Possessing Our Land

I used to dream about living full time on a yacht so I could experience the majesty of the ocean every day. Once that passed I dreamed about living in a remote cabin in the woods where adventure was in my backyard and I could fish in any lake I wanted. My dreams often involved only me and pretty isolated locations.

Although I don't see that I would have ever pursued those dreams, I had written them off as things that may just need to wait until Heaven because my faith in God means I'm on earth for a purpose aside from self pleasure. Jesus didn't die and tell His disciples, go forth and enjoy your lives to the best of your ability. He didn't say, go forth and pursue pleasure in every way possible. He told them to go forth and make disciples of all nations.

How was I supposed to do that if I lived apart from all people?

As I've been reading through the Israelite's journey in finding their new home, my eyes have been opened to a lot of Scripture that never really hit me before, as I am also on a journey to make this new location my home. So, when I read Numbers 32, and saw how the Reubenites and Gadites approached Moses to ask if they could possess land that was not in the currently understood region of the Promised Land, it grabbed my attention. Everyone had been under the impression that the Promised Land was west of the Jordan, but these nations had seen land that they thought would be good for them so approached Moses to ask if they could settle east of the Jordan instead.

The problem here is that they are part of Israel, and God had meant for them to fight along the other tribes to take over the nations that were currently living throughout the Promised Land. So, Moses response was that it would be okay for them to possess the land west of the Jordan River, as long as they accompanied the rest of the tribes into Israel to fight for the rest of the land.

As I relate that to where God has us right now, I pull out that God is okay with where we choose to live and what we choose to do with some of our time, but that we still have to be available for our purpose. Although, we may not know what our future purpose is, we need to make sure that when it becomes known, that we are willing to put time and effort into it. I can have a big family and a farm in the mountains, but if I'm called to minister to a situation or people group in downtown Denver, I need to be willing to cross the interstate.