Let's stand together as we read from Numbers chapter 32. Now the children of Reuben, and the children of Gad, had a very great multitude of cattle. And when they saw the land of Jazer, and the land of Gilead, that, behold, the place was a place for cattle. The children of Gad, and the children of Reuben, came and spake unto Moses, and to Eliezer the priest, and unto the princes of the congregation, saying, Adoroth in Dibon, and Jazer in Nimrod, and Heshbon and Eliel, and Sheban, and Nebo, and beyond. Even the country which the Lord smote before the congregation of Israel is a land for cattle, and thy servants have cattle. Wherefore, said they, if we have found grace in thy sight, let this land be given unto thy servants for a possession, and bring us not over Jordan. And Moses said unto the children of Gad and to the children of Reuben, Shall your brethren go to war, and shall ye sit here? And wherefore discourage ye the heart of the children of Israel from going over into the land which the Lord hath given them? Thus did your fathers, when I sent them from Kadesh Barnea, to see the land. For when they went up into the valley of Eshkol, and saw the land, they discouraged the heart of the children of Israel, that they should not go into the land which the Lord had given them. And the Lord's anger was kindled the same time, and he swore, saying, Surely none of the men that came up out of Egypt, from twenty years old and upward, shall see the land which I swore unto Abraham, and unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, because they have not wholly followed me, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite, and Joshua the son of Nun, for they have wholly followed the Lord. And the Lord's anger was kindled against Israel, and he made them wander in the wilderness forty years, until all the generation that had done evil in the sight of the Lord was consumed. And behold, ye are risen up in your father's stead, an increase of sinful men, to augment yet the fierce anger of the Lord toward Israel. For if ye turn away from after him, he will yet again leave them in the wilderness, and ye shall destroy all this people. And they came near unto him, and said, We will build sheepfolds here for our cattle, and cities for our little ones. But we ourselves will go armed before the children of Israel, until we have brought them unto their place, and our little ones shall dwell in the fenced cities, because of the inhabitants of the land. And we will not return under our houses, until the children of Israel have inherited every man his inheritance. For we will not inherit with them on yonder side Jordan, or forward, because our inheritance has fallen to us on this side Jordan, eastward. And Moses said unto them, If ye will do this thing, if ye will go armed before the Lord to war, and will go all of you armed over Jordan before the Lord, until he hath driven out his enemies before him, and the land be subdued before the Lord, Then afterwards ye shall return and be guiltless before the Lord and before Israel, and this land shall be your possession before the Lord. But if ye will not do so, behold, ye have sinned against the Lord, and be sure your sin will find you out. Build you cities for your little ones and folds for your sheep, and do that which hath proceeded out of your mouth. And the children of Gad and the children of Reuben spake unto Moses, saying, Thy servants will do as my Lord commandeth. Our little ones, our wives, our flocks, and all our cattle shall be there in the cities of Gilead. But thy servants will pass over, every man armed for war before the Lord to battle, as my Lord saith. So concerning them, Moses commanded Eleazar the priest, and Joshua the son of Nun, and the chief fathers of the tribes of the children of Israel. And Moses said unto them, If the children of Gad and the children of Reuben will pass with you over Jordan, every man armed to battle before the Lord, and the land shall be subdued before you, then you shall give them the land of Gilead for a possession. But if they will not pass over with you armed, they shall have possessions among you in the land of Canaan. And the children of Gad and the children of Reuben answered, saying, As the Lord hath said unto thy servants, so will we do. We will pass over, armed before the Lord, unto the land of Canaan, that the possession of our inheritance on this side, Jordan, may be ours. And Moses gave unto them, even to the children of Gad and to the children of Reuben, and unto half the 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 with the cities thereof in the coast, even the cities of the country round about. And the children of Gad built Dibon, and Atatoroth, and Aror, and Atroth, and Shofan, and Jazer, and Jogbeha. and Bethnamara and Beth-haran, fenced cities and folds for sheep. And the children of Reuben built Heshbon and Elal and Kirijathim, and Nebo and Balmeon, their names being changed, and Shibbon, and gave other names unto the cities which they built. And the children of Makar the son of Manasseh went to Gilead, and took it, and dispossessed the Amorite which was in it. And Moses gave Gilead unto Makar the son of Manasseh, and he dwelt therein. And Jair the son of Manasseh went, and took the small towns thereof, and called them Havoth Jair. And Naboth went and took Kenab, and the villages thereof, and called him Nobah, after his own name. These are the... Sorry, stop there. Father, thank you for your holy word and for the way you've dealt with your people in the past. I pray you would teach us in our day to walk with you and how you'll deal with us. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Numbers, we're still wrapping things up. They've finished the 40 years. We're now with the new generation. God has told Moses that you're in your last days, said your last act here. is to go and fight against the Moabites and conquer them. And they did and they took over them and took their spoils and so forth. Of course, Moses is a tough old fella. He's not quite done yet. He's got a whole other book to write. But it's all right here. It all curves right away. There's no big gaps anymore. So now in Numbers 32, we have kind of a separation that starts. So they've come, and remember they haven't been in the Promised Land yet. Forty years ago they came and sent spies in, and ten of them came back and discouraged the people. They said, it's giants and thin cities, we can't take them. And so God was angry with them. They died in the wilderness. Now their children are right there, ready to go in. But they've had to battle the people that are there. They tried to get away with not battling them, but they were attacked, and so they fought. So they have wiped out pretty much all the people there on the east side of Jordan. Just got through with the Moabites. So now that they're there, a couple of tribes get to looking around and say, you know, this is pretty good land here. We've already defeated the people. Now we've got this open land here. It'd be good for our cattle. Why don't we just stay here? Now the children of Reuben and the children of Gad. So it talks about Reuben. Well, Reuben's the oldest son. He was Leah's firstborn. He's the oldest son of Jacob. And Reuben and then Gad is the oldest son of Bilhah, Leah's maid. Those tribes have come together and said, They had a very great multitude of cattle. That's everything. Sheep, goats, camels, donkeys, cows, whatever. That's all your stock, your livestock. We just call it livestock. And they saw the land of Jaser. and the land of Gilead, that behold, the place was a place for cattle. So here they are. They're here. They've already fought the wars. They've already conquered all these people. They've gotten spoils. They've got cattle everywhere. And they're like, what do we need the promised land for? We've got everything we need right here. We've gone far enough. Let's just stay right here. And we'll just dwell here, because this is a great place for our cattle. It's a beautiful valley. It's well watered. This will be perfect. We'll just stay here. Let's forget continuing on and fighting. Let's just stay. The children of Gad and the children of Reuben came and spake unto Moses, and Eliezer the priest, and unto the princes of the congregation." So they've got this proposal here. They said they want to go. And so who do they do? They go to the leaders. Well, Moses, right off, of course, because he's God's representative. Eliezer is the high priest. And then the heads of all the other tribes, because they've got a deal they want to make. So they call everybody together. So they have a school board meeting, or a city council meeting, or whatever you compare it to. Then they name off these places, Adiroth, Dibon, Jaser, Nimrod, Heshfon, Elilah, Shebam, Nebo, Beon, and say, we fought these people. If you can tell from this map, right in the middle is the Jordan River, to the left is the Promised Land. Okay, that's the land of Canaan. To the right is the land that they've just destroyed, the people they've defeated, and they're now close to the river before they were in the south country, right? Remember when they watered the wilderness, they had to have water from a rock, they had to have manna from heaven, all that because it was a pretty dry and arid land. But now that they've come up to the Jordan Valley, they've got some good land here, and they say, hey, we've defeated most of the enemies, let's just stay. Even the country which the Lord smote before the congregation of Israel is a land for cattle, and thy servants have cattle." Now, they're very respectful the whole time. This isn't a rebellion. They've been very respectful. They've called a meeting with the leaders. They said, God's the one that did this. We didn't do it. I mean, it was the whole country of us, but God is the one that's given us victories, and we know God has done that. And it's a beautiful place for cattle, and we have cattle. Wherefore, said they, if we found grace in thy sight, let this land be given unto thy servants for a possession, and bring us not over Jordan." They said, we had a better idea. God said He was going to give us Jordan, but you know, we're happy here. This is good enough. God gave us the victory. We've got all these cattle we've been blessed with. We've destroyed the enemies. Why don't we just stay here? This will be good. We want to just stay here in this land and not go into God's promise. And Moses is very upset. Moses said to the children of Gad and to the children of Reuben, shall your brethren go to war and you sit here? And you're like, wait