Numbers 32:1
Now the Reubenites and Gadites, who had very large herds and flocks, surveyed the lands of Jazer and Gilead, and they saw that the region was suitable for livestock.
Sermons
A Bird in the Hand Worth Two in the BushD. Young Numbers 32:1-5
Reuben and GadJ. Parker, D. D.Numbers 32:1-6
The Selfish Request of the Reubenites and GaditesW. Jones.Numbers 32:1-6














This common proverb, so limited in the scope of its application, and so liable to be misused by timid and selfish people, is clearly illustrated in the conduct of these two tribes. Doubtless it is a sound principle to hold a small certainty rather than run the bare chance of a large possibility. But principles are nothing unless we rightly apply them, and the children of Reuben and Gad were forsaking the most certain and enduring of all precious things, and leaning to their own frail understanding. It is a poor exchange to leave the path of Divine providence for that of purblind human prudence. CONSIDER HERE THE MISTAKEN PRACTICAL NOTIONS BY WHICH REUBEN AND GAD WERE LED INTO THIS REQUEST.

1. An exaggerated estimate of the importance of temporal possessions. Reuben and Gad had a great multitude of cattle; the lands of Jazer and Gilead were places for cattle; and so the way is straight to the conclusion that these lands were the proper habitation of these tribes. It is the man of the world's view that the place which is good for one's property must be good for oneself, seeing that a man's abundance is in the things he possesses. The thought of the cattle so filled the minds of the two tribes that they could give no weight whatever to any other consideration. How hardly shall they that have riches enter the kingdom of heaven! That faith which is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen finds no room to grow in a heart choked up with the care of this world and the deceitfulness of riches. At this time, indeed, Reuben and Gad had many cattle, but it by no means followed that they would always have cattle. Job had many cattle, but in a few hours Sabeans and Chaldeans swept them all away. Consider well the thoughts that filled the mind of Lot (Genesis 13:10), as illustrating the foolish, partial, and short-sighted views of the children of Reuben and Gad. The Dead Sea was no great distance from these very lands of Jazer and Gilead.

2. They acted on the presumption that a man is himself the best judge of his own interests. They did not stop to consider that if God had meant this territory for them, he would have indicated his meaning in unmistakable fashion. He had made no sign, and this was in itself a proof that he judged their true home to be on the Canaan side of Jordan. It is the highest wisdom of man to wait, in simplicity and humility, on the indispensable directions of the All-Wise; even as the mariner finds his position by looking heavenward, and by the aid of the compass confidently finds his path across pathless waters. In an unfamiliar place you can gain no knowledge of the points of the compass by the minutest consideration of terrestrial circumstances, but get a glimpse of the sun and know the time of day, and the information is yours at once. The heavens declare the glory of God in this, that they never mislead us; and the God who made them is like them in ministering to the needs of our spirits. We cannot do without him. Instinct, so kind, so all-helpful to the brute, does little or nothing for us. God made us so that he might guide us with his eye. The great bulk of men act as these children of Reuben and Gad acted. The way of God, with all its real advantages, is yet so unpromising to the carnal eye that few there be who find it.

3. Especially they had forgotten that the purposes of God were to be the great rule of life to them. The great multitude of cattle was not theirs, but his. If they had made this proposition with a sense of stewardship in their minds, the proposition might have been not only excusable, but laudable. But the sense of stewardship was the very furthest of all feelings from their hearts. It is a late, a hard, and perhaps always an imperfect discovery, that a man only gains his right position when he manifests the glory of God. The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. These people had not risen to the thought of Canaan as being the very best land simply because it was God's choice. Their minds were not full of Canaan, but of their own cattle. A great deal depends on our conception of heaven. If we think of it as the place and state where God is all in all, where law and life exactly correspond, and Christ is glorified in the perfection of all his people, then heaven is begun already. Caleb and Joshua had been waiting forty years for the promised land, yet in a certain sense it had been theirs all the time. It was not simple habitation that made Canaan a promised land, else the Canaanites would have been as blessed as the true Israel. Rightful possession, honest spiritual inheritance, these constituted the full and abiding enjoyment of Canaan. - Y.

The children of Gad, and the children of Reuben, came and spake unto Moses.
I. MEAN SELFISHNESS. In the competitions of business and of professional and social life there is often very much of mean selfishness, and that even amongst persons who are avowedly Christians. But selfishness is utterly opposed to the spirit of Jesus Christ.

II. PREDOMINANT WORLDLINESS. In this day there are many, who regard themselves as Christians, who resemble the Reubenites and Gadites — many who are chiefly influenced by temporal and worldly considerations in —

1. The selection and conduct of their business.

2. The formation of matrimonial alliances; and

3. The determination of their residence.Temporal gain, social surroundings, salubrity of atmosphere, and similar things are often deeply considered, while sacred and spiritual things are well-nigh overlooked.

III. DISREGARD OF THE INTERESTS AND BIGHTS OF THEIR BRETHREN.

IV. DISPARAGEMENT OF THEIR DIVINE CALLING AND DESTINY. What vast numbers practically despise their exalted spiritual calling in the Gospel for the passing and perishing things of this world!

V. WANT OF FAITH IN THE DIVINE PROMISE. It is not improbable that they had their doubts as to their taking the good land beyond Jordan, and therefore sought to secure for themselves what the nation had already conquered. Such unbelief is a grievous dishonour to God. Conclusion: Mark the folly of this request of the Reubenites and Gadites. The country which they desired had very grave disadvantages. A selfish policy is generally a self-defeating policy.

