I don't even know how to do it.

Hi, buddy. Hey, do you want to go play with the kids? Yeah. Cool. See you later, buddy. That way, with Ryan.

Guess not. Sorry, Ryan.

Blue-Eye.

So, happy anniversary tomorrow? Probably. Did somebody beat you? Oh, that's right.

Even still young, yeah. I understand that. How are you doing? Good to see you. All right.

I'll try to talk real loud. Obviously, we're doing a remodel tonight, so we're just going to try to make do with what we got. It's going to be a little more old-fashioned tonight. That's a good thing. But bear with us while we're doing the remodel, and we'll be right back. We'll be back in two or three weeks, whenever, with all the sound and video and stuff.

Why don't we take a moment and open up in prayer? Heavenly Father, God, thank you, Lord, for the day that you've provided for us. Thank you, Lord, for this time that we can come together, Lord, and gather together, worship you, Lord, and spend some time in your word, Lord. Obviously, it's a little different tonight, but that's okay, Lord. I just thank you that we are still

able to gather. I pray that you bless this time, bless the worship, and bless the word as it goes out tonight. We love you and we praise you. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. ...for you to just sweep across this land, Lord. Forgive us if we've not put you first in everything, Lord. Forgive us for taking you out of all the places that you belong, which is everywhere, Lord,

in our lives and in our communities, in our nation, Lord. Forgive us. Lord, tonight, I just pray that as Pastor Ryan brings your word, I just pray that your word go out with power, God. God, that your Holy Spirit would move mightily, God, and that you would bring revival within us, bring new life. God, we love you, Lord, we thank you. We pray these things in your precious and holy name.

All God's people said, Amen. Alright, open up your Bibles to the book of Numbers. Chapter 31. I didn't know. Everybody hear me okay? When we were starting to tear things apart earlier this week, they said, so can we just go acoustic Wednesday night? And I said, well, Charles Spurgeon always said that if you're not a big man, you can't be a preacher. You must be a

large, feral, chested man. Because they didn't have sound systems at that point in time. And I thought, perhaps I'm disqualified for this Wednesday. We'll do the best that we can. But, excited about what's going on, but ready for it to get done. Into day three. There always hits that point in a project, and it's usually right before the demolition all gets done that you're like,

what have we done? No, it's good, and I'm excited about what's going on. In chapter thirty-one of the book of Numbers, we are looking at part three of preparing to enter the land. Because that's what's going on with the children of Israel. God is preparing them to move into the promised land. And so there's a couple of things that we'll look at in these three

chapters tonight. We're going to look at putting away the past, and then the rules for possessing the land. So as we pick up in chapter thirty-one, it starts off like this, with a command from the Lord. It says, Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Take full vengeance for the sons of Israel on the Midianites. Afterward you will be gathered to your people. So Moses spoke to the people, saying,

Arm men from among you for war, that they may go against Midian to execute the Lord's vengeance on Midian. A thousand from each tribe of all the tribes of Israel you shall send to war. So they were furnished from the thousands of Israel, a thousand from each tribe, twelve thousand armed for war. And Moses sent them a thousand from each tribe to war, Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest, to war with them, and the holy vessels and the trumpets for the alarm in his hand.

Now God tells Moses, you need to go take vengeance upon the Midianites. Now let's gain a little context as to why he told them to do this. You may remember a few chapters ago the last major incident that the children of Israel had was when they were in the land of Moab. And the Moabites and the Midianites kind of joined together on this. They had called for Balaam to come and

curse the people. But Balaam was not able to curse the people because he could only do what God told him to do. And God kept giving him blessings. But we found in the next chapter after that incident where Balaam kept saying all I can really do is bless the land. And it says that the Midianites sent the women in. And they enticed the men and they ended up not only committing sexual immorality

but there was idolatry that took place at the same time. And we learned kind of from this chapter that this was all Balaam's idea. Balaam basically said listen here's the thing God will not curse them because they're his chosen people. But God will judge them if they commit sin. And so you can get to the nation of Israel not by trying to curse them spiritually

but by trying to drag them into sin and judgment comes. And so that's exactly what happened. There was a great plague among the people and of course it all ended interestingly enough with Phineas because one particular Israelite walked through the camp with a Midianite woman and began to do things he really shouldn't do. And so Phineas stopped the entire plague by skewering both of them with a spear and God said because of his zeal for me he will always have a position within the high priesthood of the nation of Israel.

