Numbers 32

CHAPTER 32THEME: Reuben and Gad ask for land on the wrong side of JordanThis chapter tells us about the half-hearted tribes. Reuben, Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh ask for land on the wrong side of the Jordan River. This incident has a tremendous spiritual application for us, as we consider the Jordan River as a type of the death and resurrection of Christ.

Numbers 32:1

REUBEN AND GAD ASK FOR LAND ON THE WRONG SIDE OF JORDANMoses is very disturbed at their request.

Numbers 32:6

He remembers all too vividly the utter discouragement of the people when they heard the report of the men who had spied out the land almost forty years earlier.

Numbers 32:8

Remember this is a new generation that Moses is talking to. They were too young to remember that tragic experience, and Moses is reviewing it for them.

Numbers 32:10

Moses fears this young generation will repeat the failure of their fathers.

Numbers 32:14

You can well understand Moses’ fears here. After enduring the hardships and discouragements of forty years in that terrible wilderness, the thought of again failing to enter the Promised Land seemed too much to risk.

Numbers 32:16

They offered to send their men of war to help the other nine and one half tribes to take the Promised Land. On this basis, Moses agreed to let them settle on the east side of Jordan. They not only agreed to do it, but we find in Joshua 12-16 that they made good their promise. Moses warned them:

Numbers 32:23

The way this is usually interpreted is, “Your sin will be found out.” In other words, if you sin, you won’t get by with it. You will be found out. That is not what it says at all. There are a great many sinners who get by with their sins and are never found out by anyone else. This verse says that your sin will find you out. There will come that time when the chickens come home to roost. “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap” (Gal_6:7). I don’t care who you are, or where you are, how you are, or when you are, your sins will find you out. In the way that you sin, that is the way it is going to come home to you sometime. That is the meaning of this statement, “Be sure your sin will find you out.”

Numbers 32:33

These tribes that chose the wrong side of Jordan did not have the opportunity of crossing over the River Jordan. We need to realize, friends, that the River Jordan does not symbolize our death. When we get to the Book of Joshua, we’ll see that it teaches how we pass over into Canaan. In other words, there are two places for the child of God to live today. You can live in the wilderness of this world and be a spiritual pauper, or you can enter into the place of spiritual blessings, represented by Canaan. Now how can we pass over the Jordan into the place of spiritual blessing? When we see the children of Israel crossing over Jordan, we find two great lessons there.

The stones that were put in Jordan speak of the death of Christ. The stones that were taken out of Jordan speak of the resurrection of Christ. You and I get our spiritual blessings by the death and resurrection of Christ. We today are to know that we’ve been buried with Him and raised with Him. We are to reckon on the fact that we are joined to Him. We are to yield to Him on that kind of basis so that you and I can appropriate the spiritual blessings that are ours. The two and one half tribes did not cross the Jordan. Did this work out to their disadvantage? Yes. Our Lord said that by their fruits ye shall know them. When He was here on earth, one time He was trying to get away from the crowd, “And they came over unto the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gadarenes” (Mar_5:1). Now who are the Gadarenes? They are the tribe of Gad, living on the wrong side of the Jordan River. And when Jesus came to them, he found them in the pig business, you remember. And when He healed the demon-possessed man, the Gadarenes asked the Lord Jesus to leave their country! They had gotten into a sad condition. This always happens to the child of God who fails to cross Jordan and get into the Land of Promise.