The Curious Case of the Tribes of Reuben, Gad, & Manasseh

Posted on May 3, 2021 by russellmckinney

God had given the land of Canaan to Israel (Abraham’s descendants, the Jews). Consequently, some forty years after unbelief and cowardice had initially cost them their first opportunity to make the land their own (Numbers 14:1-38), God again guided them to its brink for a second chance at taking possession of their possession. But first they would have to cross the Jordan river.

A curious thing happened, though, before the nation crossed the Jordan and began the military push westward into Canaan. Two of Israel’s tribes decided they liked the land on the east side of the Jordan enough to settle down there and live out their lives. Those tribes were the tribe of Reuben and the tribe of Gad. The story is told in Numbers chapter 32.

The land in question was known as Jazer (the northern part of the land) and Gilead (the southern part of it) and had been brought under Israel’s control when Israel’s army had defeated the armies of the Amorite king Sihon and the Bashanite king Og on its march toward the Jordan (Numbers 21:21-35; 32:33). As it so happened, the land was incredibly lush and perfect for raising livestock. This fact wasn’t lost on the tribes of Reuben and Gad, both of which had large amounts of livestock. And so, their leaders went to Moses and asked that the land be given to those tribes for a permanent dwelling place (Numbers 32:1-5).

Moses’ initial reaction to the request was not favorable to say the least. For one thing, he didn’t want the nation to undertake its military conquest of Canaan minus the men of two tribes (Numbers 32:6). For another, he feared that allowing those two tribes to settle east of the Jordan would create enough discouragement among the rest of the nation to cause a second failed attempt at conquering Canaan (Numbers 32:7). He even accused the leaders of the two tribes of acting like their forefathers who had refused to take Canaan forty years earlier (Numbers 32:8-15). He told them, “If you turn away from following the Lord, He will once again leave our people in the wilderness, which will mean that you have destroyed all of us” (32:15).

Being taken aback by Moses’ strong words, the tribal leaders of Reuben and Gad proposed a deal. They said, “We will build sheepfolds here for our livestock, and cities for our little ones, and then our fighting men will leave our livestock, little ones, and wives in order to take the lead in moving the army of Israel into Canaan” (Numbers 32:16-17). They promised Moses, “We will not return to our homes until every one of the children of Israel has received his inheritance in Canaan” (Numbers 32:18).

This deal was acceptable to Moses, and he gave the two tribes permission to build their sheepfolds and their cities (Numbers 32:20-32). Even though he warned them that their sin would surely find them out if they reneged on the deal (Numbers 32:23), history would prove them true to their word. As Joshua 22:1-4 informs us, the tribes held up their end of the bargain very well.

To make a murky situation even murkier, at some point toward the end of the negotiations, half the tribe of Manasseh decided to join the people of Reuben and Gad in living on the east side of the Jordan (Numbers 32:33). In an interesting twist, once all the fighting was finally completed, the tribe of Manasseh actually received land on not only the east side of the Jordan but also the west side. Half the tribe settled on the east side in territories they had won by driving out the previous inhabitants (Numbers 32:39; Joshua 13:1-7), and the other half settled on the west side in land that was allotted to them by Joshua (Joshua 13:8-12; 22:7).

Through it all, though, the central question regarding the tribes that settled on the east side of the Jordan is always: “Were they right to do so?” Truth be told, Bible scholars and commentators differ in their opinions on the matter. I’ll lay out the basic cases for each point of view and let you decide which camp you think has the right take.

Commentator William Macdonald is a good example of those who don’t think the tribes were wrong in what they did. In his Believer’s Bible Commentary, he points out that God had actually given the land east of the Jordan to the people of Israel and told them to possess it (Deuteronomy 2:24, 32; 3:2). With this in mind, he then logically asks the question:

“What was to be done with the land east of the Jordan River if none of the children of Israel were to settle in it?”

Likewise, James Mays, in The Layman’s Bible Commentary, says:

“…this geographical separateness was not a division of the unity of all Israel as responsible for her mission and as recipients of the Lord’s blessing.”

Similarly, B. Maarsingh in Numbers: A Practical Commentary, says of the deal proposed by the leaders of the tribes of Reuben and Gad:

“In this promise a very different mentality comes through. No longer were they implying that they would be satisfied if only they got their share; rather the message that comes through is, ‘We are together one people; we live by only one promise and are led by one God.'”

The Baker Commentary on the Bible takes its assessment of the situation to an even further extreme by saying the following:

“The wise provision of the sovereign Lord for his people is clearly seen in this account. He provides for the needs of the cattlemen; he gives an enlarged inheritance to Israel (more than the west side of Jordan); he provides warriors to lead Israel in its further conquests.”

However, while these opinions are all perfectly reasonable, the fact is, the majority of scholars and commentators believe the tribes were wrong in what they did. Many point out the practical problem of the tribes on the east side of the Jordan not having the river as a natural protective barrier against enemy attacks from the east. This, accordingly, allowed those tribes to be the first ones to be conquered when the Assyrian empire started marching westward and making inroads to conquering Israel’s northern kingdom (2 Kings 15:29).