And so interestingly enough as God calls the children of Israel to go and take vengeance on the Midianites Phineas is going along with them. Now from this I think it's interesting for us to pay attention to that God takes sin very seriously. And God when dealing with the nation of Israel in order for them to be prepared to move into the land because some who were among those that survived the wilderness journey were there, in order for them to move into the land they had to put away the past. And the only way that they could put away the past was to put it to death.

And it's a great reminder for us as believers in Jesus Christ that before we came to know Jesus we all had a past and sometimes we carry that past into our present walk with the Lord. But Jesus tells us if we want to go deeper into that walk with him you must put that past away. And the only way that you can do that is to put to death the flesh. To put to death all of those things that will keep you from knowing me.

That will keep you from walking on with me. Jesus said the best a few weeks ago when we talked about in the book of Matthew when he said if your right hand causes you to sin cut it off. If your right eye causes you to sin pluck it out. Similar situation to what's going on here with the Midianites. He said these people led you into sin and if you don't deal with that

it will not only be a reminder to you that hey I can kind of get away with some sin but it may follow you into the promised land. And so he tells them you must take vengeance upon the Midianites. And so of course they take a thousand from every tribe and as they take a thousand from every tribe Phineas goes with them. Interestingly enough the priest goes but also they bring some of the holy vessels as well as the trumpets to sound the alarm. So as

they move into war there is what I would call incomplete victory. Notice what it says in verse 7. So they made war against Midian just as the Lord had commanded Moses. And they killed every male, meaning all of the soldiers they killed the kings of Midian along with the rest of their slain. Ebi, Rakeem, and Zur and Hur and Reba. The five oh Reba didn't survive. The five kings of Midian

sorry that's a terrible joke they I'm just going to stop there because like five more just came to my mind I'm just going to leave it alone. Anyway they and then they also, you should underline this they also killed Balaam, not the Reba part but the Balaam part. They also killed Balaam the son of Beor with the sword. The sons of Israel captured the women of Midian and their little ones and all their cattle and all their flocks and all their goods they plundered they burned all their cities where they lived and all their camps with fire. They took all the spoil

and all the prey of man and beast. They brought the captives and the prey and the spoil to Moses and to Eliezer the priest and to the congregation of the sons of Israel to the camp of the plains of Moab which are by the Jordan opposite Jericho Now on surface level we read that it seems like they did everything the way that they were supposed to. This feels like a victory for the nation of Israel Starts off they killed all the males, in other words the army. They killed the soldiers. Okay we're doing

good. We've done what God called for us to do. They burned the cities they took out the caves but did you notice what they kept alive? The women. They kept alive the women and children. And some of the spoils as well. I know we're going to find God's not upset about the fact that they took out that they kept some of the spoils for themselves as a matter of fact there's going to be a great division of

the spoils and I'm going to point out why I think that that's important. But they kept the women alive. And then of course notice what happened. Verse 13. Moses and Eliezer the priest and the congregation went out to meet them outside the camp Undoubtedly they were thinking at this point in time they would be met with a hero's welcome because they had done what they

thought they were supposed to do but it says in verse 14 that Moses was angry with the officers of the army the captains of the thousands the captains of the hundreds who had come from service in the war Moses said to them have you spared all the women? Behold these caused the sons of Israel through the council of Balaam which is why we know that particular portion to trespass against the Lord in the matter of Peorah so the plague was among the congregation of the Lord now therefore kill every male among the little ones and kill every woman who has known a man intimately but all the girls who have not known men intimately spare for yourselves Moses looks at them and goes what did you do? why would you have done that? you kept alive

the very thing that led you into the situation in Peorah that led you into sin you kept that very thing alive I've been thinking about this for the past couple of days about what the major sin that the nation of Israel took part in why was this such a big deal and I think that there's a couple of issues at stake here number one as much as we hate sin there's a part of it that our flesh still kind of likes can we just be honest about that and say that as much as we hate it and as much as we say I loathe that sin and I want to put it to death sin is still a little bit of us that kind of keeps it alive in our mind we like to leave ourselves the option we like to leave ourselves the opportunity for sin and that's kind of what the nation of Israel

