In the matter of enjoying Christ as the good land, we need to give up our self-choice in spiritual things and take what God has allotted to us, and we need to be willing to allow the death of Christ to operate in us and bring us into resurrection and ascension to enjoy the elevated Christ.
In Num. 32 we see how some of the children of Israel, who were still on the east side of the river Jordan, went to Moses to ask for their inheritance to be where they were.
They already defeated a few kings and took their lands, but they were not yet on the other side of the river, where the land of Canaan were.
However, the tribe of Reuben and Gad and half-tribe of Manasseh requested from Moses that they would have their inheritance given on the east side of the river, saying that they have a lot of cattle and little ones, so they had to rest and prepare a place for them.
Also, they obligated themselves to go and fight with the remaining people for the good land, and only when the whole land was taken and subdued, that’s when the men would return to enjoy their self-choice, their allotted portion of the land.
This all sounded like a good plan, but Moses was upset with it, and eventually God allowed it. None of the other tribes of Israel exercised their self-choice in the allotment of the good land – only these two and a half tribes did.
The result was, on one hand, that they entered into the possession of their inheritance early, but the men had to go and fight together with the rest of the children of Israel on the west side of the River Jordan, and after some years when the land was subdued, they were discharged from their obligation.
However, for the long run, the self-choice expressed by these two and a half tribes had terrible consequences, for eventually the border of the land of Israel was the river Jordan, so their land was no longer considered to be part of the good land.
Furthermore, whenever a king would come to conquer the land of Israel, the land of these two and a half tribes would be the first to be subdued, and the people there were the first to be taken into captivity.
We need to look to the Lord and learn the lessons in this story, for we as believers in Christ who live the proper church life may sometimes exercise our self-choice, our preference, and God may allow it, but the consequences are that we may suffer loss, we may be taken into captivity, and we are obligated to God and to His people for a period of time.
May the Lord enlighten us that we may realise the danger of having our self-choice in spiritual things or in the service of the church, and may we accept God’s choice and allotment, enjoying Christ as we pass through death into resurrection to be in this elevated good land.
Realising that Our Self-choice in Spiritual Things is shortsighted and issues in suffering
The request that the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and half-tribe of Manasseh had in Num. 32:1-5 was not wrong, for they wanted to inherit the good land; however, this request was not right either.
Their desire, yes, was to enjoy the good land, but it was according to their choice as what is best for them, not according to God’s choice as the best.
On one hand their desire to receive what God promised them was not wrong, but on the other hand, they were not right in wanting to receive this according to their choice as the best.
Even though God through Moses allowed them to have their self-choice in the allotment of the good land, eventually their land was the first part of the land of Israel to be taken over by the Gentile invaders from the east (see 1 Chron. 5:25-26), and these tribes suffered.
Our self-choice in spiritual things and in the Lord’s service will bring in suffering and loss. So we should learn not to do things according to our choice, no matter how profitable it may seem to be.
We may have a clear choice, and we may think that a particular portion, service, or situation is the best and most convenient for us and our family, but actually our choice is the worst, for God knows what is best.
It is much better for us to leave matters in the hand of the Lord and let Him to do things according to His choice.
The reasons these two and a half tribes chose the land on the east of the river Jordan were that they had a great multitude of cattle and they saw that the land was good for livestock; you could even say that they were right and logical according to their need.
Our self-choice, even in the church life, comes from two main things: considering what we have and need, and considering how a particular situation or opportunity in front of us fits in with our needs.
And in a sense this is not wrong, for we do our best to care for the need; but neither is this right, for we do not accept God’s choice, His allotment of the land and of the service.
We need to be warned of this before the Lord and realise that there’s a great temptation to have our self-choice for the purpose of taking care of our own welfare, and we should resist this temptation.
We need to learn this lesson of not considering what we have or what is in front of us but leaving our future in the Lord’s hands.
If we insist to have our own choice, we will suffer and we will not have the best that the Lord can give us.
The Lord always allots us the best portion, and in His allotment He always cares for our welfare and for our family situation; we need to trust in the Lord and not exercise our self-choice.
Our choice is never the best selection, for we are shortsighted and quite selfish; what we choose is not with purity in motive, desire, intention, goal, and purpose but rather, we are quite subjective and really don’t know what we need.
