Painting: the Prayer at Valley Forge, by Arnold Friberg.
“The Lord said to Moses, ‘Command the Israelites and say to them: ‘When you enter Canaan, the land that will be allotted to you as an inheritance is to have these boundaries: … Your southern boundary will start in the east from the southern end of the Dead Sea, cross south of Scorpion Pass, continue on to Zin and go south of Kadesh Barnea. Then it will go to Hazar Addar and over to Azmon, where it will turn, join the Wadi of Egypt and end at the Mediterranean Sea.
‘Your western boundary will be the coast of the Mediterranean Sea …
‘For your northern boundary, run a line from the Mediterranean Sea to Mount Hor and from Mount Hor to Lebo Hamath. Then the boundary will go to Zedad, continue to Ziphron and end at Hazar Enan …
‘For your eastern boundary, run a line from Hazar Enan to Shepham. The boundary will go down from Shepham to Riblah on the east side of Ain and continue along the slopes east of the Sea of Galilee.Then the boundary will go down along the Jordan and end at the Dead Sea. This will be your land, with its boundaries on every side’” Numbers 34:1-12.
Stop and think about God’s Story. He chooses a man. Abraham. Calls him his friend, makes a unilateral covenant (meaning God is obligating Himself, though Abraham can offer Him nothing in return). Then God promises to make Abraham the father of a great nation. He gives the man a son when he is 100 years old.
Generations later Abraham’s descendants find themselves a nation of slaves, trapped in a highly “civilized,” supposedly well-educated land but a land of idol worshipping pagans. They are slaves. They have no money. No possessions. No real estate. No freedom. What do they have? They have a God they are not too sure about, and a loosely defined religion of monotheism.
In fact, the Jews were the world’s first and only monotheistic religion, a notion the rest of the world found not only crazy, but irreligious.
Gods were possessions to be collected and shown off to others, the way some of the fabulously wealthy collect cars. Having only one God meant your religion was weaker than the religion of those with many gods.
These children of Abraham, these impoverished slaves, could not even take worldly pride in their God, or carve idols of Him to show off and bow down to. They did not understand everything about Him, but they knew He was not that kind of God. He would not be reduced to an engraved (or “graven”) image.
Then God chooses another man. Moses. And God sends Moses to Pharaoh, demanding he set God’s people free. Pharaoh refuses ten times and ten times God sends devastating plagues, miracles of God’s wrath that prove God’s power and God’s truth and God’s character to not only the Egyptian idol worshippers, but to God’s own people.
These slaves were going to have to step up their game. Soon they would be free. Autonomous. They would have to make their own decisions. They would have to worship God and follow the laws He would give them. They would have to create courts and a government and leaders of all kinds. They would need farmers and craftsmen and artisans and physicians and teachers and soldiers and generals and all the trades that build a nation.
So God rescues the people from the hand of Pharaoh. And he gives them such favor in the eyes of their former captors that the Egyptians shower them with gifts so valuable that the Bible says the Jews “plundered the Egyptians” Exodus 12:36.
Then the former slaves find themselves in the wilderness, a traveling band of over a million nomads.
For forty years, God sustains them with food and water. Though it is easy to overlook, this is an unparalleled miracle of logistics.
It is phenomenal. Can you name another miracle that was ongoing—for forty years? God provided manna six days a week for forty years including a double portion on Fridays so no one would have to collect food on the sabbath. That pattern was repeated week-in, week-out for four decades. On top of that, their clothes did not wear out, Deuteronomy 29:5. Their clothes and shoes lasted forty years!
Napoleon is credited with an expression that points out the challenge of logistics:
An army marches on its stomach.
It is true. George Washington’s troops nearly lost the war because they were short on food, boots, and blankets during the harsh winter of 1777-78. The modern U.S. Army spends billions paying private contractor KBR to provide food, water, and shelter to soldiers during operations in Middle Eastern deserts.
Wartime logistics is one of the greatest challenges any army faces. Sure, you have weapons. You’re good at death. But can you keep your men alive in a baking desert or a frozen wasteland? Can you keep your army healthy during months on the road?
God did it for forty years.
And then He gave them land. The slaves, the children of slaves—they marched into the Promised Land and God gave it to them. The people living there had made themselves odious in God’s sight, worshipping idols and engaging in heinous acts of sin including sacrificing their own children. Finally, they “filled up the full measure of their sin” (Genesis 15:16) and God rid the land of them. Some were removed by hornets, Exodus 23:28. And some would be removed by war (see the book of Joshua). After all, if Israel were going to be a nation, it would need to be able to defend itself. It would need an army with experience.
But my point here is the LAND. God gave these slaves a land of their own. It was 150 miles long and 50 miles wide—some 7,500 square miles—not the largest nation at the time, but large enough. And a small but well-watered fertile land is so much more valuable than a large, dry land.
The Promised Land was a good land, a “good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey” Exodus 3:8.
God is the great GIVER. As my grandfather used to say, “they ain’t makin’ no more land.” But God made land for Israel.
Matthew Henry notes two things in his classic commentary: This may be a small land, relatively speaking. But it’s not a desert. It’s a garden:
“This was the vineyard of the Lord, the garden enclosed; but as it is with gardens and vineyards, the narrowness of the space was made up by the fruitfulness of the soil.”
Henry adds an interesting point of application. Do you ever feel poor? Does it ever seem God has given you less than others, less even than the lost?
Henry notes that God’s people often have fewer possessions or less wealth than the lost.
“See how little a share of the world God gives to his own people. Those who have their portion in heaven, have reason to be content with a small pittance of this earth. Yet a little that a righteous man has, having it from the love of God, and with his blessing, is far better and more comfortable than the riches of many wicked.”
Remember: Heaven is your real home.
God, thank you for Your amazing story! Thank you for giving Your children a land and a home. May we be more grateful every day for the way You provide for us. And when we struggle with little, help us remember the paradise to come in Heaven! We don’t need cars or mansions on earth. We have Jesus and He is preparing a place for us. Thank you!
AΩ.
Household Words: 