a minute, the job's not done yet. We didn't even get started yet. This was just the journey. We haven't even crossed that river yet to go and take the land that God promised us way back in Egypt. He's promised us this. He's like, what? You're going to let us go fight and you're just going to sit here? He said, uh-huh. That's the Hebrew. and wherefore discourage ye the heart of the children of Israel from going over into the land which the Lord hath given them." He said, not only are you not pulling your weight, you're going to discourage everybody else. You're going to cause us all problems. Thus did your fathers. You're acting just like your fathers did when I sent them from Kadesh Barnea to see the land. Remember that's where they stopped, further south. But he sent them into the land to spy it out. And two of the spies came back and said, we can take it. And Tim came back and said, no way. And the people refused, and what happened? God was angry with them, judged them, and all their parents died in the wilderness. He said, you're doing the same thing your parents did, and you're going to cause us all to get in trouble. Because that's something that bothers me today. We're so much into individual rights and individual freedom, we never think what's best for somebody else. You know, I'm all for freedom. I love America. I love the freedom that we fought for, that we can do things the way we think is right. But you've also got to consider your neighbors, how it affects them. It's not just yourself. You've got to consider how it affects others. As Moses continues about Kadesh Barnea, Notice, they chose not to go do what God had already given to them. God had already accomplished it. Like Brother Robert said this morning in Sunday School, God knows everything. He's got it all set and it's good as done. If God said He's going to give you the land, He's going to give you the land. But they refuse to be obedient. He's afraid this is the same thing. It's going to happen again. He's like, I've already been through this once. Let's don't do this again. And the Lord's anger was kindled at the same time. And he sware, saying, Surely none of the men that came up out of Egypt, from twenty years old and upward, shall see the land which I sware unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, because they have not wholly followed me." So God made the promise way back in Abraham's day. Well, here we are over 400 years later, promise is still good, but you have to wholly follow him completely. They didn't. They didn't. They got there and they balked. They didn't step in. Therefore, they didn't get the blessing that they could have. Save or accept Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, the Kenizzite, and Joshua, the son of Nun, for they have wholly followed the Lord. Notice every time he mentions the spies and how unfaithful they were, he says, accept. Caleb and Joshua, because they were faithful. They went in. They said, yes, go. Now, they didn't get to go at that time, because they had to suffer with all the other people. But they're going to get to go now, because they were faithful. And they're the only one. They're the only old man here, except for Moses. That's it. And the Lord's anger was kindled against Israel, and He made them wander in the wilderness forty years, until all the generation that had done evil in the sight of the Lord was consumed." He's like, how soon do you forget? Don't you remember what happened last time you refused to go in? And behold, ye are risen up in your father's stead, an increase of sinful men, to augment yet the fierce anger of the Lord toward Israel. He said, what you're doing is just what they did at Kadesh Barnea, and we're going to suffer judgment for it if you do this. For if ye turn away from after him, he will yet again leave them in the wilderness, and ye shall destroy all this people." So not just you. You may think this land is fine. You may be happy living here, but you're not obeying God. God said, go in, and if you don't do it, you're going to cause God to judge this whole people, because you're going to discourage everybody. They're all going to give up, and we're going to go 40 years in the wilderness again until y'all die off and God will raise up another generation. And they came near unto him. So now they said, okay, let's have some negotiations here. This is typical Middle Eastern back and forth negotiations, typical of the culture. And they said, okay, so they came near. They said, okay, let's sit down, have a powwow, and let's make a counter-proposal. Obviously Moses didn't go in for this one. We will build sheepfolds here, across and in the east, for our cattle, and build cities for our little ones, our dependents. But we ourselves will go armed before the children of Israel until we have brought them unto their place. And our little ones shall dwell in the fenced cities because of the inhabitants of the land." So he said, okay. What we'll do is we still want to have this land. We want to leave our cattle here, leave our wives, leave our children, all our dependents here. We'll build places for them. We'll build places for our cattle for protection for them. We'll build cities so that our wives and families will be safe while we're gone. And actually, they left about two-thirds