Moving from the practical to the spiritual, the New Scofield Study Bible calls the tribes that settled to the east of Jordan “world-borderers” and compares them to “carnal Christians.” Along the same lines, in his Matthew Henry Commentary, Matthew Henry surmises that the lust of the eye and the pride of life caused the tribes to make their request. David Jeremiah, in The Jeremiah Study Bible, follows suit by attributing their request to them being “unable to wait for the best.”

Merrill Unger also favors this interpretation of the tribes choosing to settle for less than God’s best. In his Unger’s Commentary on the Old Testament, he writes:

“How easy it is for God’s people to get so near to what is God’s purpose for them and yet be diverted from it by what is expedient from a worldly standpoint… Especially is this true of the good and providentially advantageous things of this life that in themselves are by the mercy of God, but which, if we settle down in them, become the ‘good’ that is the enemy of the ‘best’ that God has for us. This is what happened to Reuben and Gad with regard to their very great multitude of cattle and their desire to settle down in the place that was a place for cattle, but not the place of full blessing God had promised them.”

George Williams, in The Student’s Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, is especially critical of the tribes. He writes:

“The path of self-will is never so smooth as that of faith and obedience. God’s plan for Israel was first to conquer Canaan, and then, the vast region between the Jordan and the Euphrates. Reuben and his allies elected to reverse this; the result was present suffering and future loss. They had immediately to bid farewell to their wives and children and march away to a seven years war, in which many of them would probably lose their lives; and later on, they were the first tribes to be carried into captivity and exile…”

Coming at the criticism another way, J. Vernon McGee, in his Thru the Bible commentary, transfers the whole story into the New Testament world by mentioning that the people of Gadara, whom Jesus encountered when He cast a host of demons out of the Gadarene demonic and into a herd of swine (Mark 5:1-20), were the descendants of the tribe of Gad that had once settled in that general area. McGee writes:

“Now who are the Gadarenes? They are the tribe of Gad, living on the wrong side of the Jordan River. And when Jesus came to them, He found them in the pig business, you remember. And when He healed the demon-possessed man, the Gadarenes asked the Lord Jesus to leave their country! They had gotten into a sad condition. This always happens to the child of God who fails to cross Jordan and get into the Land of Promise.”

As you can see, the camps on both sides of the debate make good arguments to support their cases. So, what side of the debate do I favor? I probably tend to agree that all those who settled on the east side of the Jordan missed God’s fullest slate of blessings upon their lives. But should we classify their decision as “sin”? Well, I’m not sure I would call it that. I do, however, suspect they somehow missed out on the highest and best God had in mind for them.

I will admit, though, that those people did a lot with that land. Numbers 32:34-42 lists all the cities they either built or renamed for the Lord, and the livestock produced by those tribes became known throughout all Israel. As evidence of this, Psalm 22:12 refers to the strong bulls of Bashan. Does this productivity mean that those Jews actually were in God’s will by dwelling in that land? Perhaps. Then again, it’s quite common for people outside God’s will to get a lot accomplished in terms of worldly affairs.

As I said, I lean toward siding with Merrill Unger, David Jeremiah, and all the others who believe those people missed God’s ideal best. I won’t sneer at you, though, if you lean toward the other side. It really is an interesting debate, one that we won’t know the full answer about until we get to heaven. Until then, I won’t come down like thunder on those people of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh, but I won’t sing their praises, either. And if I ever find myself being tempted to settle down in a land that I’m a little dicey about, I’ll be sure to seek God’s wisdom and will all the more to make certain that I get the decision right.

Posted in Choices, Decisions, Desires, Discernment, God's Will, Impatience, Patience, Temptation, Waiting | Tagged , , | 14 Comments

Garbage In, Garbage Out

Posted on April 30, 2021 by russellmckinney

Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy — meditate on these things. (Philippians 4:8, N.K.J.V.)

This verse has always haunted me in regards to some of the television programs I watch, some of the movies I watch, and some of the music I enjoy. I mean, just how “pure” are those old westerns? Just how “lovely” are those scary movies? Just how “noble” is all that 1980s music?

Several years ago I heard a fundamentalist Baptist preacher preach against listening to any and all secular music. Since his congregation consisted of a bunch of older people, he specifically referenced what we might call “good-time oldies” music. I’m talking about rock-and-roll music from the 1950s and 1960s. The preacher said, “You say, ‘I just listen to the golden oldies.’ Well, you know what those songs are, don’t you? They are what we were preaching against back then!” I had to laugh because the man did make a good point.

Christian liberty might be loosely defined as “Christians being permitted to do certain things that are not specifically forbidden in scripture.” By that definition, a lengthy list of debatable actions can be placed under that heading. That list could include: watching movies, listening to secular music, playing video games, celebrating Christmas, drinking alcohol without getting drunk, undergoing plastic surgery, attending Nascar races, riding Harley Davidsons, and women wearing makeup.

The pushback to majoring in Christian liberty is the fact that Christians are scripturally forbidden from loving the world or even having friendship with it (1 John 2:15-16; James 4:4). The Bible uses the word “world” to refer to the planetwide system that operates in opposition to God. This is the “world” over which Satan rules (2 Corinthians 4:4; John 12:31). The question becomes, though, can’t the case be made that just about everything is a part of this system?

