Deuteronomy 3:12-20

I believe that all of you who are maybe of the age of 30, 35 or 40 at least, have been witnessed to or perhaps even participated in family squabbles over an inheritance left by a deceased father or mother. In those things, somebody almost invariably feels cheated.

Now the Israelites had already known a great deal of internecine rivalry during the wilderness journey. Probably the best known of those is in Numbers 16—the account of the rebellion of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram against Moses, charging him and Aaron with taking on too much to themselves, and those men (Korah, Dathan, and Abiram) wanted their cut of the pie, so to speak, to be larger. That episode shows man's self-centered carnality. What is done in this context of Deuteronomy 3 reveals God's wisdom and love.

The first portion of the land has been conquered and possessed, and very quickly God put it into Moses' mind to allot the land to the tribe of Reuben, the tribe of Gad, and to one-half the tribe of Manasseh, and then, fleshing out that allotment with further instruction as to what they were expected—indeed commanded—to do with the land and themselves at that time. It was not just handed over to them. They had to do something with it. The instructions were simple.

The men of valor of those tribes—those above twenty years of age—were not allowed to take up residence on it—not even really one day permanently, if I can put it that way—until all the tribes had their portions allotted to them and could occupy those portions. Their wives and children—those twenty and under of those three tribes—Reuben, Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh—must remain behind and settle the land.

Now very likely, when its says in verse 19, "you have much cattle," He is referring specifically to these three tribes, and they were to leave their cattle in the area to be tended by the women and children of Reuben, Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh until the land had rest.

How does this show God's love? He just cut off any arguing right before it even got started. First, it gave those in other tribes hope and incentive to possess their own portion of land as they began to see the Reubenites', the Gadites', and the half tribe of Manasseh's dreams being fulfilled. They were literally being settled in the Promised Land. It was not just a dream now. It was really happening, and that would be encouraging for them to go on.

Second, it gave the fighting men of those three tribes assurance that their wealth and family would be safe, and therefore they could fight uninhibited by that concern.

Third, it very importantly promoted a stronger unity within Israel, seeing that the men of valor of those two and the one-half tribes were required to fight the war with the others who had not yet secured their land. There was no "every man for himself" proposition permitted here. Each Israelite belonged to the whole, and was responsible to the whole. There was no getting out of that responsibility. So even though the land was theirs, they could not go live on it until the war was over. There is a great spiritual lesson for us in this.