Let us pray before we get into His Word.
Dear Heavenly Father, precious and almighty Lord, thank You, Lord, for giving this wonderful opportunity to come to the throne of grace; and, Lord, for the opportunity You gave us to gather around the Lord’s table, to remember You, to exalt You.
Lord, as You have drawn us again around the Word, speak to us from Thy throne. We are in different age groups, Lord, physically as well as spiritually. Lord, You know the need of each and every one. Lord, it may be simple, but it is most needful. Lord, You have Your thoughts for us. Lead us. Open our ears to hear Thy voice; open our hearts to accept Thy Word.
Lord, I submit myself and everyone under the sprinkled blood of the Lamb. In Jesus’ name we pray.
Let us turn to Numbers 32. We have heard many messages on it. The Lord has His way of reminding us of things again and again. Turn to Numbers 32. Let’s read the first five verses, and then Numbers 32:12 and Numbers 32:16-18. Maybe we will go one by one.
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 Eleazar the priest, and unto the princes of the congregation, saying,
Ataroth, and Dibon, and Jazer, and Nimrah, and Heshbon, and Elealeh, and Shebam, and Nebo, and Beon,
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.
Save Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenezite, and Joshua the son of Nun:
For they have wholly followed the Lord.
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 ready 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.
We will not return unto our houses, until the children of Israel have inherited every man his inheritance.
When I was meditating upon this Word, I was looking at face value, trying to understand this chapter. There are many messages, but I didn’t want to go to the messages and read, right? I just read this chapter again and again, trying to see what it is.
Even when God was doing amazing things through His power in the life of the Israelites, the Lord still allowed His people to use their wisdom and judgement to make choices. God guides the world and the church, but He often works through the decisions, reasoning, and commitment of His people.
The Lord doesn’t push the people to possess what He gives. But the Lord is a wise God, and He also made us wise. He often works through the decisions, reasoning, and commitment of the people. So I was looking at this chapter from that angle: how are their reasoning, decisions, and commitment working, and on what do they rely—especially in the life of the tribe of Reuben and in the life of Gad?
And this is the same for us as individuals, as families, and as a church. We have to make decisions, and we have our own reasoning and commitment. Depending upon that, we make choices and move forward.
If you look at church history also, no wonder we have so many denominations across the globe. Definitely, the Lord did not make so many denominations. It is the wisdom and the judgement of the people, which God has allowed, to go in that direction.
So I was thinking; I was examining myself. We can say this about me. This kind of encouraged me: do the decisions and the actions lead us into the fullness of the Lord? I was questioning myself. And also, do they reflect the character and image of Christ? Is that what the Lord desires? Do the decisions we make as individuals, as families, and as a church align with the Word of God?
I don’t want to see the dos and don’ts, but I want to examine these people: how they moved, how their analytical skills, decision-making, or reasoning worked around what they wanted.
You know, even though we, as believers, are serving the Lord, preaching the Word of God, and often doing various ministries, we can still go astray from the Lord because of the decisions we make. They are driven by the gift we have—that is, our desires.
And that is the biggest thing a human has. If there is no desire, there is no point in living, you know. So desire is also a gift from the Lord, and desire is what drives personal interest. We got up this morning and made a choice to go into the presence of the Lord. That is a result.
But when we make decisions and choices in the light of our own desire, then most likely we will make wrong choices. I’m not saying that every time we make wrong choices, but many times we can make wrong choices.
That is the reason for Proverbs 3:5. We all know:
Trust in the Lord with all thine heart;
And lean not unto thine own understanding.
This is actually a warning against overconfidence in personal knowledge, reasoning, and worldly wisdom. Right? So there is a warning statement.
Because you have these gifts—you have personal knowledge, you have the right reasoning skills, worldly wisdom—but the Lord is warning against overconfidence in those things.
There is a reason Proverbs 3:7 says:
Be not wise in thine own eyes.
The world teaches exactly the opposite, right? So these are warning statements. The Lord is preparing us. See, there is a reason the Lord should be the Head of our personal life and church life.
Many times, as believers, we keep Christ as Head of the church, but in our personal life we keep changing the head. Sometimes we keep the Lord as the Head; sometimes we keep our desire as the head of it.
