Numbers 32:1-5—1 Now the children of Reuben and the children of Gad had a very great multitude of livestock; and when they saw the land of Jazer and the land of Gilead, that indeed the region was a place for livestock, 2 the children of Gad and the children of Reuben came and spoke to Moses, to Eleazar the priest, and to the leaders of the congregation, saying, 3 "Ataroth, Dibon, Jazer, Nimrah, Heshbon, Elealeh, Shebam, Nebo, and Beon, 4 the country which the LORD defeated before the congregation of Israel, is a land for livestock, and your servants have livestock." 5 Therefore they said, "If we have found favor in your sight, let this land be given to your servants as a possession. Do not take us over the Jordan." Jazer was a city in the land of Gilead, and Gilead was an area to the east of the Jordan River between the Dead Sea and the Sea of Galilee (known at the time as Sea of Chinnereth), and laid to the south, the west, and the north of the land of Ammon. (Do not think Jazer lent its name to the Al-Jazeera media network, as it is based in Qatar on the Arabian Peninsula.) Gilead was a grandson of Manasseh (see Numbers 26:29; 1st Chronicles 2:23). The land of Gilead is mentioned several times in the Old Testament.
The first time we read of it is in Genesis 31, where we read about Jacob fleeing from Laban after Jacob had taken all the best cattle from him (Genesis 31:1-25). The next time we read of Gilead is in Genesis 37, when Joseph’s brothers sell him to the Midianites. Joseph was the next-to-last son of Jacob, and Jacob loved him more than his other sons, since he was born in Jacob’s old age. This made Jacob’s other sons jealous, and when Joseph came to them one day in the land of Gilead, they first plotted to kill him, until the words of Judah convinced them to not kill him but rather sell Joseph to the Midianites. This could have been all that we read of Joseph, if God did not use him to save the people of Israel alive. We read in Genesis 37:23-25—23 So it came to pass, when Joseph had come to his brothers, that they stripped Joseph of his tunic, the tunic of many colors that was on him. 24 Then they took him and cast him into a pit. And the pit was empty; there was no water in it. 25 And they sat down to eat a meal. This shows how cold and ruthless the brothers of Joseph were, and how much they hated Joseph. They threw him in a deep, dark pit, which had probably before been a well (And the pit was empty; there was no water in it). And what did they do after this? They sat down to eat a meal. Who could do such a thing? What would harden the heart of someone to the point that they would cast their own brother into a pit then not only sit down, but eat a meal? And while they were eating, what do they see? A band of Ishmaelites—descendants of the son of Abraham who despised Isaac—comes by and they talk about selling him into their hand. So they sold him to foreigners (note—verses 27-28 list both Ishmaelites and Midianites. Midian was another son of Abraham, the fourth son of Abraham with his second wife Keturah. The Midianites and the Ishmaelites were neighbors, both dwelling to the north of the Gulf of Aqaba, between the Arabian Peninsula and the mainland of Asia, to the southeast of modern-day Israel. So it would not be uncommon for them to be in a caravan together), thinking they would never see him again. They sold off their own flesh and blood, then he was loaded up to be carried off to who knows where? Well, God knew where they were taking Joseph. They were taking him to Egypt, where he would eventually be second-in-command to Pharaoh, and his actions would save alive Israel and his other sons, Joseph’s brothers, and all the people with them.
Joseph would show his brothers that he harbored no ill will toward them when they apologized to him and sought his forgiveness. Genesis 50:15-18—15 When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, "Perhaps Joseph will hate us, and may actually repay us for all the evil which we did to him." 16 So they sent messengers to Joseph, saying, "Before your father died he commanded, saying, 17 'Thus you shall say to Joseph: "I beg you, please forgive the trespass of your brothers and their sin; for they did evil to you. "' Now, please, forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of your father." And Joseph wept when they spoke to him. 18 Then his brothers also went and fell down before his face, and they said, "Behold, we are your servants" (see Genesis 37:5-9). They realized their sin that they sinned against Joseph in selling him into slavery. But they were looking at their actions through human eyes. But God used their actions for his glory. You might even say that God planned these things. After all, they just happened to be in Gilead when Joseph just happened to come along at a certain time and the brothers just happened to throw him in a well and sit down and the band of Ishmaelites and Midianites just happened to come along at just a certain time and… You get the idea. With God, there is no such thing as coincidence. If God has a plan, He will work things to make that plan happen according to His good will and pleasure.
