Are you just going to sit there?

And Moses said to the children of Gad and to the children of Reuben: “Shall your brethren go to war while you sit here? Now why will you discourage the heart of the children of Israel from going over into the land which the Lord has given them? Thus your fathers did when I sent them away from Kadesh Barnea to see the land. For when they went up to the Valley of Eshcol and saw the land, they discouraged the heart of the children of Israel, so that they did not go into the land which the Lord had given them. – Numbers 32.6-9

The time was about to come to enter the Promised Land. There was a lot of discussion about who was going to get what and how the land was going to be divided.

Not everyone wanted to go. Gad and Reuben decided to stay on the east side of the Jordan River. That was okay except for one thing. There were battles to be fought in the land and Reuben and Gad had to do their bit.

Moses said ‘are you going to let your brethren go to war while you sit here and do nothing? Are you going to discourage them by not helping them?’

There is a problem here that never changes.

Let somebody else do the work.  

How often do we find ourselves sitting in the pews while a handful of people do the work. Rueben and Gad agreed to send men over with their brethren, then they could return – but they had to go and help.

The work needs to be done – even if it is not ‘our job.’ The church is a team. We are a unit. The work of one is the work of all. We can’t afford to sit here while everyone else is at work.