The Tribes of Reuben, Gad, and Half of Manasseh (Numbers 32:5)

2022-03-22

Selfishness causes shame. Let us look at a group that acted selfishly but then tried to save face, twice.

The tribes of Reuben, Gad, and half of the tribe of Manasseh, before they entered the promised land, decided they wanted the land conquered on the east side of the Jordan River. “...if we have found grace in thy sight, let this land be given unto thy servants for a possession, and bring us not over Jordan” (Numbers 32:5). Moses berated them at length, believing they were trying to get out of the fighting across the other side of the Jordan.

However, they answered him, “We will build sheepfolds here for our cattle, and cities for our little ones: But we ourselves will go ready armed before the children of Israel, until we have brought them unto their place: and our little ones shall dwell in the fenced cities because of the inhabitants of the land” (Numbers 32:16-17).

Maybe that was their plan all along: to help fight on the western side to help their brothers in the conquest there. However, they did something similarly sneaky after the conquest:

And when they came unto the borders of Jordan, that are in the land of Canaan, the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh built there an altar by Jordan, a great altar to see to. (Joshua 22:10)

Another altar, other than the one at Jerusalem? Were they rebelling against God, making another place of worship, contrary to God’s command? The western tribes thought so: “the whole congregation of the children of Israel gathered themselves together at Shiloh, to go up to war against them” (Numbers 22:12).

When they confronted the eastern tribes, Phineas and the people berated them much like Moses did. “What trespass is this that ye have committed against the God of Israel, to turn away this day from following the LORD, in that ye have builded you an altar, that ye might rebel this day against the LORD?” (Joshua 22:16). But when they did, they backed down, like before. It was only an altar of “witness.” But why didn’t they tell the others before this?

The whole thing is suspicious. The lesson here is that the eastern tribes should have been upfront with the western tribes and told them what they wanted. And they shouldn’t have done it in a way that put their own ways ahead of the others, being sneaky.

Their decision to live there cost their descendants: “In those days the LORD began to cut Israel short: and Hazael smote them in all the coasts of Israel; From Jordan eastward, all the land of Gilead, the Gadites, and the Reubenites, and the Manassites, from Aroer, which is by the river Arnon, even Gilead and Bashan” (2 Kings 10:32-33). Perhaps it was much like Lot’s choice to choose the greener pastures in the east (Genesis 13:10-13).