The book of Numbers reveals the pre-arrangement of the distribution of the good land, which typifies the enjoyment of the rich Christ according to God’s choice; in particular, we want to see that we shouldn’t exercise our choice in this.
God gave the land to Israel; He promised it to their forefathers, and He brought them out of Egypt and through the wilderness into the good land to give it to them.
Being an orderly and wise God, He had a particular way to distribute the good land; however, two and half tribes of Israel, exercised their choice in inheriting the land.
Gad, Reuben, and half tribe of Manasseh chose the land that is at the east of the river Jordan, and God allowed them to have it; this particular arrangement and situation embodies a lot of crucial lessons for us, for we in the church life in our participation and possessing the good land should not exercise our choice.
Many Christians fail in this matter of their ultimate possession and enjoyment of the good land.
What the two and a half tribes of Israel enjoyed on the east side of the Jordan river was not God’s choice, and later in the Bible that part is not even mentioned as being the land of Israel, for it was taken over by the enemies.
May the Lord shine on us and bring us fully into His choice of the possession and enjoyment of the good land, and may we exercise our spirit and be subdued in our will so that we may choose what God chooses, not being satisfied with the second best but God’s very best.
In Num. 32:1-42 and 33:50 – 36:13 we see the prearrangement of the distribution of the good land; the main lesson to learn here is the matter of choice. In terms of our sharing of the enjoyment of Christ, we need to be careful in the matter of our choice.
Our Enjoyment of Christ is in the Sphere of His Death and in His Resurrection and Ascension
The good land is surrounded by the two seas (the Mediterranean Sea and the Dead Sea) and one river (the Jordan River); these two seas and this river all signify the death of Christ (see Num. 34:2-3, 6, 12).
On the west side is the Mediterranean Sea, on the south side there’s the South Sea or Dead Sea, and the Jordan River is on the other two sides, encompassing the good land. All these typify the death of Christ.
We may think that this doesn’t sound so good, but the all-inclusive Christ is surrounded by His death, and the way for us to enter into the enjoyment of the all-inclusive Christ as the good land is through His death.
This is why from the very beginning of our Christian life we need to be baptised into His death to die with Him in our old man, so that we may be raised with Him to enjoy Him and live with Him in the elevated land of Canaan.
The enjoyment of Christ is closely related to His death; we can say that the enjoyment of Christ must be in the sphere, the territory of His death.
We shouldn’t be afraid of the death of Christ, for the more we are one with Him in His death, the more we die with Him and in Him in our experience, the more we actually are enjoying Him.
In Phil. 3:7-11 Paul spoke of pursuing Christ and being found in Him, and as he spoke of this, he was in the fellowship of the Lord’s suffering and being conformed to His death.
The more Paul was conformed to the death of Christ, that is, the more Christ’s death was applied to him, the more he enjoyed the all-inclusive Christ as the reality of the good land.
The more the death of Christ is applied to us and to everything of the old creation such as the flesh, the self, and the soul life, the more we participate in Christ.
The good land rose up from these waters of death that bordered it; this signifies that the good land as an elevated and uplifted land is a type of the resurrected and ascended Christ, the heavenly Christ!
Christ has entered into us in His resurrection (John 20:22) and we enjoy His riches in His ascension (Eph. 2:6; Col. 3:1-4).
When the death of Christ is applied to anything of the old man in our being, we enter into a new realm, an elevated and uplifted realm, where we enjoy Christ in His resurrection and ascension.
But if we’re not through His death and in His resurrection and ascension, and if we are not seated with Him above in the heavenlies, we cannot enjoy this rich Christ as the reality of the good land.
We need to be in a certain position and have a particular condition to really enjoy the uplifted heavenly Christ with all His riches.
So like Paul, we should yearn to know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, so that we may enter into the possession and enjoyment of the all-inclusive Christ as the good land.
Amen, may we realise that our enjoyment of Christ is in the sphere of His death and it is in His resurrection and ascension, for the all-inclusive Christ is a crucified, resurrected, and ascended One to be the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit as the reality of the all-inclusive good land!
Lord Jesus, we want to enjoy You as the all-inclusive good land in our spirit. We exercise our spirit, Lord, and we apply Your death to anything of the self, the flesh, the natural man, the old creation, and the soul life. May anything that is natural and old be brought through death and into resurrection so that we may be able to enjoy the all-inclusive Christ as the Spirit in His resurrection and ascension. Amen, Lord Jesus, bring us fully into the realm of resurrection and ascension to enjoy the elevated and uplifted Christ as the good land!
We should not Exercise our Choice but go through Death and Resurrection to Enjoy Christ
In Num. 32:1-5, 33 we see that the two and half tribes of Reuben, Gad and half tribe of Manasseh had a request to Moses, to inherit the land on the east of the river Jordan. This request was not wrong, but at the same time they were not right in wanting to receive this according to their choice as to what was best.
