Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Well, good morning. Good morning. Good morning.
[00:00:04] We are going to be in Numbers chapter 32 today. So if you want to go ahead and turn there, if I haven't met you yet, my name is Eric Bolling. I'm part of the teaching team here at Village Church. And it's a privilege to be able to share with you today from God's Word.
[00:00:22] As we get ready to dive into numbers 32, just a kind of a reminder of where we are and what we've been working through. If you've been with us a while, you know, we've been going through the book of numbers and we're looking at the nation of Israel and we're looking at them from the standpoint of what do we learn from them as they quite frankly have moments of really following God and moments where they really blow it. And we're asking ourselves, how do we look at our own lives and hearts and minds and how do we find repentance? How do we find where we can become restored back to a right relationship with God?
[00:01:05] And as we get into numbers 32, by way of introduction to this text, I want to tell you about a famous psychological experiment that was done in the 1960s on children.
[00:01:17] Now, some of you just got real nervous. You're like, oh man, where.
[00:01:21] What are we talking about?
[00:01:23] There was a guy named Walter Mitchell and he wanted to study like kind of children's resilience. And so he developed this study where he took roughly four, four and five year old kids and he would put them in a room and he would give them a marshmallow.
[00:01:40] And he would say to them, here's what's going to happen. You can eat this marshmallow right now, you can have it, but if you wait, you can have two.
[00:01:53] And so they told that to the kids. Then they stepped out and they left the child alone with the marshmallow.
[00:02:01] This was cleverly titled the Marshmallow Test.
[00:02:05] So the kids are left alone with the marshmallow and they observe them, like I said, For 15 minutes, which is an eternity to a child.
[00:02:13] So they watched them.
[00:02:14] It went about as how as you would expect. Some kids waited like before the researcher even got the words out. You can have the marshmallow gone.
[00:02:24] Kid ate it.
[00:02:26] Some kids sat there and they did everything but look at the marshmallow. They looked up away like it was almost like they just pretended the marshmallow wasn't even there. But then over time, they ate the marshmallow.
[00:02:43] Other kids would pick up the marshmallow and they'd look at it. And they'd squeeze it and they'd hold it and they'd smell it and they'd get it right up and they'd put it right back and they'd, oh, I can't do it. They keep touching it.
[00:02:57] They eventually ate it. There was a certain group of kids though who never ate the marshmallow. They waited all 15 minutes and then the researcher came in and gave them two marshmallows.
[00:03:09] They did a follow up study with the kids that didn't eat the marshmallow and they looked at their lives. They did a longitudinal study and they found that the kids who didn't eat the marshmallow, they did better in school, they just had better life outcomes.
[00:03:27] Now some of you were thinking, well, we should try that with our kids. But you might be terrified. If you give your kid the marshmallow and they eat it, you're like, oh man, he's destined for a life of ruin. That's not completely accurate. There's a lot of other variables. But that whole thing they studied was called delayed gratification.
[00:03:45] Delayed gratification is what came out of that. And it's this idea of, can you put off something good now to get something better later?
[00:03:57] Can you delay your gratification? There's something good now. For these kids it was that marshmallow.
[00:04:02] But if they waited, they could have two.
[00:04:05] And that's really what we're gonna see when we get into our passage today, that two of the tribes of the nation of Israel are faced with essentially the same challenge. They're gonna have something really good now presented to them. But there's something even better if they're willing to wait.
[00:04:25] Let's go to the text. Okay, let's Start in verse 1 says, now the people of Reuben and the people of Gad had a very great number of livestock. And they saw the land of Jazer and the land of Gilead, and behold, the place was a place for livestock. Let's pause there.
[00:04:44] So what we know from the text is we have two of the ten tribes of Israel who are, have a lot of wealth. We know that because in the ancient world if you were wealthy, you had lots of children, lots of livestock, lots of land, and they were told they have a lot of livestock. And where they're currently at, according to the text is they are, they are right at the edge of going into the promised land, which is the land that had been promised to Abraham some 600 plus years before.
