It is a sorrowful fact, however, that in all ages the people of God have been willing to settle down with something seriously short of the calling of God for them. Reuben, Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh wished to make their home in the land of Gilead, and many of God's true saints today are satisfied to regard themselves as still belonging to man's order of things, although they gratefully acknowledge their indebtedness to Jesus and His blood for their deliverance from eternal ruin.
But to live on the wrong side of Jordan is dangerous. The two and a half tribes experienced this frequently, for in troublous times they were the first to meet the assault of the invader, and they were the first to be led away captive by the King of Assyria (2 Kings 15:2929In the days of Pekah king of Israel came Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, and took Ijon, and Abel-beth-maachah, and Janoah, and Kedesh, and Hazor, and Gilead, and Galilee, all the land of Naphtali, and carried them captive to Assyria. (2 Kings 15:29)). The men of Jabesh-Gilead were now in sore trouble.
World-bordering is perilous for our souls in this age. It exposes us unnecessarily to the enemy. We are only safe as we take our place definitely outside everything here, as dead to it. When our minds are really set upon things above, with the risen Christ as our sole object, we are proof against the seductions of the world and the devil. A position of compromise, once accepted, lays us open to trouble at every turn.
Nahash the Ammonite had apparently the most profound contempt for the people of God. When he proposed to put out the right eyes of the inhabitants of Jabesh-Gilead, and lay it for a reproach upon all Israel, and furthermore, when he granted them seven days respite to seek help if they could obtain it, it is evident that he considered the nation utterly impotent. To such a condition had Israel's unfaithfulness reduced them in the eyes of their neighbors. How blessed to read, by way of contrast, what is recorded of the early church—“of the rest durst no man join himself to them: but the people magnified them” (Acts 5:1313And of the rest durst no man join himself to them: but the people magnified them. (Acts 5:13)). This effect was produced by the manifest presence and power of God operating amongst the saints.