1 Chronicles 4:24-5:26 “Intimacy or Vulnerability!”
In the latter part of chapter four, we see Simeon’s descendants. Though small they survived, at least somewhat, by being geographically identified with Judah. “They destroyed the remnant of the Amalakites who escaped, and have lived there to this day.” (4:43) However, the two and a half tribes east of the Jordan [Rueben, Gad, & 1/2 Manasseh] did not fair as well settling outside the originally defined territory of Israel. Though they were great and courageous warriors when crying out to God, they drifted from their faith. “But they acted treacherously against the God of their fathers and played the harlot after the gods of the peoples of the land, whom God had destroyed before them.” (5:25). It is likely their geographical separation by the Jordan contributed to their subtile spiritual drift from God. Their unwillingness to pay the price of participating in true worship in Jerusalem made them vulnerable to the false worship of their neighbors. “So the God of Israel stirred up the spirit of Pul, king of Assyria,……..and he carried them away into exile, namely the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh,…” (26a, c) When we are not solidly connected to the worshipping family of God, we are vulnerable to the influences of the ungodly world to which we are living closer. Intimacy with God greatly hinges on our intimacy with His worshiping people.