did here you know what I bet they didn't even know they did that but it was still in the back of their minds just like it is with us because I don't think any of us would ever admit I leave myself this little option I leave myself this little opportunity I'll put so much of it to death but I'm always going to leave myself an out just in case temptation gets to be a little bit too much you know that particular temptation in my life instead of just putting it to death if you will they made a slight compromise with sin I'll let you stick around you just don't cause me too much issue sometimes that's the compromise we're willing to make with sin forgetting that it only takes a little bit of leaven to leaven the whole lump

it only takes a little bit of rot to destroy the whole thing it's interesting when you have a bag of fruit and all the rest of it looks really good but you have in the midst of the fruit one bad piece of fruit that has some rot in it what begins to happen to every other piece of fruit in that bag well it spreads to every other single one it's kind of like what you do in remodeling and you see there's one particular board that's got some rot in it it's gone rotten from dry rot mold moisture whatever it is if you don't get that out then it eventually spreads to everything else and ruins the structure of the building sin is the same way and when Moses looked at them he said why did you leave a sin alive you know I think that there was

another issue at stake here the other issue at stake is an issue that we're confronting with in 1 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 12 1 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 12 says let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall you see I would venture to say that the children of Israel all of these soldiers looked and said that problem's never happening again we can keep them alive because that's never going to be our issue we're never going to fall back I remember how terrible that was I remember how awful that day was I will never give into it again just like you and I do sometimes I will never fall into that problem again until it comes back around because you see that him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall we should never ever trust ourselves

to be strong enough to defeat sin we should instead just cut it off and get it as far away from ourselves as we possibly can and that's exactly what Moses tells them that they need to do he said what you need to do instead is you need to kill all of the males even of the little ones I'll address this in just a moment and all of the women who have known a man you can keep the young ladies alive as servants for yourself but everything else needs to be destroyed everyone else needs to be destroyed now when you first hear some of these things come out of the mouth of a loving God and I think we can all agree he's a very loving God you can find yourself almost shocked I have a whole litany of verses that I go I'm going to need

more information on at some point in time because I have a hard time with that I really do and I think it's okay that at some point in time when you're reading scripture you go I have a really hard time with what God says here we just have to always know that if one of us is wrong between me and God it's always going to be me not God it's always going to be me and not his word and so that just means I need more information and this is one of those areas where sometimes there can be a struggle when you're reading through scripture and you're going why would he just have the wholesale destruction of people we forget a couple of things and we'll talk about this at the end too because the same thing is going to come up again first of all we forget that

Israel was used in a very unique way as God's instrument of judgment on people that were incredibly sinful I don't know that our minds always grasp again because we have the it was the good old days people didn't do as many evil things at that point in time we can sometimes forget just how pagan the people living in that area were and God wanted to use the nation of Israel as the instrument of judgment for those people we're also reminded that these people are the ones that led them away from God and God takes that very seriously but we're also reminded of the fact that God gave them 440 years to repent as a nation God gave them that much time do you remember when God first spoke to Abraham and made that covenant

with him with a really weird shopping list where the animals were coming to God passed through the middle of them and said these people are going to dwell in foreign land for a long time and then I'll bring them into this land because why was he going to take that long because the iniquity of the Amorites was not yet complete in other words God said I will continue to be patient with them for a little while longer continuing to give opportunity to repent you may think to yourself but they had no knowledge of God Balaam knew who God was right we're going to find that when the children of Israel moved into the land of Israel Rahab knew who God was God had left himself a witness among the people but you know

as well as I do that just because God has a witness among the people doesn't mean the people are going to repent so God gave them all of that time to repent and now destruction has to come now the judgment must take place so what needed to be done was taken care of and now we come to the purification and the division of the spoils it says in verse 18 excuse me verse 19 and you camp outside the camp for seven days whoever has killed any person whoever has touched any slain purify yourselves you and your captives on the third day and on the seventh day you shall purify yourselves every garment and every article of leather and all the work of goat's hair and all the articles of work and Eliezer the priest said to the men of war who had gone to battle

if you remember numbers somewhere in the 23-24 type range we talked about the red pepper that they burned and they took the ashes of and any time you touched someone who was dead you had to purify yourselves with the ashes and the water and both on the third day and the seventh day that was prescribed for them here just for a little bit of context so there was to be a washing that was to take place not only of themselves but also of all of the articles basically of cloth that were involved and then Eliezer the priest said to the men of war who had gone to battle this is the statute of the law of the sword as commanded by Moses only the gold, the silver, the bronze the iron, the tin, and the lead everything that can stand the fire

