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REUBEN AND GAD
NUMBERS
CHAPTER 32
Greetings everyone, and welcome back.
Last time we met, we learned about vows. Here's a little story about
Reuben, Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh, who give their word to the
Lord. Let's see what it was all about.
The children of Reuben and Gad had
a lot of cattle. When they saw that the land on the east side of the Salt
Sea (Dead Sea) and the Jordan River was a good place to raise cattle, they
went to Moses, Eleazar and the princes of the congregation, and asked if
they could have that land for their inheritance instead of going over the
Jordan into the Promised Land.
Naturally, that upset Moses and he
said, Should your brothers go to war while you stay here? And why do you
want to discourage the children of Israel from going into the Promised
Land? Your ancestors did the same thing when I sent them to spy out the
land and it made the Lord angry. That's when He sware that none of those
that came up out of Egypt from 20 years old and up would see the Promised
Land because they didn't completely obey Him, except for Caleb and Joshua.
He made them wander in the wilderness for 40 years until the entire
generation that had done wrong in His eyes was dead. Now, here you are,
following in your father's footsteps, the children of sinful men, to add to
the Lord's anger toward Israel. If you turn away from Him, He'll leave them
in the wilderness again and you'll destroy all these people.
They answered Moses, We'll build
sheepfolds (pens) here for our livestock and cities for our children, but we
ourselves will go fight for the children of Israel until we've brought them
to their place in the Promised Land. Our children will live in the walled
cities, but we won't return to them until every man of the children of
Israel has his inheritance. We won't inherit anything west of the Jordan or
beyond because our inheritance is given to us on this side of Jordan
eastward.
Moses said, If you go over the
Jordan and fight for the Lord until all His enemies are driven out and the
land is at peace, then you may return guiltless in the eyes of the Lord and
Israel and this land will be your possession. But if you don't keep your
word, you've sinned against the Lord, and make no mistake, your sin will be
found out. Build your cities for your children and pens for your sheep, but
keep your word.
Moses told Eleazar and Joshua that
if if the children of Reuben and Gad didn't go fight for the Lord and
Israel, their inheritance would have to be in the land of Canaan.
They all agreed and the land that
was given to them along with half the tribe of Manasseh (the son of Joseph)
is listed in Numbers 32:33-42
Let's do a little math! Of course
some of these numbers are not exact, but they'll give you an idea of why
this issue came up. Israel is approximately 11,000 square miles. There
were 601,730 children of Israel (able to go to war) who were going to occupy
it. That gives each person an average of 11 2/3 acres of land. That's not
a big chunk of grazing area if you own a lot of cattle! We'll see in future
stories if they kept their word and fought for Israel in God's army to bring
them into the Promised Land or not.
More great stories ahead, here at
Daily Bread!
CONTINUE TO THE NEXT STUDY
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