Think about it, if theme parks are part of the world system, are we in sin for visiting them? If the NFL is part of the world system, are we in sin for watching the Super Bowl? If Hollywood is part of the world system, are we in sin for watching movies? If the music industry is part of the world system, are we in sin for listening to secular music? If the video game industry is part of the world system, are we in sin for playing video games? Speaking for myself, I’m still looking for that line that runs between enjoying Christian liberty and committing the sin of being friends with the world.

And then there is the fact that even sinless activities can become hinderances to the Christian. No one understood Christian liberty better than the apostle Paul, and he said, “All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful; all things are lawful for me, but not all things edify” (1 Corinthians 10:23, N.K.J.V.). The word “edify” is defined as “to build up.” That means, Christian, that even if certain activities don’t tear you down, you might be better off forgoing them because they don’t build you up.

This brings us to the title of this post. At what point does the phrase “garbage in, garbage out” start applying to the Christian’s walk with Christ? If we watch either too many movies or even just one that we’d be better off not watching, does that harm our ability to serve Christ? If we get on Netflix and binge watch the latest popular t.v. series, does that make us worldly Christians? If we listen to secular music, does that make us friends with the world? If we spend time playing video games, whether those games be the latest Madden football game, the latest Call of Duty war game, or whatever, does that make us bad Christians?

As is the case with so many areas, I suppose what we are looking for here is a God-approved balance. On the one hand, we don’t want to become good little legalists who can’t enjoy life because we are walking around in constant terror of committing some sin. Remember, Jesus did say “My yoke is easy and My burden is light” (Matthew 11:30, N.K.J.V.). On the other hand, we don’t want to become good little worldlings who operate more like friends of the world than friends of the Lord, either.

Again, I freely confess that striking this proper balance continues to be a work in progress in my life. One thing I have learned is that I can find certain things that are true, noble, just, pure, lovely, virtuous, and praiseworthy in venues that have nothing to do with church gatherings or gospel singings. That Baptist preacher I heard preach that night would disagree with my take on that, but he’s not the one that I’m trying to please anyway. Therefore, I’ll just keep serving the Lord and let Him keep teaching me where those boundaries of Christian liberty fall regarding the things I do.

Posted in Choices, Christian Liberty, Decisions, Doing Good, Entertainment, God's Will, Grace, Music, Personal, Sin, Sports | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

What Satellite Chips Have to Do with Holy Conduct

Posted on April 28, 2021 by russellmckinney

…as He who has called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy” (1 Peter 1:15-16, N.K.J.V.).

A country doctor had a sign in his office that read, “First visit $25. All other visits, $10.” A cheapskate who was new in town walked in for a physical but didn’t want to pay the first-visit price. In his attempt to save the extra $15, he greeted the doctor by saying, “It’s good to see you again, doc.” The doctor knew instantly that he’d never met the man but played along and proceeded with the exam. When he finished he said, “Well, the bad news is that your condition is quite serious.” Now worried, the cheapskate nervously asked, “What should I do, doc?” Without showing an ounce of emotion, the doctor replied in a monotone voice, “Just keep doing what I told you to do the last time.”

Life can get hard, and when it does we are tempted to cheat a little to get by. For the Christian, however, this should never be an option. We serve a holy heavenly Father, we have been saved by a holy Savior, and we have the holy Spirit living inside each of us. If all that isn’t enough, our text passage calls us to be holy in all our conduct.

Like many people nowadays, my family has a small satellite that is mounted to a corner of the roof of our house. That satellite captures a programming signal from deep space and sends it inside our home to a couple of receiver boxes that are hooked into our four televisions. That process enables us to enjoy satellite television programming on each of those tvs. But I am old enough to remember those massive NASA-sized satellites that many people in rural areas used to have sitting in their yards. Those behemoth satellites were the precursors to the smaller units that we know today.

When those first home satellites hit the market, you could purchase one and then sit back and watch any and every television channel that was known to man. I mean, if it was broadcast via a satellite, you could find it somewhere on your dial. That included premium movie channels such as HBO, Cinemax, and Showtime. A few years later, though, those channels and many others started scrambling their signals. That meant that you now had to pay a monthly fee to subscribe to those channels in order to watch them.

Not long afterward, specially designed electronic chips started popping up on the black market. A satellite owner could pay a one-time price for a chip (the price was usually $100 or less), plug that chip into the satellite’s receiver box inside the home, and PRESTO all those scrambled channels magically became unscrambled. Paying that one-time small fee sure beat paying those high monthly prices to get to watch those channels.

There was only one problem with those chips: they were illegal! But that little issue didn’t seem to bother all the folks who were trying to “beat the man.” And, yes, a whole lot of those folks were professing Christians who got up every Sunday morning and went to church. I have to say that even back then I thought that behavior was pretty hypocritical. (This to say nothing, of course, of the whole other matter of Christians watching movies featuring profanity and nudity on HBO, or Hell’s Box Office, as some Baptist preachers started calling that channel.)

Eventually, the temptation to employ an under-the-counter electronic chip to get programming you weren’t paying for was defused. That happened when the people scrambling the channels got smart and started scrambling them afresh and anew each week. The chip-designers, whoever they were, couldn’t keep up with that, and even if they could have, people weren’t about to pay for a new chip each week. It would have been cheaper just to pay for the channels legally. That relegated the black-market-satellite-chip era to a relatively brief season in mankind’s sordid history.