[00:05:19] So they've been waiting to go. And some scholars Believe that they're right on the edge of the Jordan River.
[00:05:24] They actually can physically see the town of Jericho, which is like, first city to be conquered in Canaan. And they're right there.
[00:05:34] Personally, they've been wandering for about 38 years through the desert. And we're gonna talk about why that is in a little bit. So they're there, right? They're right on the edge of receiving all that God has been promising them from for like 600 plus years.
[00:05:51] So we have two of the ten tribes of Israel with a lot of wealth, and they see this land and they say, this is good for livestock. Let's pick it up again in the text. Let's go to verse two.
[00:06:03] So the people of Gad and the people of Reuben came and said to Moses and Eleazar, the priests and the chiefs of the congregation, Ataroth, Dibon, Jazer, Nimroh, Heshbon, Elias, Sabim, Nebo, and beyond. The land that the Lord struck down before the congregation of Israel is a land for livestock. And your servants have livestock.
[00:06:28] And they said, if we have found favor in your sight, let this land be given to your servants for a possession. Do not take us across the Jordan.
[00:06:39] Now, when we first read this, this sounds like a pretty reasonable request, doesn't it?
[00:06:44] Hey, we have a lot of livestock. This land is perfect for it. If we give us this land, is what they're saying.
[00:06:52] There's a couple of problems with this request.
[00:06:56] They're on the east side of the Jordan River. The west side is the promised land.
[00:07:03] So they're saying, essentially, look, we know the west is the promised land, but we're good right here.
[00:07:10] This is great land for us. Just give us to this now. Do not take us over the Jordan. Why? Because what's over the Jordan is warfare.
[00:07:21] It's battles. They have to go conquer the land.
[00:07:24] And so they're saying, look, we have all this livestock. This is great land. It's already been conquered. The text tells us they'd already defeated a couple of kings on the east side of the Jordan. They said, we're good.
[00:07:38] Let us have this now. Like, if we can bypass having to go fight in this, you know, promised land and battle against again. They can see the city of Jericho. It's massive.
[00:07:50] We don't have to go against that. We're good. Give it to us.
[00:07:55] Now. We know there's a problem with their request because of Moses response.
[00:08:01] Moses says this in verse 6.
[00:08:04] Moses said to the people of Gad and to the people of Reuben, shall Your brothers go to the war while you sit here.
[00:08:12] Why will you discourage the heart of the people of Israel from going over into the land that the Lord has given them? Then? When we read that, sometimes the Bible does not give us the emotional kind of response. I like to think Moses is probably saying this in all caps, right? You know, all caps. If you get that, somebody's yelling at you.
[00:08:33] And so Moses is upset. He says, look, why should they go to the war while you sit here? That will discourage the people. It's almost like he's like, what do you. What are you doing? Do you not know what you're asking for? Why are you looking to divide the people?
[00:08:50] Because he knows this is much more than just a simple request for their livestock. It's them trying to avoid going into this coming conflict. Notice he doesn't say a war. He says, the war.
[00:09:04] It's coming.
[00:09:06] That's what's been told and promised. And. And they know it's coming. And so he says, why? Why should everyone. The other 10 tribes go to the war while you just sit here in this great land? Don't you know that will discourage the people?
[00:09:19] And then he goes on in verse six, basically, verse six to 15. And he. And he gives a history lesson.
[00:09:27] And he takes the people back through what had happened the last time they were ready to enter the promised land.
[00:09:36] Let's look at verse 8 here. It says this. Your fathers did this when I sent them from Kadesh Barnea to see the land. For they went up to the valley of Eshcol and they saw the land. They discouraged the heart of the people of Israel from going into the land that the Lord had given them. What's he talking about? He's talking about when they sent the 12 spies into the land initially 38 years before this.
[00:10:02] And he's saying, look, this has already happened.
[00:10:06] Somebody has already tried to get out of doing this. And if you remember that story, the 12 spies go into the land. They see that the land is amazing.
[00:10:17] It's great. It's fertile. There's lots of food. There's lots of resources. And it's the land God had given them. They come back, 10 out of the 12 spies say, it's great land. It's the land God has given us, but we can't. We can't take it.
