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Last night we began together the study of the second half of the book of Joshua, beginning in chapter thirteen. And we began to think of the section that there begins, which is in fact the fourth section of the book of Joshua. We notice the difference between the second half of the book and the first half of the book. The first half of the book dealt with Joshua's exploits as commander of the united forces of Israel.
And it is altogether about what Joshua did to make possible for Israel both their entry into the land across Jordan and the possibility of their eventually spreading out to take over each its own tribal territory. In the first half of the book, therefore, there was no mention of the tribes going in to possess their individual territories. That was quite impossible in the first half of the book. First of all, the great objectives had to be achieved that would make their settling down possible, and they were all achieved by Joshua in the first half of the book.
Hence the first part of the book, insofar as it is a prototype of greater things, is an illustration of what Christ our Lord, our Joshua, Jesus Christ our Lord, has done in order to make it possible for us to enter our inheritance, and indeed what he will yet do to make it possible for us to enter fully into that inheritance, incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, that is reserved in heaven for us. The second half of the book, insofar it is a prototype, will exhort us now to enter strenuously, to do all to enter into that much of the inheritance that is available to us already.
We thought, therefore, together of the problem that Joshua now faced, beginning in chapter thirteen. He was, as God himself pointed out to Joshua, old and stricken in years. And there still remained much of the land which had been promised to Israel. There still remained much of the land to be possessed. Through Joshua's efforts, some of that land had been, uh, uh, conquered and was now open to be possessed. A lot hadn't so much as been possessed, and he was old.
Yet God encouraged him to proceed in faith and to allot the inheritance so that in the future God might, as he promised he would, uh, enable Israel to take it over. So Joshua set about apportioning the territories first to Judah and then to the Joseph tribes. The Joseph tribes being Ephraim and the half tribe of Manasseh.
And we studied four of the stories that are embedded in the description, the geographical description of the territories that were made available first to Judah and then to the Joseph tribes. At this point this morning, however, I would like us to notice that before Joshua and Eleazar the priest started to distribute the territory, first to Gilda and then to the Joseph tribes, they had to take notice of the fact that God, through Moses, had already given to two and a half tribes their territory, their inheritance east of Jordan.
If you care to look at your text now, you will see the proportion of, of text that is given to the inheritance of these two and a half tribes. Look at verse seven of chapter thirteen. Now therefore divide this land for an inheritance unto the nine tribes and the half tribe of Manasseh. With him now come the other two and a half tribes.
The Reubenites and the Gadites received their inheritance which Moses gave them beyond Jordan, even as Moses the servant of the Lord gave. For Moses had given to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the other half of the tribe of Manasseh, had given them their inheritance east of Jordan. Now that is so important in the mind of the historian that he then devotes from, uh, chapter, uh, uh, chapter 13, verse eight all the rest of that chapter, and down to fourteen verse five with a detailed record of the inheritance given to the two and a half tribes east of Jordan.
Now, there are reasons for this proportion in the text. This matter of the two and a half tribes and their inheritance east of Jordan had proved a difficulty even in the time of Moses, when it was first suggested. And continued with some people to be a difficulty, right to the end of the book of Joshua. When, God willing, we come to the end of the book of Joshua from chapter twenty two onwards, we shall find Israel having a profound problem, so they thought, with the two and a half tribes whose inheritance was east of Jordan.
And had they succeeded, the, uh, uh, nine and a half tribes would have eliminated the two and a half tribes completely, or would have cut them off from fellowship with the nation as a whole. So let us take time this morning to turn aside and go back to the book of Numbers, where the pro- proposal was first made by the two and a half tribes that they be given an inheritance east of Jordan.
That was a difficult occasion in itself. Thirty two, chapter thirty two of Numbers. Now the children of Reuben and the children of Gad had a very great multitude of cattle. And when they saw the land of Jatsar and the land of Gilead, that behold, the place was a place for cattle, the children of Gad and the children of Reuben came and spoke unto Moses and to Eleazar the priest, and unto the princes of the congregation, saying, Atarot and Debon and Jatza and Nimrah and Heshbon and Elialah and Sebam and Nebo and Beon, the land which the Lord smote before the congregation of Israel is a land for cattle, and thy servants have cattle.
And they said, if we have found grace in thy sight, let this land be given unto thy servants for possession. Bring us not over Jordan. At which point, Moses lit up like a furnace. The fire didn't literally come out of his mouth, but did he give them a talking tool? Ooh. Says he in verse six, Moses said to the children of Gad and to the children of Reuben, shall your brethren go to the war, and shall you sit here?
