Doing all things before the Lord

Numbers 32:20-22 (KJV)
And Moses said unto them, If ye will do this thing, if ye will go armed before the Lord to war, [21] And will go all of you armed over Jordan before the Lord , until he hath driven out his enemies from before him, [22] And the land be subdued before the Lord : then afterward ye shall return, and be guiltless before the Lord , and before Israel; and this land shall be your possession before the Lord.

If ye will go armed before the Lord to war ... Until He has driven out His enemies from before Him. It is God who will drive out the inhabitants from before Him. Israelites will be the ones gong armed before the Lord to war, but it is God who will fight through Israel to drive out HIS enemies. Canaanites are not Israel's enemies. Canaanites have not done anything against them. But these wicked inhabitants were enemies of God through their unrighteousnesses. They were offending God's majesty through idolatry, immorality, violence and spiritual carelessness. They were living in a land the flowed in milk and honey, and giving credit for themselves for living in this land. They said to themselves 'How powerful, wise and righteous we are. We have possessed this land by our own strength. We are a special people, so the gods have rewarded us with such a beautiful land because of our righteousness, because of our service to them. Who then can be against us?' They realized not that this land God was preparing for His own people, the children of Abraham. They have no part with the covenant of God. They were only borrowers of the land, but thought the land belonged to them. They paraded the land as though they were the owners of the land. They were enemies of God because they gave not God the glory for what they had. They realized not that they were wicked beyond repair and deserved nothing but the fires of hell. They realized not that they were enjoying something they don't deserve to enjoy. All the joy they had they gave glory and thanksgiving to themselves and their fathers and their wicked idols of wood and stone. What is worse, they used the land they were borrowing for evil, and doing wicked works with the fruits of it. Therefore it says:
Leviticus 18:24-25 (ESV)
"Do not make yourselves unclean by any of these things, for by all these the nations I am driving out before you have become unclean, [25] and the land became unclean, so that I punished its iniquity, and the land vomited out its inhabitants.
The land which was to be use for doing good upon had become defiled by the evil deeds of the inhabitants. Is this not the word of warning to the world today? How unclean has planet earth become because of the evil of its inhabitants who give not God the glory, but who give themselves glory. These are all the enemies of God. Jesus Christ will come with all His holy angels and invade this land that has become defiled, and drive out the inhabitants and the Devil and cast them all to Hell forever. Then the land will be called the New Earth, and nothing defiled shall enter in any longer. This is the judgment that is awaiting the whole world

Therefore let us who have been saved from the wrath of God have the right understanding who our 'enemies' are. Our enemies are not those who have wrong to us. Our enemies are not those who are against us. No. We are commanded to forgive all who have done wrong against us. We have no right to have personal enemies, for when we were the enemies of Christ, He died for our transgressions. When Paul was still the enemy of God while he was giving glory to himself for all the good things he was enjoying, Jesus was crucified for him. Likewise, Jesus become our friend, when we were still hostile to Him.

So then who is our enemy? God's enemies are our enemies. We are not waging any personal wars on anyone. It is God's personal war against those who have sinned against Him. They have offended Him, not us. Their problem is with the Word of God and not with us. Their hostility is against God's will and God's commandments, not ours. This is why Jesus says:
John 7:7 (ESV)
The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify about it that its works are evil.
The world's problem is with God, not against us. Let us therefore not take it personally when it looks like it hates us. It isn't hating us, but Him who is speaking through us. See it here in this verse in John, "because I testify". It is Jesus who is testifying through us that the works of this world are evil. Let us therefore fight with Jesus His war with His enemies using His words. We are only the messengers. We are only the soldiers who take up the arms and go to war before the Lord. Let us forgive God's enemies for the wrongs that they do to us because of their hatred for God. We were also God's enemies once, so we understand their foolishnesses. We did exactly the same things. Let us love God's enemies, as Christ loved His own Father's enemies. Let us pray for Christ's enemies:
Matthew 5:44-45 (ESV)
But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, [45] so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.