of the men there with them. They only took 40,000, according to Joshua, across. But he said, but we'll go. We'll go and fight until the land is ours to belong to Israel. We'll do it that way. We will not return under our houses until the children of Israel have inherited every man his inheritance. So they said, OK, what we'll do is we'll still go fight. We're not going to back out on you. We're going to go with you and fight. And we'll fight until all that land is there. But then you get all that land. We'll come back here. So a little bit, give and take, mutual benefit. Now your portion is going to be a little bigger because two and a half tribes, we're going to be on this side. So therefore, you only have to divide it among nine and a half tribes on the other side. But we'll go and we'll fight with you until the war's over, until it's won, you're settled in, then we'll come home. For we will not inherit with them on the underside of Jordan or forward. We're not going to make any claim west of Jordan. because our inheritance has fallen to us on this side, eastward. We'll make our claim on the east, you can have everything on the west, but we'll go help you get it. And Moses said unto them, If ye will do this thing, if ye will go armed before the Lord to war, and will go all of you armed over Jordan before the Lord, until he hath driven out his enemies from before him." Now, did Moses say, if you guys don't come, we won't have enough men to take this land? He didn't say that. He said, if you don't do it, God is going to be angry and God won't give us the victory. He says, but if you'll come, and he said all of you. It's all you fighting men. then God will go before us and will be victorious. And the land be subdued before the Lord. Then afterwards ye shall return and be guiltless before the Lord and before Israel, and this land shall be your possession before the Lord. But if ye will not do so, behold, ye have sinned against the Lord, and be sure your sin will find you out." In other words, you can't pull a fast one. Don't tell me you're going to go and then don't do it. or go partway and then come back early because God knows. He said, I'm not going to be there, okay? I'm going to be dead, but God knows your sin is going to catch up with you. And that's so true. This morning, Sunday school, we talked about God's omniscience. Well, that is too big of a concept for us to understand. But most people don't want to believe it. I don't think because it's just too big to understand. It's because if God is omniscient, it means He knows all your sins. And that's a scary thought. You think, wow, that's scary. But it also means that the God who knows all your sins sent Jesus Christ to die on the cross and pay for all your sins. So he didn't just die for a few things you confessed, he died for everything. God knows them all and he loved you anyway. So that's not so scary. That is encouraging because he loves us in spite that he knows everything. You know, when we go for a job interview, you tell them all the best stuff, right? You don't tell them all the failed projects you had and this and that. You tell them your successes. Is that because you think if they knew everything, they might not hire you? When you proposed to your wife, you probably didn't tell her everything about you. You just tried to show your good stuff, right? You shaved every day. You didn't tell her that you never shaved on Saturdays or anything like that. You kept it clean. Because you're afraid they wouldn't love you if they knew everything. Well, God knows everything. And he loves you anyway. And by the way, your wife knows everything anyway, whether you think she does or not. So he said, so now he says, build your cities for your little ones, build your folds for your sheep, and do what you've proceeded out of your mouth. Do what you've committed to. This is your covenant. Now let's do it. And the children of Gad and the children of Reuben spake unto Moses, saying, thy servants will do as the Lord commands. So they've made a covenant now. They said, OK, we're going to do this. Our little ones, our wives, our flocks, all our cattle shall be in the cities of Gilead. But thy servants will pass over every man armed for war before the Lord to do battle, as my Lord saith. So concerning them, Moses commanded Eliezer the priest, and Joshua the son of Nun, and the chief fathers of the tribes of the children of Israel." Well, they did this in front of all the leadership, but Moses is obviously the spokesman because Moses represents God. Moses is the one that personally communicates with God, and he's seeking God's will on this. But Moses knows he's not going to be there when this gets fulfilled. So he says, OK, Eliezer, Joshua, and you leaders of the tribes, this is the covenant. You guys go do it, because I'm not going to be around anymore. And Moses said unto them, If the children of Gad and the children of Reuben will pass with you over Jordan, every man armed to battle before the Lord, and the land shall be subdued before you, then ye shall give them the land of Gilead for possession." So the children of Gad and Reuben said, We'll come fight with you if we can have this land. And Moses said, Okay, if they fulfill it, if they come and fight with you to the end, then give them this land. But