[00:10:36] And they're like, why? And they said, there's giants in the land. There's strong people. And if you want to deep dive on that. Michael preached on that a couple Sundays ago about the Nephilim and all of this.
[00:10:46] And he said, look, there's powerful people. We can't beat them.
[00:10:50] And the people heard that, and they're afraid. And they say, well, we'd be better going off. We'd be better going back to Egypt.
[00:10:58] And they complained and grumbled and rebelled against the Lord. So then the Lord punished them. And Moses is saying, look, we've already gone through this. Matter of fact, this is the generation that's left that's going into the promised land. He's saying, we've already dealt with this. Don't miss Moses emotion here.
[00:11:18] He's upset.
[00:11:19] He goes on and he says this to them.
[00:11:22] He says, verse 10. He said, the Lord's anger was kindled on that day. And he swore, God swore, saying, surely none of the men who came up out of Egypt from 20 years old and upward shall see the land that I swore to give to Abraham and to Isaac and to Jacob, because they have not wholly followed me. Then he goes on, and in verse 12, he talks about Caleb and Joshua, who did give a good report and followed the Lord. And he says in verse 13, and the Lord's anger was kindled against Israel, and he made them wander in the wilderness 40 years until all the generation that had done evil in the sight of the Lord was gone again. He takes them through and he says, look, you know this.
[00:12:09] You are the remnant that is left, and you want to stay here.
[00:12:15] Moses doubles down on this in verse 14, he says, and behold, you have risen in your father's place a brood of sinful men to increase still more the fierce anger of the Lord against Israel.
[00:12:31] For if you turn away from following him, he will again abandon them in the wilderness. And you will destroy all this people. There's high stakes here.
[00:12:42] And Moses is saying to them, look, if you make this decision, it will destroy the people. We'll be right back to where we just came from 38 years before.
[00:12:58] And I don't know about you, but if I'm. If I'm Reuben and Gad and I know I've literally just been wandering around for almost 40 years watching all my elders die off because of their sin, I'm probably going to reconsider settling.
[00:13:14] Probably say, like, you're right, Moses, we're good. We'll go. We'll go with you. If I'm Moses, I don't know. We've seen Moses pray before about people like being killed. This is tense. I don't want us to miss that. This is a tense exchange right here.
[00:13:32] And so the people have asked this land. Moses has basically said, look, last time this happened, it was. It was awful. It went bad for us. Why are you trying to destroy the nation?
[00:13:44] It's fascinating, the response of Reuben and Gad because they actually come up with a compromise.
[00:13:53] They come up with this kind of plan to really get both. Because remember, Moses wants to keep the nation together, all 12 tribes. They know they have to go to the war in Canaan.
[00:14:06] He doesn't want to leave two tribes behind, separate. So they come up with a compromise. Listen to their compromise.
[00:14:14] Verse 16 says. Then they came near to him and said, we will build sheepfolds here for our livestock and cities for our little ones. That order is interesting because they say, let us basically build farms for our livestock. Oh, and our kids too, can have some cities.
[00:14:35] Notice that they're so focused on what they have that they put their livestock ahead of their children.
[00:14:44] And they go on to say this. Verse 17. But we will take up arms, ready to go before the people of Israel until we have brought them to their place. And our little ones shall live in fortified cities because of the inhabitants of the land. And we will not return to our homes until each of the people of Israel has gained his inheritance. Verse 19. For we will not inherit with them the other side of the Jordan and beyond, because our inheritance has come to us on this side of the Jordan to the east.
[00:15:22] So the compromise is, let us have this. We'll send our soldiers to go to war. We'll go fight into the promised land. We'll do that.
[00:15:33] But we're still going to be on the east.
[00:15:35] Notice, they say to their land, they're already destroying a drawing, a distinction between themselves and the other tribes.
[00:15:43] They can inherit their land.
[00:15:46] We'll take this land.