And wherefore you discourage you, the heart of the children of Israel, from going over into the land which the Lord has given them? This did your fathers when I sent them from Kadesh Barnea to see the land. For when they went up into the valley of Ishkal and saw the land, they discouraged the heart of the children of Israel, that they should not go into the land which the Lord had given them. And the Lord's anger was kindled in that day, and he sware, saying, Surely none of the men that came up out of Egypt, from twenty years old and upward, shall see the land which I swear unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, because they have not wholly followed me, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite, and Joshua the son of Nun, because they have wholly followed the Lord.
And the Lord's anger was kindled against Israel, and he made them wander to and fro in the wilderness forty years, until all the generation that had done evil in the sight of the Lord was consumed. And behold, says Moses to these two and a half tribes, before they had a chance to get a word in edgeways, you'll see. Behold, you are risen up in your father's stead, an increase of sinful men to augment yet the fierce anger of the Lord towards Israel. Ooh, ooh, ooh. If you turn away from after him, he will yet leave them in the wilderness, and you shall destroy all his people. Wow.
Now, I don't enjoy being told off. Don't know about you. I don't enjoy being told off even when I deserve to be. But when I get told off and I don't deserve to be, I find it very, very difficult to take. When Moses ran out of breath and hadn't any more to say, accusing him of being a, a, a sinful generation and all the rest of it, they came near to him and said, it isn't quite as you think, Moses. Ah, and Moses did a cough or two and uh, ah, and was a bit placated.
I can understand Moses waxing angry with them because he read their suggestion as another instance of rebellion against the Lord. It wasn't a rebellion, but in Moses' eyes it looked very much like one. And since we have to consider this occasion, let us give ourselves the luxury for a moment of looking at the larger context of the history in Numbers. For from chapter eleven onwards, you have the journey of the Israelites from Mount Sinai towards the Promised Land, and then through the wilderness until they reach the plains of Moab.
And the record of that journey is studded with a series of rebellions. And you say, perhaps to me, why do you bother us with the Old Testament to start with? In any case, if you're going to use the Old Testament, why get us occupied with rebellions? Why do we want to know about these ancient rebellions? Can't we get to heaven without knowing about the rebellions? Well, you certainly can, gentlemen. The dying thief didn't know a lot about the rebellions in Numbers, I think, and he went to paradise the very day.
You can get to heaven without knowing the book of Numbers. Of course you can. You won't get too far through the New Testament without meeting the rebellions that happened in Numbers. Because the New Testament refers to them all. There was, of course, the initial big rebellion at Kadesh Barnea to which Moses is referring, and he thinks that the two and a half tribes are about to repeat that rebellion, hence the ferocity of his rebuke, because that rebellion was exceedingly serious.
When under Moses, God had led the people to Kadesh Barnea, and they could have gone from that point straight into the land. They rebelled against the Lord and refused to go in and talked about making a captain to return to Egypt. Which, of course, was the abandonment and the denial of the whole point of their redemption. It was no less a rebellion than that. As a result of which, God said, oh, yes, all right, have it your way.
You won't go in? Then you shall not go in. You'll live as nomads in the desert for forty years until you're dead. And it's your children under twenty years old that eventually will go into the land. It was a serious rebellion. Why do we need to know about it and what exactly it represented? Because the New Testament in Hebrews chapter three and in chapter four cites that rebellion. And not merely as a matter of historical interest. The writer of the letter to the Hebrews is worried about the people to whom he's writing.
They have professed to believe in Christ, but their behavior recently has become difficult. And the writer is obviously worried less, less, less. The same thing is going to happen with them as happened with their forefathers in the wilderness, when they refused to go into the land, and God in consequence swore to them that they shall not enter. Beware, lest there be an evil heart of unbelief among you, says the writer, in departing from the living God.
We need to know about that rebellion, don't we? And what it really entails. And if not from a theological point of view, from a pastoral point of view. I have known many people in the course of my life, and you probably have too. Genuine, dear believers who have become exceedingly worried about those chapters in Hebrews three and four and have imagined that they have committed the unpardonable sin, and there's no hope for them left. Because, in part, sometimes through psychological weaknesses, but in part because they have misunderstood what the rebellion was about.
