraging to your brethren, because not all twelve tribes will be in the going across and they'll feel like they're weaker. And let me say this. When believers in the New Testament begin to take a spiritual vacation, or even worse, a spiritual retirement from, you know, well, I did that when I was young, so I'm not going to do that now. We had, we had, we had a great group of mostly retired people help out at the football game, at the concession stand to allow some band parents to watch their children perform. These people didn't have to do that. They didn't have children in the band. They didn't have people at the high school, but, and many of them were not even from Dayville, have no connection as far as to the high school, and they still did it. Why? Because you don't retire from doing kingdom work and you don't stop from taking everything that God has for you. You don't become satisfied with where God has placed you. You can't do that. And that's what Moses is telling them. But Moses says, if you, if you do this thing, if you arm yourself before the Lord for war and your armed men cross over the Jordan before the Lord until he has driven out his enemies from before him and the land is subdued before the Lord, then afterward you may return and be blameless before the Lord and before Israel, and this land shall be your possession before the Lord. What he's saying is, if you'll keep working, you can have your possession now. And they go on and build up the fortified cities and lead their families there, and they swear before Reuben and they come in and say, we're going to do the things that are important, and we're going to. And they speak before the high priest Eleazar, we're going to make this promise to come into the promised land. We're gonna make this promise to enter into the land and fight with the children of Israel. And when they make that promise, they say, as the lord has said to your servants, so we will do. We will cross over on before the Lord into the land of Canaan, but the possession of our inheritance shall remain with us on this side of the Jordan. What they're saying is we've arrived. And in our spiritual walks, people are farther along down the road. The farther you are down the road, the more responsibility you have for those behind you. And they have their possession. They have their fortified cities. They have their land for livestock. They have a safe place for their children. They have homes for their families to live in. And even though they do, they understand that they have a responsibility to those behind them. And oftentimes, churches become very inwardly focused. People become very inwardly focused when they get to retirement or when they get to the age that they don't have to take care of small children anymore. And in that, they begin to close their shell to God's best. And in many ways, they miss out, because those people are the most experienced. Those people are the most knowledgeable. Those people are the most able to be of help, to be of encouragement, to actually provide some strength for those who are behind them. And many times what they do is they just. They go into a spiritual vacation, go on a spiritual vacation or spiritual retirement, and they miss out on what God's doing. And really what they do is they miss out on the best of their retirement, the best of their inheritance in the kingdom, because when they would be most fruitful, they're least willing to work, they're least willing to do. And that, for me, is the real story of numbers, chapter 32, that when you receive your inheritance, when God builds you up and gives you a blessing, when he makes you into who he wants you to be. I'm not saying that you've arrived, but you're farther down the road than most folks. When you're in that position, there's great responsibility from that position to those who've been given much, much is required. And so it is so encouraging to see people who have older grandchildren and even great grandchildren steadily, regularly serving the kingdom of God. It's great encouragement to see them doing kingdom work over and over all the time. It's great encouragement to see them coming alongside younger people, seeking to serve children and young people and seeking to feed into their lives. Why? Because the inheritance there is great, the benefit and the reward there is great, and the kingdom work is the most fruitful. And so I would say to you, when we study this, Moses blessed them and said, that sounds like a good deal. You can take your inheritance now. You can have the best from God now. You can have his promises now. Go with us and get more, get greater, get better. And I would say that to anybody that's my age and older, I'm not retirement age, but I'm fast approaching it in the realization of life. In 15 years, out 20 years, I'll be retired. And I hope that I am serving God as hard as those who've gone before me and who have shined a light on the path. I pray that my life will be filled each day with kingdom things to do and that I constantly search for them. Because when you search for the work and faithfulness to God, you're going to find it. And I pray for those who are with me on this journey, that they would do the same. That they would constantly, constantly be seeking opportunities to know God, see God and.

Walk from goddess as you go today. I pray that the Lord will bless you and keep you, that he'll make his face to shine upon you and that he will give you hope and peace today. In Jesus name.