Their desire to inherit the good land was not wrong, but they were not right in exercising their choice and not receiving God’s allotment of the good land; in this way, they substituted the very best for the second best.
Even in our experience of Christ there are degrees and levels; we can have something good, but it is not the best that God has planned, for we exercise our choice and thus get the second best.
These two and a half tribes said they had cattle and livestock, so they needed to have this land…sometimes our “cattle” and “livestock” become our temptation for us to make our own choice, and thus a great loss takes place.
We should not let anything that we have affect our choice or tempt us to exercise our own choice in this matter.
Eventually this portion of the land in the east of the river Jordan was the first part of the land of Israel to be taken by the Gentile invaders from the east, for when the Assyrians came, they were the first to be captured and taken (1 Chron. 5:25-26).
Those who remain halfway and are satisfied with only a little blessing from God will be easily captured by the enemy.
If we exercise our choice, we are easily the enemy’s first prey. If we exercise our choice, we can suffer the same kind of fate as these tribes and their descendants, for if we are only halfway for the Lord, at the border, feeling OK and being satisfied with only a little blessing from God, the enemy can take us captive.
When it comes to gaining Christ, we should never be content with a half-way arrival; we shouldn’t be easily satisfied but, like Paul, we should continue to stretch forward to gain Christ in full!
In spiritual matters it is much better to not act according to our choice but to leave matters in the hand of the Lord and let Him do according to His choice (see Gen. 13:5-18). Let the Lord take the lead.
Many times we desperately want our own choice, and it seems that the Lord allows us – just as God through Moses allowed the two and a half tribes to have their inheritance in the east of the river…but this is the Lord’s permissive will.
We may get what we want, we may have our choice, but after a while we realise that we incur a loss, for by gaining what we want, we forget the big picture.
If we all in the church life would not exercise our choice but leave the choice to our Lord, there wouldn’t be many problems among us; a lot of our problems have their source in our hidden seeking of our own choice.
We should let the Lord make the decision and the choice, and we will receive our portion of inheritance.
The land that Reuben and Gad requested could be reached without crossing the river Jordan, which signifies that the old man was not being dealt with and buried (see Joshua 3:16 – 4:12 and the footnotes in the Recovery Version Bible).
It is only after our old man has been dealt with and buried (Rom. 6:3-6) that we are in a position to possess the all-inclusive Christ as the good land for our inheritance and enjoyment.
In a specific way, if we want to gain Christ as the all-inclusive good land, we need to not exercise our choice but let the Lord choose and allot us the land, and we simply need to go through death and resurrection to enjoy Christ, walking with Him in newness of life.
If there’s no death, there is no life; if we don’t pass through the death waters of Jordan, we cannot enter into the enjoyment of the good land of Canaan.
The land given to Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh (Num. 32:33), the land that was according to their choice, could be reached without crossing the Jordan, and thus was not actually a part of the good land of Canaan (see Num. 34:14-15; 35:14).
This indicates that, in type, this land was outside the death of Christ. It is only after the old man is death and buried that we are in a position to talk about possessing the good land as our enjoyment.
When we try to enjoy the Lord without passing through death and resurrection, our enjoyment is not real, and we do not enjoy Christ in the Body. May we really bring this matter to the Lord and tell Him,
Lord Jesus, we want what You allot us of the all-inclusive Christ as the good land; we do not want to exercise our choice in enjoying Christ but go through death and resurrection to enjoy the all-inclusive Christ. Amen, Lord, save us from choosing the second best; save us from having our own choice in spiritual things, and save us from going halfway in our enjoyment of Christ. May we not be satisfied with just a little enjoyment of Christ according to our choice; bring us into Your allotment of the all-inclusive Christ together with all the saints in the Body!
This article can also be read in the Romanian language / Citiți acest articol în limba română vizitând următorul link, Să nu ne exersăm preferința ci să trecem prin moarte și înviere pentru a-L savura pe Cristos.
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by bro. Minoru Chen for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1960, vol. 1, ”Synopsis of Numbers,” ch. 11, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Numbers (2), week 7, The All-inclusive Christ Being the Allotted Portion of the Saints, according to God’s Choice, as Their Divine Inheritance for Their Enjoyment.
Hymns on this topic:
# I am crucified with Christ, / And the cross hath set me free; / I have ris’n again with Christ, / And He lives and reigns in me. / Oh! it is so sweet to die with Christ, / To the world, and self, and sin; / Oh! it is so sweet to live with Christ, / As He lives and reigns within. (Hymns #482)
# Not where we elect to go, / But where Jesus leads the way, / There the living waters flow, / There our darkness turns to day. / Not our self-appointed task / Will the Lord’s approval win, / But the work we did not ask, / Finished humbly, just for Him. (Hymns #907)
# Now that the choice is mine, / Lord, I still choose You; / ’Though the paths be not marked, / I’m still trusting in You. / Dearest Lord, I pray, / Lead me everyday; / Don’t let things come between, / Keep my eyes fixed on You. (Song on, Lord, I love You more today)
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