For some reason, I had those old satellite chips on my mind today. I have to smile a little when I think back on those days even though I doubt that God found it amusing that many of His people were breaking the eighth commandment. By way of a reminder, that one reads: “Thou shalt not steal” (Exodus 20:15).

Like I said, life can be hard, and there are times when we are all tempted to sin just a little to make it easier. Whether it be cheating on income taxes, telling a half-truth, loading a baseball bat to give it more pop, or using an illegal chip to watch movie channels, we all have our individualized ways of lowering the bar of personal holiness. But what we must keep in mind is that God is watching us (pun fully intended), and He’s looking for holy conduct. That holds true for everyone, but it holds exceedingly true for anyone who claims to know Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.

So, Christian, are you being tempted right now to lower your bar of holiness in order to get along a little easier? Oh, be careful of that. Remember, it’s far better to have a television screen with a scrambled signal than a life with one. Don’t mar your holy conduct and lose eternal reward just to gain a slight edge in a world that isn’t your real home anyway. If the Lord wants you to have a certain channel, He will make a way for you to get it without you resorting to sin. Just trust in Him, and let Him do all your programming.

Posted in Backsliding, Character, Choices, Decisions, Desires, Discipleship, Doing Good, God's Holiness, God's Will, Holiness, Personal, Personal Holiness, Sin, Temptation, Trusting In God | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

God Doesn’t Always Provide Simple Solutions

Posted on April 26, 2021 by russellmckinney

In his book Morning Devotions, Tom Wallace tells the following story:

Everybody’s heart went out to the little lady who hobbled through the waiting room of one of our local doctors. She was bent over like a horseshoe. A short cane kept her from toppling over. Her face bore the burden of her bent body. In just a few minutes she came out with a big smile beaming on her face. Her joy was evident. She walked tall with shoulders erect. “Amazing,” said one. “A miracle,” said another.”

The next person called in asked, “Doctor, we all saw that poor old woman go in there all bent over and then we all saw her come out straightened up, walking briskly with a big smile. What did you do to her?” “I really didn’t do much for her,” the doctor stated. “I just gave her a longer cane.”

Everyone enjoys a simple solution to a problem. We want it clean. We want it clear cut. I have to admit, though, that my dealings with the Lord have taught me that simple solutions aren’t always the way He rolls. For example, in John 9:1-7 Jesus restores a blind man’s sight by means of a rather complicated procedure. First, He spits on the ground and uses the saliva to make mud. Second, He rubs the mud on the man’s eyes. Third, He tells the man to go wash himself in the pool of Siloam. The Bible doesn’t even identify precisely when the man actually receives his sight in that whole process. All we’re told is that he went and washed, and came back seeing.

A similar story is found in Mark 8:22-26. For the healing in that instance, Jesus begins by taking the man by the hand and leading him out of town. Then Jesus spits on the man’s eyes, puts His hands of him, and asks him if he sees anything. The man answers, “I see people, but they look like trees, walking.” Finally, Jesus puts His hands on the man’s eyes a second time, and at that point the man’s vision is perfectly restored.

I guess we might say that Jesus did provide the simplest solutions in each of these cases of blindness. In other words, He cured the blindness. But we’d be lying if we said that He provided those simple solutions simply. No, what He did in each situation was work through multilayered processes to bring about the solution. As for why He chose to work that way, He no doubt had His reasons. I particularly like Bible teacher John MacArthur’s suggestion that Jesus making the mud in the John chapter 9 story might have hearkened back to the time when He had created Adam out of the dust of the ground. As MacArthur theorizes, “Jesus may have used the clay (mud) to fashion a new pair of eyes.” Taking that possibility a bit further, if the man had been born without any eyeballs, Jesus using the mud to literally build two new ones would have made perfect sense.

Perhaps right now you find yourself faced with a serious problem, and you need the Lord to provide you with a solution. Naturally, you’d love for that solution to be a simple one. And maybe it will be. After all, I certainly don’t mean to imply that God’s solutions are always complex. With that said, though, don’t be surprised if a solution that you thought would be as simple as a touch or a word turns into a process involving spit and mud. During such times patience will be required on your part, and you’ll have to trust the Lord’s expertise concerning your problem. But if you will stick with Him, He will, in His timing, deliver your solution to your door. You might have to walk around seeing that solution through blurry eyes for a bit, but in the end your vision will clear up and you will see things exactly the way He wants you to see them. So, hang in there, trust the process, and let the Lord work you through whatever He wants to work you through in order to bring you to that solution that has your name on it. Rest assured, it really will be worth the wait.

Posted in Choices, Christ's Miracles, God's Timing, God's Provision, God's Will, Needs, Patience, Problems, Trusting In God, Waiting | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

God’s Word Will Stand

Posted on April 24, 2021 by russellmckinney

God told the prophet Jeremiah to take a scroll and write on it all the words that God had spoken to him against not only the Jewish people but also against other nations (Jeremiah 36:1-2). Jeremiah carried out that assignment by having the scribe Baruch write out all the words that Jeremiah spoke to him (36:4). It is not known whether Jeremiah recited the words of his prophecies from memory or if he read them from scrolls on which they had previously been written. Whatever the details were, once the writing was completed Jeremiah told Baruch to go to the temple in Jerusalem and read the scroll in the hearing of the people during a day of national fasting (36:6). Jeremiah would have done the reading himself, but at that time he had been barred from the temple (36:5). By having the scroll read publicly, especially on a day when fasting was required, Jeremiah hoped that the people would turn from their sins and get right with God (36:7).

