Bible Study: Think About That Answered Prayer

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Today is Saturday February 27, 2010 and we are reading through the Bible in a year. Today's message comes from the reading of the Book of Numbers chapters 32-33. If you would like to read the chapters along with us here online you can Click Here to read them or copy & paste this URL onto your browser: http://www.readytofollow.com/bible-february-27

Title: Bible Study: Think About That Answered Prayer
As Christian's we rejoice at receiving answered prayer, it gives you such a lift and increases your faith in God. Someone who gets a job praises God for that job, someone who is sick or has a health issue praises God for being healed. Someone looking for a mate praises God for sending one. Yet, while they are praising God, He thinking, that is not what I was going to do for you. Sometimes God will test us, He places things before us to see just how faithful we are to Him. He wants to see if we are truly thinking about what we are accepting or just grabbing it with no thought at all. I build websites when I am not doing this and if I took every job that was placed before me I would be in big trouble. We can not assume that everything God places before us is something that He wants in our lives, if it takes us away from serving Him or doing His will than it is not going to be an enjoyable experience. Everything we do in life from the mate we choose, to the job we get, to the right religion follow, needs to keep us in the will of God or we will suffer. For forty years the Israelites had been wandering around in the wilderness, finally they could see the promised land before them and were so excited about crossing over that river to enter the land they heard so much about. However, two and a half of the tribes saw the beautiful land they were in at the present time and longed to stay where they were. They went to Moses and asked him to let them have that land instead of going into the promised land. “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; 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, Ataroth, and Dibon, and Jazer, and Nimrah, and Heshbon, and Elealeh, and Shebam, and Nebo, and Beon, Even the country which the LORD smote before the congregation of Israel, is a land for cattle, and thy servants have cattle: 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.........And Moses said unto them, If ye will do this thing, if ye will go armed before the LORD to war, And will go all of you armed over Jordan before the LORD, until he hath driven out his enemies from before him, And the land be subdued before the LORD: then afterward ye shall return, and be guiltless before the LORD, and before Israel; and this land shall be your possession before the LORD...........And Moses gave unto them, even to the children of Gad, and to the children of Reuben, and unto half the tribe of Manasseh the son of Joseph, the kingdom of Sihon king of the Amorites, and the kingdom of Og king of Bashan, the land, with the cities thereof in the coasts, even the cities of the country round about. ” - Numbers 32:1-5,20-22,33. First of all, there was no mention of them going to Moses and asking him to speak to God about this and second, they were too quick to see the land before them instead of waiting to see what was waiting for them on the other side. Sadly, instead of going to God, Moses compromised with them and allowed them to stay as long as they helped the rest of the tribes get into the promised land.

The God-appointed territory for all the tribes was inside Canaan, not near by. Yet, the two and a half tribes were willing to give up their birthright in the Promised Land for what they saw as opportunity for material gain. The unity of the nation, their nearness to the Tabernacle, and the presence of God should have been their first choices, but they were free to make the choices they made and the result of it made them suffer in the end. Neither the Reubenites nor the Gadites show any indication of rejecting God, they still expected the blessings and security of God, but did not want to give up the lush grasslands to fulfill His will. Their association with their heathen neighbors on the east side of Jordan soon led them into idolatry, years later they were the first of the tribes to be taken captive. The only time God spoke to them during this time was just before they got to Jericho, “And the LORD spake unto Moses in the plains of Moab by Jordan near Jericho, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye are passed over Jordan into the land of Canaan; Then ye shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, and destroy all their pictures, and destroy all their molten images, and quite pluck down all their high places: And ye shall dispossess the inhabitants of the land, and dwell therein: for I have given you the land to possess it. And ye shall divide the land by lot for an inheritance among your families: and to the more ye shall give the more inheritance, and to the fewer ye shall give the less inheritance: every man's inheritance shall be in the place where his lot falleth; according to the tribes of your fathers ye shall inherit. But if ye will not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you; then it shall come to pass, that those which ye let remain of them shall be pricks in your eyes, and thorns in your sides, and shall vex you in the land wherein ye dwell. Moreover it shall come to pass, that I shall do unto you, as I thought to do unto them” - Numbers 33:50-56. God gave them all a stern warning, once they crossed over the Jordan, they were about to enter a land full of temptation and in order to resist that temptation they needed to get rid of the people that were possessing their land. If they did not they would constantly face trouble and affliction from them as well as from God.

Today, God is giving us the same warning, He gave us a piece of land to possess and we can not allow the world to stay in it. If we do we can expect trouble and affliction. We can not love God and the things of the world. Jesus Said, “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?” - Matthew 6:24-26. Are we not God's people? Sure we are and He loves us very much and wants us to pray to Him and ask Him for things we need. He will always provide us, but He will not allow us to do something that is going to put us in a position where we have to compromise with the world. That is something we choose to do all on our own and we will suffer for it, maybe not right away, but later on in life we will learn that it was not something God intended for us to have. God tests me all the time to see if I will take a certain job for the money. Once I had a person call and want a me to create a website for a bar. Can you imagine a person of God creating a website that encourages people to drink and watch half clothed women prancing around? I do not think so. No matter how good the opportunity looks, we can not allow ourselves to bring the world into our dwelling place. However, the great thing is that even if we have gotten ourselves into a compromising situation God will forgive us and help us get out of it when we come to Him. Praise God! Never think that there is no way out of what you are facing and that God is punishing you. We may suffer for a time, but once we repent and ask for forgiveness, He forgives and forgets all about it. Praise God! So, let us also forgive and forget things ourselves so we no longer have to suffer for things that God already has wiped from His memory.

Enjoy the rest of your day/night and weekend. God Bless You, I am praying for you,
Christina

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