Two things
struck me today. First, I noticed the complaint
of the Ephraimites and the Manassehites that they hadn’t gotten enough
land. “We’re big,” they complained. “Take the forest land,” Joshua replied. “It’s not enough,” they complained. Then, the second thing I noticed was that neither
Ephraim nor Manasseh fully conquered the land assigned to them.
There’s
probably a lesson there for us American Christians. We live in a land of plenty and culture of
desire. We are often dissatisfied and
want more. (One of my favorite bands is the
Dave Matthews Band, and one of their earliest, biggest hits was “Too Much.” Check out the lyrics here, if you’re
interested. I think it catches something
of our cultural spirit: http://www.lyricsfreak.com/d/dave+matthews+band/too+much_20036550.html. Here’s the song on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSPECzpKn4U) But it is an open question to what extent we
bring what we already have into submission to the will of God. It’s a commonly thrown around statistic that
the average American church-goer gives between 2-3% of their income to the
Lord, and my experience of congregations suggest that that’s about right. Kind of a far cry from the tithe! (I know that New Testament Christians are not
bound to the tithe. Still it’s not a bad
gauge of where our generosity is at.)
So, when we’re
feeling all discontent, perhaps we should first ask to what extent we are using
what we already have for God-pleasing purposes.
After all, why would Joshua give Ephraim and Manasseh even more land, if
they weren’t using what they had for the Lord’s glory
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