you shall pass through the fire and it shall be clean but it shall be purified with water for impurity whatever cannot stand the fire you shall pass through the water and you shall wash your clothes on the seventh day and be clean and afterward you may enter the camp the first thing that was to take place after the battle was the people were to be purified and all of the things that were taken were to be purified and I found it kind of interesting and I wasn't alone in this several other commentators pointed out the same thing but there were two things that were to be used to purify not only the people but to purify all of the spoil that was taken those two things were fire and water it's kind of interesting

because if we look at it from a new testament context there's to be a continual purification and God does that in two ways God does that first of all through the fiery trial that tries us and man sometimes we find ourselves going Lord could there be another way could there be some other way that you could purify me and God goes not for some of the things because for those works that you're doing they need to be purified with fire and the greatest fire to purify them with is the fire of the trial just like what took place here the purifying of all of the things that could stand the fire the only thing that was burned off was the impurity what remained well those things that remain the gold the silver the precious jewel

that's what we're told as believers in Jesus Christ that he purifies us with fire so that the only thing that remains is the gold silver precious jewel and as much as I would love for there to be another way to be purified often times fiery trials is the best way in our lives but there was a second implement that was to be used the second implement that was to be used was water and of course we're always reminded with water that that speaks of the word of God we're told in Ephesians that the word of God is like water that washes us so every day you should be taking that cleansing bath with the water because once you've gone through the fiery trial you then need to be plunged into the water and so this purification was to take place now

the next thing that took place was the division of I'm going to choose to use the word spoil here because if I have to use that other word that many times I'm not going to make it through this chapter so because I'm a child of the nineties then the Lord spoke to Moses saying you and Eliezer the priest the heads of the fathers households of the congregation I can't even read it take account of the spoil that was captured both of man and of animal divide between the warriors who went out to battle so many jokes in my head right now I'm trying to let them all go levy a tax for the Lord from the men of war who went out to battle one in five hundred of the persons and of the cattle and of the donkeys and of the sheep

take it from their half and give it to Eliezer the priest as an offering to the Lord from the sons of Israel you shall take one drawn out of every fifty of the persons the cattle the donkeys the sheep and all the animals and give them to the Levites who keep the charge of the tabernacle Moses and Eliezer the priest did just as the Lord had commanded them now the spoil that remained from the spoil which the men had plundered thirty-six hundred and seventy-five thousand sheep seventy-two thousand cattle sixty-one thousand donkeys and of the human beings of the women who had not known the man intimately thirty-two thousand the half proportion of those who went to war was as follows thirty-three hundred and thirty-seven thousand five hundred

the Lord's levy was six hundred seventy-five the cattle were thirty-six thousand from the Lord's levy was seventy-two the donkeys thirty-thousand five hundred which the Lord's was sixty-one the human beings were sixteen thousand from the Lord's was thirty-two Moses gave the levy which was the Lord's offering to Eliezer the priest just as the Lord had commanded Moses as for the Lord's half which Moses separated from the men who had gone to war the congregation's half was three hundred and thirty-seven thousand five hundred sheep and so there was to be this tax that was given one in five hundred to Eliezer one in fifty to the Levites now I think it's kind of interesting because after all of this time in the wilderness

we talked last week about all of the sacrifices that continually needed to be made in the wilderness they would have used an incredible amount of animals in their journey over the last forty years in the wilderness what did God just supply for them what did God just restock for them right before they moved into the promised land He just restocked all of their livestock so that they once again had what they needed to offer the sacrifices to the Lord isn't it just like God that when we are willing to put away the sin from our lives that He gives us everything that we need then to worship Him so it goes on to say the officers who were over the army verse forty-eight the captains of the thousands, captains of hundreds they approached Moses and they said

your servants have taken a census of all the men of war who are in our charge and no man of us is missing so we brought an offering to the Lord what each man found articles of gold, armlets and bracelets signet rings, earrings and necklaces to make atonement for ourselves before the war Moses and Elijah the priests took the gold from them all kinds of raw articles all the gold offering which they offered to the Lord from the captains of thousands and captains of hundreds sixteen thousand seven hundred and fifty shekels the men of war had taken spoil every man for himself so Moses and Elijah the priests took the gold from the captains of the thousands and the hundreds and brought it to the Tent of Meeting as a memorial

