Year 4, Day 147: Numbers 32

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: Character

• Character: Having the interior life that is necessary to support the work that God sets before a person.  It is hearing from God and obeying.  It is doing the right thing when nobody is looking.

This is a really neat chapter through which we can study the idea of character.  These trans-Jordan tribes come to Moses and ask for their inheritance.  Moses chastens them and gives them a convicting speech about how if they don’t fight for the Promised Land they have sinned and are no better than the previous “wicked generation.”  The fact that Moses has to give this speech tells me that these trans-Jordan tribes may not have had the purest of intentions – the purest of character – at the beginning.

However, after they are convicted by Moses they rise to the challenge.  They build homes and towns in a hurry so that their wives and children will be safe while the men are off to war.  They voluntarily put themselves at the front of the battle to make sure the battles go smoothly – but that also means that they take the greatest of casualties.  They make a commitment to fulfilling God’s promise and they stick to it.  That’s character.

In this chapter we see these people grow in character.  That’s a neat perspective to take note.

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