if they will not pass over with you armed, they shall have possessions among you in the land of Canaan." In other words, if they won't come fight with you this whole time, then tell them, just pack your bags and come with us, because they're just going to be in with the rest of us. They're going to fight with us, they're going to live with us, they're going to have their inheritance here. We're not giving them this inheritance here if they don't come with us. And the children of Gad, the children of Reuben, answered, saying, As the Lord hath said unto thy servants, so we will do." So they took this as a word from God. So I don't think it was just Moses' idea. This is what Moses got from God. That we will pass over armed before the Lord into the land. And Moses gave them to the children of Gad, to the children of Reuben, and now it mentions the half-tribe of Manasseh. So Reuben, the firstborn of Leah, Gad, the firstborn of Bilhah, Leah's maid, now Manasseh, the son of Joseph. So they split, but it's not just that Manasseh is a half-tribe, it's half the tribe of Manasseh. So part of them won in on this too. The king of Sihon, king of the Amorites, kingdom of Og, king of Bashan, the land with the cities thereof in the coast, even the cities of the country round about." So this is the land they just got through conquering. Og the giant and all that kind of stuff. Now that land is going to be theirs. And the children of Gad, and it tells the cities they go through and build. And Moses gave Gilead unto Makar the son of Manasseh, and he dwelt therein." So apparently he's got involved because he's been personally, his tribe has been defeating these certain cities and tribes. And they said, well, we fought for this, we want it. So he said, okay, you can have that area. And Jair, the son of Manasseh, went and took the small towns thereof, and he called them Havoth Jair. Nothing like naming it after yourself, right? He conquered it, so he named it after himself. And what have they got here? Was this good? Was this bad? Well, in my opinion, because it doesn't really clearly say, in my opinion, they took second best. God said, I'm giving you this land. And He defined it to the Jordan River, to all this land. He defined it for the River of Egypt, to the Great River Euphrates, from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean. This is the land I'm going to give you. But they said, well, this is close enough. This is close enough. I can be happy here. I can be satisfied with this. Well, I think, and as you look at Hebrews and this and that, crossing the Jordan doesn't really mean getting saved. We sing about it a lot as saying we cross the Jordan into heaven. The land of Canaan is not heaven, okay? Because when they went in, they still had battles, they had this and that. No, it's not heaven. But it represents God's will in this life. Getting God's best in this life. Following God's promises in this life. And I take it that when Gad and Reuben, half-tribe of Manasseh, they said, you know, this is good enough. We've already fought for it. It's beautiful land. We'll just stay here. Well, Moses said okay. if you continue and fight. Now, he wouldn't let them just give up and say, you're going to get the promises with that. He said, you've got to at least come and fight. And according to the book of Joshua, about 40,000 of the men went with them, which was only about two-thirds of their fighting census number, because they left the rest there, I'm sure, to protect their families and care for the sheep and this and that and all the young men and whatever. So they didn't really go all of them over there. So it wasn't a wholehearted effort. And I think, for us, what God wants is He wants us to go into His promises whole hog. All the way. It's a bad example because nobody wants to be the pig, but they say, you know, commitment in breakfast between the chicken and the pig. Well, the chicken contributed. an egg, but the pig gave his all. Well, God wants us to give our all. When we go with Him, He wants us to follow Him completely. That's what He said about Caleb. That's what He said about Joshua. They followed Me completely. That only came to the land, but they exercised faith. They saw the giants just like everybody else did. They saw the big walled cities just like everybody else did. And they said, of course we can take it because God has promised it to us. God promises us a lot of things in this life, but we don't claim most of them. Now, I'm not talking about a prosperity gospel because God did not promise us health, wealth, and worldly fame and glory. God promised us He'd take care of us if we obeyed Him. And I think so many times we come up short. We come up and I've seen people in my life, committed Christian people, and God has really been convicting them of things and working in their lives and they've seen great wonders God has done and then they get to a point and they put their foot down and say, this is far enough. I'm happy with my life just like it is. I'm happy with the number of kids I have now. I wouldn't dare think if God wanted me to have another one. I'm happy right where I am. I don't want to get any too spiritual. Then I'd be weird. My friends would make fun of me. I wouldn't fit in. I don't want to go too far now. I want to go