According to Numbers fourteen, God's own estimate of it was that these men had seen his wonders ten times over, all the way from Egypt till now, and they had not only refused to believe him, but had despised him. And now their decision to go back to Egypt flung back the whole of redemption in the face of God, saying, we don't want it, and we go back to Egypt, thank you very much. If we'd have known it was going to be like this, we wouldn't have come.
They were exposed as sheer unbelievers, who had not believed the gospel. We too have had the gospel preached to us, says the writers of the Hebrews, as they had to them, but the word didn't profit them. What was it they didn't believe? The gospel. And this rebellion of people that refused to go into the land, what was it that they didn't believe? They didn't believe the gospel either. Well, the gospel was two-pronged. It was God will lead you out of Egypt. Thank God for that.
But God will bring you into the land. The second bit wasn't optional, gentlemen. There wasn't a gospel that ran, now the main thing is to get out of Egypt and now be redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. Get out, that's the main thing. Now, when you're out, uh, there is a sort of an extra course for those that like to take it. It's about, uh, making progress, uh, in the wilderness and eventually going into the promised land, because that's an optional course. You don't have to take it so long as you get out and are redeemed by the blood of the lamb. There was no such gospel.
The gospel was one whole, redeemed by the blood of the lamb out of Egypt and brought into the promised inheritance. You reject the second bit, you reject the first bit as well. It's important, therefore, to understand what was going on in that rebellion, isn't it? And you'll not avoid it if you take the New Testament seriously, because you'll run across it in Hebrews three and four. That will require you to know exactly what was involved in the original rebellion. Well, that's Numbers, uh, 14. There's a chapter on sacrifices, Numbers fifteen, and then sixteen, Another rebellion.
Yes. What was it this time? Well, this time it was a rebellion led by a certain Korah with his friends Dathan and Abiram. Cora was a Levite. But his rebellion influenced others, Reubenites in particular, who joined him. And his rebellion was against Moses and Aaron. You take too much upon yourselves, said Korah to Moses and Aaron, seeing all the people are holy.
He was rebelling against the apostle of his faith, to use a New Testament term, that is Moses. Yes, all the people were, in a sense, holy, but Moses was God's specially appointed mediator of the new. Moses was the man through whom God's inspired word was given. There was nobody else like Moses in the whole nation. Aaron was the high priest. Only he, on the Day of Atonement, could go into the holiest of all and represent his people.
No others, priests, Levites, or all re- all commoners had that m- uh, right as the high priest had. And Korah's rebellion was against the apostle and high priest of their confession. It's a very serious rebellion. And you'll remember the combined punishment that God meted out to call a Dathan and a Byram and all their associates. They were told to s- get there before the Lord, to get out their censers and burn incense on it, and God would give his verdict, and the verdict was the earth opened up and swallowed them up.
And when it was over, Moses was told to take the censers of those men that had rebelled, to beat them out flat, and to nail them to the altar, so that in future days, when anybody came to that altar, if he had eyes to see it, he would be reminded of that rebellion that had taken place against God's apostle and high priest. You say, why on earth do I need to know about that? I like, I prefer the New Testament.
You do? Well, have a little read of Jude. He says there certain men come in privily unawares, and he characterizes them in these phrases. They've gone in the way of Cain. They have poured themselves out after the error of Balaam. They have perished in the rebellion of Korah. Well, of course, these were names, weren't they?
A way of characterizing the false teaching of the men who had crept into those assemblies. It's like in the modern time, if I called a man a Hitler, you would know exactly what I mean. I don't mean he is Hitler, but he's showing all the characteristics of Hitler. A man that shows the characteristics of Cain, you can call him Cain. They've gone in the way of Cain. Man who follows Balaam and his ways, he poured himself out in the way of Balaam for gain and perished in the, now notice it. I don't know what your modern American versions read, who knows, but uh...
The Greek antilogia means speaking against, literally, and hence the Old English King James, gain saying, saying something against, you see. That's good old Anglo-Saxon way of speaking. In Hebrews twelve, the same word is used, but this time it is in the King James, him who, uh, endured the contradiction of sinners. But that's Latin, isn't it? English has two ways of speaking. It can speak in Anglo-Saxon or it can speak in Latin, you'll see, hence the richness of the lingo, lingo.
But, uh, in Hebrews, it's the Latin form, contradiction, contradiktio, speaking against. But of course, it came to have the meaning not merely of saying something, it came to mean serious speaking against, namely rebelling. And these in those assemblies, these false teachers in the assemblies, among the three things that characterized them was this finally, they have perished in the rebellion of Korah. Speaking against the apostle and high priest of their confession.
