Those Who Enter Canaan

After showing us the Leader, the land, and the moral qualifications' necessary for entrance therein, the word of God speaks to us (vers. 10- 18) of those who are called to enter in. They comprise the people, and also the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh. `These last do not refuse, as the previous generation had done, to enter, when the spies caused their hearts to Melt. On the contrary, they associate themselves with their brethren, and are in the first rank of combatants, but not to take possession of the 'land. Their portion is on the other side of Jordan. It was their circumstances which led them to choose it: they had much cattle: " the place was a place for cattle," adapted to their circumstances. (Num. 32:1.)
It is the same with numbers of Christians; indeed, one might say that to-day it is rather the nine tribes and a half who have chosen their dwelling on the other side of Jordan. The main point in the Christian life of believers is the circumstances of this life, the everyday needs, abundance or want, enclosures for their cattle, or Cities for their families. (Num. 32:16.) Moreover, these Christians are not, properly speaking, lacking in faith: on the contrary they experience that the Lord can enter in grace into all their circumstances, adapting Himself to them, and that He does-so, He who came down to bring divine blessing to this earth. Theirs is not a worldly Christianity, but an earthly one. Israel were a type of worldly Christianity, when they refused to go up to the mountain of the Amorites. " Is it not better for us to return to Egypt? And they said one to another; let us make us a captain and let us return to Egypt." (Num. 4:3,4.) Also their carcases fell in the wilderness. The-two and a half tribes are the type of those who lower Christianity to a life of faith for the earthly circumstances they traverse, making their-life to consist in these things. " They had much cattle." Moses is at first indignant, but he afterward bears with them, seeing that although their faith was weak; still it was faith, and that, these earthly links did not separate them from their brethren.
Beloved, this tendency to lower Christianity vaunts itself on every hand as a tenet in the present day. With much pretension to power, little is known beyond a Christ in whom to trust for. His providential care, and in the details, great or small, of daily life. Christ is known as a Shepherd: " Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me;'" but even in this way, how feebly the extent of His resources is appreciated! If He leads us through this world, it is not here that He gives us rest. The green pastures and the still waters are not the fields, nor the sheepfolds, nor the cities of Gilead, but the rich pastures of the land of Canaan.
It is blessed to confide in Him for everything, and God forbid that we should seek to diminish in the saints aught of this confidence; but let us know something of the joy of entrance even now there where a glorified Christ is to be found, of being attracted outside this world, drawn away from this scene, to be introduced, dead and risen with Him, into a heavenly Canaan. There, the motive for our walk will no longer be " much cattle;" it will not be a question of arranging our life more or less faithfully according to what we possess; but, having left all behind, self, and the affairs of this life, in the bottom of the river of death, we have now to fight to take possession of all our privileges in Christ, realizing them by faith, and enjoying them in the power of the Spirit.
Notice, too, that whether they will or not, all cross the Jordan. Our brethren fight with us against infidelity, and against the power of Satan, who displays his tactics in the-world; but death and resurrection is for them only a fact (it is so for all), not a realization. The soul must -realize it in order to take possession of the land.