READING: Numbers 31-34
It’s easy to fall into one of two traps in our Christian journey. On one hand, it’s easy to decide that the sovereign God does everything, and we’re just along for the ride. On the other hand, it’s easy to live our lives in our own power, rely on self, and turn to God only when we must. Both approaches are out of balance—as today’s reading reminds us.
Note, for example, the balanced emphases in these texts:
- “Moses replied to them [the tribes of Rueben and Gad], ‘If you do this—if you arm yourselves for battle before the Lord, and every one of your armed men crosses the Jordan before the Lord until he has driven his enemies from his presence, and the land is subdued before the Lord—afterward you may return and be free from obligation to the Lord and to Israel’” (Num 32:20-22). God would drive the enemies out, but the tribes were required to enter the battle and fight.
- “On the day after the Passover the Israelites went out defiantly in the sight of all the Egyptians. Meanwhile, the Egyptians were burying every firstborn male the Lord had struck down among them, for the Lord had executed judgment against their gods” (Num 33:3-4). God executed judgment on the Egyptians, but His people still had to choose to leave that country.
- “You are to take possession of the land and settle in it because I have given you the land to possess” (Num 33:53). God gave them the land, but they were to take possession of it.
Yes, we must trust the Lord. Yes, He is the source of any victory we achieve. Yes, He alone deserves the glory. At the same time, though, we do have a role to play. We are to follow Him and do whatever He demands we do.
PERSONAL REFLECTION: Do you depend on God? On self? How is your balance?
DAILY PRAYER: “God, You are the source of my victory. Let me live obediently in that light.”
TOMORROW’S READING: Numbers 35-36, Deuteronomy 1