for the sons of Israel before the war so as they took a census of all the fighting men they went twelve thousand we didn't lose anybody in this entire war and in their way of showing thanks to the Lord for the fact that we cared for them in that entire battle they then offered an even more extravagant offering of thanksgiving for every man and so now that they've put away the past now that they've taken vengeance on Midian it's time to start talking about possessing the land but before we really get into talking about possessing the land we're going to see something take place with the tribes of Reuben and Gad I'll call it settling for the other side of the Jordan chapter 32 verse 1 the sons of Reuben the sons of Gad

had an exceedingly large number of livestock so when they saw the land of Jezer and the land of Gilead that it was indeed a place suitable for livestock the sons of Gad the sons of Reuben came and spoke to Moses and to Eliezer the priest and the leaders of the congregation saying Adaroth, Dabon, Jezer, Nimrod Heshbon Badnaim, Sibam, Nebo, and Beom and the land which the Lord conquered before the congregation of Israel is a land for livestock and your servants have livestock they said if we have found favor in your sight let this land be given to your servants as a possession do not take us across the Jordan now this is an interesting scene that's just come up is it not 400 years God had been making them a promise you are going to come back

to the promised land that's why it's called the promised land because it was the promise that's what's going to take place all this time they've been waiting for it they came right to the edge of it they couldn't go in because of unbelief they were just waiting for the time when they could enter the promised land and now that they're finally at the place where they could enter the promised land they're like here's good I like this this seems like a really good place we have a lot of livestock there's a lot of pasture land here hey Mo we have an idea we've got a lot of livestock this is really lush green grass can we just stay here can we just be content on this side of the Jordan think about something

have any of these people seen the promised land yet no how do they know it's not better on the other side of the Jordan they don't so why are they settling for what's right in front of them right now instead of what God has prepared for them in the promised land because they're just like us because often times we cannot get past what's sitting in front of me right now but Lord you don't understand this is what's in front of me now and this looks really good and God's like well that may look really good but I have so much more for you on the other side of the Jordan that's why I said they allow themselves to settle for that side of the Jordan there's going to come lots of times in our lives where what's right in front of us looks really good

the only problem is it's just not God's best you see it can be really good there's nothing wrong with the place where they're at they've conquered it they're right the Lord gave them victory over that land but it still wasn't God's best for them and I think often times as believers in Jesus Christ we are content for God's second best in our life quite frankly because it's easy I don't have to live by as much faith for this second best thing because it's right in front of me right now it's right in front of me here so I don't have to wait on it I don't have to trust God for anything because it's already here so that's what they do well Mo hears this and he gets a little bit upset he just knows what it says verse 6 Moses said to the sons of Gad

and to the sons of Reuben shall your brothers go to war while you yourselves sit here why are you discouraging the sons of Israel from crossing over into the land which the Lord has given them this is what your fathers did when I sent them from Kadesh Barnea to see the land for when they went up to the valley of Eshgal and saw the land they discouraged the sons of Israel so that they did not go to the land which the Lord had given them so the Lord's anger burned in that day and he swore saying none of the men who came up from Egypt in 20 years old and upward shall see the land which I swore to Abraham to Isaac and to Jacob except for Caleb the son of Nephuni and Kenizzah and Joshua the son of Nun for they have followed the Lord fully

so the Lord's anger burned against Israel and he made them wander in the wilderness forty years until the entire generation of those who had done evil in the sight of the Lord was destroyed now behold you have risen up in your father's place a brood of sinful men to add still more to the burning anger of the Lord against Israel for if you turn away from following him you shall once more abandon them in the wilderness and you will destroy all these people can you imagine Moses' feeling at this point in time he's like I can't do another forty years okay I just I don't know I can't do another forty years with you people in the wilderness that's a terrible idea remember that one time we were right there at the edge of the land

and we were like sweep the land and everyone was like no we can't do it Joshua and Caleb were like yeah we can look we got God they're like no we can't it's too hard we can't do it you're about to do the same thing I love this because Moses allows his past experience to fuel his present obedience and I think that's an important thing for us to do it's important for us to use that past experience in a positive way because when we look back on our lives and say that's where I failed in the past and I want that past experience to fuel what now is presently me obeying God and saying I do not want to spend another forty years in the wilderness I do not want to keep walking around this stupid desert I want to walk on in obedience

