Today, I am reading and commenting on Numbers 32-33.

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Some of these names are very challenging for me to pronounce (especially some of the place names).  Every time I read this I come to the same conclusion: Moses misunderstood the intentions of the tribes of Reuben and Gad when they asked for the land the Israelites had conquered east of the Jordan River as their inheritance.  However, as I read it this time, it seems to me that the tribes were also in the wrong.  There are different ways to read their request, but I will explain how I read it this year (and the lesson we can learn from it).  The tribes of Reuben and Gad looked at the land which the Israelites had conquered east of the Jordan and thought to themselves that they could not imagine land more suited to their lifestyles.  They saw no reason to go to war for land west of the Jordan.    So, they asked Moses if they could just have that land and be done.  Moses interpreted their decision as them being afraid of going across the Jordan, just as the previous generation had been afraid to go into the land.  He thought they were not willing to aid the other tribes in gaining the land west of the Jordan.  When the tribes of Reuben and Gad realized that their request could be taken that way, they changed it.  So, even though they had indeed originally been requesting to be allowed to not join the fight across the Jordan, that was not what they wanted.  They wanted the land east of the Jordan, and had thought they had no reason to fight west of the Jordan.  Moses’ accusation made them realize that the other tribes had taken part in conquering this land which they desired and had a legitimate claim to their assistance in conquering land for the other tribes to live in.  The lesson we take away from this is that when misunderstand our intentions, we should not get angry and defensive.  Rather, we should seek to resolve the conflict with our brothers.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.