In this chapter, if you look at the life of the Israelites, the Lord’s desire in Deuteronomy 6:1-3 is that He wants them to cross. It says in Deuteronomy 6:1—I’m reading half of it:
Which the Lord your God commanded to teach you,
That ye might do them in the land whither ye go to possess it.
So obedience is not only following the commandments, but also seeing where the Lord is leading them. And also in Deuteronomy 6:3, again He says the same thing, in the middle part:
As the Lord God of thy fathers hath promised thee,
In the land that floweth with milk and honey.
So the Lord was pretty strong—strong about this land for these people—because there is a possession for them. The Lord has promised this to Abraham. The Lord wants us to possess what He has prepared for us.
Sometimes it may not be visible to us. Sometimes we don’t have much understanding of it. It doesn’t matter. But, Lord, what You prepared for us, You want us to possess it.
The Lord’s idea is that this is a place where they should live under God’s covenant blessings, and also a life of fellowship with God and citizenship in His kingdom. Because the Lord God always wanted to make them a nation of priests.
He doesn’t want to make just a nation, but a nation of priests, and He doesn’t want to miss any one of us. It is the same for every one of us. He wants to make a nation of priests because the Lord wants these people to enjoy this fellowship, and also citizenship in His kingdom.
Likewise, in the morning when we had the worship time, many brothers prayed about how the Lord has drawn us towards Him, and how the Lord was having fellowship with Adam. This was the mind of the Lord.
And this land is not just a land. This is also the promise which God has given to Abraham and to his descendants. So this land has bigger things.
In the same way, God has desired for His people to enter into the fullness of His Son. I think at the last conference we heard so many messages about the possession, how to go and get it.
One of the things I was thinking was how to possess it, you know? I have reasoning skills, analytical skills, and the Word of God. One of the sayings is, “Possessing promises requires a heart committed to do God’s will.” If you are not committed to do God’s will, you cannot go and possess, or take, what God wants to give to you.
The Lord has the same desire today for you and me: that we should enter into the fullness of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. He doesn’t just have a desire, but He has also sealed us with the Holy Spirit, Who is directing us so that our walk, our choices, would go towards that—into the fullness of Christ.
So in this passage, in Numbers 32, there are two tribes. We see them here: Reuben and the children of Gad. If we look at the whole story, if we read the whole chapter, the summary of it is that they want to live in a different land rather than what the Lord wanted to give them.
But one thing we can see is that they wanted a different land, yet they were still committed to the success of the conquest. They did not leave in between. That means they were with the rest of the nine and a half tribes until it was divided. They were with them to win the conquest, but this is not a compliment.
This is a sad reality. This is a sad reality that they want to do everything, but they don’t want to stay in the land which the Lord has chosen for them. You know?
There is an alternate thought in this also: the two tribes, although they don’t want to go to the other side of the Jordan, still had a passion to fight, a commitment to fight. The only thing they don’t want is the Lord’s chosen thing. This is a sad reality.
When I was reading, the thought was like this: “God, we don’t think this land You picked out for us is going to handle us, no matter what the other side of the Jordan River has for us.”
So I was thinking, I mean, how can this be? Realistically, they rejected God’s plan, but still they were walking with God’s children, still trying to fulfil the will of the Lord in acquiring the land of Canaan. I mean, how can they reject, but at the same time cooperate in getting that land?
When I was looking, two things came up. The first thing—how these tribes of Gad and Reuben went in a different direction—is that they had their own interest. Their own interest.
If you look at Numbers 32:1, it says:
The place was a place for cattle.
And in Numbers 32:4, it says:
And thy servants have cattle.
And they are requesting Moses that they should not be brought to the other side of the land. The difference is that the Lord wants the land to be given to them; they want land for their cattle, you know? They don’t care, because they are more worried about the possessions the Lord has given.
I was thinking, why are they worried so much about cattle? The Lord wants to give them protection. The Lord wants to raise them as a nation of priests. The Lord wants to bless them, but they don’t care. They are looking for land for the cattle, but the Lord is making land for His people. You know?
There is a very simple difference. Both things are land. They are going to dwell in it anyway, but the desire is different. The concept is the same—the land—but the desire is different. The Lord wants His children to have the land, land for the people; but Reuben and Gad have a thought: land for their cattle.
This cattle, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, kind of speaks about so many things we have—the possessions.
It can speak of our earthly identity, right? Earthly identity, because we are not different in what we have in an earthly way. The earthly identity can be “I, me, myself, my ministry, my suggestions, my way. This is the way that things should go.”