and so Moses kind of has that reaction he sort of has that I can't do this again with you people I can't go through this experience again I want to do it right now this time so that we don't experience that again my favorite part about what Moses has to say is the fact that any time Caleb and Joshua are mentioned they're always mentioned with that same identity with that same little defining statement that Joshua and Caleb follow the Lord fully they follow God with their whole heart I love it because in a generation of unbelief in a generation of those who struggled with doing the hard thing you always have the testimony of two men who are willing to stand completely on their own and follow God with their whole heart and I think it's a

it's important for us to pay attention to in the day and age in which we live because in the day and age in which we live we continue to be people who are going to have to stand on our own even if everybody else, listen including a lot of people that go to church start going the opposite direction and say nope we can't do it last night it was a long day yesterday it was about 9.30 at night I went to my wife with all the love in my eyes she looked at me with all the love in her eyes and we said one ice cream

and I said yes the kids are in bed I'll go get it so we got ice cream we listened to Alistair Begg on the radio it's great something like listening to Alistair Begg when you're on your way to get ice cream that's a good moment and on the way back they were advertising for the book and I need to tune in tonight so I can remember the name of the book and continue to find that if believers in Jesus Christ when you stand for what the word of God says you will stand alone and these are some practical principles in this book I'm going to confide this into all of you what the name of the book is how to stand alone in the world is turned against the things of God friends I love that testimony of Joshua and Caleb because that's exactly who they were

I think sometimes we forget that those other ten spies the ten guys that went in with them were not random guys that they've never met before they spent forty days hanging out with those guys day in and day out these were their brothers and their brothers looked at them and said you're nuts and we can't do this matter of fact let's kill you guys because you're not going anywhere and yet Joshua and Caleb still followed God wholeheartedly wholeheartedly we need to be those kind of believers in Jesus Christ and the only way we can do that is if his Holy Spirit is at work because I don't have it in me to be that guy out in my life none of us have it in us to be that person on our own it's the work of God in our lives

producing that kind of wholeheartedness well after Moses sort of lambasts them just a little bit and says what are you doing this is how they respond verse 16 they came near to him and said we will build here sheepfolds for our livestock cities for our little ones and our cells will be armed and ready to go before the sons of Israel until we have brought to them their place while our little ones live in the fortified cities because of the inhabitants of the land we will not return to our homes until every one of the sons of Israel has possessed his inheritance for we will not have an inheritance with them on the other side of the Jordan and beyond because our inheritance has fallen to us on this side toward the east so Moses said to them

if you will do this if you will arm yourselves before the Lord for war and all of you armed men cross over the Jordan before the Lord until he has driven out his enemies from before you the land is subdued before the Lord then afterward you shall return to be free of obligation toward the Lord and Israel and this land shall be yours for a possession before the Lord but if you will not do so behold you have sinned against the Lord and be sure your sin will find you out is there any more common statement in all of the bible than that statement right there we'll deal with that they say hey listen you're misunderstanding we're not just going to abandon them and not go into the land we're willing to go to war with those guys and help them out

help them defeat the enemy we're supposed to stay here we're willing to fight the battle we're just content on this side of the Jordan that makes sense can you imagine being somebody you go to the other side of the Jordan and you're like oh this looks better than where we are now I can't imagine that didn't happen to some of them but they were like we made a bad decision we should have done this side well anyway they say hey we'll go over there Moses says okay if you're willing to do that that's fine but if you don't it's sin be sure your sin is going to find you in the direct context here of course it's speaking in the fact that their sin would be that they did not go over to the other side of the Jordan if they decided not to do that

that they wouldn't be able to hide it their sin would find them out but in a broader context this is a principle that's given in lots of ways throughout scripture see we can sin but we can't hide that sin because there's always somebody who sees it I've always said some of the best theology you'll ever get comes out of little kid's bible songs this reminds me of a little kid's bible song if you give a little hand for what you do why? because the father up above is looking down in love so be careful little hand what you do you know what that means? it means God sees everything that you do and you can't hide your sin if that's instilled in you as a little kid you don't know you're being taught theology about you reap what you sow

