"28 So Moses gave command concerning them to Eleazar the priest and to Joshua the son of Nun and to the heads of the fathers' houses of the tribes of the people of Israel. 29 And Moses said to them, “If the people of Gad and the people of Reuben, every man who is armed to battle before the Lord, will pass with you over the Jordan and the land shall be subdued before you, then you shall give them the land of Gilead for a possession. 30 However, if they will not pass over with you armed, they shall have possessions among you in the land of Canaan.” 31 And the people of Gad and the people of Reuben answered, “What the Lord has said to your servants, we will do. 32 We will pass over armed before the Lord into the land of Canaan, and the possession of our inheritance shall remain with us beyond the Jordan.”
33 And Moses gave to them, to the people of Gad and to the people of Reuben and to the half-tribe of Manasseh the son of Joseph, the kingdom of Sihon king of the Amorites and the kingdom of Og king of Bashan, the land and its cities with their territories, the cities of the land throughout the country. 34 And the people of Gad built Dibon, Ataroth, Aroer, 35 Atroth-shophan, Jazer, Jogbehah, 36 Beth-nimrah and Beth-haran, fortified cities, and folds for sheep. 37 And the people of Reuben built Heshbon, Elealeh, Kiriathaim, 38 Nebo, and Baal-meon (their names were changed), and Sibmah. And they gave other names to the cities that they built. 39 And the sons of Machir the son of Manasseh went to Gilead and captured it, and dispossessed the Amorites who were in it. 40 And Moses gave Gilead to Machir the son of Manasseh, and he settled in it. 41 And Jair the son of Manasseh went and captured their villages, and called them Havvoth-jair. 42 And Nobah went and captured Kenath and its villages, and called it Nobah, after his own name."
Numbers 32:28-42
Let us now seek to draw some simple, yet pointed, lessons from all this for the spiritual life. For one thing, here is a group of God's people lacking in real enthusiasm for the goal to which they were called, and opting for something less than God willed for them. Is this not something that often takes place in Christian experience, and in the Church, and in the life of a congregation? We sometimes speak of Christians living in the shallows when they should be launching out into the deep, but this is something even more critical. For a Christian to opt for an easier, less arduous, less demanding way is to be in a backslidden state. It is to have no enthusiasm for the things of God to which He calls us. And it means putting other things in their place, other things that become substitutes for the will of God. Indeed, it is often precisely these 'other things' which lead to the failure. With Reuben, Gad and Manasseh, it was the fertile plains of Gilead that beguiled their hearts from the Promised Land. Let us ask our- selves, in the light of this story: 'Have we opted for an easier, alternative way in spiritual things? And is it because of some beguiling action that means has come to mean -more to us than the kingdom of God, things that would certainly have to go and would go, if we really pressed in and on as God is calling and challenging us to do?'