[00:15:49] Now. It's amazing to me in the text, if you've been with us for a while, you know Moses. If he has any flaw, he's a very kind of reactive leader. Let's just say that we've seen him before, react pretty strongly to people. And again, this is an emotional, highly charged kind of situation.
[00:16:08] We almost expect Moses to just pronounce a judgment, a righteous judgment in God's place. And Reuben and Gad are gone. But he doesn't.
[00:16:18] His response is interesting. Look what he says in verse 20.
[00:16:24] So Moses said to them, if you will do this, if you will take up arms to go. Notice this phrase because it's going to repeat often before the Lord, for the war. And every armed man of you will pass over the Jordan before the Lord until he has Driven out his enemies from before him, and the land is subdued before the Lord. Then after that, you shall return and be free of obligation to the Lord and to Israel, and this land shall be your possession before the Lord. Notice how many times Moses says, okay, you're gonna commit to send your men to go fight in this war in Canaan. You're not just committing to me, Moses the leader, or to Israel, the nation. You're committing before the Lord that you're going to do this.
[00:17:23] Like there's a heaviness to this request. There's some weight to this. He's saying, look, you're going to commit to sending your men to go fight in this war anyway.
[00:17:35] Now, I don't know if Moses is thinking, he's trying to get him to really think through their decision or not. We don't want to read too much into the text, but he's definitely making it very, very clear that if they go do this, they're doing this before the Lord. And notice he's asking them to stay until the work is done. You'll see that the land is subdued, that the people are driven out. Like, you can't just half heartedly commit. He's asking for a full commitment.
[00:18:02] And he's saying, if you will fully commit to this, to sending your men to fighting in Canaan, then you can go back and you can possess the land east of the Jordan.
[00:18:15] He's going to again double down in verse 23. But if you will not do so, behold, you have sinned against the Lord, and be sure your sin will find you out.
[00:18:29] So he raises the stakes. He said, look, not only are you going to do this before the Lord, if you don't, you are sinning, and your sin will find you out. And we've read through the Book of Numbers, there is multiple tangible examples where the people sin. And literally thousands of them were killed immediately through plagues and other types of issues.
[00:18:54] And so Moses is saying, look, if you're gonna commit to it, it is a full hundred percent, wholehearted commitment. And if you don't follow through, then the punishment for you is going to be sin.
[00:19:08] Then the punishment for you is going to be greater than maybe what you expect.
[00:19:14] But then in verse 24, he gives them permission. He said, build cities for your little ones and folds for your sheep and do what you've promised. Notice how he reverses the order.
[00:19:26] He says, you want to build sheepfolds for your livestock and then cities for your children. He's like, why don't you build cities for your children, like, get the order right.
[00:19:35] He's saying, make sure you take care of the most important thing. But he says, go ahead and do it. Their Response in verse 25, they say this. The people of Gad and the people of Reuben said to Moses, your servants will do as my Lord commands.
[00:19:51] And then we close the book on the nation of Israel. And they all lived happily ever after, right?
[00:19:58] No, doesn't happen.
[00:20:01] It is interesting what happens to Reuben and Gad, though. And there's another half tribe of Manasseh that's going to join them at some point.
[00:20:08] What's really interesting is, as you go throughout the rest of the Old Testament narrative, they're only mentioned a couple other places. And then they kind of fade off into obscurity.
[00:20:19] Like, they just kind of fade into. Like, they're not mentioned much, if at all.
[00:20:24] And so what happens to them? We're going to look at this because it doesn't end happily ever after.
[00:20:30] We're not going to turn there because it's kind of a long passage. But In Joshua chapter 22, they're referenced again. And so here's what. What's happened in Joshua 22, Moses has died. Joshua then becomes the leader of the nation of Israel. Joshua is the one that takes him into the promised land, starts the war, starts conquering the cities.
[00:20:52] And in verse 22, chapter 22, we get to the point where he's addressing Reuben and Gad and again, this half tribe of Manasseh that joined them, and he's saying, I'll paraphrase here, you can go check me later on. And look, and if I've said anything egregious, you can send an email, but I'm pretty confident I'll get this right. He basically says to them, look, you fulfilled your duties, you did what Moses had told you to do. You've gone and fought, the conquest is over. You can return back to your land that you wanted to inherit on the east of the Jordan. And so they go back, they get there, and they build this giant altar.
