QT 27 Apr 2012, We must walk by faith and not sight

Num 32:14-22 (NIV) "And here you are, a brood of sinners, standing in the place of your fathers and making the Lord even more angry with Israel. 15 If you turn away from following him, he will again leave all this people in the desert, and you will be the cause of their destruction."

16 Then they came up to him and said, "We would like to build pens here for our livestock and cities for our women and children. 17 But we are ready to arm ourselves and go ahead of the Israelites until we have brought them to their place. Meanwhile our women and children will live in fortified cities, for protection from the inhabitants of the land. 18 We will not return to our homes until every Israelite has received his inheritance. 19 We will not receive any inheritance with them on the other side of the Jordan, because our inheritance has come to us on the east side of the Jordan."

20 Then Moses said to them, "If you will do this — if you will arm yourselves before the Lord for battle, 21 and if all of you will go armed over the Jordan before the Lord until he has driven his enemies out before him —  22 then when the land is subdued before the Lord, you may return and be free from your obligation to the Lord and to Israel. And this land will be your possession before the Lord.

NOTE: The above recorded passage catches Moses in the middle of an angry response to the desire of the Gadites, Reubenites and half of the tribe of Manasseh to stay on the east side of the Jordan. They satisfy his concern by promising to fight until the complete land is conquered. I've always wondered if these three tribes made a mistake. Their argument is sound but it is based on sight and not faith. If the Transjordanic area was better, would not God have chosen that land for them. As a result, they are outside the promised land and remind one of Lot who chose his dwelling place based on sight. By the time of Jesus, there is little left of the Northern tribes anyway, so maybe it would not have mattered. But still, faith is believing that God has your best interests at heart, and that he will provide for you. I think they failed and it will be interesting as history unfolds to correlate the actions of these three tribes with their early choice.