This is not wrong, because you are strongly motivated by your thoughts and your experiences of life, your skills. I’m not saying it’s wrong. But the problem is that those should not interfere with the Lord; they should complement the work of the Lord.
So this cattle in us speaks about ourselves, what we possess. The possession may be anything. It can be our speaking skills. It can be our education. It can be our spiritual knowledge. It can be whatever it is.
There is very much a chance that our own interest can interfere with the Lord. It can interfere in such a way that you may reject the plan the Lord has for you.
The cattle here represents material blessings and personal interest. Sometimes God’s blessings can become a distraction if they cause us to prioritise comfort over God’s fuller purpose.
I think many people will not do it. I know many people over here really want to work for the Lord. We really want to sacrifice so many things, but somehow we are not able to get out of our own interests. That is the reason we are not able to see a real revival, whatever the brothers who worked before us could see. People here have seen it. That is the way the body of Christ is formed.
And also, the second thing, for all of us as believers, is that believers can become more concerned with preserving what they have than pursuing what God has promised.
So we are so busy taking care of things, protecting them, but we are not able—as a body of Christ, as individuals, as a family—to pursue the things God wants to give to us.
In Numbers 32, they are asking Moses about this. In Numbers 32:5, they are asking:
Wherefore, said they, if we have found grace in thy sight,
Let this land be given unto thy servants for a possession.
Look at whom they are asking. They are asking a man who would do anything to go to that land—Moses himself.
Moses would have done anything if God said, “Hey, Moses, do this thing. I will take you to Canaan.” He would have done anything to go over there. But to the same person, they are asking, “Hey, we don’t want to go there.”
Moses might have thought, “What kind of thought, what kind of heart do these people have? You know, I want to personally enter that land, but these people are refusing to go there.”
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, personal interest can hinder so much that it will stop you from pursuing what the Lord has prepared for you.
This reminds me of numerous stories, you know, about the lust of the eyes or our own interest, as in the case of Lot and Abraham and their choices. But I just want to stick to these guys. They are actually asking; they are trying to find grace in Moses’ eyes so that they don’t have to cross. They had fear because so many people had died. But their interest has blinded them to everything the Lord wants to give to them.
You know, by pursuing their own interest, these people are despising entering into the fullness of God. They want to exchange the inheritance the Lord has prepared for them for what their eyes are looking at and what their eyes are seeing.
And this is sometimes how we are, as individuals, as a body of Christ, as a family. We push away what the Lord wants to give to us because we want to have something, we want to see something, we want it to happen—in an individual life, a family, or a church.
When they have this desire, their own interest, I was surprised to see how our own interest makes us work as if we are working for the Lord. You are working for the Lord, but our own interests lead us thus far. It looks like we are working for the Lord, and we are, but how we miss what the Lord wants us to really have.
So in Numbers 32:16, I was amazed how both these tribes, Reuben and Gad, are willing to reject the inheritance the Lord has prepared for them in order to secure what benefited them the most.
But if you look at it, Moses kind of mentioned, “Hey, no. By doing so, your fathers have died, who were above age twenty-one. So why are you repeating the same thing?” But this wisdom of the world, which the Lord would allow, gave them an alternate solution. The alternate solution is, “Okay, you don’t just stop over here. You come and fight for your brothers.”
I was thinking, now this looks like the work of God, because, as I said, they really had a strong commitment. They were sincere in fighting. They never left their brothers. But all of it is because they want to pursue their own interests. See that?
They are willing to live there. It says in Numbers 32:16-17:
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 ready armed before the children of Israel.
They are willing to leave their wives behind to fight the Lord’s battle. They don’t even know whether, once they go to war, they will return or not. They are willing to leave their children and cross the Jordan to fight for their brothers. And they also refuse to return home until every tribe has received its inheritance.
They were committed to God’s cause, yet they chose their own inheritance. Yeah? It is such a crafty thing. You are committed to God’s cause. You want to do it, but you still want to choose your inheritance, you know?
It is like they are willing to sacrifice comfort, family, even their lives, but they don’t want to sacrifice their own interest. They want to achieve it at all costs.
If some of the brothers had seen it, they might have really appreciated them: “Wow, what a great work they are doing! They are serving the Lord. They are fighting for their brothers. They are coming to this side of the Jordan, leaving their families, leaving their children.”