And we think of modern Christendom, where some professors of Christian theology reject the uniqueness of Christ and indeed his deity, and say he is mistaken in some things. And refuse to believe his virgin birth or his bodily resurrection. And talk about his, the doctrine of his second coming as mere apocalyptism. They shall perish in the rebellion of Korah.
We need to know about old Korah, don't we? And what was involved in his rebellion. It was a rather different rebellion from the first rebellion, if you see what I mean. Rebellions come in different sizes and shapes. There's a very touching word in Hebrews twelve, isn't it? We are to look off onto Jesus when the race gets long and difficult, and the persecution awkward, who endured such rebellion of sinners against himself, who come to his cross, and you will see, so to speak, the senses of the rebels nailed to his cross.
For his own nation took him. The high priests being the leaders. They rejected his claim. He was not the Son of God, they said. He was guilty of blasphemy, and they forced the Romans to execute. You can't approach the cross of Christ, if you have eyes to see anything, without observing the record of the biggest rebellion against God that ever happened on the face of the earth. The crucifixion of God's son.
We must have no quarter in the church. Amen. For doctrines that impugn the deity and the unique high priesthood of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Well, that rebellion was got by, and God's demonstration of who the true priesthood was. Mm-hmm. And that's all finished up in chapter nineteen. And in chapter twenty, what do you think chapter twenty is about? You could almost guess, couldn't you? Chapter twenty is about another rebellion.
This time from an extraordinary quarter. It was a rebellion of Moses and Aaron against God. We considered it our first night together, why Moses was not allowed to lead the Israelites into the Promised Land, nor Aaron either, because they rebelled against God, refused to believe him, which resulted in disobedience and rebellion, and failed to sanctify him before the people, failed to represent God's character truly, made him out to be a hard God, whereas in his compassion he was about to give the people what they requested, water for themselves and their cattle.
Misabu- uh, abused their priesthood, and with the priestly staff in their hand, had misrepresented God instead of pleading for the people, and thrashed the rock instead of just speaking to it, and accused the suffering Israelite of being rebels. That too was a rebellion. God lists it as such. Oh well, that got over, and God blessed his people in spite of it.
Indeed, when Aaron failed, God did a spectacular thing. He got hold of an old Balaam. He was a false prophet, was Balaam, in it for what money he could make, you know, prepared to think he had a higher calling if the salary were bigger. You'll see. But, ha ha. When hired by the king of Moab, Balak, to come and curse God's people, he had a good go at it. And had the pagan notion that if you bribe God heavily enough, you can get him onto your side. So he kept offering sacrifices bigger than better than the last lot, in the hope that he would so pile on the sacrifices he could persuade God to come over to his side and curse Israel.
God made that old blaspheming prophet pronounce the mind of God. God has given commandment to bless, and I cannot reverse it. God's blessing of his people, in spite of the rebellion of Moses and Aaron. Yes, but that was all over, it was nicely over when... what do you suppose the next thing that happened was? Surely you can guess. It was another rebellion.
This time the people began to commit whoredom with the Moabitish women. Not only to commit fornication with them, but to go over to the worship of their gods. Which brought upon Israel a very severe plague, and thousands of them perished. You say again, why should we bother with those things? You like the New Testament? Oh well, one Corinthians ten talks about that, doesn't it?
These things happened as, the Greek word is type, but not a type for us to follow, as an example, as a warning of what not to follow. And he lists the failure of Israel, and of course among them is this incident of committing fornication with the women of Moab and engaging in their idolatry. The New Testament refers to it, therefore.
And our Lord, in his letters to the churches, refers to Balaam, who taught the king of Balak to put a stumbling block before his people, so that they committed whoredom with the daughters of Moab and were thus entri- enticed and entangled in the Moabitish religion and the worship of pagan deities. And our Lord warns the churches against it. Why? Because in the early churches there arose men who said that that sort of sexual behavior was not all that important.
In fact, it didn't really signify anything much. And then it was okay for businessmen to go along to business clubs and societies, in which, of course, at the dinners there would be plenty of women, but not the men's wives. And then before the food was eaten, it would be offered to the patron deity of the merchant class, whichever it was, whose image was standing there. And our Lord comments, you have a woman there called Jezebel who encourages my servants to commit adultery, uh, fornication and to eat things offered to idols.
