Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Adult Sunday School Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/bb/bb20060625.htm

1 AND 2 CHRONICLES: GAINING DIRECTION OUT OF THE AIMLESSNESS OF APOSTASY
Part I: Gaining Direction From God's Work In Our History From Furthest Antiquity, 1 Chronicles 1-9
B. Gaining Direction From Noting God's INTERACTION With Past Groups In The Faith, 1 Chronicles 4-8
4. Gaining Direction By Noting God's Work With The Tribe Of Gad
(1 Chronicles 5:11-22)
  1. Introduction
    1. Achieving success in ministry for the Lord takes faith in God's goodness and power coupled with obedience to His Word in the actual service we perform for Him.
    2. The tribe of Gad historically knew both defeat and success based on its adherence to the Lord in faith in Him and His Word, providing a lesson for us on staying reliant upon the Lord in order to stay blessed:
  2. Gaining Direction By Noting God's Work With The Tribe Of Gad, 1 Chronicles 5:11-22.
    1. The line of the tribe of Gad, supplied in 1 Chronicles 5:11-22, includes verses 18-22 that describe a great battle where the tribes of Gad, Reuben and half the tribe of Manasseh defeated Gentile peoples.
    2. Such a victory was promised in Deuteronomy 28:1-2, 7 if Israel obeyed God's Law.
    3. However, the history of the tribe of Gad had been predicted by the patriarch, Jacob to contain a mix of military victories and defeats, cf. Genesis 49:19:
      1. Jacob predicted the sons of Gad would be raided by raiders before he would raid them, Gen. 49:19.
      2. The word for "Gad" in the Hebrew text of this verse "sounds like the Hebrew" word "for raiders and raid," so Jacob used Gad's name to describe a mixed blessing, cf. English Standard Version ftn.
    4. Well, the Mosaic Law promised the people of Israel victory in war if they obeyed the Law (Deuteronomy 28:1-2, 7) but warned of military defeat were they to disobey the Law, Deuteronomy 28:15, 25.
    5. Thus, the Gadites knew a mix of defeat and victory in their history due to a mixture of obedience and disobedience to God's Law, and we view that history for how and why this all occurred (as follows):
      1. The people of Gad were successful in some of their wars by faith and obedience to God and His Word:
        1. Positively, obedience to God and trust in Him led to military blessings for Gad: (1) When David was in exile from Saul's court, great warriors from Gad who believed in his anointing of the Lord joined him in faith that God would make him the next king, 1 Chronicles 12:8. (2) Then, in 1 Chronicles 5:18-22 (as we learned before), Gad with Reuben and the half tribe of Manasseh defeated a large Gentile host when they called upon the Lord for help, 1 Chronicles 5:20; they obtained a great amount of spoil because of this victory, 1 Chronicles 5:21-22.
        2. However, disobedience to God brought military defeat: (1) in the later era of Israel's monarchy, Hazael, king of Syria, defeated and conquered much of the Trans-Jordan area where Gad, Reuben and the half tribe of Manasseh dwelt, cf. 2 Kings 10:32-33. (2) Then, God Himself raised up Tiglath-pilneser III of Assyria to capture these 2 1/2 tribes and transport them to other parts of his kingdom where they still lived in exile when 1 Chronicles was written, 1 Chronicles 5:26. This exile came over 20 years before the reign of the Assyrian king who captured Israel's capitol city of Samaria (Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, ftn. to 2 Kings 15:19-20, p. 585; Ibid., ftn. to 2 Kings 17:6), so these tribes had slid into apostasy earlier than had the rest of the Northern Kingdom of Israel!
      2. The geographical isolation of these 2 1/2 tribes caused by the fact that the Jordan River acted as a natural barrier to separate them from the rest of Israel doubtless aided in their faster drift into apostasy. God had let these tribes live east of the Jordan since they had requested the land for grazing their many herds, but that was not the original plan, Num. 32:5-15. Yet, for pledging to stay faithful to God and the nation, these tribes were granted the Trans-Jordan as their inheritance, Numbers 32:16-23.
Lesson: For a MIX of obedience and disobedience which was doubtless more facilitated by their being distanced from the central place of worship across the Jordan, a fact caused by the desire to have the Trans-Jordan land for their many animals, the tribe of Gad knew a MIX of God's blessing and its lack.

Application: (1) May we always focus on and heed God and His Word for maximum blessing. (2) Let us watch that we not become so preoccupied with side issues or interests that we are distracted from heeding God and fail to be blessed by Him, cf. 2 Tim. 2:4. (3) Let us watch that we not let possessions or the desire to gain them tempt us to be distracted from focusing on God and Scripture, 1 Tim. 6:6-11!