Dividing the Nation | Sunday, June 7, 2020 (Full Service)

Then I commanded you at that time, saying, "The Lord your God has given you this land to possess. All you men of valor shall cross over armed before your brethren, the children of Israel. But your wives, your little ones, and your livestock... shall stay in your cities which I have given you, until the Lord has given rest to your brethren as to you, and they also possess the land which the Lord your God is giving them beyond the Jordan. Then each of you may return to his possession which I have given you." (Deuteronomy 3:18-20)

When God's people choose separation over unity, the result is conflict—a truth as old as the Jordan and as current as today's headlines.

Why an Ancient Story Should Matter to Us

The Old Testament, the first two-thirds of the Bible, is almost exclusively focused on the people and nation of Israel. There's good reason for this as it relates to the larger story of God's plan of redemption in the world. This morning we'll be looking at the middle of Deuteronomy chapter 3, but the passage needs to be set in a larger context so we can understand why this story matters to us, distanced from it by 3,400 years.

It really is worth asking the question: Why should I care about this story? What does it have to do with me? The vast majority of people in 2020, even those who attend church, have spent very little time considering the Old Testament. We don't really know the names Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh, nor do we particularly care about them, because these three tribes have nothing to do with us. So how does this fit into the larger story of God, and why should I care to know anything about it?

The First Glimmer of the Gospel

In the third chapter of Genesis, the first book of the Bible, we are told by way of an allusion of God's redemptive salvation plan for humanity. Why do we need such a plan? I'm sure you would agree the world is broken. Right now it's very clear to us. If you ever wanted evidence of the brokenness of the world, all you have to do is watch the news, open Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Snap, or TikTok, listen to a podcast, or go on YouTube. At this moment, you cannot not be affected by the brokenness of this world. That's why we need redemptive salvation from God.

Genesis 3 tells us where all this brokenness came from. The first humans, created in God's image, are deceived and seduced by a serpent to disobey God. Through the disobedience and sin of Adam and Eve, humanity has ever since been subjected to death and judgment. But in Genesis 3:15, God gives us what the commentator Derek Kidner called the first glimmer of the gospel. Going all the way back to the second century AD, this passage has been called the Proto-Evangelium—the first good news.

In the Proto-Evangelium, God promises to deliver a death blow to the serpent who encouraged this disaster, and we are told that blow would come through a male descendant of Eve. This is the first allusion to Jesus in the Bible—thousands of years before His advent, the first signpost pointing to God's redemptive plan.

The Escalation of Sin

This is the first allusion, but not the last. The Bible from beginning to end is a cohesive story of God's creation, creation's fall into sin, God's redemption, and ultimately God's restoration. As Genesis continues, we see the escalation of sin and what sin does. In Genesis 4, the brokenness shows itself in the fratricide of Abel as Cain kills his brother—an image-bearer of God—because Cain is angry and sin overtakes him. Also in Genesis 4, we witness growing immorality and brutality through Lamech, a descendant of Cain, who practices polygamy and murder, just like his great-great-great-grandfather.

Sin continues escalating in Genesis 6 through 9. Sin always escalates. It is pictured in the Bible as leaven or yeast. If you've ever made bread and added yeast, you know it causes the dough to rise and expand. That's exactly what sin does. And so sin escalates and invites God's judgment in the form of the flood. This is one of the important storylines of the narrative: man's rebellious disobedience is called sin, and sin results in separation and death, and invites justice and judgment. If you think about your own sin, you will see this truth in your own experience. Sin always causes separation. And it continues to grow even after the flood—we see it in Genesis 11 with Nimrod and the people at Babel.

God Calls Abraham

But finally we come to Genesis 12, where we find another signpost pointing ahead to Jesus:

Now the Lord had said to Abram: "Get out of your country, from your family and from your father's house, to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." (Genesis 12:1-3)

God called Abraham to a venture of faith: Come, follow me to a land, and I will give it to you and your descendants. More than that, I will multiply you, I will bless you, and through you all the families of the earth will be blessed. When God made this promise, Abraham was an old man and childless. But God promised the reward if Abraham would follow Him by faith. Ultimately God made good on His promise and gave him a son, Isaac.

So here is the important review that shows why Deuteronomy 3 matters. The serpent deceived Adam and Eve to disobey God; their sin spread to all of creation and brought death and judgment. But God, in immediate response, promised a deliverer who would come one day through Abraham—a man promised a land, descendants, and the role of blessing for all people. This becomes the prototype: man transgresses God, bringing separation, death, justice, and judgment, but God intervenes to bring a promised blessing of redemption through a man, born of a woman, a descendant of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, who would come to and through the land given to Abraham's people. This is why the people and the place become such an important motif in the biblical narrative.

On the Edge of the Promised Land

What does that have to do with Deuteronomy 3? In verses 12 through 22, we are reminded of a story that happened earlier in the Bible, in Numbers 32. It recalls what happened just before the children of Israel came in and conquered the promised land. God had promised the land to Abraham 400 years before, and now they are finally about to take possession. Remember, this land and these people are necessary for God's redemption of all people in all places.