but that's exactly what you've been taught as a small child and that's exactly what's true in our own lives because while those exact words aren't used other places in scripture the words you reap what you sow are used throughout scripture so he goes on to say build yourself in the cities sheepfolds for your sheep do what you have promised the sons of Gad and the sons of Reuben spoke to Moses saying your servants will do just as my lord commands our little ones our wives and our livestock our cattle shall remain here the cities of Gilead while your servants everyone who is armed for war will cross over in the presence of the lord to battle just as my lord says so Moses gave command concerning them to Elijah the priest and to Joshua

to the heads of the fathers households of the tribes of the sons of Israel Moses said the sons of Gad and the sons of Reuben and everyone who is armed for battle will cross over with you in the presence of the lord the land is subdued before you shall give them the land of Gilead for a possession if they will not cross over with you armed they shall have possessions among you in the land of Canaan the sons of Gad and the sons of Reuben answered saying as the lord has said to your servants so we will do we ourselves will cross over the land of the lord into the land of Canaan the possession for our inheritance shall remain with us across the Jordan so Moses gave to them the sons of Gad the sons of Reuben the half tribe of Joseph's son Manasseh

the kingdom of Sihon the king of the Amorites the kingdom of Og the king of Bashan the land with its cities with their territories and the cities that surrounded the land verses 34 through 42 name some of the cities that they settled there now there's a couple of points I would like to close this particular chapter with the two points are these number one don't be content with God's second best for your life don't be content with it God has so much for us great and precious promises that are filled throughout the entire scripture and God doesn't want us to be content with his second best but that may mean that we have to dig a little bit deeper into who God is dig a little bit deeper into who God's word is there's always treasure for those

who are not willing to settle for God's second best who are willing to move into the promise but the second thing to pay attention to is when we are outside of God's best for our lives we are always vulnerable do you know who the first two tribes to be taken captive were when enemies came against the land of Israel they were the tribes of Reuben and Gad why? because often times when we settle for God's second best it causes us to be vulnerable because where do we go? dwelling outside of the protection of the community therefore it allows us to be vulnerable to attack and so outside of God's best there's always a vulnerability in our lives keep digging deep into who God is now as we come to chapter 33 you will come across maybe the most boring reading

in all of the bible as you go from verses 1 through 49 let me recap it for you they left Egypt and they got where they are now that's exactly what that says now Joan Corson can always pull out like five points of why this is important I don't even want to waste time with that clearly God intends it to be in his scripture so we put it there we're not going to read through it tonight if you want to read back through it and go isn't it great that God keeps track of all of those things he keeps track of all of our wilderness wanderings or whatever points you want to make out of it because after he has recapped Moses can you imagine being one of the children of Israel Moses is like gather round while I tell you what we've done for the last 40 years right?

Moses 120 by this point in time you think you talk fast? so Moses recaps everything that's taken place up to that point in time now as we come into verse 50 we come to the law of possessing the land this is what it says the Lord spoke to Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan opposite of Jericho saying speak to the sons of Israel and say to them when you cross over the Jordan into the land of Canaan then you shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you destroy all their figured stones destroy all their molten images and demolish all of their high places you shall take possession of the land and live in it for I have given the land to you to possess it you shall inherit the land by lot according to your families to the larger

you shall get more inheritance and to the smaller you shall get less inheritance wherever the lot falls to anyone that shall be his you shall inherit according to the tribes of his fathers so he gives them once again the principles of the land why is God once again stating this? because this is a new generation that perhaps hadn't heard this before and they needed to know because they needed to be prepared to enter the land and understand what the expectations were for when they went into the land and so God gives them a handful of expectations number one when they cross over there to drive out all of the inhabitants of the land drive them all out nobody could be left inside of the land why did God want no one to be left inside

of the land same reason they had to get rid of all of the ladies from the Midianites because he knew exactly what would take place he knew that they would be led into temptation it is a true and faithful saying bad company for good morals I didn't make it up it says it in the Bible and it's something I have learned over and over and over and over there are certain times in your life where you cannot help being around bad company right even so they don't but you just can't help being around bad company because sometimes that happens sometimes you're at a job where that's just what's going to be around you and you can't help that when I worked construction for all those years I was constantly inundated with foul language and dirty stories

and I had to make sure I read my Bible a whole lot to keep my mind cleansed from all those things I had to pay the bills I couldn't help that but I could help who I hung out with who I spent time with and what I put into my ear gates when I came home when I was not at work but there are TV shows and things that we will not let my older daughter is getting to the point where you know she's a teenager now I can't just make her watch bubble guppies all the time even though it's funny playing with bubble guppies it's not a bad show bubble life in your dream house don't hate it anyway but she doesn't just want to watch that stuff all the time she wants to start watching grown up shows now right and so we have to tell her listen

