FAITH CAPSULE:Are you finding comfort in going for what the Lord did not give or promise you?
Numbers 32
The case of the children of Israel being called out of bondage of over four hundred years to a land that flows with milk and honey is a lesson of what it is to replace commitment with convenience. God repeatedly gave His word of commitment to the children of Israel stating, “So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey…” (Exodus 3:8) God never violates His word. Often times when we violate His word then the world violates us. God that promised the land that flows with milk and honey gave His word with expectation for the children of Israel to live by it. However, the story changed when the children of Israel, the tribe of Gad and the tribe of Reuben settled for convenience and could not commit to the word that God had committed Himself to perform.
The Bible recorded that the children of Reuben and the children of Gad had a great multitude of livestock (source of milk), and when they saw that the land of Jazaer and the Land of Gilead was a place for livestock, their going further becomes less relevant. Why would they want to continue where the Lord had committed to give when they have entered into a place of convenience? Land for their livestock (source of milk) was in place but God promised the land for milk and honey. The Lord was taking them to cross over Jordan but the children of Gad and the children of Reuben approached Moses and said,“…If we have found favor in your sight, let this land be given to your servants as a possession. Do not take us over the Jordan.” (Numbers 32:5) Are you finding comfort in going for what the Lord did not give or promise you? God did not promise a land that flows with only milk but the land that flows with milk and honey. In the attempt of not to cross over when God has planned for cross over is the evidence of avoidance of war or challenges that will come across in our way of life journey. Also, the attempt of not to cross over when God has planned for cross over is operating as agent of discouragement to others. Above, it is a demonstration of lack of trust for God’s word but listening to one’s heart. Watch out, convenience always takes an opposite side of commitment and it will cause one to miss out of God’s best for one in the journey of life.
Listen to God’s promise for you; do not harden your heart. Harden heart is testing God; testing God leads to going astray.
Prayer for today: Ask God to hold you by your right hand and guide you with His counsel