“Please give us this land as our property, and do not make us cross the River Jordan and settle there.” (Numbers 32:5 GNB) [1]
Have you crossed the Jordan River? The tribes of Reuben and Gad saw how good this land was going to be on the near side of the Jordan River. They didn’t know what it might be like on the other side so they wanted to stay where they were. Does this sound like so many people who call themselves Christians today?
The Israelites were in in Egypt when the Lord led them out, crossing the Red Sea. This can be compared with those of us who have accepted Jesus Christ as our Savior. We were in to sin. We followed Jesus Christ and he delivered us out from that . We then live our Christian lives but we are like the Israelites in that we don’t grow that much spiritually and end up wandering in our own wilderness. Our wilderness experience will take us each different times depending on how long it takes us to learn what the Lord wants. We each will have a chance to cross our own Jordan River into a deeper walk in and through Jesus Christ.
Canaan was the Promised Land for the Israelites but it was not going to be an easy job driving out the others that were living there. They had to go to war when they got to their promised land. I don’t know where the idea came from that has been passed down that crossing the river Jordan is the same thing as going to heaven. When the Israelites first went in it was the opposite of heaven.
When we are in our wilderness we feed on simple food. The Israelites fed on manna for the most part and we feed on milk but there comes a time when we are to go to solid food. We find this in the following Scripture:
“I have a lot more to say about this, but it is hard to get it across to you since you’ve picked up this bad habit of not listening. By this time you ought to be teachers yourselves, yet here I find you need someone to sit down with you and go over the basics on God again, starting from square one-baby’s milk, when you should have been on solid food long ago! Milk is for beginners, inexperienced in God’s ways; solid food is for the mature, who have some practice in telling right from wrong.” (Hebrews 5:11-14 Message) [2]
The tribes of Reuben and Gad were not condemned for not wanting to cross the Jordan but God did have something bigger and better planned for them. God won’t condemn you for staying in the wilderness feeding on milk but he has something bigger and better planned for you. He wants you to grow up and mature spiritually. He wants you to know His full power and walk in the power of the Holy spirit as you follow the Spirit’s leading in your daily walk making disciples and doing whatever else He leads you to do. He wants you to cross the Jordan River right now. Why don’t you join me and we’ll walk across together.
By Dean W. Masters
Owner of the Masters List
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/masterslist
Unedited redistribution approved.
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[1] American Bible Society. (1992). The Holy Bible : Today’s English Version (2nd ed.). New York: American Bible Society.
[2]Peterson, E. H. (1995). The message : New Testament with Psalms and Proverbs (Heb 5:1). Colorado Springs, Colo.: NavPress.