These rebellions in numbers are not irrelevant to us, and if we would be true teachers of God's word amongst his people and careful shepherds of the flock, we shall not be talking about rebellions every five minutes, but shall we shall be careful to guard, shall we not? And to help those that are tempted towards any such doctrinal or moral rebellion. That is the background of Moses' reaction to the two and a half tribes, when they came with their proposal that they should be allowed to settle down east of Jordan and take that as their inheritance.
Of course, the fact is that Moses was still their leader, and he had conducted them past Edom and then through Moab, and then on upwards, and Sion, and then, uh, the king Og, uh, Og king of Bashan had come out against them, those two kings on east of Jordan, to fight with Israel. And God had strengthened Israel under Moses' direction, and they had defeated the two kings. And came and dwelt in their cities. And this was up in Bashan and around, and of course there was plenty of grass.
And since the Lord had given them victory there, they came to Moses with their, uh, uh, suggestion that because they particularly, these two and a half tribes, had a lot of cattle, they should be allowed to settle and count that as their inheritance. Moses thought it was yet one more rebellion. Hence his anger. You're doing what your fathers did at Kadesh Barnea, when God would have taken them into the land, and they discouraged the people and wouldn't go in, and you're risen up like your fathers, and you're going to settle here, and you'll discourage the rest of the people from going over Jordan into their inheritance.
Oh, well, if it had been true, it would have been serious, wouldn't it? To settle down, if that meant encouraging the rest of Israel to settle down there and never go across Jordan into their inheritance. That would have been serious. And Moses added the other consideration. You proposed, uh, shall your brethren go to the war? Numbers thirty two six. The war? Yes, the famous war. The great war that had to be fought west of Jordan against the Canaanites and their wickedness.
The war. Moses didn't intend that the two and a half tribes should be able to settle down in peace and comfort and luxury in the grassland with their cattle, while their brethren had to go across Jordan and engage for some years in the war. Hence the seriousness of, uh, uh, uh, the situation as Moses saw it. The two and a half tribes quietened and pacified Moses.
They said, sir, we intend no such thing. You grant us this part as our inheritance that the Lord has given us. We'll build stockades, we'll put our families there and our cattle, but we will go over, and not only go over, we shall go in the vanguard with the armies of Israel, and we shall not leave until the war is finished. We will fight every inch with our brethren. It is not our intention to divide the people of God so that we sit down at ease and couldn't bother our heads about our brethren who are fighting the war in Canaan.
Nor do we intend, by settling east of Jordan, to divide the nation into two bits, the eastern and the western Israel. They gave their pledge. All right, said Moses. I grant you that upon your word of honor, that you will not attempt, you men folks, to stay here. You'll leave your women and children here, but you'll come across and fight every inch of the way. They said yes. So then he took them to Joshua and Eleazar the priest and stated the terms very carefully in the front of Joshua, who would be the commander, and the new priest Eleazar, high priest, that this would be on record.
And the record was that if they did in fact come over and join their brothers and fight the war till the war was finished, then they could come back and have inheritance east. But if they were not prepared to do that, they couldn't have inheritance east. It wouldn't be given them. They would be required to come over and fight with their brothers and get their inheritance west of Jordan. And the two and a half tribes said, yes, yes, yes, we're prepared for that. We're not prepared to divide the nation into splinter groups.
And yes, we're not going to sit down in ease and comfort while the bulk of our brethren are hard fighting the war. You will see how important this matter is if you go back to the book of Joshua chapter one. We studied it on an earlier occasion. God's charge to Joshua in the early verses, and then Joshua's response to God's charge in verses ten and eleven, And then Joshua's charge, now notice to whom?
Not to the people as a whole, but to the Reubenites and to the Gadites and to the half tribe of Nasi, spoke Joshua. Now remember the Lord and what he has said. And you must go across with your brethren, verse fifteen, until the Lord has given your brethren rest as he has given you, and they also have possessed the land which the Lord your God giveth them. Then shall you return unto the land of your possession and possess it, which Moses the servant of the Lord gave you beyond Jordan toward the sun rising. And they answered Joshua, saying, all that thou hast commanded us we will do, and with us whoever thou sendest us we will go.
According as we hearkened unto Moses in all things, so we will hearken unto thee. Only the Lord thy God be with us, as he was with Moses. Whosoever he be that shall rebel against thy commandment and shall not hearken unto thy words in all that thou commandest him, he shall be put to death. Only be strong and of good courage. Joshua reminding the two and a half tribes. The rest of them, of course, had to cross Jordan anyway. But now, at this critical moment, reminding the two and a half tribes of their promise to cross over and fight. Notice chapter four, will you?