this far. It's in different places for different people. But you get to a point and say, this is far enough. I'm going to stay here. But I think what God really wants is He wants you to believe Him and say, I've got a place for you on the other side of the river. That's the land that flows with milk and honey. That's what I've got for you. But sometimes He'll let us stay short of His will. He'll let us stay and it wasn't a rebellion like it was at Kadesh Barnea where the people refused to go and He punished them. No, He let them stay there. They did what they said, they sent an army with the people, they fought, they stayed until it went. But you know, they kept having problems that they wouldn't have had otherwise. When they finally released them to go home, if you remember this story, what happens is they finally pack up and they go, Joshua says, you guys can go home now. We've pretty much conquered the land, everybody's kind of got their own little areas to deal with now, the land's been divided, so you guys can go home. So as they went home, what did they do? They built an altar just this side of Jordan, just before you cross, and then they went back across Jordan to the other side to their homes. Well, how did the people take it? The people of Israel said, there worshiping another God. They built another altar there. This isn't God's tabernacle. So they came and nearly came to full war with them because of a misunderstanding because these people had separated. Never would have happened if they had stayed. When Israel gets attacked in future years and this and that, who gets carried off into captivity first? Gad, Reuben, and Manasseh, the ones that were east of the river. They weren't there. They got carried off first. So, to me, this is not an out-and-out sin. If they hadn't come and fought, that was an out-and-out sin. But this was coming short of God's best for them. God had promised them more, and they decided, no, God, this is good enough. In our lives, God promises us more. I know there's more of God's blessing than we get because we don't have the faith to go get it. Or we don't have the faith to obey and we disobey and therefore we don't get the blessings and what He wants to do in our lives. I know we don't fulfill it all because we say, no Lord, this is good enough. I'm happy here. Just leave me alone. Don't take me any further because then I might get really weird. Let me just stay here on this side of the river instead of going on into the land that flows with milk and honey. Because if we really believed that that land flowed with milk and honey, you couldn't keep us out. Here, they looked around and saw rivers and trees and grasslands and thought, oh, this will be great. But they didn't see that God's real blessings were on the other side. And that's what happens. The other lesson I see out of this is a lesson of unity. And I think of it because of the lesson last week in 1 Corinthians. What did Paul tell the church at Corinth? He said, I'm upset because I hear there's divisions. Everybody's going their own way. You're following Paul. You're following Apollos. You say, we follow Christ. Split all over the place. Well, if they didn't stick together, they wouldn't have won the victories, would they? That's what he said. He said, if you don't stick with us, we're not going to win. Not because of your might and power, but because that's what God said. He sent us all in here to fight this battle. And that's what he's going to bless. And oh, we are so divided. on our churches. There's divisions within churches. And you all know what happens when there starts to be a division in a church, don't you? It tears it apart. It makes the church weak and ineffective. Their outside ministry pretty much disappears. They're not outreaching the laws because they're too busy fighting one another. That's not God's way. He wants us to follow Him. And He's given one direction. So if we're not all going the same direction, it doesn't mean we all have the same parts to play. But if we're not all going the same direction, we're not following the same leader. And that's where we need to be. So we need to learn from them. Go for God's best. Even though it looks real good right next to it, go on. Go for all that God has got for you, all He's willing to lead you into. Don't ever get to the point that you think you know everything. Don't ever get to the point that God's not convicting you of something new, something in your life. You may have been a Christian for 60, 70 years. That doesn't mean he's still got something. He's not done with you. You're not perfect yet. OK, he's continuing to work on us, continue and go. And then let us, as God's people, let's follow his commands and let's be unified in that effort so that we might have victory in our world, just like they had in theirs. Because right now we're not seeing a lot of victory in our world. We're seeing marriage being destroyed, families being destroyed, drugs being legalized. We're just doing all kinds of wrong stuff all over the place. Where's the victory? And it can happen. It does happen. God's people do have an influence. We are salt and we are light. And if we'll stick together and have faith to follow Him, I think we can see some changes even in our world as far as it's going the wrong way.