But the problem is that their intent was not to fulfil the plan of the Lord, not to get the inheritance of the Lord. The intent was their interest. That is a sad reality, dear brother and sister in Christ.
This is a sad reality of today, a sad reality of myself. I don’t want to say it to anyone. It is such a sad reality of a church, because they want to do everything, but according to their own interest.
Interest is such a powerful force in human life, you know? Another word for interest is motivation. So what motivates you? We have so many things. As individuals, as a family, as a church, what motivates us to come here and gather? What motivates us to serve God?
If one of our interests or desires is not being met, I mean, we are gone. We still stay here—I’m not talking physically—but I was looking at this life.
So I was thinking, is it possible to be devoted to God’s work, to fulfil our desire, and still miss God’s desire for us? Is it possible to be devoted to doing God’s work to fulfil our desire, and still miss God’s desire for us?
What is the point? We get everything, and one day we stand before the Lord face to face. He cannot say these words:
Well done, my beloved servant.
That is the condition of these people.
How often do we do the same? I was thinking, you know, in our personal life, in the church, we can neglect what the Lord wants us to possess while pursuing what we want to possess.
I’m sorry to list this out, but this is for our benefit, you know. It can be recognition. It can be satisfaction. It can be leadership. It can be applause. It can be influence, or it can be emotional strength also.
We may seek these earthly things in a godly way while missing God’s true desire for us.
Is it possible to be sincere in our own actions and still be wrong in our pursuit?
The greatest loss is not failing to get what we want, but really failing to possess what God has prepared for us.
I was thinking, we all know 1 Samuel 15:22, where Samuel says that, more than sacrifice, obeying the voice of the Lord is important, right?
So in the life of Israel, the real voice of the Lord is, “Get the land of Canaan.” The reason the Lord was impressed by Caleb and Joshua was that they had that mind of the Lord: they wanted to get that land.
Fear might have stopped the other people, or some other interest, whatever it is, but that is what the Lord is looking for. These people have obeyed everything else. The alternate things Moses had given: “You should go with your brothers. Don’t leave them. Fight the war. Don’t come back until you win, until the tribes have their inheritance.” But they don’t want to obey the main thing the Lord wants to give.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, it is very important in our lives—as an individual, as a person, as a family in the church. Are you really pursuing what the Lord wants to give to you?
Many young people need to make so many choices in life. Are you really pursuing what the Lord wants to give to you, or are you pursuing what you want in the name of God?
Such a crafty thing from the enemy. I was also young; I’m older now, going to grow more old. But that is very important. Are you really, as an individual, pursuing the thing the Lord wants to give to you—in terms of spirituality, in terms of a life partner, in terms of friends, whatever it is?
If you are not able to pursue what the Lord wants to give you in the smaller things, how can you pursue the bigger things the Lord wants to give? How can you walk confidently: “Yes, Lord, You wanted this. I want to go in that direction”?
There is a reason for the numerous warnings the Word of God gives to us. See, Satan, the enemy, is so crafty.
With all the skills you have—the intellectual skills, the concept of time, the concept of decision-making, the concept of motivation—he uses all those things so that you do everything as if the Lord wants you to do it. You pursue what the Lord wants to give, but pursue it for your own interest. You know? I’ve done it. Many people have done such things.
That is what kind of reminded me of these people. I mean, what kind of people are these? They have not seen the land. They have only seen this. At least, you know, I would have said, “Let me also go see that land.” Actually, that was the Lord’s idea. After going there, the Lord can do it.
Because the Lord’s plan was that they should be secure. The Lord’s plan was that they should be around the tabernacle. The Lord’s plan was that they should be together. But afterwards these two and a half tribes went out of the Lord’s promised land.
I don’t know why the half tribe went away. Maybe that was a decision of Moses so that they could be interconnected. But we have seen how these people were the first to be attacked, since they went away from the Lord.
That is the reason there are so many warnings about how, as an individual person, we need to pursue the Lord. Proverbs 14:12 says:
There is a way that seems right to a man,
But it ends in the way of death.
This is a warning statement: what appears beneficial to us may not be God’s highest purpose. You know? It may not be the highest purpose.
Similarly, in Isaiah 55:8-9:
For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways, says the Lord.
God’s plan is often larger and better than what we choose for ourselves.
