JOSHUA 1:10-18
A rather sad note enters in with regard to some of the tribes of Israel. They did not all have the
same degree of separation from the evil around them or the same degree of surrender to God. The
background for this lies in the fact that while Moses was still leader, the Israelites conquered
some of the kings on the east side of Jordan and took possession of their lands.
It was good land with strong, walled cities and a countryside ideal for the raising of cattle. Two
and a half of the tribes, Reuben, Gad and half of the tribe of Manasseh, asked to stay on that side
of the Jordan.
It must be said on behalf of these two and a half tribes that their warriors were willing to help the
other tribes take the land across the river and possess it. But the Reubenites and Gadites wanted
to return to the other side of Jordan where things were more appealing to the eye and where there
was ease, comfort, plenty and riches as the world would look at it.
They tasted of the blessings of the Promised Land and helped the others to secure it, but they
themselves longed for the world—its pleasures and indulgences— and were eventually trapped
and ensnared by it. This is always the danger of those who would live on the border and not get
into the land.
Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay
aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the
race that is set before us (Heb. 12:1).
Theodore Epp
www.backtothebible.in