Do You Look a Gift Horse in the Mouth?

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What We Can Learn from the Allocation of the Promised Land

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Have you ever heard the phrase, “Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth”? What does it mean? It admonishes us to avoid unappreciatively questioning a gift too closely. Since horses’ teeth grow over time, checking their length is a way of gauging old age. If someone gives you a horse and you inspect its teeth you have shown a sign of mistrust towards the giver.

Is it possible that we look a gift horse in the mouth when we receive blessings from God? Don’t be too quick to say, “Ah, no! I would never do that.” We can learn a lot about how people accept God’s blessings by looking at the children of Israel’s responses to how Joshua allocated the Promised Land to them.

Blessings

As Christians we receive many blessings from the Lord. Salvation, grace, forgiveness, just to name a few. These are granted to all Christians. Each of us also receive blessings that are specific to us, such as loving parents, a good job, an unexpected financial gift, protection from a car accident. But do we always appreciate these gifts? Do we sometimes look a bit too closely to ensure they meet our expectation?

No one merits God’s blessings. Oswald Chambers said it this way:

Moral and spiritual integrity cannot be measured by God’s blessings. God sends His favours on good and bad alike. The blessings of God are an indication that God is overflowing in grace and benediction irrespective of a man’s relationship to Him.

McCasland, David, The Quotable Oswald Chambers, (Grand Rapids: Discovery House Publishers, 2008), 31.

Jesus taught that God makes the sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust, therefore we are to be perfect, meaning mature (Matthew 5:45, 48). God’s blessings are given to each of us freely, and they are unmerited. It stands to reason that we need do nothing to receive His blessings. Also, we are to be mature and a part of maturity is having gratitude for such blessings. But is that reasoning biblical?

God gave the Israelites a blessing when He gave them the Promised Land. We can learn much about ourselves by analyzing how the children of Israel received the blessing of the Promised Land.

First Clearing the Land

In Joshua 10:28 – 11:22, Joshua lead Israel and fought for the land. God had commanded Moses to take the land and Moses commanded Joshua. Joshua did it first by fighting for the cities of Makkedah, Libnah, Lachish, Gezer, Eglon, Hebron, Debir.

After taking these cities, the kings of other nations heard of it and opted not to wait for Israel to come to them. Instead, they banded together and went on the offensive to war against Israel. Joshua and all of Israel were still successful as the Lord promised. “So Joshua took all that land, the hills, and all the south country, and all the land of Goshen, and the valley, and the plain, and the mountain of Israel, and the valley of the same” (Joshua 11:16).

After clearing all the land, Joshua had to allocate land to the various tribes.

Allocation of the Promised Land

Before Joshua could allocate the Promised Land, he had to lead Israel and fight for the land (Joshua 10:28 – 11:22). God had promised a blessing. But the people of Israel had to work for that blessing. But the work was made effective because God was directing Joshua’s steps and delivering the kings into Israel’s hand (Joshua 10:6). Joshua then took the whole land gave it for an inheritance to Israel according to their divisions by their tribes (Joshua 11:23).

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Moses and Israel had fought for the land East of the Jordan that was given to the Reubenites, Gadites, and the half tribe of Mannaseh (Joshua 12:1-6). Joshua and Israel fought for the land West of the Jordan (Joshua 12:7-24).

Israel had cleared much of the land of their ungodly inhabitants. However, it was the uncleared land that was divided and allocated to the nine and one-half remaining tribes. Of interest is what each tribe had to do to accept their inheritance and how each tribe reacted to receiving their inheritance/blessing.

Reactions of the Tribes

Joshua 13:15-32 outlines the land that Moses cleared and gave to the Reubenites, Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh. These tribes were satisfied with this allocation because it is what they had asked for, land on the east of the Jordan. After helping the remaining tribes clear the land west of the Jordan, the two and one-half tribes returned to east of the Jordan and happily lived in it. They did little by themselves to accept that blessing. They asked for it. They received it. They lived in it.

Joshua 14:6-15 tells us that Caleb also asked for specific land. He requested the land with faith that he would be able to drive out the inhabitants with God’s help. Afterall, God had promised the land to him through Moses. The land was a reward for having faith and giving a good report upon spying out the land of Canaan while the other spies gave bad reports, causing Israel to wander in the desert instead of entering the land of Canaan. Caleb had faith that God would bless and would be with Caleb as he drove out the people, just as he had believed when they spied out Canaan. Caleb successfully drove out the inhabitants and happily lived in his inheritance (Joshua 15:13-14).

