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So.
Bible time. I have a system. Fairly open-ended. Looks kinda like this:
🚶🏻♀️ Go at my own pace,
📝 stop and take in what speaks to me.
🐇 Follow rabbit trails as they present themselves.
🥰 Enjoy every bit of insight and life lessons I can.
Which means I’m in Numbers and have been for a very long time.
The poor Israelites have been wandering in the wilderness right up on their forty-year stint. I’ve been wandering in the wilderness with them…😳
So, here’s the scene. 🎬
They are about to go into and take the Promised Land.
They are just across the Jordan River from the ACTUAL Promised Land!!
And the tribes of Reuben and Gad look around and think,
"THIS land right here looks pretty good to us.
There’s grazing land.
WE have lots of animals who need to graze.
Hey Moses! Can WE have this land? Can we stay?"
Moses wasn’t a fan.
In Numbers 32:6 he says:
“Do you intend to stay here while your brothers go across and do all the fighting?”
And then:
“Why do you want to discourage the rest of the people of Israel from going across
TO THE LAND THE LORD HAS GIVEN THEM?”
There was a precedent–about forty years earlier one leader from each of the 12 tribes of Israel had gone on a scouting mission into the Promised Land and 10 of the leaders came back with the very same thing to say:
🙌🏻🎉🥳 It is truly so great!
🚫🐛. We can’t go there–we are like grasshoppers.
An entire nation believed what they said over what God said and
What God had meant to be didn’t happen for that entire generation of people.
That’s the history part, but here’s what this particular Reuben and Gad story spoke to me, personally.
Too often, I have started toward the Promised Land. I was stepping out in faith on what I believed to be a God-inspired path. Believing God for a change in some area.
And God is so faithful.
Improvement came.
Peace started manifesting.
Things…eased.
They got…better.
Sometimes SO much better.
And I’m, like, Phew! 😅 I’m gonna rest here a bit. 🥱
Like Reuben and Gad, I wanted to stop at what looked good rather than being brave enough to fight for all God has for me.
It didn’t feel like the start of getting stuck…
Don’t get me wrong.
Rest is one of the things God promises us.
He gives rest to our souls. (Matt. 11:29)
But the Bible also says we are to labor to enter into His rest. (Heb. 4:11)
Wait…huh?
My paraphrase of that Hebrews passage really sums up this whole story.
There is a counterfeit rest that comes from settling, and there is a true rest that comes from trusting God while continuing to walk with Him.
The labor isn't hustling.
It's choosing, again and again, to believe God when quitting, settling, or shrinking back feels easier.
Doubt and unbelief are sneaky. It’s like they’re patting us on the back but in reality that patting hand is steering us off our path, while whispering things like,
“Look how far you’ve come.”
“This looks pretty good.”
“This is far enough.”
It feels reasonable. It FEELS like rest. But it’s a big fake-out.
So. Reuben and Gad said–yes. We will go and fight alongside our brothers.
BUT, they still chose that not-quite-the-Promised-Land-but-looked-good-to-them-land. They set up structures for their families and livestock and then went along with the other tribes to help fight.
It looked like it worked.
But as I was digging into this, I discovered an interesting other fact about Reuben and Gad. They were the first Israelite tribes taken into exile. (1 Chron. 5:25-26) Before the rest of the northern tribes. Before Judah. First.
So, the first to lose their land…🤔
There are multiple commentators who tie this directly back to their choice to settle outside the actual Promised Land.
This seems significant to us who want to NOT lose ground.
That’s usually how settling works, right?
It doesn't feel like a mistake when you make it. It feels like relief. Like you can finally rest…for a bit. And it can take generations—or just years, or a slow accumulation of ordinary Tuesdays—before you can see what it actually cost you.
But that accumulation started with a decision and can be turned around by making some new ones.
I asked at the top of this:
If it's meant to be…will it actually be?
That phrase: “If it’s meant to be, it’ll be.”
You probably heard someone, somewhere say that this past week. I bump into it all the time and every time, I’m, like, NO. 🙅🏻♀️👎🏻
Sure, it’s catchy. You might be humming along in your head with the hit song from a few years back. It’s so soothing. It even sounds spiritual.
It sounds similar to Proverbs 3:5:
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.
Yeah…I’ll just sit back and see what He does.
The very next verse, though, says to
Acknowledge Him in all your ways and He will make your paths straight.
A path is just a path. It only takes me somewhere if I get on it and start walking.
Our life is not like we’re on some conveyor belt and our job is to just hang on long enough so it can carry us toward whatever’s “meant” for us.
In fact, 2 Peter 1:3 says God has already given us everything we need for life and godliness.
Already given. But given isn't the same as activated. There's a difference between having something and receiving it—reaching out, taking hold, walking toward it.
So, the lesson here is this:
- Are you settling?
- Tolerating?
- Did you stop somewhere that felt good at the time but now feels constricting?
It’s hard to recognize the places where maybe we did stop to have a respite then camped and now live in the land of less than.
I have an assessment that can help with this. It identifies some of the different ways we can get “stuck” and has specific promises and instructions to help us break free from thought patterns that have kept us there. There’s even a Deep Dive Workshop to help further.
The assessment is free and I’ve been getting great feedback about it!
P.S. If you want some questions to help you identify some forward steps, try these:
- What are you believing for?
- What does “more” look like for you?
- What have you said you’ll do “someday” and have had that on the list for…years?
- Jesus promised abundant life. What would abundant life look like for you?
(That answer will be different for everyone, by the way. This isn’t about money. It’s about relishing and enjoying your now, and asking God to help you dream along with Him. We are made to bear fruit.)
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