God has done a lot to get Israel to this point. The whole story has been progressing toward Israel possessing the promised land so that God could accomplish His redemptive purpose through them. And as God has been working to accomplish His purpose, His people appear to hinder Him constantly. Your interpretation here will depend on how you view the sovereignty of God. But if the story of Scripture teaches us anything, it teaches that God is working supernaturally in apparently natural ways, while supernatural forces oppose His work, often in very natural ways. There is something opposing God's working, seeking to frustrate it. Fortunately, God will not ultimately be frustrated.

Along the way, God's people have encountered famines, warfare, oppression, slavery, giants, fortified cities, venomous snakes, and dehydration—everything imaginable to frustrate their progress. One of the most effective tactics has been the enemy's work to divide them and keep them out of the land. Forty years prior, the enemy accomplished this dramatically when Israel got their eyes off God and, through unbelief, failed to enter His blessing. Now, thirty-eight years later, Israel is about to advance, and the last enemies standing as obstacles have been destroyed.

The Request of the Two and a Half Tribes

And then—a problem. Right as Israel is about to move into God's plan, Numbers 32 tells us that the men of two and a half tribes—Reuben, Gad, and half of Manasseh—came to Moses and said, "We don't want to go into the land. We want to stay on the east side of the Jordan, outside of the promised land. The land over here is nice enough for us. Is it possible for us to just stay behind?"

Moses' response is in Numbers 32:6-7. He basically says, "Why? Why will you discourage the heart of the rest of Israel from going over into the land which the Lord has given them? This is exactly what your fathers did thirty-eight years ago." There are varying perspectives among commentators: were these tribes wrong to want to stay, or was this God's plan all along? The Bible doesn't give a definitive answer. But I want to present some considerations from Deuteronomy 3 and the book of Joshua, and then make some applications to us in June of 2020.

Moses gave these tribes the opportunity to have their request, but on a condition. As he reminds them in Deuteronomy 3:18-20, first all their men had to come into the promised land to help take possession. In other words, you will not enjoy rest in your own land before your brothers have rest in theirs. There is no reward for deserters.

Be Sure Your Sin Will Find You Out

Next, in Numbers 32, Moses said:

"If you do this thing, if you arm yourselves before the Lord for the war, and all of your armed men cross over the Jordan before the Lord until He has driven out His enemies before Him... then afterward you may return and be blameless before the Lord and before Israel; and this land shall be your possession before the Lord. But if you do not do so, then take note, you have sinned against the Lord; and be sure your sin will find you out." (Numbers 32:20-23)

For many Christians, verse 23 is familiar, but you likely didn't know its immediate context. It still teaches a valuable lesson: there will be ultimate judgment for sin.

After the conquest of Canaan recorded in Joshua, the men of the two and a half tribes are released by Joshua to return to the land they requested. In Joshua 22:4-5, Joshua exhorts them to return to their possession, but to "take careful heed to do the commandment and the law... to love the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways, to keep His commandments, to hold fast to Him, and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul."

Division Leads to Conflict

But when they returned, the book of Joshua gives us an interesting story:

And when they came to the region of the Jordan which is in the land of Canaan, the children of Reuben, the children of Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh built an altar there by the Jordan—a great, impressive altar... And when the children of Israel heard of it, the whole congregation of the children of Israel gathered together at Shiloh to go to war against them. (Joshua 22:10-12)

Division in the nation inevitably leads to conflict. Fortunately, if you read the rest of Joshua 22, a wise man named Phinehas keeps Israel from coming out of the promised land to destroy their brothers. But it's only right to conclude it was not God's desire that His people be divided and in conflict this way. Sadly, this division would lead to greater conflict in years to come. The book of Judges tells us in chapters 8 and 12 that there ended up being extended conflict and war between the tribe of Ephraim in the promised land and the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and half of Manasseh on the east side of the Jordan. Division in the nation inevitably leads to conflict.

A Word to a Divided Nation

Sadly, we are experiencing this today in our own nation. There is division and conflict, and in the midst of it, it's difficult to envision a clear path forward. There is an impulse among Christians in general, and pastors especially, to sound off on these things, particularly on social media. Let me be clear: I have a lot of opinions on these issues, and I've decided to keep them to myself because of what I perceive to be the madness of crowds. There is really no way to speak on these issues without immediately being massacred in the court of social media.

If you receive my weekly email, I ended it two weeks ago with a verse from James, and I think we'd all be well served to remember it:

So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath; for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God. (James 1:19-20)

That is pure wisdom. So in lieu of speaking personally on the current divisions in our nation, I want to leave you with the words of the apostle Paul:

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing... Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails... And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13:1-13)

Closing Prayer

Father, as we close our time in a passage that speaks about the division of a nation and the conflict that comes, we look at our own nation right now, so divided and filled with conflict. Clearly, Lord, we need to be swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger. We know the Scriptures teach that our wrath will not bring about Your righteousness. So I pray that You would compel us by Your love to love others. Jesus, You demonstrated Your love toward us so that we could receive it and demonstrate it to others. As we see that the greatest of all things in 1 Corinthians 13 is love, help us to be slow to wrath, slow to anger, slow to speak, quick to hear—but also that we would not be rude or arrogant or puffed up, that we would endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace, and that we would perfect love, because love covers a multitude of sins. Your love has covered our sins. Jesus, we are so grateful for Your love. Would You fill us with it and help us to be conduits of it to other people? We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.

And now may the Lord bless and keep you. May He make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you His peace. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the fellowship of His Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.