Fully Committed

Sean Bortz
Sermon Notes by Teresa Bennett, Pharm.D.
July 23, 2007

Numbers 32:1-9, “1 The descendants of Re'uven and the descendants of Gad had vast quantities of livestock. When they saw that the land of Ya'zer and the land of Gil'ad were good for livestock, 2 the descendants of Gad and of Re'uven came and spoke to Moshe, El'azar the cohen and the community leaders. They said, 3 "'Atarot, Divon, Ya'zer, Nimrah, Heshbon, El'aleh, S'vam, N'vo and Be'on, 4 the country that ADONAI conquered before the community of Isra'el, is livestock country; and your servants have livestock. 5 If you regard us favorably," they went on, "let this land be given to your servants as their possession; and don't have us cross the Yarden." 6 Moshe answered the descendants of Gad and of Re'uven: "Are your brothers to go to war while you stay here? 7 Besides, why are you trying to discourage the people of Isra'el from crossing into the land ADONAI gave them? 8 This is what your fathers did when I sent them from Kadesh-Barnea to see the land. 9 For when they went up to the Eshkol Valley and saw the land, they disheartened the people of Isra'el, so that they wouldn't enter the land ADONAI had given them.”

Gad and Re’uven were tempted to stay in the lush pastures of Gil’ad because they had much livestock. They weren’t considering the effect of staying east of the Yarden (or Jordan River) or what it would do to the moral of the entire Israeli community and they certainly weren’t thinking about how their actions related to the actions of their fathers just forty years prior.

When the spies had returned from the land, the report of the ten resulted in national fear and rebellion.

Numbers 14:1-3, “1 At this all the people of Isra'el cried out in dismay and wept all night long. 2 Moreover, all the people of Isra'el began grumbling against Moshe and Aharon; the whole community told them, "We wish we had died in the land of Egypt! or that we had died here in the desert! 3 Why is ADONAI bringing us to this land, where we will die by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will be taken as booty! Wouldn't it be better for us to return to Egypt?"

Fear led to rebellion and the desire to return to slavery than to trust the Living G-d who had just delivered them!

Forty years later, the little children who were spared were now men with families of their own. They had wandered the desert dependent upon G-d for where to go, what to eat and what to drink. But at the very last step, right when they were about to cross the Yarden, the commitment of Gad and Re’uven was beginning to crack!

Can we not be guilty of the same? Given a view of what we think is important to us, couldn’t we also be guilty of thinking “I’ve got mine!” and our self preservation can become more important than obedience or community preservation.

Gad and Re’uven’s behavior could have brought the whole nation back to ‘square one’ so to speak. But this time, Moses intervened. Over the course of forty years leading the people through G-d’s direction, he had learned a few things about leadership! This time he spoke up and persuaded them to participate in the taking of the Promised Land. He didn’t let history repeat and fail to enter the Promised Land thus averting a national crisis!

Numbers 32:14-23, ‘14 Now you, another brood of sinners, have arisen in your fathers' place to increase still more the fierce anger of ADONAI toward Isra'el! 15 For if you turn away from him, he will leave them in the desert again, and thus you will cause the destruction of all these people!" 16 But they came up to him and said, "Here we will build enclosures for our livestock and cities for our little ones, 17 but we ourselves will be armed and ready for action to march at the head of the people of Isra'el, until we have brought them to their place. Our little ones will stay in the fortified cities here because of the people now living in the land. 18 However, we will not return to our own homes until every man in Isra'el has taken possession of his land for inheritance. 19 We will not have an inheritance with them on the other side of the Yarden, westward; because our inheritance has fallen to us on this side of the Yarden, eastward." 20 Moshe said to them, "If you will do this - if you will arm yourselves to go before ADONAI to the war, 21 and if every one of your soldiers will cross the Yarden before ADONAI, until he has driven out his enemies ahead of him, 22 and if the land has been conquered before ADONAI, and only after that do you return - then you will be clear before ADONAI and before Isra'el, and this land here will be yours to possess before ADONAI. 23 But if you will not do this, then you have sinned against ADONAI, and you must understand that your sin will find you out.

Gad and Re’uven were certainly tempted to stay put in Gil’ad because it was lush and plentiful for all their livestock. When they were confronted by Moses, although tempted to stay in Gil’ad, they chose to be obedient and participate in the taking of the Promised Land.

Temptation is not sin. Yeshua was tempted for in the wilderness after fasting for forty days! The fasting made Him sharp as a razor and when He was tempted he countered the evil one with Scripture. His time of testing made Him sharp and prepared Him for His ministry.

Similarly, we can view temptation as testing without becoming disheartened and decide to be committed to the L-rd!

Psalm 37:5, ‘Commit your way to ADONAI; trust in him, and he will act.’

There are three important facets of commitment; commitment to G-d, commitment to others and G-d’s commitment to each of us.

We cannot be truly committed to Him and others unless we know how committed He is to us!

Luke 14:25-27, ‘Large crowds were traveling along with Yeshua. Turning, he said to them, 26 "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father, his mother, his wife, his children, his brothers and his sisters, yes, and his own life besides, he cannot be my talmid. 27 Whoever does not carry his own execution-stake and come after me cannot be my talmid.”’

The verses in Luke describe the type of commitment about which the L-rd is fostering in us. Looking closely one may be confused about what the L-rd is saying in regard to ‘hating’ your family. What He means is that because we love Him so much and are committed to Him that it will appear as though we hate our family. Of course we love our family. But the dedication and commitment toward the L-rd in comparison to the type of love we have for our family would make it seem like hating them.

Similarly, testing the commitment of His Talmidim, the L-rd says something outrageous.

John 6:53-58, ‘Then Yeshua said to them, "Yes, indeed! I tell you that unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life in yourselves. 54 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life -- that is, I will raise him up on the Last Day. 55 For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. 56 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me, and I live in him. 57 Just as the living Father sent me, and I live through the Father, so also who ever eats me will live through me. 58 So this is the bread that has come down from heaven -- it is not like the bread the fathers ate; they're dead, but whoever eats this bread will live forever!"’

The type of commitment He wants from us requires us to put all else aside. He wants us to say, “My answer is yes, L-rd, what is Your bidding?”

What type of commitment do we have? Are we like Paul who on the edge of death and danger because of his commitment to the congregations, put his life in danger and went to help them anyway? See 2 Corinthians 11 and Acts 20.

The L-rd is far more committed to us than we are to Him! He is always thinking about us as described in Psalm 40 and He is the defender of our very lives based upon Psalm 27:1.

We should take commitment seriously and be careful not to over commit either. G-d takes what we say seriously; what we say matters. Nor should we be under committed.

What makes commitment to Him, to others, and His commitment to us possible? The answer is love.
John 17:20-23, ‘"I pray not only for these, but also for those who will trust in me because of their word, 21 that they may all be one. Just as you, Father, are united with me and I with you, I pray that they may be united with us, so that the world may believe that you sent me. 22 The glory which you have given to me, I have given to them; so that they may be one, just as we are one -- 23 I united with them and you with me, so that they may be completely one, and the world thus realize that you sent me, and that you have loved them just as you have loved me.”’