God knows what we need, and He wants to give us a particular portion of Christ for our enjoyment; He wants to allot us a particular service in the church life, and He wants us to be a particular locality, and when we take His choice, we are supplied, we are in the Body, and we have everything we need.
Lord Jesus, cause us to realise that our self-choice in spiritual things and in the service of the church is short-sighted, subjective, and tainted with our preference and desires. May we deny our self-choice and take Your choice; may we accept what You are allotting to us, and may we be willing to give up our choice and take what You give us. Amen, Lord Jesus, You know what we need, where we need to be, what we need to do, and what is our portion in the Body and in the church life. Save us from having a life of suffering because of exercising our choice in spiritual things and in the service of the church.
Giving up our Self-choice and Taking God’s Choice to Reach God’s Glorious Goal
Because the two and a half tribes chose their portion on the east side of the river, they were obligated to walk with the rest of the people to go and conquer the good land, and then they were discharged to come and enjoy their portion.
The obligation of Reuben and Gad toward Jehovah and toward Israel (Num. 32:22) was due to the fact that they had their own choice regarding their portion of the land.
In serving the Lord and in spiritual things, we need to learn to give up our own choice in order to avoid obligating ourselves to God and to His people.
It is not good to get ourselves in such an obligation to God and to His people. We should learn to not have our own choice and thereby not to be obligated to God and to His people.
The Lord may allow us to have our own choice in His permissive will, but we will be obligated to God and to His people, and this will cause us suffering and no enjoyment.
The choice the two and a half tribes made didn’t require them to cross the river Jordan; this signifies that their choice was outside of the death of Christ.
Our self-choice is outside the death of Christ and therefore it has to do nothing with the enjoyment of the rich Christ; if we do not pass through the death of Christ, we cannot enter into the realm of His resurrection and ascension to enjoy Him as the heavenly and elevated One, the reality of the good land (Gal. 2:20; Phil. 3:10-11; Col. 3:1-4).
If we have our own choice, and if the Lord allows our own choice to happen, we are outside the death of Christ and, as a result, we’re not in the realm of His resurrection and ascension to enjoy Him as the elevated and heavenly One.
This is such a word of warning, and we should be in fear and trembling before the Lord regarding our self-choice in spiritual things and in the service of the Lord.
In the case of the two and a half tribes of Israel, obtaining the land east of the Jordan reaches God’s spiritual goal but not His glorious goal, which is the receiving of the rich inheritance of Christ, the glory of the riches of Christ, in the position of His ascension.
God wants us with our self-choice to go through death (signified the river Jordan) and enter into resurrection and ascension (signified by the good land) so that we may enjoy the rich inheritance in Christ, the glory of the riches of Christ.
When we exercise our self-choice, we may have something that resembles the enjoyment of Christ, but it is void of the death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ, and therefore it doesn’t reach God’s glorious goal.
We may reach a goal, but not God’s goal; we may reach God’s spiritual goal and enjoy the Lord in His word, but we don’t reach God’s glorious goal.
May we learn to give up our own choice and deny the self-choice, and may we allow the Lord to choose for us and allot us the portion of the land and the function in service which He desires.
Lord Jesus, we love You, and we want to enter into the enjoyment possession of the all-inclusive Christ as the reality of the good land. Amen, Lord, we give ourselves to You: You know what we need, You know what our portion and our function is, and You know what our service is in the church for the building up of the Body. Lord, we want to learn to give up our self-choice and take God’s choice so that we may be through death and resurrection and enjoy Christ in ascension. Amen, Lord, we aim to reach God’s glorious goal, the receiving of the rich inheritance in Christ and the glory of the riches of Christ in the position of His ascension!
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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, Life-study of Numbers, msgs. 45-46 (by Witness Lee), 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:
# Thy way, not mine, O Lord, / However dark it be; / Lead me by Thine own hand, / Choose out the Path for me. / Not mine, not mine the choice, / In things both great and small; / Be Thou my guide, my strength, / My wisdom and my all. (Hymns #393)
# Utterly abandoned / To the will of God; / Walking in the pathway / That my Master trod; / Leaving ease and pleasure; / Making Him my choice, / Waiting for His guidance, / Listening for His voice. (Hymns #427)
# 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)
