Their Happy Agreement (Josh. 22:30-34)

11/12/2009 9:12 AM

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY

 

My Worship Time                                        Focus:  Their happy agreement

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                        Reference:  Joshua 22:30-34

 

            Message of the verses:  “30 ¶  So when Phinehas the priest and the leaders of the congregation, even the heads of the families of Israel who were with him, heard the words which the sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad and the sons of Manasseh spoke, it pleased them. 31  And Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest said to the sons of Reuben and to the sons of Gad and to the sons of Manasseh, ‘Today we know that the LORD is in our midst, because you have not committed this unfaithful act against the LORD; now you have delivered the sons of Israel from the hand of the LORD.’ 32  Then Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest and the leaders returned from the sons of Reuben and from the sons of Gad, from the land of Gilead to the land of Canaan, to the sons of Israel, and brought back word to them. 33  The word pleased the sons of Israel, and the sons of Israel blessed God; and they did not speak of going up against them in war to destroy the land in which the sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad were living. 34  The sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad called the altar Witness; ‘For,’ they said, ‘it is a witness between us that the LORD is God.’”

            As stated in yesterday’s SD I have never been comfortable with these tribes who chose to live on the east side of the Jordan River, and now the reason has been made clear that they were not so interested in serving the Lord as they were serving themselves first and the Lord second.

            The tribes on the east side of the Jordan along with the tribes on the west side of the Jordan were happy with the agreement but as Warren Wiersbe asks “was God happy with the agreement?”  I think not for God has provided an inheritance for all of Israel and now part of Israel decided not to partake of this inheritance and were surrounded by heathen nations and eventually after succumbing to the ways of these heathen nations were defeated by them.  “25  But they acted treacherously against the God of their fathers and played the harlot after the gods of the peoples of the land, whom God had destroyed before them. 26  So the God of Israel stirred up the spirit of Pul, king of Assyria, even the spirit of Tilgath-pilneser king of Assyria, and he carried them away into exile, namely the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh, and brought them to Halah, Habor, Hara and to the river of Gozan, to this day.”  This quote is from 1 Chronicles 5:25-26.

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Much of the inheritance that God has given to those who have been saved through the blood of Jesus Christ is spelled out in the first three chapters of Ephesians and so the question is am I like the two and a half tribes on the wrong side of the Jordan River or am I like the other ten tribes on the right side of the Jordan River who claimed their inheritance that God had given them.  I want to learn what my inheritances are and claim them by faith and live for the Lord the rest of my life.

My Steps of Faith for Today:

 

1. Only one today and that is to listen again to the first three chapters of Ephesians praying that the Lord will make plain to me the inheritances that are mine to claim.

 

11/12/2009 9:42 AM