we have to filter through some of this stuff because we don't want you to hear all these words and sometimes she says dad I'm almost 14 years old I've heard a lot of these words before I'm like I understand that doesn't mean you should fill your mind with them at home doesn't mean that that's what should be going into your ear gates at home and so you have to be careful you have to drive out all those inhabitants of the land because they could potentially cause you issues not only that but remember God was using the nation of Israel as his instrument of judgment for the land of Canaan that he had given 440 years to repent but the second thing is what really stuck out to me this particular time through destroy all their

and I don't know why these words stuck out figured stones molten images in high places of course high places were where a lot of pagan worship took place it was often very sexual in nature but the other two things are what really got me because of the language that's used there figured stones what does he mean by that we're talking about statues well why on earth does he need them to destroy the statues because we have to understand and again sometimes we forget that thousands of years ago it was taking place then too because sin is sin and it always has been because most of those statues were pornographic in nature and he didn't want them taking that into their eye gates all the time and causing them temptation and so he said when you see those

figured stones destroy them so that that's not something that goes through your mind all the time and then he said when you see the molten images again what were the molten images they were idols and what was oftentimes going on with those idols either very violent or very pornographic things and so he said get rid of them so that there's no temptation before you at any point in time destroy all of those things and then of course demolish where all of the activity took place I think sometimes for all of us as human beings we need to take stock of our own lives and figure out where the figured stones the molten images and the hyphens are and start destroying so that that's not an issue for us and then of course he says and you shall take possession

of the land and live in it God had already given them the land what was their job now? to take possession of it in the same way God has for each and every one of those precious promises and a good work good works for us to do what is there now for us to do? walk in it take possession of it that's what they're to do of course they were to distribute it by law those were the rules based on size of families and things like that but he tells them what happens if they don't he says but if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land before you then it shall come about that those whom you let remain will become as thorns in your eyes and as thorns in your side and they will trouble you in the land in which you live and as I plan to do to them

so I will do again an incredibly sobering verse because essentially God says if you don't do this the first thing that's going to happen is what will they become in their eyes? they will become a thorn in their eye now I don't know why but I have the ability to get anything in the world that's stuck in my eye the whole time whether I'm weed eating something and wearing safety glasses whether I'm using a skill saw and wearing safety glasses because I'm well aware of my klutziness I wear safety glasses and things like that I still get things stuck in my eye and when things get stuck in my eye it just waters me like you can't open it right now like what's wrong with you? I've got a piece of saw stuck in my eye and it's just an irritant and annoying

and quite frankly it kind of hampers you from doing anything until that gets out of your eye God says if you don't drive them out that's exactly what they're going to be to you they'll be like a thorn in your eye something that keeps you from doing they'll just cause you problems he says the second thing they'll be like is they'll be like a thorn in your side now I've never walked around with a thorn in my side but I have had to walk around with a thorn in my shoe when I was working town keeping you had to just keep moving and sometimes you get that gnar in your shoe and when you're walking you know you went through them the whole time because you got something stuck through your shoe and it hurts what does it keep you from doing? being productive

what does it end up causing? it prevents you from doing what you're supposed to be doing he said that's what they're going to do to you God takes it one step further as a matter of fact I will do to you what I plan to do to them and the unfortunate truth about the history of the nation of Israel is that that's exactly because what was God's plan for all of the inhabitants of the land of Canaan? to drive them out the nation of Israel didn't obey God what did he do with the nation of Israel? he drove them out what we do not do in obedience God does so it's a sobering thing for us to pay attention to brothers and sisters we live in a time where the temptations around us are wide-ranging and they're at everybody's fingertips constantly whatever they are

they're in front of us all the time and in the same way that God wanted them to take possessing the land seriously putting away the things of the past we too believers in Jesus Christ if we want to be a witness in this world must put away the past and move on to possess the land let's pray Father we come before you thank you for the time that we've had in your word tonight Lord I thank you that you continue to be faithful to us that you bless us and strengthen us and Lord I pray that as we go out from this place that you would take what you have done in our hearts with your word and turn it into a lifestyle that glorifies you Lord keep us close to you we pray in Jesus name Amen