We read again of Gilead at the end of 1st Samuel, and the death of King Saul. In 1st Samuel 31, we read of the battle between the Philistines and Israel. This battle took place on Mount Gilboa, which is located in the land of Gilead. The prophet Samuel has told Saul that the kingdom would be taken away from him because of his offering that was in opposition to what God had commanded (1st Samuel 13:9), saving alive King Agag of the Amalekites and the spoils of that battle (1st Samuel 15:9) and enquiring of the Witch of Endor (1st Samuel 28:8-11). We don’t read much about this battle with the Philistines, only that they shot arrows at Saul which pierced his armor and wounded him grievously (1st Samuel 31:3). Saul would then ask his armor bearer to slay him with his sword, so that Saul may not die at the hand of the uncircumcised Philistines. The armor bearer would not harken to the command of his king, so Saul fell on his own sword and died in Gilead. The Philistines found Saul’s dead body, and strung up his head and his armor in their city. This gave great joy to the enemies of God. But isn’t that always the truth? When a person of God falls, the enemies of God rejoice. Herodias, the daughter-in-law of Herod, rejoiced when she received the head of John the Baptist (see Matthew 14:11; Mark 6:28).
And like the disciples of John the Baptist who took up the body of their teacher and buried it (see Matthew 14:12; Mark 6:29), the men of Gilead took down the body of Saul from the Philistines and buried it. 1st Samuel 31:11-13—11 Now when the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead heard what the Philistines had done to Saul, 12 all the valiant men arose and traveled all night, and took the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons from the wall of Beth Shan; and they came to Jabesh and burned them there. 13 Then they took their bones and buried them under the tamarisk tree at Jabesh, and fasted seven days. As much wrong as Saul had done, he was still the king chosen by God, and his body deserved to be treated properly.
David, his successor, knew this, which is why he gave Saul and his sons a proper final burial. 2nd Samuel 21:12-14—12 Then David went and took the bones of Saul, and the bones of Jonathan his son, from the men of Jabesh Gilead who had stolen them from the street of Beth Shan, where the Philistines had hung them up, after the Philistines had struck down Saul in Gilboa. 13 So he brought up the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son from there; and they gathered the bones of those who had been hanged. 14 They buried the bones of Saul and Jonathan his son in the country of Benjamin in Zelah, in the tomb of Kish his father. David saw Saul, even in his worst actions, as the anointed of God, as did the men of Gilead.
In this ignominious fate of Saul there was manifested the righteous judgment of God in consequence of the hardening of his heart. But the love which the citizens of Jabesh displayed in their treatment of the corpses of Saul and his sons, had reference not to the king as rejected by God, but to the king as anointed with the Spirit of Jehovah, and was a practical condemnation, not of the divine judgment which had fallen upon Saul, but of the cruelty of the enemies of Israel and its anointed. For although Saul had waged war almost incessantly against the Philistines, it is not known that in any one of his victories he had ever been guilty of such cruelties towards the conquered and slaughtered foe as could justify this barbarous revenge on the part of the uncircumcised upon his lifeless corpse. (Keil and Delitzsch)
Numbers 32:6-15—6 And Moses said to the children of Gad and to the children of Reuben: "Shall your brethren go to war while you sit here? 7 Now why will you discourage the heart of the children of Israel from going over into the land which the LORD has given them? 8 Thus your fathers did when I sent them away from Kadesh Barnea to see the land. 9 For when they went up to the Valley of Eshcol and saw the land, they discouraged the heart of the children of Israel, so that they did not go into the land which the LORD had given them. 10 So the LORD's anger was aroused on that day, and He swore an oath, saying, 11 'Surely none of the men who came up from Egypt, from twenty years old and above, shall see the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, because they have not wholly followed Me, 12 except Caleb the son of Jephunneh, the Kenizzite, and Joshua the son of Nun, for they have wholly followed the LORD.' 13 So the LORD's anger was aroused against Israel, and He made them wander in the wilderness forty years, until all the generation that had done evil in the sight of the LORD was gone. 14 And look! You have risen in your fathers' place, a brood of sinful men, to increase still more the fierce anger of the LORD against Israel. 15 For if you turn away from following Him, He will once again leave them in the wilderness, and you will destroy all these people."
