Year 4, Day 140: Numbers 34

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: Authority, Identity

• Authority: Our calling.  This comes from God as king.  Because He calls us as His representatives, He gives us authority to go and do His will.
• Identity: Our true identity comes from the Father.  Only when our identity comes from God can we be obedient in ways that satisfy our person to our core.

Three years ago, when I read Numbers 34 for the first time in my spiritual adulthood, I made a startling realization.  The borders that God gives here are never fully reached by the Hebrew people.  Even in their heyday the Hebrew people never fully controled all of the land that God promised to them.

In pondering why, I believe this is both an identity and an authority problem.  It is an identity problem because at some level the people must not believe that God really wants them to control the land to that extent.  At some point they give up on certain areas.  They have a crisis of identity.  Of course, when they give up they are also displaying a crisis of authority.  The give up because they no longer grasp the authority of God to dominate over those portions of the land that God promised to them.

Of course, this truth makes itself known in a lack of obedience and power.  As the people gain control of the land, their obedience wanes.  Their obedience falls to the side.  As they become less obedient, they are also less able to go forth in power, too.  While their lack of identity leads to a lack of obedience, a lack of authority leads to a poor display of power.

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