To be noted here, God can fight His wars alone, but He involves us because He is gracious. One could assume by reading this text that God cannot go to war without man's help. But on the contrary, we know Israel's history:
2 Kings 19:35 (ESV)
And that night the angel of the LORD went out and struck down 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. And when people arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies.
God can send 12 legions of angels to destroy all of Canaanites in a single night. It is no problem. We have to imagine here, if ONE angel could kill this much in one night, what will be the destruction be when the Almighty Son of God come down in His wrath to consume the earth in the fire of His Father's vengeance? There shall be no escape.

So why does God use Israel, and us Christians, to fight His wars? It is for our glory, and also His. It is our glory that God uses us for His purposes. It is an honour for the piano to have the world's greatest pianist to play upon it. The violin which Mozart used to perform in His concerts would be sold for a great price. Why? Because the one using the instrument was great. Because the one using the instrument deemed the instrument worthy to be played by him. This was what God is doing in using Israel for His glory. This is what God does in using us for any of His purposes. It is a great honour to have God use us for His glory. It is also a show of HIS glory that He uses us. See how effectively uses angels to carry out His holy work. But see what glory it is to God to use sinful human beings to receive glory for Himself. It is like Mozart playing the most beautiful piece of music through a piano that has missing keys. Mozart would throw such a thing away to be demolished, but our God uses such things for His glory. Why did Christ come in such a lowly body when He became a man? He came to a body of a carpenter from a town that was considered the slum of Judea. Isaiah said His appearance was not any beautiful. Why? Why did God prepare such a lowly body for Christ to be in? Because He wanted to show forth His Son's glory. This Carpenter became the most important being in the universe, the name above all names. Why? Because God was in Him. Likewise God can use lowly things for His glory. He is able, and nothing is impossible for Him:
2 Corinthians 12:9 (ESV)
But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

This text also shows that God wants to work with us in our sanctification. We ought to be ready and armed and we must be willing to destroy the enemies of God that is within us and around us. And God will drive out them before our sight. The enemies are: our flesh, the world and the Devil. When we are armed against these, then God will be the one doing the work, for it is God's war. This mystical cooperation is shown by Paul's words:
Galatians 2:20 (ESV)
I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Paul is crucified with Christ. Paul is no longer living, but Christ is living in him. Yet he is still alive in the flesh. But he is living this life trusting, leaning on the Son of God who is living in him. It was Christ in Paul who was fighting the war. Yet Paul was still living, but how? Only by entrusting this life wholly to Jesus Christ. Faith is, then, what these Israelite soldiers had when they went over the Jordan to fight. Remember how Jericho was destroyed? Did they destroy it with catapults and bombs? No. Did they destroy them with many soldiers? No. How then? By faith. So did their faith destroy Jericho, as though there was strength in the faith? No. GOD crushed Jericho, when His army believed in His word. Therefore in our battle with self, the world, and the Devil, we must arm ourselves with faith. When we have faith, God uses us, and He will drive out His enemies before Him. Sanctification is thus by cooperation with God, but the only work that we do is leaning on God. Let us then, lean on God with faith, and He will work to purify us and sanctify us and destroy the remains of sin within us. Let us wholly trust in Jesus who loved us and died for us.

The land be subdued before the Lord. How does our Lord Jesus Christ subdue the land before Him? Does He do it with force? Does He do it with violence? No. He does it with the Gospel. He does it with His cross. He subdues man's rebellious hearts with a revelation of His grace that is like a light shining into dark place. We know that the carnal mind cannot submit to God nor His laws, as it is written:
Romans 8:7 (ESV)
For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot.
Man naturally does not have the will nor the ability to submit to God. Man is naturally hostile to Him. But when man receives this revelation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, this carnal mind is converted into a spiritual mind.

