Numbers 32:16-27

We will build sheepfolds here for our cattle, and cities for our little ones.

But we ourselves will go ready armed.

The amended proposal of the Reubenites and Gadites

I. The amended proposal made.

1. That they should province at once for the safe settlement of their families and their flocks and herds.

2. That they would assist their brethren in the conquest of Canaan.

3. That they would not leave their brethren until that conquest was completely effected.

4. That they would not seek for any inheritance with their brethren on the other side of the Jordan.

II. The amended proposal accepted.

1. Moses re-affirms the chief terms of their proposal.

2. He accepts their proposal as righteous.

3. He warns them that if they fail to faithfully fulfil its terms punishment will overtake them.

III. The amended proposal confirmed. Lessons:

1. The duty of manifesting a practical regard for the rights and interests of others.

2. The importance of faithfully fulfilling the engagements into which we enter.

3. The delusiveness of the notion that any one can sin and escape the punishment of sin. (W. Jones.)

Conflict the condition of attainment, and suffering the consequence of sin

I. A truth to be confirmed--that those who would share in the inheritance must engage in the conflict.

II. A warning to be applied--that sin brings punishment; and that those who think to sin with impunity, under a dispensation of mercy, will find themselves fearfully disappointed.

III. A personal application to be made. (Samuel Thodey.)

Necessity for conflict in the open field

A skilful botanist, an exile in a foreign land, was thankful to accept the position of an under-gardener in the service of a man of wealth. While filling this humble office, his attention was attracted by a rare plant which had been sent to the owner of the garden, and which had been placed in the hot-house under the impression that it was a native of the tropics. So far from thriving, it had begun so evidently to wither and decay that the unskilful gardener was about to remove it to a still warmer place, when the observant eye of the botanist discovered it to be a production of the Arctic regions, and insisted that it should be exposed to the icy breath of winter. Forthwith it revived, and began to flourish. In like manner, if Christians will shut themselves up in the confined and heated atmosphere of worldliness and sin, they can neither hope for growth nor fruitfulness. Heroic conflict in the open field with the enemies of our salvation, the overcoming of temptation in the way of daily duty, constant communication with the Holy Spirit of God in the use of the appointed means of grace--these are the only safeguards for the soul. (Christian Age.)