Missing the Wilderness

Written by Christopher Cheng

“1 Now the children of Reuben and the children of Gad had a very great multitude of cattle: and when they saw the land of Jazer, and the land of Gilead, that, behold, the place was a place for cattle; 2 The children of Gad and the children of Reuben came and spake unto Moses, and to Eleazar the priest, and unto the princes of the congregation, saying, 3 Ataroth, and Dibon, and Jazer, and Nimrah, and Heshbon, and Elealeh, and Shebam, and Nebo, and Beon, 4 Even the country which the Lord smote before the congregation of Israel, is a land for cattle, and thy servants have cattle: 5 Wherefore, said they, if we have found grace in thy sight, let this land be given unto thy servants for a possession, and bring us not over Jordan. 6 And Moses said unto the children of Gad and to the children of Reuben, Shall your brethren go to war, and shall ye sit here? 7 And wherefore discourage ye the heart of the children of Israel from going over into the land which the Lord hath given them?”

The Holy Bible

Recently during my devotions, I read Numbers 32. What always sticks out to me about this passage is willingness of the children of Israel to stay behind that is seen here, particularly with the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh. For context, back in Numbers 14, the children of Israel had decided to doubt Gods power and provision as they were entering the Promised Land, and so up until this point they had been wandering as part of Gods judgement on them.

One thing I find to be interesting about this is how these tribes of Israel are willing to accept second best just so that they can be done with their wanderings sooner. I think sometimes in life, people (myself included) can settle for “second best”, or “almost there” because it’s the easy route. I mean, who really likes hardship, pain, or suffering? Sometimes the easy way seems better.

Sometimes we can also choose the easy way of conforming to our peers. I’m sure there were people in these tribes who didn’t want to stay there who ended up caving in because they didn’t stand out. In Acts 26:28, the king Agrippa said to Paul “Almost thou persuades me to be a Christian” but he never took that final step of faith to put his trust in Christ because he didn’t want to alienate the Jews he ruled over, and so he lost out on eternity.

I think another interesting thing about this too is that as part of the deal these tribes made with Moses, they still had to go over and help Israel take the promised land. I wonder how many of them regretted their decision upon seeing the wonderful land that God had prepared for them, and realized they had thrown it away just so they could stop wandering sooner. As people say, “hindsight is 20/20”

Finally, it’s interesting to see later on in the books of Joshua and Deuteronomy that the land God had promised to Israel actually stretched from the land of Canaan where the majority of the nation had settled all the way through the wilderness they were wandering in, and stopped at the border of Egypt. The land they had been wandering in for over 40 years at that point had been the promised land God had for them ALL ALONG! But they were too busy focusing on what they wanted and didn’t have that they failed to see what was right at their feet. I think it’s quite telling to see how often we can look at the world around us and fail to see God’s provision, instead complaining about what we don’t have, or what’s going wrong, instead of the resources right in front of us. I mean, throughout all of this, God had made water come out of a rock twice, provided manna from Heaven for Israel every day, brought about flocks of quail for them to catch and eat, and performed countless other miracles for them, and they still always had something to complain about. These incredible miracles had become so normal and mundane for them that they didn’t appreciate them anymore. I wonder what God has blessed you and me with in life that we forget about and take for granted, because it’s so easy to forget about what we’re accustomed to.

Let me finish with a story. Two young fish are swimming in the ocean, and an older fish swims past them, stopping to say, “how’s the water today, boys?”. The fish just looked at each other confused until one of them broke the silence to say, “what the heck is water?”

Oftentimes we, like the Israelites and the fish forget about the basic things that make up our world. We are so used to them that we forget about them, and all we can do is complain about other things, forgetting that our necessities are taken care of. Sometimes we need to say to ourselves, “This is water.”