While the people of Israel are in Gilead in Numbers, and the last of the people that stood in the way of the people of Israel from entering Canaan had been defeated, all that was left for them to do was to cross over the Jordan River and take the land of Canaan. But the tribes of Gad and Reuben (who would be joined later by a half-tribe of Manasseh) saw that the land would be good for grazing the flocks and herds, and wanted to stay there. They did not want to go over into the land that God had promised them; they wanted to graze their animals in Gilead. They knew what God had promised them, but they did not want that. They wanted a land where they could prosper with their flocks and herds. Much like Lot, who wanted the good land (Genesis 13:10-11), not realizing how that would bring strife to the people of God for centuries to come (for the land he chose included Sodom and Gomorrah, which would be destroyed by God. After this destruction, his daughters would get him drunk and lay with him. The children born of these encounters were Ammon and Moab). And like Lot, they would be surrounded by those who despised YHVH, for this was the land of Bashan, king of the Amorites. And they would meet a not unexpected fate because of this. 1st Chronicles 5:3-26—3 The sons of Reuben the firstborn of Israel were Hanoch, Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi…6 and Beerah his son, whom Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria carried into captivity. He was leader of the Reubenites…9 Eastward they settled as far as the entrance of the wilderness this side of the River Euphrates, because their cattle had multiplied in the land of Gilead. 10 Now in the days of Saul they made war with the Hagrites, who fell by their hand; and they dwelt in their tents throughout the entire area east of Gilead. 11 And the children of Gad dwelt next to them in the land of Bashan as far as Salcah…16 And the Gadites dwelt in Gilead, in Bashan and in its villages, and in all the common-lands of Sharon within their borders…18 The sons of Reuben, the Gadites, and half the tribe of Manasseh had forty-four thousand seven hundred and sixty valiant men, men able to bear shield and sword, to shoot with the bow, and skillful in war, who went to war…23 The children of the half-tribe of Manasseh dwelt in the land. Their numbers increased from Bashan to Baal Hermon, that is, to Senir, or Mount Hermon…25 And they were unfaithful to the God of their fathers, and played the harlot after the gods of the peoples of the land, whom God had destroyed before them. 26 So the God of Israel stirred up the spirit of Pul king of Assyria, that is, Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria. He carried the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh into captivity. He took them to Halah, Habor, Hara, and the river of Gozan to this day.
They took their eyes off the promises of God and set their eyes on their immediate perceived needs and their immediate comfort. And because they took their eyes off God and His promises, they were indeed blessed for the time being, as their tribes and their flocks and herds grew, but ultimately they were hamstrung by their perceived needs and their comfort. They thought more about their sheep and their cattle than they thought of God and His promises. The promises of the world are fleeting; the promises of the world are here, right in front of our face, for but a moment, then are dissipated in a vapor, never to be seen again. But the promises of God are eternal, they never change, and they are sure and steadfast. That is the theme of the entire first chapter of 1st Corinthians. The knowledge of the world is finite; the knowledge of God is infinite. The world is often unfaithful; God is forever faithful. The world is fractioned and divided; God is One. The wisdom of this world is fleeting, vanishing; the wisdom of God is greater, and ever present. The world favors the pretty, the wise, and the mighty. But God… 1st Corinthians 1:27-29—27 But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; 28 and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen…29 that no flesh should glory in His presence. The tribes of Gad and Reuben and the half-tribe of Manasseh didn’t want that ugly old land of Canaan that God had promised. They wanted the lush greenery of Gilead. They didn’t want to fight with and for the people of God, they wanted to lean back and just raise their cattle and their sheep.
But aren’t we guilty sometimes of the same thing? We don’t want to wake up on a Sunday morning and get the kids ready and shower and shave and get dressed to go hear a speech about the Bible, because that is hard. We want to sleep in; we want to relax and watch TV. We don’t want to read God’s Word, because that is hard. We would rather read a new novel or a comic book. We certainly don’t want to study the Bible, because that can take time away from our social media time. “So was there something wrong with these folks wanting a land that was suitable for grazing their animals?” No, not inherently. For they were not the only tribes to own flocks and herds. But it’s as if they did not trust the promise of God, to bring them into a land flowing with milk and honey.
And God knows what might have been their portion in the land of Canaan—it might have been even better than what they had in Gilead! 14 “And look! You have risen in your fathers' place, a brood of sinful men, to increase still more the fierce anger of the LORD against Israel. 15 For if you turn away from following Him, He will once again leave them in the wilderness, and you will destroy all these people.” In short, these people were complaining because it would be harder to cross the Jordan River and fight the people of the land of Canaan than to just stay where they were. Moses tells them as much, that this was what they wanted. They did not want to do the hard thing that would have given them something better than what they then had. They just wanted to take it easy, no matter how it turned out for the rest of the people. He even tells them that if they stayed where they were they would not turn away from the land they were promised, rather they would turn away from following Him. What was Canaan? It was the Promised Land. Who promised it to them? God. So, while it was not wrong for them to want a land where they could raise their flocks and herds, it was wrong to forego a promise made by God. As we saw before, this was the land of Bashan (land of the Amorites), and they simply stayed there, and did not drive out the inhabitants. These inhabitants worshipped Ba'al and Dagon, and would eventually entice these three tribes to worship these false gods. And because of this, God would raise up Tiglath-Pileser, king of Assyria, to take them away captive in the year 734BC—12 years before King Ahaz and the northern kingdom of Israel was taken captive and led into exile by Shalmaneser, and a full 147 years before the southern kingdom of Judah was taken captive and led into exile by Nebuchadnezzar.
Part 2 next week
