It has now been about 40 years since the Israelites left Egypt, and they are poised again to move into the land. The significance of the interchange in Numbers 32 is that history threatened to repeat itself. Some of the tribes (the Reubenites, Gadites and half the tribe of Manasseh) were opting out of entering the promised land, preferring to settle instead in the area east of the Jordan River. They were stopping short of better land on the west side of the Jordan River. In the end a concession is made for them. God permits them to settle there so long as they aided the other tribes to take the land. It may have been a case of a ‘bird in the hand’ since the kingdoms east of the Jordan had already been defeated, and they may have had doubts about the success of the upcoming conquest. So, they ‘cashed in’ early. While their response was somewhat better than that of their parents’ decades earlier (Number 13-14), there is still a tragic sense of compromise in this chapter. They stopped short of something better due to doubt and fear. And God allowed them to stay where they stopped. We can read this as a cautionary tale. It is possible that we can become too content with lesser blessings and thereby forfeit greater blessings. Don’t stop short when there is more up ahead. You might be in a good place now, but it will become a bad place if it holds you back from a better place.
Thank God for what you have and ask for more of his blessing.
Read Numbers 32-34
