Text: Numbers 32:1-32

“Shall your brothers go to the war while you sit here?” Numbers 32:6

NBA luminary Pat Riley says, “When a great team loses through complacency, it will constantly search for new and more intricate explanations to explain away defeat. After a while it becomes more innovative in thinking up how to lose than thinking up how to win.”

The danger with complacency is that it is not only acutely self-serving, but it is highly contagious.

Last week we saw how God allowed an entire generation of mediocre souls to die off in the wilderness because they were too filled with fear to take the Almighty at His word (Numbers 13). Only Joshua and Caleb, a bold minority, followed God fully and didn’t shrink back in cowardice. In Numbers 32, we pick up the story 38 years later, and it’s now “GO” time.

God has a new generation of warriors poised to cross the Jordan and seize Israel’s Promised Land. They are prepared to confront any giant that stands in their path, but their momentum is stifled by yet another bump in the road—one of subtle complacency.

The danger with complacency is that it is not only acutely self-serving, but it is highly contagious. Tweet this

As the people journey on, they come to the regions of Jazer and Gilead, which seemed perfect for cattle. Because the tribes of Reuben and Gad had a great number of livestock, this was the ideal real estate for them to settle into. So these tribes ask Moses, Eleazar, and other community leaders if this could be their inheritance.

“Do not take us across the Jordan,” they say. We’ve found the perfect spot for our families, so who needs this whole Promised Land thing anyway, right?

These tribes fell prey to complacency and selfishness, and became indifferent to the fate of their fellow Israelites who would still have to cross the Jordan and fight many battles before they could stake their inheritance. The tribes of Reuben and Gad probably felt like they had fought and suffered enough already, and this would be a peaceful place to settle down and mail it in the rest of the way. They figured everyone else could go out to battle while they sat there milking cows and fertilizing their lawns. The problem was, it wasn’t about them!

Moses was annoyed with their apathy. He reminded them that their fathers had acted in a similar way and discouraged the hearts of the people with their contagion of mediocrity (Numbers 32:6-10). He cautioned them that if they acted in the same spiritual apathy as their fathers, that this next generation would suffer immensely and be destroyed in the wilderness (Numbers 32:15). Their complacency would have repercussions that affected many others, not just themselves.

This was not only a disturbing act of selfishness, but also a sinful indifference to the divine word on which Israel’s existence entirely depended. Moses assured them that if they stayed home and ‘played it safe’ while their brothers were battling for life and death to take possession of the Promised Land, then their “sin” of doing nothing would surely find them out (Numbers 32:23). Moses wanted them to know that there was a battle to fight and that they were all in it together.

Just because these tribes were content with where they were, it did not relieve them of the responsibility to keep the battle going. Eventually these tribes heeded Moses’ rebuke and course corrected. They resolved to do what the Lord commanded, to “pass over armed before the Lord into the land of Canaan” and help their brothers along (Numbers 32:31-32). This story didn’t end as drastically as the fate of the previous generation. There was a positive outcome because the Reubenites and the Gadites were willing to repent of their complacency and follow the Lord fully.

Complacency can be very subtle and insidiously erosive to our faith. It is a slow spiritual death.

It can cause us to go about our daily lives with spiritual blinders on, not considering the needs of others around us. It can make us keenly self-absorbed and content with only our own affairs and personal comforts. Complacency produces anemic prayers that are predominantly self-focused rather than deeply intercessory for others. Complacency shifts our focus from seeing our existential identity as ‘being a blessing to others’ to mainly pursuing ‘what we can accumulate for ourselves.’

Complacency is also one of the greatest deterrents to the Great Commission of Jesus Christ in our generation. Our Lord gave us the command to “go and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19). Imagine what it might look like if every believer in the Western world refused to live in complacency toward this Great Commission.

What if we traded in our ‘settler’ theology for a ‘go-time’ theology? What if we became intentional disciplemakers? What if we truly became our brother’s keeper? What if we loved our neighbors indiscriminately? What if we fiercely defended the cause of the weak and the fatherless? What if we intentionally looked after the widow and the orphan? What if we gave everything we had to champion the Gospel among unreached people groups and lost tribes?

Imagine the eternity-shaping movements we could become part of if we traded in our complacency for an “all-in” resolve to join Jesus in His missional adventure. What might that produce in our generation? Think about that, beloved, as you seek to abide in Him this week.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we realize that complacency can be a subtle and slow spiritual death. We don’t want to waste our days in mediocrity. Show us those bold faith steps that we need to take that will keep us in missional rhythm with where your kingdom is advancing in our generation. Help us to detect any complacency in our lives and grant us the power of the Holy Spirit to rise above it. For your glory and fame, and in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Complacency can be very subtle and insidiously erosive to our faith. It is a slow spiritual death. Tweet this

Questions for Reflection and/or Family Discussion:

1. When have you been able to identify complacency in your life?
2. Why do you think complacency comes with such subtlety?
3. In what other ways can complacency be erosive to one’s faith?
4. What is encouraging about how this chapter in Numbers plays out?
5. In what ways can you identify complacency in your life? What can you do this week to rise above spiritual complacency?

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