NUMBERS 32
This chapter shows that the people of God may get very near to what is in His purpose for them, and yet be diverted from it. I trust we have accepted as truth that there is a spiritual region of which the land over Jordan is a type. In the ministry of the apostle Paul, especially in his epistle to the Colossians, the truth of the saints having died with Christ and having been raised with Him is clearly presented as the mind of God. But for many long centuries this ministry was lost sight of; it could not be held by a church which had become practically an earth-dweller. If Jordan was referred to at all it was as typifying our own death, and Canaan was regarded as a type of heaven. The thought of being risen with Christ as a present faith position, and of being quickened together with Him so as to have present possession of “the land” as a spiritual region where association with Christ in life is known, was long lost to the faith and affections of the people of God. It was not even presented to them as light.
But through God’s great mercy there has been a revival of Paul’s ministry in these last days, and the attention of many thousands has been called to the true typical meaning of Jordan and the land. These great spiritual realities have come into view as a powerful divine attraction, but also as a searching test [p. 369] of the state of our hearts Godward and Christward. Because going over Jordan largely depends on the place which divine Persons have in our hearts; that is, it depends on the spiritual state which knows how to appreciate the wonderful movements of God in relation to what He has before Him for us. What was in the mind of God has now taken form in Christ risen from among the dead, and now sitting as a glorious Man at the right hand of God.
Now I think we may gather from the chapter before us that the nearer we come to these great spiritual realities the more powerful and persuasive will be the influences that tend to hold us back from the experimental acquisition of them. And perhaps nothing serves this end more efficiently than good things here, providential things which are in themselves the mercy of God, but which are not beyond death. We have often been reminded that it was not bad things that kept the invited guests from the great supper; it was things good and right in themselves, but of an entirely different order of enjoyment from what was proposed by the provider of the supper.
Reuben and Gad had judged the Midianitish snare; they could not be said to be worldly or idolatrous in their associations; but they were detained by what was providentially advantageous. “Much cattle”, and “a place for cattle”, were not evil things; they represent what saints may have in a providential way here on earth. Even the providential goodness of God may become a hindrance to us spiritually if we settle down in it, and do not go on to possess and enjoy what His love has specially in view for us at the present time.
The snare of divine providence is a very subtle one, because it seems to be an excellent thing to appreciate and enjoy what we have here by the goodness and mercy of God. Indeed, it would be very sad if we were not truly thankful for God’s bounty in His providential ways. But if He has something before Him for Us which is far greater and more precious, and we are detained from entering upon what His love would delight to bring Us into by these good things on the earth it is indeed a serious matter. Reuben and Gad begged as a favour that they might not be brought over into what had been Jehovah’s objective for them since the time of His promises to the fathers. He had been thinking about “the land”, and speaking of it, from Abraham’s time. And He had said to Moses at the thorn-bush, “I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good and spacious land, unto a land flowing with milk and honey”. But Reuben and Gad did not value the great and precious thought of God. They had seen another land which suited them and their cattle, and they asked as a favour that they might not inherit with the children of Israel “on yonder side of Jordan”. It was a deliberate slighting of the divine proposal.
It is well to bear in mind that our choice in a critical moment will be determined by the character of our previous course. The children of Reuben and Gad had not been marked in the wilderness by a sacrificial spirit. If they had been bringing daily offerings they would not have had so much cattle. They had held their cattle for themselves, and the time came when their cattle had the greatest weight in deciding their course. If we hold for ourselves what has come under our hand providentially it will, most likely, sooner or later, determine our course spiritually in a way that will be greatly to our disadvantage. But if held in stewardship for God it will never hinder us in our spiritual progress.
Reuben and Gad had been favoured providentially, as was evidenced by their having much cattle, and [p. 371] they had also occupied a favoured place in relation to Jehovah’s testimony, as encamping on the south of the tabernacle. So that they represent believers who have been specially privileged on the wilderness side, even in regard to their place in relation to the testimony of God, but who are diverted from that which has the first place in the mind of God. When they said, “bring us not over Jordan”, Moses saw in their request a repetition of what had happened nearly forty years before when the spies had searched the land. Jehovah had said of the people then, “they have not wholly followed me”, but of Joshua and Caleb He said, “they have wholly followed Jehovah” (verses 11,12). Jehovah had the land before Him for His people, and He was leading on to it, and therefore Joshua and Caleb would not regard any difficulties that might seem to be in the way. They only thought of following Jehovah. God has caused us all to prove His goodness and mercy in wilderness conditions, but in raising Christ from among the dead He has moved in an altogether new and different way, and it is faith’s privilege to wholly follow Him in that way. He has raised Christ from among the dead that we might be “raised with him through faith of the working of God who raised him from among the dead” (Colossians 2:12). If anything holds us back from taking up this faith position it really involves, as Moses said, a turning away from after Him (verse 15). If we really follow Christ we shall not wish to stop in the land of Gilead; we shall go over Jordan. We all remember His precious words, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me; and I give them life eternal” (John 10:27,28). Life eternal must be “over the Jordan”; it must be beyond death. Even as the Lord said, “On this account the Father loves me, because I lay down my Life that I may take it again” (John 10:17).
