Numbers 32:6 Shall your brethren go to war while you sit here?
The context is that the children of Reuben and Gad had a lot of livestock and they saw that East of the Jordan, in the land of Jazer and the land of Gilead was a place for livestock. Hence they put forth a request to Moses and all the elders, that they want to be settled here. However during this period of time the children of Israel have yet entered the promised land which is on the other side of Jordan. Moses were concerned that they would want to just leave the children of Israel and be settled by themselves in Jazer and Gilead. However the Reubenites and Gadites promised that they will house their livestock and women and children in Jazer and Gilead, but the men will continue to war with the rest of children of Israel until they reached the promise land in the land of Canaan. They, however will have their inheritance in Gilead and Jazer and not in the promised land.
What impacted me was the commentary in Revival Study Bible on this verse, written by Charles Haddon Spurgeon:
"The Reubenites and Gadites would have been unrotherly if they had claimed the land which had been conqurered, and had left the rest of the people to fight for their portions alone. We have received much by means of the efforts and sufferings of the saints in years gone by, and if we do not make some return to the Church of Christ by giving her our best energies, we are unworthy to be enrolled in her ranks. Others are combating the errors of the age manfully, or excavating perishing ones from amid the ruis of the fall, and if we fold our hands in idelness we have need to be warned lest the curse of Meroz (Judges 5:23) fall upon us The toil of devoted missionaries and fervent ministers shame us if we sit sitll in indolence. Shrinking from trial is the temptation of those who are at ease in Zion: they would fain escape the cross and yet wear the crwon. If the most precious are tried in the fire, are we to escape the crucible? Why should we be treated better than our Lord was? It is a cowardly pride which would choose a downy pillow and a silken couch for a soldier of the cross".
WOW.
