It seems to me that the Reubenites and Gadites chose what
they could see over what God promised.
They saw that the land of Jazer and Gilead was a good place for
livestock and determined it wouldn't be any better than this in the promised
land, over on the other side of the Jordan.
They rejected God's promise and provision because they didn't believe it
would be better than what they were currently experiencing. Moses certainly flares up against them in his
initial response, "Shall your brothers go to the war while you sit here?" The tribes agree that they will help the rest
conquer and possess the land but first let us set up cities and build walls and
houses for our wives and little ones. Moses
agrees that this will be a workable solution but they have to promise not to
return until the conquest is complete.
Sometimes you have to let people do what they are determined to do, even
if it means settling for less than God's best but I wonder how often we settle
for less because we think we know what is best for us.
The scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. What is Moses' seat? They were teachers of the Law, experts in it
the same way Moses was an expert. Jesus
affirms the teaching of their lips with respect to the Law. He doesn't say they are false teachers but He
does say they fail to keep what they teach so the people are to follow their
teaching but not their lives. Further,
they are not to have rabbis, fathers, and instructors because it raises those
people to a place of honor when all are brothers. We are equally God's children, He doesn't
have favorites who know things others cannot know and He doesn't recognize
human places of honor. I, as a pastor,
am as accountable to the members of the church for my teaching and my life as
anyone else is accountable. If I go astray
in some way it is proper to be corrected.
When we create a hierarchy we often lose sight of the reality that we
are all sheep in the end.
All things work together for good or the good. Seems simple and it is often repeated but is
it really as simple as we make it. The
word good is the stumbling block in our interpretation. We have opinions about what is good but do we
really "know" what is good or are all our ideas about good contingent
ideas. What might be a good job
situation today might actually be the worst thing that ever happens to me. Good might be winning the lottery but it
might ruin important relationships in my life as well. Good means one thing, that something is
exactly the way God intends it to be. We
settle for less when make our own value judgments about things. Trusting in the sovereignty of God in all
things is more important than my judgment on what is good.
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