THE LORD SPOKE (March 10)

Daily Reflections from Scripture:

Old Testament: Numbers 34-36

The only one that stayed exactly the same was the western boundary. In the definition of the Promised Land, that border was demarcated as “the coast of the Great Sea” (Num. 34:6), a reference to the Mediterranean. Apart from shifting sand deposits along the shore, there has been no change along that border since it was first used.

But how far does it extend in the north and where does it stop in the south? The southern boundary (see Num. 34:3-5) is identified as “the Wadi of Egypt” (Heb. nahal). This is not the Nile River (that would be nahar in Hebrew). It refers to a major drainage which has long been the border between Egypt and Israel with its estuary at Rafiah. Since the Camp David Accord in 1978 it is once again the border between the two countries. But therein lies part of the problem.

At the other end of the southern boundary, the line begins at “the end of the Salt Sea” (= Dead Sea). That’s pretty straightforward but the remainder of the southern line is rather ill-defined. For example, we’re told it goes “south of Scorpion Pass” and “south of Kadesh Barnea”. But how far south? Furthermore, Zin is a vast wilderness and it’s probable that “Hazar Addar” is also a region, and not a single geographical locator (the word hatzar in Hebrew means “enclosure” or “courtyard”).

The northern boundary (Num. 34:7-9) is equally difficult to define with precision. Note, for example, another “Hazar” in that description. Likewise the eastern boundary (Num. 34:10-12) where yet another “Hazar” turns up. The eastern boundary is pretty clear when it draws the line to “the Sea of Kinnereth” (which is the same as the Sea of Galilee) and then “down along the Jordan”. But remember! This is the very border that was the first to be changed when the two and a half tribes received their inheritance east of the Jordan River (see the whole story in Numbers 32).

The boundary descriptions of the Promised Land are found three other times in Scripture and no two agree perfectly. Was God mixed up in what He was promising? No! Those borders were intended to be expandable. They gave Moses (and Joshua in particular, since he was the one who was going to lead in the conquest) a description of the region that was to become Israel’s territory. They constitute a clearly defined goal - a starting point for the settlement of Israel in its divine inheritance.


New Testament: John 1

God doesn’t have any grandchildren. He has children but no grandchildren because each child of God is specially crafted by Him alone. It’s all in John 1:12-13.

To begin with, an individual must receive Him. That means that there is absolutely nothing one can do to buy or earn this right. The second phrase explains what it means to “receive Him”; you must “believe in his name”. That act on your part:

1. begins with acknowledging His existence and sovereign power.
2. recognizing your own inability to cleanse, or save, or make yourself more acceptable in any way.
3. casting yourself utterly upon His mercy and grace to redeem you.
4. trusting His promise to do just as He says in Scripture.

How beautifully does human adoption illustrate this. That little child must accept or receive as true the fact that the adoptive parents have taken him in and given him a new name. They made him their own and he has the rights of their very own child. He must believe and receive that as true.

With regard to God’s children, we’re told explicitly that this is not accompanied by:

1. natural descent - it’s not inherited from our parents or through any ethnic or biological link; thus, God has no grandchildren.
2. human decision - it’s not a choice we make on our own; we must be “quickened” by the Spirit of God.
3. husband’s will - it’s not something we figure out and decide upon on our own; it results from God’s sovereign choice and determination.

Having received that truth, we are endowed with the rights of membership in God’s family. We may trust Him to love us really, to protect us completely, to provide for us generously, and to save us eternally.