[00:21:32] And apparently it is of such great size that the other 10 tribes on the other side of the Jordan hear about it, they get word of it.
[00:21:43] And what that does to the other 10 tribes is it divides them against the two tribes that are on the east side.
[00:21:51] And so they get together, they form this council, and essentially they say, again, paraphrase, we're going to go destroy Reuben, Gad and Manasseh because of what they've done, and they start leading a coalition. So basically, you have what is going to become a civil war now between the tribes?
[00:22:12] Wasn't Moses concerned about that?
[00:22:16] You're going to break the people. You're going to break the nation. You're going to create division. You're going to create problems.
[00:22:22] And in Joshua 22, we see that start to take place.
[00:22:26] So they go and they're ready to basically fight against these other. Other tribes.
[00:22:32] They're gonna have this civil war again. This is just. Just. It blows me away because they've just literally spent all this time fighting all these. All these nations, and now they're going to fight against each other.
[00:22:45] So they get there, the two tribes, you know, Reuben and Gad and man, they're like. Like, no, we're good. No, we just built this to. As a memorial that. That this land is God's land too.
[00:22:56] We're good. And apparently it works. It placates them. They're like, okay, we'll go back then. So they avoid a civil war.
[00:23:03] The other time they're mentioned is in 1st Chronicles 5, 25 to 26. And this is about the. The Assyrian captivity of the nation of Israel. And so Reuben and Gad and Manasseh, they're taken captive first.
[00:23:18] And so for. And so First Chronicles 5 tells us that as this king comes in from Assyria, he basically conquers this land east of the Jordan first. And they're taken into captivity. And like I said, then they. Then they fade away.
[00:23:32] And the reason that they were taken is they were really vulnerable.
[00:23:37] They didn't have the protection of the Jordan river back in the day. Crossing a river was a huge deal, wasn't easy to do. So they didn't have the Jordan River. They also didn't have the close proximity of the other 10 tribes. And they're taken into captivity, and then they're just really kind of gone from the history of the nation.
[00:23:58] And so what they. What they settled for this great land on the east ended up really kind of costing them and ended up paying a pretty high price for it as a nation.
[00:24:12] Now when we hear stories like this, sometimes it's interesting and it's fascinating. We get it. And you're like, what do we do with this? Well, I could tell you. Ask you the question, like, hey, which side of the Jordan are you on? And we're not gonna do that. That doesn't make any sense. Okay. But we are gonna try to look at it from a perspective of, okay. When we look at our lives, if we're honest, sometimes we're a lot like Reuben and Gad. In our lives. So I have two. So what's for you that we're gonna land on here?
[00:24:42] The first one is this is that God can allow us to make choices that fall short of his perfect will.
[00:24:49] Now, I want to make sure we explain this a little bit. I'm not saying that God allows us to make choices outside of his will.
[00:24:57] That would mean God isn't sovereign. But I think what God does is he allows us opportunities to have decisions in things that may not be his best way will for us.
[00:25:13] It's almost like he allows us to do those things because he. He would say, look, I'd rather you not do that. However, if you want to, you can.
[00:25:25] Another way to think of this is we often settle for the visible and temporary instead of trusting God for the internal and unseen.
[00:25:33] Just like Reuben and Gad, right? They could see this great land right in front of them. Here it is. It's perfect for livestock. We got a lot of livestock. This is what we want. This is what we need.
[00:25:47] Whereas God's like, no, no, no. The promised land is to the west. That's what you really should be waiting for.
[00:25:55] And they're like, no, we're good.
[00:25:58] And Moses, through God's.
[00:26:01] God's permission, lets them settle there.
[00:26:06] And I'm sure if we were sitting, having a cup of coffee, and I said to you, hey, have you ever settled for anything in your life that you knew really maybe wasn't the best, but it was visible, it was seen, it was comfort. It was probably all of us could answer yes to that question.