(W. Jones.)

This is too often the prayer of prosperous men. They find upon the earth what they regard as heaven enough. If they could but double their income, they would sigh for no bluer heaven; if they could but have health without increasing the income — simply increase of physical energy — they would desire no better paradise than they can find on earth. Who likes to cross the Jordan that lies before every man? There is a point at which it becomes very difficult to say to God, "We are still ready to go on; whatever next may come — great wilderness or cold river, or high stony mountain — we are still ready to go on; Thy will be done, and Thy way be carried out to its last inch." Yet, until we reach the resignation which becomes triumph and the triumph which expresses itself, not in loud sentiment but in quiet and deep obedience, we have not begun to realise the meaning of the kingdom of heaven. What was the answer of Moses? "Shall your brethren go to war, and shall ye sit here?" (ver. 6). What suggestion there is in the colour of every tone! What sublime mockery! What a hint of cowardice! What an infliction of judgment upon meanness! Sometimes the only way in which we can put a rational rebuke is in the form of an inquiry. But there was more to be considered. "And wherefore discourage ye the heart of the children of Israel from going over into the land which the Lord hath given them?" (ver. 7). Take the word "discourage" in any sense, and it is full of meaning. Perhaps a stronger word might have been inserted here — a word amounting to aversion and utter dislike to the idea of going forward. Our actions have social effects. There are no literal individualities now; we are not separate and independent pillars; we are parts of a sum-total; we are members one of another. Then Moses utilised history (vers. 8-13). The past speaks in the present. Our fathers come up in a kind of resurrection in our own thinking and our own propositions. Meanness of soul is handed down; disobedience is not buried in the grave with the man who disobeyed. This is a broad law; were it rightly understood and applied, many a man's conduct would be explained which to-day appears to be quite inexplicable. Appetites descend from generation to generation; diseases may sleep through one generation, and arise in the next with aggravated violence. Men should take care what they do. Then Reuben and Gad said they would fight; they would build sheepfolds for their cattle, and cities for their little ones: but they themselves would go ready armed before the children of Israel, until they had brought them unto their place, and then their little ones should dwell in the fenced cities because of the inhabitants of the land. Moses said, in effect, "So be it: if you complete the battle you shall locate yourselves here; but you must complete the battle, and when the conquest is won, you may return and enjoy what you can here of green things and flowing water; but, let me tell you, 'if ye will not do so, behold, ye have sinned against the Lord'; this is not a covenant between you and me — between man and man; but your sin will be against the Lord, 'and be sure your sin will find you out.'" The matter was not easily arranged; Heaven was invoked, tones of judgment were employed, a covenant was entered into which bore the seal eternal. That law still continues. Supposing there to be no Bible, no altar, no invisible judgment-seat, no white throne — as has been conceived by sacred poetry — there is still, somehow, at work, in this mysterious scheme of things, a law of a constabulary kind which arrests the evil-doer, which makes the glutton sick, which makes the voluptuary weak, which stings the plotter in the very time which he had planned for his special joy. There is, account for it as we may, a ghostliness that looks upon us through the cloud, so that we feel the blood receding from the face, or feel it returning in violent torrents, making the face red with shame. But there is the law, give it what name we may, shuffle out of religious definitions as we like: the wrong-doer lays his head on a hard pillow; the bad man stores his property in unsafe places.

(J. Parker, D. D.)

People
Amorites, Caleb, Eleazar, Eshcol, Gad, Gadites, Haran, Isaac, Israelites, Jacob, Jair, Jephunneh, Joseph, Joshua, Machir, Makirites, Manasseh, Moses, Nobah, Nun, Og, Reuben, Reubenites, Sihon
Places
Aroer, Ataroth, Atroth-shophan, Bashan, Beon, Beth-baal-meon, Beth-haran, Beth-nimrah, Canaan, Dibon, Egypt, Elealeh, Gilead, Havvoth-jair, Heshbon, Jazer, Jogbehah, Jordan River, Kadesh-barnea, Kenath, Kiriathaim, Nebo, Nimrah, Nobah, Sebam, Sibmah, Valley of Eshcol
Topics
Behold, Cattle, Exceedingly, Flocks, Gad, Gadites, Gilead, Herds, Indeed, Jaazer, Jazer, Lands, Large, Livestock, Multitude, Reuben, Sons, Suitable
Outline
1. The Reubenites and Gadites ask for inheritance on the east side of Jordan
6. Moses reproves them
16. They offer him conditions with which he is content
33. Moses assigns them the land
39. They conquer it.

Dictionary of Bible Themes
Numbers 32:1

     4831   largeness

Numbers 32:1-5

     7206   community

Numbers 32:1-33

     5910   motives, examples

Numbers 32:1-38

     7266   tribes of Israel

Library
Numbers
Like the last part of Exodus, and the whole of Leviticus, the first part of Numbers, i.-x. 28--so called,[1] rather inappropriately, from the census in i., iii., (iv.), xxvi.--is unmistakably priestly in its interests and language. Beginning with a census of the men of war (i.) and the order of the camp (ii.), it devotes specific attention to the Levites, their numbers and duties (iii., iv.). Then follow laws for the exclusion of the unclean, v. 1-4, for determining the manner and amount of restitution
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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