Seize the Moment – Day 610
Necessary Compromise!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Wednesday, November 17. .
Have you ever had to make a compromise that was necessary to keep your family together?
Moses did! In Numbers 32, his worst fear was coming true as the younger generation appeared to be balking at the edge of the Promised Land. The sons of Reuben and Gad approached Moses and asked to take claim of the Transjordan and not cross the Jordan to enter Canaan, the Promised Land (1-5).
Not again!?!
Moses escalated his rhetoric and judgment against them for what he saw as history repeating itself (6-15)! Immediately, the tribal leaders clarified their intent to not forsake the Promised Land or mistrust God’s provision, but to settle adjacently to it in the Transjordan for its excellent grazing grounds (16-19).
Moses had to make an impossible leadership decision! He accepted their plan and required a good-faith compromise! Numbers 32:28-30 demonstrates Moses’ foresight to ensure this compromise was clarified between the tribes and his successors so that all parties would keep their end of the agreement:
So Moses gave command concerning them to Eleazar the priest, and to Joshua the son of Nun, and to the heads of the fathers’ households of the tribes of the sons of Israel. Moses said to them, “If the sons of Gad and the sons of Reuben, everyone who is armed for battle, will cross with you over the Jordan in the presence of the Lord, and the land is subdued before you, then you shall give them the land of Gilead for a possession; but if they will not cross over with you armed, they shall have possessions among you in the land of Canaan.”
Moses knew a compromise was the necessary way to keep the family of God together and on mission to conquer the Promised Land!
Seize the moment and prayerfully seek for ways to maintain the unity of the Church so that the mission is accomplished in your generation!