At least a year passed (compare 36:1 with 36:9) before the next day of fasting arrived, but on that day Baruch did as he was told by standing in a certain room above the temple’s courtyard and reading to the crowd of people who were gathered beneath him (36:10). A man named Michaiah heard that reading and went and told King Jehoiakim’s administrative officials what was read (36:11-13). Those officials then had Baruch come to them and personally read the scroll to them (36:14-15). The scroll’s prophetic words of doom concerning Judah threw a serious scare into those royal officers, and they instructed Baruch to go into hiding and to tell Jeremiah to do the same (36:16-19). As for the scroll, the officers kept it and placed it in the home of a scribe named Elishama (36:20).

Next, those officials went to King Jehoiakim, who was in the fifth year of his reign, and told him what the scroll said about the judgment that was prophesied to befall his kingdom (36:20). The king responded by having Jehudi, a member of his staff, fetch the scroll from Elishama’s home and read it out loud to the king (36:21). But Jehudi only got three or four columns into the reading before the king took Jehudi’s knife and started slicing up the sections of the scroll and tossing them into the fire that was burning in the hearth (36:22-23). The king himself showed no fear or remorse for this shocking act of literally burning the word of God (36:24). To the contrary, he commanded his son Jerahmeel and two other men to arrest both Baruch and Jeremiah (36:26).

And how did God respond to King Jehoiakim’s actions? He had Jeremiah and Baruch repeat the whole process of scroll writing, with Jeremiah again doing the speaking and Baruch again doing the writing to reproduce the destroyed scroll (36:27-28). The only difference in the second scroll was the fact that God added in a personalized word of judgment regarding King Jehoiakim. God’s added word of judgment was that Jehoiakim would be put to death, his body would lie unburied outside on the ground, none of his descendants would ever reign as king in Jerusalem, and those descendants would instead experience God’s hand of judgment (36:29-31). The demise of not only Jehoiakim himself but also his family and his kingdom of Judah was ultimately accomplished by the invading Babylonian army.

William MacDonald, in his Believer’s Bible Commentary, calls Jehoiakim’s burning of God’s word “a perfect picture of what liberals and rationalists have been doing with the Word of God ever since.” Harry Ironside, in his commentary, calls Jehoiakim “the first mutilator of the Word of God recorded in scripture.” Surely, however, scores of others have arisen throughout history to follow in Jehoiakim’s footsteps. Even now our modern-day Jehoiakims, in their blatant rebellion against God, are attempting to destroy what the Bible, God’s written word, teaches about abortion, homosexuality, gender, gender roles, and a whole host of other moral topics. As Jehoiakim found out, though, God’s written word cannot truly be denied. It will stand when everything else falls, and in the end those who try to destroy it will find that all they have really done is destroy themselves upon it.

Posted in Abortion, Bible Study, Current Events, Disobedience, God's Word, Homosexuality, Politics, Scripture, The Bible, Truth | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Bringing Down Giant Walls & Giant Men

Posted on April 22, 2021 by russellmckinney

In a devotion entitled “Spiritual Battles,” Ed Young Sr. uses Israel’s defeat of the walled city of Jericho (Joshua 6:1-27) as an illustration of how we Christians must overcome our own strongholds if we want to enjoy all the blessings available to us. He writes:

In every life there is a Jericho. You know what it is? It is that thing that would block you from becoming all that God wants you to be. Whether it is a besetting sin, a habit, or an attitude, our Jericho will block our way to the full blessing of God.

As long as we try to scale the walls and knock them down using our own resources, we will fail. We cannot win spiritual battles with weapons we have borrowed from the world’s arsenals. Instead, recognize how impossible it is to handle the situation on our own. Then, just be patient, be quiet, and soon — at God’s command — you will be able to shout the shout of faith that will bring the wall crashing down.

David refused to wear any armor when he went to fight the Philistine giant Goliath. Even when King Saul had David try on the king’s personal armor, David refused to wear it (1 Samuel 17:38-39). While it was true that David wasn’t used to wearing such armor, hadn’t trained with it, and hadn’t tested it in battle, he also had an innate understanding that the key to winning the battle was God rather than any suit of armor. If God was with him, he wouldn’t need any armor to defeat Goliath, and if God wasn’t with him, no suit of armor would save him. David even told Goliath before the fight began, “The battle is the Lord’s, and He will give you into our hands” (1 Samuel 17:47).

Just as God brought Israel up against the great walled city of Jericho and David up against the mighty giant Goliath, He brings us up against “walls” and “giants” that we simply cannot defeat in our own power. We might think of this as Him stacking the deck to ensure that we must call upon Him and seek His help. Of course, this doesn’t mean that we have no role to play in the battle. Like the Israelites marching around the walls of Jericho, and like David placing a rock in his sling, we should do our part to enable the victory to happen. But once we have done our part, we must look to God in faith and say, “Okay, Lord, the outcome is now up to you.” You see, we can march and pick up rocks until we faint from exhaustion, but what we can’t do is make walls and giants fall. Only God can do that.