But let's think for a moment what it means to have a 'mind that is set on the flesh'. The best explanation would be what Christ meant when He rebuked Peter:
Matthew 16:21-23 (ESV)
From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. [22] And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, "Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you." [23] But he turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man."
A mind that is set on the flesh is the mind of the devil. A carnal mind is a mind that is set on the things of man. This must mean that what happens when a man is converted is that: the man who only thought about the things of man, trusted in man and glorified man, beholds the beauty of what God has done on the cross, and his mind becomes changed to think about the things of God, trusts in God and glorifies God. A mind that thinks of the things of God, especially of the cross of Jesus Christ. The mind that is set on the Cross of Jesus is the mind that is friendly to God and His laws. The mind that understands God's graciousness is the mind that is both willing and is able to submit to the commandments of God:
Hebrews 10:16-17 (KJV)
This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; [17] And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.
God is saying in this verse to Old Covenant Israel that later He will make a people whose minds are not hostile to God's laws, but a people who have passion for His laws. Not that they desire to be righteous by law, but because they are people amazed by the forbearance of their God who says "their sins will I remember no more". These are people who understand and say: 'Though God remembers not my sins, God never left them unpunished, but for my sins which God forgot He remembered them against my Lord Jesus'. By this grace God converts and subdues a man's heart, that those who were once His worst enemies become His closest allies. Glory be to God.

This land shall be your possession before the Lord. There are things done which are before the Lord and not before Him. There are things which are done with God's approval and those things which are done without. An action can be taken with acknowledging God, or it can be done without having God in one's knowledge. Just read how many times Moses says "Before the Lord" in this passage: "before the Lord the war", "over Jordan before the LORD", "His enemies before Him", "subdued before the LORD", "Guiltless before the LORD", and "possession before the LORD". Moses was putting Reuben and Gad before the LORD God, as it were to make them swear before the Lord that they will do this thing. Moses was making them do this thing they have promised and carry it out faithfully all things before Him. We are likewise to do all things before Him. Read what Jesus said:
John 3:20-21 (KJV)
For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. [21] But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.
Jesus is saying here that a deed can be done in the darkness, not before God, and a deed can be done in light, before God with His approval and His acceptance. Reuben and Gad likewise could have possessed this land east of Jordan without having to go to battle with their brethren. They could possess the land and say 'All this is ours'. But the land would not be theirs before the Lord. God would not accept their ownership, for they have not done it His way. They would only be found thieves, for the all the land is the Lord's and He has not given to them.

Likewise we do many things imagining God has given us the approval for us to do. But we know that in all honesty it was done in darkness. We didn't consult God about it, for perhaps we knew it was evil, but we were afraid that our deeds would be exposed by God's light. Isn't it so with even those things which were done in the name of God? How many times we do things in the name of Jesus, but in fact it was done apart from God. Reuben and Gad could have possessed the land without consulting Moses and said 'God gave us this land for us, so we will possess this land now, for that would be what God wanted us to do'. Then they would committed the sin of presumption. Paul before His conversion was persecuting and killing Christians and thought that he was doing God a service, but he was doing these things in darkness. Anything that is done in darkness are the works of darkness, even if they are done in the name of God. How many of these vain works will be exposed on the Day of Judgment. For God will judge the secrets of everyone's hearts, whether they did things before the Lord, or not:
Matthew 7:22-23 (ESV)
On that day many will say to me, ''Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?'' [23] And then will I declare to them, ''I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.''

Are our ministry nothing but works of lawlessness, or is it according to the commandments of God? Let us fear, and be warned that the fruitfulness of our ministry is not the sign of God's approval. It is the fruitfulness of our character, whether we are "guiltless before the Lord". Let us repent to ashes for anything we have done that was not according to the will of the Father, even if it appeared holy or for God's glory. Let us do His will in all things, always before Him, and then shall the Kingdom of God be our possession, before the Lord. Let us work for the approval of our hearts in the Lord's eyes. Amen.