Verse ten, Chapter four of Joshua, that is, verse ten. For the priests which bear the ark stood in the midst of Jordan until everything was finished that the Lord commanded Joshua to speak unto the people, according to all that Moses had commanded Joshua, and all the people hasted and passed over. And it came to pass, when all the people were clean passed over, that the ark of the Lord passed over, and the priests in the presence of the people, and... Notice it. And the children of Reuben, and the children of Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh passed over armed before the children of Israel, as Moses spake unto them, about forty thousand ready armed for war passed over before the Lord unto battle to the plains of Jericho.
You won't forget those two and a half tribes, will you? They carry an important lesson. Now, when Joshua is commanded to distribute the territory among the tribes, he and Eleazar the high priest have that responsibility, and in the first lot he is, he distributes the territory to, to the tribe of Judah and then to the Joseph tribes. But before he gets around to that, God reminds him of these two and a half tribes that have already received their inheritance east of Jordan.
And it is all listed all the way down that chapter thirteen and on into fourteen. It is so important. The point must be made that the inheritance of the two and a half tribes east of Jordan was equally valid as the inheritance given west of Jordan. It wasn't some inferior inheritance. It was an integral part of the inheritance that God had given. And it meant, of course, that the two and a half tribes were an integral part of the nation.
Even though they went back eventually, when the war was over, they were allowed to go back east of Jordan and settle east of Jordan. Two points, therefore, that were exceedingly important. At the end of this book, we shall meet them again, when the war being over, Joshua gave them permission to go back across Jordan east into their inheritance. Oh. Then there broke out almost a civil war, as the Westerners got wrong ideas about these two and a half tribes and went with their army to destroy them. What a sad picture that would have been, wouldn't it?
To see Israel now in their inheritance and fighting their brethren and insisting on a split between them. If you should be going out of this hall at the end of one of these lectures, and you came across some very ancient looking man with a big beard, and he accosted you and said, are you one of these two and a half tribes? Are you slacking?
Are you taking it easy when your brothers, your Christian brothers and sisters around the world are having it tough? Are you taking it easy when the servants of God in many lands are working hard and fighting the good fight of the faith? Are you sitting down and slacking? Or are you fighting with the people of God? And enduring hardship as good soldiers of Jesus Christ? If the old man you met turned out to be Moses, come down to supervise this conference.
What would you say to him? We listen to Paul talking to Timothy. Timothy, these things I write to you, that by them you might learn to war the good warfare. It's a battle, my brethren. We don't need to exaggerate it. Always dwell on that side of things. We have a glorious inheritance, thank God.
But it's a battle. It was already a battle in the assembly at Ephesus in, in Timothy's day. And he had to learn as a young man to war the good warfare. I have fought the good fight. It is the fight of the faith. It is the fight of our task to take the gospel to the world. Are we in the flight?
Or are we settling down before the church is at rest? There is the other thing. There would have been a big danger, wouldn't there? If the two and a half tribes had been allowed to settle east of Jordan and not gone to the war with the others, there would have been a real danger of dividing Israel into two. And right from the start, being content with that division. That wouldn't do either, would it? We must work for the oneness of all God's true children who fight the same battles of the Lord.
Let not us take minor things and treat them as though they were fundamental issues and divide God's people and make the Lord's people less efficient as the army of God. And whatever our inheritance, for no one believer has understood everything, has he? What? To understand the marvels of God's grace and the wonders of his purpose, we need to comprehend with all the saints what is the length and depth and height and breadth, that we may know the love of Christ which passes knowledge.
We need each brothers, our personalities, different backgrounds, different temperaments, the gl- glories and the light of God's revelation might shining through each one of us make a harmonious, glorious vision that it couldn't do merely through one individual. I need you. Mm. And you might not think it, but you need me, actually. And the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you. I can get on without you.
Nor the foot. To the heart. God give us to learn to fight the good fight of the faith, and as soldiers of Jesus Christ, to be prepared to endure what hardship comes our way. Lest we be found luxuriating in comfort, taking our ease in a world where the Church of God as a whole is suffering, is persecuted, and is fighting for God and for Christ, under the principles of Christ.
So let's leave our study there. No extra charge for the excursion into numbers. See, but those rebellions are important. God help us to understand them, that we may help the Lord's people not to fall into such rebellions, or if they fall into them, to point the way of recovery.