Getting back to Ed Young Sr.’s devotion, he says that we must recognize how impossible it is to handle the situation on our own. Unfortunately, this is why many people continue to struggle with their strongholds year after year. They can’t defeat their Jerichos because they are leaving out the one indispensable element: God. And the bigger the walls of a Jericho are, the more indispensable God is to bringing them down. Therefore, I will leave you with this basic piece of advice: Whatever your Jericho (or Goliath, if you like that story better) is, do whatever God leads you to do about defeating it, and then cry out to Him in faith, asking Him to add in His indispensable power to complete the job. That, my friend, is how you bring down strongholds. It’s also how your faith in God gets strengthened, and the stronger your faith becomes the more strongholds you will be able to conquer.

Posted in Addiction, Adversity, Dying To Self, Faith, God's Omnipotence, God's Sovereignty, God's Work, Obedience, Prayer Requests, Problems, Spiritual Warfare, Trials, Trusting In God | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Saving One

Posted on April 19, 2021 by russellmckinney

A young man on vacation at the beach got up one morning at dawn to take a stroll on the sand. As he made his way along he happened upon an elderly gentleman who was searching for starfish that had been stranded on the shoreline by the tide. Whenever the old man found one, he would carefully pick it up and fling it back into the ocean.

After following the gentleman for a while and watching him rescue several starfish, the young man approached him and asked, “Sir, why are doing what you are doing?” Somewhat surprised at the question, the gentleman answered, “If I don’t get these poor creatures back into the ocean they will die when the morning sun hits them.” “I understand that,” said the young man, “but the beach goes on for miles and there’s no way you can rescue all the starfish. I mean, if you think about it, how much difference can what you are doing really make?” At that point the elderly gentleman picked up another starfish, flung it into the ocean, and said, “It made a big difference to that one.”

In 1 Corinthians 9:19-22, the apostle Paul talks about his chameleon-like approach to attempting to win people to Jesus. He says, “I am free from all men, but I have made myself a servant to all men. I became a Jew under the law that I might win the Jews who live under the law. I became a Gentile not under the law that I might win the Gentiles who don’t live under the law. I became weak that I might win the weak.” But then he says, “I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some” (1 Corinthians 9:22, E.S.V.).

You’ll notice that Paul had to exchange the word “all” with the word “some” in order to truthfully finish that last sentence. No matter how great he was at winning people to Jesus, there was no way that he was ever going to win everybody. Even Jesus Himself hadn’t been able to do that during His earthly life and ministry. However, in regards to each person that Paul got saved, his efforts made a big difference to that one. The point is that individuals matter, and getting just one saved makes all the effort worthwhile. Even mass evangelistic crusades in which hundreds are won to Christ can be boiled down to the individual salvation experiences of each of the hundreds.

Christian, have you ever seriously asked Jesus to use you to win someone to Him? If you haven’t, let me encourage you to start doing so. The fact is that you might have more spiritual impact upon that certain person than the world’s greatest evangelist could have. Whether that person be a family member, friend, neighbor, coworker, fellow student, or someone else, you can become the “Paul” who leads him or her into a saving relationship with Jesus. Will it be easy? Perhaps not. But whatever time, energy, and effort you put into it will be rewarded a zillion fold throughout eternity if you can win that person to Christ. So what are you waiting for? Get to it. Some “starfish” out there needs your help.

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Limburger Cheese, Traffic, & Roses

Posted on April 16, 2021 by russellmckinney

Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, And into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name. (Psalm 100:4, N.K.J.V.)

Evangelist R.T. Kendall tells the story of some youngsters who played a prank on a man who had a prominent mustache. Somehow they got hold of some limburger cheese and gently rubbed it on his mustache while he was napping. When the man awoke, he said, “This bed stinks.” Then he got up off the bed, walked around the bedroom, and said, “This room stinks.” Next, he walked throughout all the rooms of his house and said, “This whole house stinks.” Finally, he walked outside, took a deep breath, and announced, “This whole world stinks!”

Like that fellow, we can sometimes start thinking that the whole world stinks. Isn’t it funny how we can get up from a comfortable bed in the morning, put on nice clothes, enjoy a filling breakfast, walk out of a good home, start up a reliable vehicle, head off to a job that keeps all the bills paid, and then, as soon as someone cuts us off in traffic, decide that the whole world stinks? What about being thankful for another day to live? What about being grateful for that comfortable bed? Those nice clothes? That breakfast? That home? That vehicle? That job? For that matter, what about just appreciating the fact that we have the health and ability to get out there and ride that big wave called the “modern world”? I’ll guarantee you that there are people in hospital beds and nursing homes right now who would love to get up tomorrow morning, hit the highway, and have someone cut them off in traffic.