The children of Joseph received Joseph’s inheritance. They accepted the land but they complained about it. They asked Joshua why he had given them so little land considering how many people were in their tribe (Joshua 17:14).

Joshua’s response? He said, if you have so many people then go clear the wooded hill country and expel the people (which included giants) from the land (Joshua 17:15). The children of Joseph complained even more because they didn’t view the hill country to be enough and they doubted they could chase out the people (Joshua 17:16). But Joshua stood his ground. He gave them the mountain and told them to clear it. (Joshua 17:18).

There remained seven tribes of Israel that had not received their inheritances. Joshua instructed them to select 3 men of each tribe and spy out the land and come back with a description. Joshua cast lots to allocate the remainder of the land. There is no indication about how these tribes felt about this process and the land they received (Joshua 18:10).

Lessons Learned from the Allocation of the Promised Land

So, what have we learned thus far from the process of receiving the blessing?

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1. When God promises blessings, it is fine to ask for specifics like the two and one-half tribes east of the Jordan and Caleb.
2. Some blessings may take some effort to claim, either individually or corporately, which occurred during the initial clearing of the land and the land given to Caleb and the children of Joseph.
3. Attitude is important. Some people are dissatisfied with their blessing and want more. Complaining might get you more but it will likely come with hard work as the children of Joseph illustrate.

So, how do we apply this to our own lives? First, when God has promised a blessing, He may intend for us to work to receive it, just as the children of Israel had to clear the land of the inhabitants and the children of Joseph had to clear the hills of the woods. Also, we can use Israel’s examples to analyze our own attitudes about the blessings God has given us.

1. Do I have complete faith in God’s promises, requesting exactly what God promised, and live in that faith to joyfully do what it takes to accept the blessing like Caleb?
2. Do I merely accept the blessing like the two and one-half tribes east of the Jordan? It is fine to do so, but I hope that I am grateful for the blessing and express it.
3. Am I dissatisfied with the blessings of God, thinking they are insufficient for me?

Some might say that taking the land was too much effort. There was a lot of war and bloodshed. We shouldn’t have to suffer in any way when accepting our blessings. But that isn’t scriptural.

Jesus calls us to be perfect, or mature (Matthew 5:48). And the apostle Peter teaches that suffering and struggle make us perfect and establishes us, strengthens us, and settles us (1 Peter 5:10). Sometimes our blessings come with struggles to accept them.

Returning to Oswald Chambers, he said this:

Remember God’s blessing may mean God’s blasting. If God is going to bless me, He must condemn and blast out of my being what He cannot bless. “Our God is a consuming fire.” When we ask God to bless, we sometimes pray terrible havoc upon the things that are not of God. God will shake all that can be shaken, and He is doing it just now.

The Highest Good – The Pilgrim’s Song Book, 529 R.

The struggle helps eliminate those unsurrendered parts of us that God cannot look upon, accept, or bless. Can we accept that the struggle is a blessing when it serves to perfect (mature) us, establish us, strengthen us, settle us and makes us more Christ-like as explained by Peter and Oswald Chambers?

But let’s not forget the Levites. God gave no land of their own to the Levites. Instead, He gave them use of some of the land that belonged to the other tribes. God explained the “sacrifices of the Lord God of Israel made by fire” was their inheritance (Joshua 13:14).

Basically, God was saying, “I am enough! I will provide.”

If we find ourselves in that group that does not get any material blessings of our own and only the liberty to serve God and His sanctuary and people while feasting on God’s provision, is that enough? Or do we look at the material blessings of others and feel like we haven’t been blessed at all?

Analysis

We now have biblical examples of how some people had to struggle to receive their blessings and how they reacted. You now have a tool to evaluate your own reactions to God’s blessings:

1. Do you have complete faith in God’s promises, requesting exactly what God promised, and live in that faith to joyfully do what it takes to accept the blessing like Caleb?
2. Do you accept the blessing like the two and one-half tribes east of the Jordan, gratefully? 
3. Are you dissatisfied with the blessings of God, thinking they are insufficient for you, grumbling and complaining?
4. And when God blesses you with a special relationship with Him, the privilege to serve Him and depend upon His provision, do you find that to be enough or do you look at others and seek the material blessings they have?

We are very human. But let’s strive to be like Caleb, living in faith that God will fulfill His promises and joyfully pursue the maximum God has for us. When it takes some effort to claim the promises, let’s recognize the struggle as part of the blessing while it perfects, establishes, strengthens, and settles us, making us more Christ-like. When we don’t look a gift horse in the mouth, showing mistrust of God, we can have confidence that the promises of God, even if they require work and struggle to claim them, are great blessings.

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