[00:26:26] I'll tell you a story from just my own life, my own faith journey when I was a young man, which clearly I'm not anymore. When I was young, I'd received my master's degree in counseling psychology. I was a licensed mental health counselor in the great Hoosier state of Indiana. And I was all of, like, 27 years old, right? Had a lot of life experience.
[00:26:49] I remember I thought, you know what I want to do? I want to go into private practice counseling. That seemed to be the best career move I could make.
[00:26:58] And I remember talking to my wife about that. And I remember she was hesitant. We had two little kids.
[00:27:06] She was there. We were in a great place, actually. I was working at a great spot. We were happy there. They were taking. But I had this career aspiration. I'm gonna go do this. So I remember talking to her, and like I said, she's hesitant. And I kind of had to talk her into it.
[00:27:21] If you've been married you know what I'm talking about? I said, no, I think it's gonna be good. I think it's gonna be great. And here's the thing. It was good.
[00:27:31] What I was going to or what I wanted to go to, that was great. That wasn't the problem.
[00:27:37] Just like the land. The land really isn't the problem.
[00:27:41] It's the attitude, it's the motive, and it's the heart.
[00:27:44] And so I remember going through this and I remember I had this opportunity and I was like, I'm gonna take it because it looked really good and it sounded good and it was a great career step. And I talked to my pastor at the time, I said, I've got this opportunity. He said, I don't think you should take it.
[00:28:01] He goes, I don't know if your heart is right.
[00:28:05] And I got mad at him, but I'm a Christian, so I didn't express that to him face to face.
[00:28:12] I got upset. I was like, whoa. I was like, I don't want to hear that. It's like, I'm going to do it anyway. I'm going to do it anyway. That was my hard attitude. And again, the problem isn't the job. The problem is me.
[00:28:24] So I moved, my wife and our two little kids, we moved from Wabash, Indiana, back to Winona Lake, Indiana, where we were from. We move in with my in laws and we're living in their basement for six months.
[00:28:36] And we're trying to get this thing going.
[00:28:39] And I knew, I knew I was being. I was like, man, I don't know, this is uncomfortable.
[00:28:47] I appreciate my in laws so much for letting us live there. Can you imagine moving in with like two little wild little boys and all of a sudden we're there.
[00:28:56] Some funny stories from that. I'm not gonna tell them this morning, but I'll tell you sometime. I remember just like eating dinner with my wife's parents, just the three of us.
[00:29:03] My wife is out. I mean, it was great. But I sat down with my very first person in this newly minted, you know, therapist position. And I remember thinking, what have I done?
[00:29:16] What have I done?
[00:29:19] And that hit me. It's like, well, God allowed me to do that. See, he could have stopped me at any point, right?
[00:29:27] He could have done probably innumerable things to stop me from making that, but he allowed me to make that decision.
[00:29:34] Which leads me to my second. So what, which is this?
[00:29:38] It says this that when. Well, before I get to. Let me say this. God doesn't force us to Obey.
[00:29:46] Right. He invites us to trust.
[00:29:48] Because again, God could force us to obey. He could make us robots. He could. He could. But he allows us to trust him.
[00:29:56] And he provides these opportunities for us to develop that trust. Why? Because he loves us.
[00:30:03] He cares for us. He wants us to trust him. And he invites us into that as opposed to just forcing us into that.
[00:30:10] And second, so what is this?
[00:30:12] God uses imperfect decisions for his purposes.
[00:30:16] So here's the reality. Even though you and I mess things up, even though you and I make decisions where our hearts aren't right, or we settle for something that isn't right, or we take the easy path, God uses that for his purposes. If we look at the eastern tribes, they lived on the edge. God still worked through them.
[00:30:41] So even though Manasseh, or even though Reuben and Gad and that half tribe of Manasseh, even though they made the decision that wasn't the best, God still used it. Why? Because that land became part of the promised land. And it didn't catch God by surprise.
[00:30:56] He wasn't shocked by that. Why? Because he's sovereign.