Our text verse is one we hear quoted a lot around the holiday we call Thanksgiving. But the truth is that God bestows His blessings upon us every day, which means that He should be thanked every day. That goes for saved believers as well as lost unbelievers. On the subject of God bestowing blessings upon everybody, Jesus pointed out that God makes His sun rise on not only the good but also the evil and sends rain on not only the just but also the unjust (Matthew 5:45). By the way, Jesus said that as part of His teaching about how God loves His enemies, a teaching in which Jesus commanded His followers to likewise love their enemies (Matthew 5:43-48).

Of course, it’s hard to show much love (either to our friends or to our enemies) when we go around grumbling all the time about life’s assorted problems. Unfortunately, we seem to have too much in common with that father whose son was once asked, “Does your dad spend a lot of time in his den?” To that, the boy replied, “No, he just growls all over the house.” I myself shutter to think what answer my two sons would give if someone ever asked them, “Does your dad complain much?” Let’s just hope they never get asked that.

Someone has said, “What a grand world this would be if we could forget our troubles as easily as we forget our blessings.” All I can say to that is, “Amen!” I only wish that me saying, “Amen!” to it automatically equated to me actually living it. Another quote I picked up somewhere along the way goes like this: “Don’t be mad about roses having thorns; be thankful that thorns have roses.”

Along about now I can hear someone saying, “But that cutesy little saying ignores the problem. What we really need is some way to eliminate the thorns from the roses. That’s how we can truly make this world a better place.” Well, my answer to that is, “Good luck, let me know how that goes for you.” Until someone actually succeeds in eliminating the thorns, I think the best way I can make this world a grander place overall and build a more enjoyable life for myself and my family is for me to do a better job of focusing on the roses rather than the thorns. And I’m sure that I’ll do that, every single day I live, that is at least until the next time someone cuts me off in traffic.

Posted in Adversity, Anger, Attitude, Complaining, Contentment, Disappointment, God's Love, God's Omnipotence, God's Mercy, God's Provision, Grace, Human Life, Personal, Praise, Problems, Thankfulness, Work | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Importance of Context

Posted on April 14, 2021 by russellmckinney

“For where two or three are gathered in My name, I am there in the midst of them” (Matthew 18:20, N.K.J.V.).

Countless pastors, leading sparsely attended church services, have justified continuing on with those meetings by quoting this verse. As a guy who has pastored small, rural churches for the entirety of his ministry, I myself have played this card more times than I care to remember. It reminds me of the pastor who said, “I know that Jesus said wherever there are two or three gathered in His name, He is there in the midst of them. But that doesn’t mean that He wouldn’t prefer a larger crowd!”

It is worth mentioning, though, that a closer inspection of the context for Matthew 18:20 reveals that Christ’s words don’t specifically have anything to do with church attendance. Instead, they come at the end of His teaching on church discipline. Church discipline, in case you don’t know, has to do with excommunicating an unrepentant church member from the congregation. The old timers used to call it “churching” someone.

In the verses that precede Matthew 18:20, Jesus lays out a step-by-step plan for how to handle a fellow believer who has sinned against you. First, you should go to that person and have a one-on-one conversation in which you tell him exactly how he has sinned against you (18:15). Second, if that private conversation does not produce the desired confession and repentance from the person, you should take one or two witnesses along with you when you pay him a second visit to discuss the situation (18:16). Third, if the person still refuses to confess the sin and repent of it, you (along with the witnesses) should bring the matter before the entire church (18:17). Fourth, if the offending party still won’t muster up the appropriate confession and repentance, even after the church congregation has heard the case and agreed with you and the witnesses, the person should be put out of the church (excommunicated, churched). That’s what Jesus means when He says, “But if he refuses to hear the church, let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector” (18:17).

Jesus then verifies the church’s God-sanctioned authority to excommunicate a member in such a way. He says, “Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven” (18:18-19, N.K.J.V.). The promise is that God will honor in heaven the corporate decision, which was based upon the testimony provided by at least two witnesses, that was made by the church on earth. This applies whether the church decides to excommunicate the member (“whatever you bind on earth”) or reinstate the formerly churched member who has now confessed and repented (“whatever you loose on earth”). Finally, Jesus concludes the teaching by giving us our text verse: “For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them” (18:20, N.K.J.V.).

As we read the entirety of the passage, we notice the repeated importance of having at least two witnesses involved in the process, with the offended party himself serving as one of the witnesses. Concerning the second step of the process, Jesus says the offended party should take along one or two more witnesses. That, according to Jesus, will fulfill an important precept that God actually built into the Old Testament law. That precept is: No one should ever be pronounced guilty based upon the testimony of just one person. In verse 16, Jesus even quotes a law passage, Deuteronomy 19:15, as His proof text on that.

By taking along at minimum one other person to serve as a witness, the offended party can meet God’s requirement of “by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.” Ideally, the offended party will take along not just one but two other witnesses as he himself serves as the third witness. All of the witnesses should then be heard by the church if the situation reaches the next stage of the process. The one or two other witnesses will verify that the offended party made a legitimate effort to settle the matter in an “out of church” setting.

Understanding this important precept about the “two or three witnesses” allows us to understand the totality of the passage correctly and not make the two common mistakes that get made in applying the passage. The first mistake is the aforementioned one about church-goers claiming verse 20 for every poorly attended church service. The second mistake is the one about Christians claiming verse 19 (“…if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven.”) for prayer requests. You see, verse 20’s “two or three gathered in my name” refers to the two or three witnesses involved in the church discipline situation. Likewise, verse 19’s “two in agreement” refers to these witnesses as well.

