Every impressive performance takes years of hard work. There is a Chinese idiom that says that “one minute on the stage requires ten years of practice off stage”. I remembered when I was a young psychologist undergoing training, I told myself that one day, I shall be as skilled in assessing for dyslexia as my seniors were. It took me almost 8 years before I was able to say confidently that I had a good grasp of most of the assessment tools as well as the assessment skillset (observation, assessing, integrating, interpreting). No one expects to be skilled in something overnight. 

However, what we saw in Chapter 17 today was indeed an expectation, or a sense of entitlement, that the Manassites had toward obtaining the land. What happened?

Chapter 17 began with some genealogical observations about the people of Manasseh. We were introduced to the male descendants of Manasseh, as well as the daughters of Zelophehad, who was the great-great-grandson of Manasseh. Machir, the firstborn of Manasseh, had already been allotted Gilead and Bashan, and the rest of the Manassites were allotted land to the west side of the Jordan. Altogether, besides the land of Gilead and Bashan, which is on the east side of the Jordan, the rest of the Manassites were allotted ten portions of the land on the west side of Jordan.

As we have seen in previous chapters, in order to gain the land, the Israelites have to go in to take possession of the land by driving out the Canaanites. However, we were told that the Manassites were not able to take possession of those cities because the Canaanites were determined to live in that region. Even when the Israelites grew strong, they did not utterly drive the Canaanites out and instead put them to forced labour. 

Instead of reflecting of what they had not done, they went to Joshua and demanded more than just one allotment in the Promised Land, claiming that they had more people within the tribe. But Joshua’s response to them, “go up by yourselves”, “clear ground for yourselves”, was simply telling them that they need to work for it. Joshua further reminded them that the land is already given to them, they simply needed to put in their part of the effort to claim the land (verse 18). 

How often had we been like the Israelites, to feel entitled to things that we did not work for, or to think that we can have a meteoric rise without having to put in any effort? This is so in our spiritual lives too. We want to encounter God, but we do not spend time with God in prayer or in reading the bible. We want our churches to grow, but we wait for people to come to us. We expect devotion links to be sent to us, but never actively searched out for materials that will increase our biblical literacy. We expect God to answer our prayers, but never quite put attention into our prayers. We want many things, but we never quite offered ourselves to do anything. 

Have we been procrastinating or lazy in working out our spiritual lives? Let us put a stop to it. Let us cultivate an attitude of gratitude to God, and to find opportunities to express thanks to people around us. Let us make a conscious effort to look for ways to serve others rather than to expect others to serve us. Let us be active in practising spiritual discipline, for example, to pray, to read the Word, to read a Christian book, so that we may be able to grow in intimacy with God. Let us be intentional to disciple our children and together with them, keep our eyes focused on God. 

Just as the Israelites needed to play their part to drive out the Canaanites to claim the Promised Land, we, too, need to be intentional in our spiritual discipline to grow in our intimacy with God. May we all grow in our relationship with God as we keep our focus on the final goal.

Prayer: Dear God, thank you that I am able to call you Abba Father. Please help me to persevere in being intentional with my spiritual disciplines, so that I may grow to be more and more like Christ. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.