[00:31:01] He knows. He understands. He gets it. And even though we make these imperfect decisions or we. We have the wrong motives. And like I said before, we sett.
[00:31:13] God still uses that. For my own story again, I took the marshmallow, right? Went right and took that job. I remember thinking, what have I done?
[00:31:23] God put together something that really, for over 22 years of my life, was what I would consider my life, career and calling. Because as I was counseling, I realized pretty quick I probably wasn't working great with people that were older than me now. I'm old now, clearly. No hair, gray hair, guy. I was young then. I had hair. I looked pretty good. And I'd talk to these older people and I'd say, well, here's some life advice for you.
[00:31:55] And they'd be like, that's nice. Why don't you go get some battle scars, then come back and talk to us? And that's fair. I get it, right? And so I realized I really fell into counseling teenagers.
[00:32:09] And I loved it.
[00:32:10] I loved it. And so I started working with teenagers, and I realized, man, this is great. I found them to be incredibly honest.
[00:32:21] They would just tell you the truth. Sometimes it's like too much truth, right? They'd be like, why'd you wear that shirt? Like, that's not what we're talking about. Okay, I like this shirt. But I found I really like counseling teenagers. And I fell into that as kind of my. My initial. I Was like, man, this is great.
[00:32:37] This is great. And then I started thinking, yeah, I really want to be around them even more. Because when you're a therapist, right, you can't really walk up to people and be like, hey, Bill, how's the depression? You can't do that now. Kids would talk to me all the time. We lived in a little small town too. So my wife and I'd be walking around, kid be like, there's my therapist right there. And I kind of wish you like, do you know that kid? And I said, absolutely not. That was code. Like, don't know who that kid is.
[00:33:05] I thought, where are they at? Literally, where are they held captive? You know, school.
[00:33:11] So I was like, I'm gonna go work at a school again. God. Opening doors and working through imperfect decisions. There's a little Christian school in my hometown that I had actually graduated from that my friend had just become the head of school at. They had doubled in size in a year.
[00:33:26] And he goes, he goes, hey, man. He's like, why don't you come work here? He's like, you can be dean of students.
[00:33:32] I said, what does the dean of students do? He's like, I don't know. We'll figure it out.
[00:33:36] So we made a handshake deal. Literally, handshake deal. I start working there and I'm gonna tell you what, I loved it.
[00:33:43] I loved it.
[00:33:44] I'm in the classroom, I'm going to games, I'm coaching. Like I said, that became a 22 year career where I really felt that now, could God have put that together any way he wanted? Absolutely.
[00:33:59] Absolutely.
[00:34:01] But it took my imperfect decision, my settling, if you will, to have this job. And again, the job's not the problem. My heart, attitude. And he transformed that. And he used that to be part of my faith story where I can look back now and I can say, man, I am thankful that God allowed that.
[00:34:22] And sometimes we have stories where you get an ending like that and you can look back. Sometimes we're in the midst of the story and we're not sure. Sometimes there are decisions yet to come. Here's the point. Does not catch God off guard.
[00:34:37] Does not catch God unaware.
[00:34:41] Every single part of the story can be used and is used for his glory.
[00:34:47] And I find that to be incredibly freeing as I think about faith and I think about that.
[00:34:53] So as you go through this week and you think about Reuben and Gad and you think about settling, just think about this idea of even if we settle, it's never outside of God's sovereignty and God's grace. Let's pray together.
[00:35:10] Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for your word. Thank you for what we learn from your people, Lord. Even these. These things that literally happened thousands of years ago, Lord, they're still applicable to us today. Because your word is applicable to us today, Lord. Help us to be people that do work, to discern what you want for us. Don't let us be people that settle.
[00:35:34] Don't let us be people that. That focus on the temporary, that we miss the eternal. We miss the. The greater blessing, Lord.
[00:35:45] Lord, even if we do, we know that you still are sovereign, you still love us, you still have grace for us. Thank you for those gifts, Lord. Thank you for the opportunity to hear from your word and to share in this experience together and pray us in your name. Amen.