[p. 372] Those who follow Him get eternal life in that new sphere in which He has taken His life again.
Christ as having died and risen is completely outside life in this world; He lives outside the sphere of providences and mercies. Now God’s wondrous thought is that we should know what it is to have died with Christ, and to be risen with Him. It is good to have God’s care and providence in wilderness circumstances, and we should be grateful to Him for His goodness in that order of things, but let us see to it that we do not settle down there as if there were nothing further until we die and go to heaven. Reuben and Gad are a great warning to us, for they represent persons who know what it is to be justified, and in God’s favour, and to have glory in hope. Such persons may be exemplary in their practical walk of piety, and have the good of much that is brought out in the epistle to the Romans. And yet they may say in their hearts, “bring us not over the Jordan” (verse 5).
Reuben and Gad definitely took ground as to their place and blessing which came short of what Jehovah in His love had purposed for them. Has this no voice for us? Is it not true that many of us do just what they did? We content ourselves with what may be known and enjoyed on the wilderness side, and we are reluctant to go over Jordan. Why should true lovers of Christ not be prepared to follow Him into the region where He lives? We may learn something of how this comes about by considering those who followed Him here in the days of His flesh. They were naturally much like ourselves, but the Father’s work in them secured an unbreakable bond between their hearts and the Christ of God. They left all and followed Him. And when He went through death into resurrection they followed Him, as they apprehended Him risen, into that new region. They had known Him as in flesh [p. 373] and blood, but now they learned to know Him in a new and spiritual order. As to the resurrection of the dead it is said, “it is raised a spiritual body”. It is quite certain that we cannot carry the natural into that order of things, and our human hearts shrink from leaving an order of things with which we are familiar, and in which we are naturally at home, to pass over into an order of things which is purely spiritual. But the risen Lord put the link on with Himself by appearing to them in His new condition, and giving them to realise that they could be with Him as in that condition, though as to themselves they were not taken out of the flesh and blood condition. But spiritually they could be risen with Him. Not that this was brought out yet in teaching; it was reserved to Paul to do that. But vitally and experimentally they were over Jordan when they were in company with the risen One. Now the death of Christ entitles us to take the ground that we have died with Him, but this is in view of our being raised with Him, that we may live spiritually as quickened together with Him in that life in which He lives as raised from among the dead. Let us see that we do not miss this as a great spiritual reality by clinging to the natural, and by settling down in the providences and mercies that we can enjoy here under the good hand of our God. He has something for us of an eternal and spiritual order which may be entered on and enjoyed now. It is a great loss to miss it at the present time.
An extraordinary thing comes to light in verses 16 - 19, and I have no doubt it represents what is often the case with ourselves. The Reubenites and the Gadites were prepared to go with diligence armed before the children of Israel to bring them to their place, but they had no wish to inherit with them. This shows that saints may be prepared to contend for the truth of the heavenly position, and labour that others may enjoy [p. 374] it, without taking it up for themselves. I do not suppose that any reader of this book would accept for a moment that the calling of the assembly was earthly, or that we should take up any alliance with the world. We have been favoured with a spiritual ministry of the truth, and we are convinced that it is the truth, and we would contend for it if occasion arose. But perhaps we are all conscious that we have not followed as definitely and whole-heartedly as we might to take up as an abiding possession and enjoyment the spiritual land over Jordan. May we be greatly stimulated to move in that direction!
Moses consented to the proposal made by Reuben and Gad. If any of us deliberately prefer to stay on the eastward side of Jordan we need not expect that God will make us go over. He allows many things to stand which come very short of what is in His mind for His people. His ways with His saints are not arbitrary; He allows things to be tested out. If we take lower ground than that which His love proposes we should take He may allow us to occupy it. If we do not want Canaan He may allow us to remain in Gilead. But we may be assured of this, that when our choice is tested out we shall be found to have suffered immense and irreparable loss. Because not even eternity will ever give us back the privilege of inheriting the land over Jordan in the way in which it can be possessed and enjoyed now. What could be more lamentable than to have to reflect, perhaps on a death-bed, that we have not appreciated, or taken up in spiritual power, the wondrous portion which the love of God would have delighted to bring us into. The spiritual and the heavenly can be known now in a way that they will never be known again. Let us see to it that we “lay hold of eternal life” in that peculiar and blessed way in which it can be known now.