And there is a great word in Philippians 2:21:
For all seek their own,
Not the things which are of Christ Jesus.
We all know these words, 1 John 2:16-17:
The lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life,
Is not of the Father.
But we are to do the will of God in obedience. The problem is, we know all these things, but we don’t think our regular desire is a lust of the heart. You know? The regular things about which we make choices can be a lust of the heart.
I used to understand, right? Pride of life, I understand, but there is something inside us. It desires something. Everyone has a desire.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, I don’t know what desire you have that is stopping you from really serving the Lord in the way the Lord wants you to serve, and really grabbing the thing the Lord wants to give to you. It may be a very small thing. For the people of the tribes of Reuben and Gad, it was cattle.
The cattle was also given by God, right? It is so simple: cattle. You are neglecting everything the Lord wants to give to you because you saw some green grass for the cattle.
How foolish a thought was that! But the foolish thought kind of drew them away from the land the Lord wanted to give them. So we don’t know what we have. I mean, what is the cattle that sits inside? Very simple, you know?
Sometimes it is a very simple thing: “Why not this way? I feel this is right.” Maybe that is the simple thing which can destroy an individual, destroy a family, destroy the oneness in the church.
So I was looking, and then I was really happy to see Caleb and Joshua. The Word of God gives the testimony about Caleb and Joshua in Numbers 32:12. It says:
For they have wholly followed the Lord.
By this time, really, there were no big wars where Joshua only fought by himself, because Moses was still there. But God has already given them that title: they have wholly followed the Lord.
Their desire is to get what the Lord prepared for them.
Wholly following the Lord is not—I mean, you know, sometimes maybe we read a lot of books, we read a lot of the Word of God. That is very good. By reading so many books, we get so much knowledge. Very good, because that will help us to understand the Word of God better and better.
But if we are not seeking what the Lord wants us to seek, then we miss the bus. All this knowledge is like what the tribes of Reuben and Gad were using to fight, but for their own desire. So we should be very careful about what we are seeking, what we want, and what the Lord wants from us.
That is what Paul says in Philippians 3:13-14:
Forgetting those things …
Reaching towards those things which are …
So, dear brothers and sisters in Christ—
Desiring to possess what the Lord has prepared is the number one thing in an individual’s life. I mean, we have to do it in the Lord’s way. But just doing all the Lord’s work, while not being able to see where the Lord wants us to go or what the Lord wants us to possess, would really make us work against the will of God.
I don’t know how judgement day will be for these tribes. If I were part of it, I would also have behaved like that, because today also, sometimes I behave like Reuben and Gad. This is an eye-opening thing.
We have heard, we know, we have so many things to possess. We have so many things to get. There is a possession for us. I mean, we need to have it. We want to serve the Lord. We want to do the ministry of the Lord. We want to teach. We want to grow. But what is the point? Always we hear that the image of the Lord Jesus Christ is not fully formed, and we are not able to get into the fullness of Christ.
My heart today, my desire today, what I just want to put before you is: what is stopping us from entering into the fullness of Christ?
Sometimes it is much busyness also. One pastor was saying in his message, “I always read the Bible to tell someone else. So I’m always reading the Word of God because I have to preach. That is the only reason I’m reading. When I’m reading, I’m preparing notes about what is to be taught to others.”
But the Word of God is given for us, to be taught to us. So, whatever we are doing, I just want to encourage you to examine yourself so that we don’t fall.
At the end, we don’t want to be like those tribes, so disappointed. We don’t want to hear:
I don’t know you, workers of iniquity.
And we just want to hear:
Well done, beloved servant. Welcome.
[Closing words unclear.]
Dear Heavenly Father, precious and almighty Lord, thank You, Lord, for giving this opportunity to come around this Word. Lord, You have prepared us. Lord, we want to enter into what You have prepared for us, enter into that fullness of Christ.
Lord, we don’t want half a place. We don’t want to play on the borders. We want to enter into the fullness. Lord, this may be a simple word, but, Lord, what is the point if we know everything but miss what You want to give to us?
Lord, speak to our hearts individually, so that, Lord, for whatever purpose You created us on this earth, for whatever purpose You made us as an individual, as a family, as a church—Lord, fulfil that purpose through us, so that, Lord, we enter into the fullness of Christ.
We give You all glory and honour for this time. We give You all glory in the highly exalted name of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.