As long as I am passing through here, let me also throw in that the New Testament teaches that church congregations, not civil courts, should decide disputes between fellow Christians. Paul affirms this teaching in 1 Corinthians 6:1-8 when he rebukes the Christians of Corinth for suing one another in the courts of Corinth. The very idea of two Christians having their dispute heard by and decided by lost people in public courts horrified Paul. You can hear his horror when he asks those Corinthian Christians, “If any of you has a dispute with another, do you dare to take it before the ungodly for judgment instead of before the Lord’s people?” (1 Corinthians 6:1, N.I.V.).

In closing, let me say that it is not my intention here to minimize the validity of two or three Christians assembling together and calling it “church.” As a pastor, I’m all for having church. Likewise, it is not my intention to minimize the power of two Christians agreeing for something in prayer and taking that request to God. As a believer, I’m all for praying. My purpose with this post is simply to draw our attention to the importance of a verse’s context when we are attempting to rightly interpret that verse and rightly apply it. Context is our friend, not our enemy, and any interpretation or application that can’t pass the test of context is not one upon which we should be relying. I won’t go so far as to say that a wrong interpretation or application should get you churched, but it is one that can create wrong thinking on your part. And that, of course, is never a good thing.

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For the Furtherance of the Gospel

Posted on April 12, 2021 by russellmckinney

But I want you to know, brethren, that the things which happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel. (Philippians 1:12, N.K.J.V.)

The traditional view is that Paul wrote the books of Philippians, Ephesians, Colossians, and Philemon during his first imprisonment in the city of Rome while he was waiting for his case to be heard by Caesar. This explains why he speaks in Philippians 1:13 of the “palace guard” and in Philippians 1:13-14 of “my chains.” Understanding the context for the writing of Philippians is important because it lets us know what Paul means in Philippians 1:12 when he talks about “the things which happened to me.” Those “things” were his arrest and imprisonment.

We believe that Paul’s imprisonment lasted for two years, but he doesn’t fill the pages of Philippians with depression, doom, and gloom. To the contrary, he saw the blessing in the injustice that had befallen him. And what was that blessing? His imprisonment gave him the opportunity to evangelize a group of people whom he otherwise wouldn’t have been able to evangelize: those soldiers who made up that “palace guard.”

According to historians, Paul’s imprisonment entailed him being literally chained to a Roman soldier 24 hours per day, with the soldier being changed every six hours. That meant that Paul could witness to at least four men every day. Can you imagine being a lost person having to be chained to Paul for a six-hour stint? As Warren Wiersbe wrote:

Imagine yourself as one of those soldiers, chained to a man who prayed “without ceasing,” who was constantly interviewing people about their spiritual condition, and who was repeatedly writing letters to Christians and churches through the empire. It was not long before some of those soldiers put their faith in Christ.

A second blessing that Paul saw in his imprisonment was the effect that it had upon his fellow Christians. When the news spread of how well Paul was handling his imprisonment and how God was even using it for the saving of souls, that emboldened other Christians to speak the word of God without fear (Philippians 1:14). You see, Paul the prisoner wasn’t just an evangelizer to Roman soldiers, he was also a role model to other Christians.

Paul’s whole attitude toward his imprisonment should cause every Christian to ask, “Do I know how to turn the low points of my life into opportunities to further the gospel and be a role model for other Christians?” For example, a Christian who loses his/her job can get another one, one that will involve people to whom that Christian has never witnessed. Or, a Christian who loses a loved one by way of death can be a tremendous role model if he/she handles that death well rather than falling to pieces about it. Of course, the key to being either this type of evangelist or this type of role model is to see your loss not as an impediment to your Christian life but as a means by which you can serve the Lord in a new kind of way.

As for Paul’s efforts bearing fruit, it is worth noting that some of his closing words to his book (letter) of Philippians say to the Christians of Philippi: “…The brethren who are with me greet you. All the saints greet you, but especially those who are of Caesar’s household” (Philippians 4:21-22, N.K.J.V.). While the term “Caesar’s household” probably included those Christians in Rome who held all sorts of roles in Caesar’s service (soldiers, judges, cooks, food-tasters, musicians, custodians, accountants, etc.), it also most likely included those new converts whom Paul had personally won to Christ during his imprisonment. In Paul’s way of looking at the situation, the eternal salvation of any one of those people was worth him being imprisoned, and may modern-day Christians follow his example. How do we do that? We do it by using our trying times as vehicles upon which we take the gospel further than we’ve ever taken it. The fact is that lost people are everywhere, and any new circumstance in which we find ourselves — whether that circumstance be pleasant or unpleasant — brings us the opportunity to tell someone about Jesus. That’s how Paul handled the troubles of his life and kept on serving Jesus, and it’s how us Christians today should as well.

Posted in Adversity, Attitude, Change, Complaining, Disappointment, Discipleship, Evangelism, God's Work, Influence, Ministry, Missions, Persecution, Perseverance, Problems, Service, Suffering, The Gospel, Trials, Witnessing | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment