Pursuing the Promised Land

'"If we have found favor in your eyes," they said, "let this land be given to your servants as our possession. Do not make us cross the Jordan."' Numbers 32:5

A sign outside a church I passed the week after Easter read "Attention: We are open between Easter and Christmas." Isn't that great? I got a chuckle out of the church's tongue-in-cheek attempt to remind folks that there are 50 more Sundays a year to worship the Lord besides the two biggest Christian holidays.

Because I happened to be in the middle of a Bible study on the book of Numbers at the time, my mind was immediately drawn to the Gadites and Reubenites, who begged Moses not to make them cross the Jordan River into the Promised Land. These people were among the Israelite tribes that had been wandering the desert for 40 years since the Lord freed them from slavery in Egypt. Finally, they've made it out of the desert and they're camped just outside the land of Canaan that God had promised to their ancestors. It's nearly time to enter the land, take possession of it and settle into their new lives, and these people say thanks but no thanks. This land looks really good for raising our livestock so we'd rather stay here. Can you imagine that?

Sadly, I can. It really made me pause and think about how often I am willing to "settle" instead pressing on in faith toward what God has planned and prepared for me. God had promised these people life in a land "flowing with milk and honey" and they turned it down! They grasped for what they could see before them right then, without moving forward with trust that what God had in store for them would be even better.

Things are no different today, unfortunately. I'm always so happy to see the church jam-packed at Christmas and Easter, and I always hope that many of the people who only show up those two days a year will be so inspired by the services that they will be moved to return week after week. It saddens me when the attendance drops back down the very next Sunday. Jesus offers us "abundant life," our own opportunities for Promised Land living. We might think we're living it, but when we don't spend time in regular worship, prayer, Bible study, and fellowship with other believers, of if we don't really even believe in him, we're only settling for what's before us and missing out on an abundance of blessings.

Hebrews 11:1 says "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for, and certain of what we do not see." The Gadites and Reubenites had faith in what they could see. Jesus' disciple Thomas, when told of the ressurrection said he would not believe it unless he could see and touch Jesus' wounds. When he got that opportunity, Jesus told him "Because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." Lord, please help me to always pursue the Promised Land and be among the blessed.