Numbers: Faith, Law, and History

Reuben, Gad & Manasseh

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Pentateuch

Lesson: Reuben, Gad, & Manesseh

Genre:

Track: 61

Dictation Name: RR181AG61

Location/Venue:

Year:

Let us worship God. Lord, I have loved the habitation of thy house and the place where thy honor dwelleth. I was glad when they said unto me, “Let us go into the House of the Lord.” Praise ye the Lord. Sing unto the Lord and new song, and His praise in the congregation of saints, for the Lord taketh pleasure in His people. He will beautify the meek with salvation. Let us pray.

O Lord, our God, we give thanks unto thee that day after day, thy care for us is greater than we can imagine. That our concern for ourselves can never equal thy concern for us. Teach us therefore, to cast our every care upon thee, to know that thy plan and purpose for our lives is greater than anything we can imagine or do. Teach us, by thy word and by thy spirit, and make us strong for thy service. In Christ’s name. Amen.

Our scripture is Numbers 32:1-42. Our subject: Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh. “Now the children of Reuben and the children of Gad had a very great multitude of cattle: and when they saw the land of Jazer, and the land of Gilead, that, behold, the place was a place for cattle; the children of Gad and the children of Reuben came and spake unto Moses, and to Eleazar the priest, and unto the princes of the congregation, saying, Ataroth, and Dibon, and Jazer, and Nimrah, and Heshbon, and Elealeh, and Shebam, and Nebo, and Beon, even the country which the Lord smote before the congregation of Israel, is a land for cattle, and thy servants have cattle: wherefore, said they, 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. And Moses said unto the children of Gad and to the children of Reuben, Shall your brethren go to war, and shall ye sit here? And wherefore discourage ye the heart of the children of Israel from going over into the land which the Lord hath given them? Thus did your fathers, when I sent them from Kadeshbarnea to see the land. For when they went up unto the valley of Eshcol, and saw the land, they discouraged the heart of the children of Israel, that they should not go into the land which the Lord had given them. And the Lord anger was kindled the same time, and he sware, saying, Surely none of the men that came up out of Egypt, from twenty years old and upward, shall see the land which I sware unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob; because they have not wholly followed me: save Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenezite, and Joshua the son of Nun: for they have wholly followed the Lord.

And the Lord’s anger was kindled 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 consumed. And, behold, ye are risen up in your fathers' stead, an increase of sinful men, to augment yet the fierce anger of the Lord toward Israel. For if ye turn away from after him, he will yet again leave them in the wilderness; and ye shall destroy all this people.

And they came near unto him, and said, 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. We will not return unto our houses, until the children of Israel have inherited every man his inheritance. For we will not inherit with them on yonder side Jordan, or forward; because our inheritance is fallen to us on this side Jordan eastward. And Moses said unto them, If ye will do this thing, if ye will go armed before the Lord to war, and will go all of you armed over Jordan before the Lord, until he hath driven out his enemies from before him, and the land be subdued before the Lord: then afterward ye shall return, and be guiltless before the Lord, and before Israel; and this land shall be your possession before the Lord. But if ye will not do so, behold, ye have sinned against the Lord: and be sure your sin will find you out. Build you cities for your little ones, and folds for your sheep; and do that which hath proceeded out of your mouth. And the children of Gad and the children of Reuben spake unto Moses, saying, Thy servants will do as my lord commandeth. Our little ones, our wives, our flocks, and all our cattle, shall be there in the cities of Gilead: but thy servants will pass over, every man armed for war, before the Lord to battle, as my lord saith. So concerning them Moses commanded Eleazar the priest, and Joshua the son of Nun, and the chief fathers of the tribes of the children of Israel: and Moses said unto them, If the children of Gad and the children of Reuben will pass with you over Jordan, every man armed to battle, before the Lord, and the land shall be subdued before you; then ye shall give them the land of Gilead for a possession: but if they will not pass over with you armed, they shall have possessions among you in the land of Canaan.

And the children of Gad and the children of Reuben answered, saying, As the Lord hath said unto thy servants, so will we do. We will pass over armed before the Lord into the land of Canaan, that the possession of our inheritance on this side Jordan may be our's. And Moses gave unto them, even to the children of Gad, and to the children of Reuben, and unto half the tribe of Manasseh the son of Joseph, the kingdom of Sihon king of the Amorites, and the kingdom of Og king of Bashan, the land, with the cities thereof in the coasts, even the cities of the country round about. And the children of Gad built Dibon, and Ataroth, and Aroer, and Atroth, Shophan, and Jaazer, and Jogbehah, and Bethnimrah, and Bethharan, fenced cities: and folds for sheep. And the children of Reuben built Heshbon, and Elealeh, and Kirjathaim, and Nebo, and Baalmeon, (their names being changed,) and Shibmah: and gave other names unto the cities which they builded. And the children of Machir the son of Manasseh went to Gilead, and took it, and dispossessed the Amorite which was in it. And Moses gave Gilead unto Machir the son of Manasseh; and he dwelt therein. And Jair the son of Manasseh went and took the small towns thereof, and called them Havothjair. And Nobah went and took Kenath, and the villages thereof, and called it Nobah, after his own name.”

Now the premise of the Tower of Babel is that men in history must have a centrifugal force, and that force is man. Over the centuries, numerous efforts have been made to unite mankind into a one world, humanistic order. This has been a persistent dream and force, and in two or three months, we will have some articles by Dr. Thomas Shermacher of Germany of what that dream today is doing to Europe.

But beginning with the Tower of Babel, however, God is decreed the dispersion and the confusion of all such efforts. God tolerates no centrifugal force in history other than His law and His kingdom, but men prefer their own way to God’s way. In this chapter, we see the first tendency that led finally to this disunion of Israel and to various factions, then to a division into two kingdoms, and with the end of self-rule and the inter mental{?} area, into warring factions and sects.

Two tribes or clans, Reuben and Gad, decided to stay on the east side of Jordan. This would be outside of Canaan proper, or outside of the promised land. Their excuse was, to a degree, a valid one. They were primarily sheep men, and their area was better adapted to sheep ranching and to cattle. Reuben, as the firstborn of Leah, and Dan as the firstborn of Bilhah, felt that some priority of choice should be given them. Half the tribe of Manasseh, the son of Joseph, decided that they, too, wanted land on the east side of Jordan, and they seized the Gilead area and this possessed the Amorites. Their announced purpose was building sheep holds, according to verse 16, and this should be a matter of interest to us, because three such sheep holds survive in this area; two in Tuolumne County. These came from the Mediterranean world and some of the early migrants here. They are dry stone wall corrals for keeping sheep in at night when they are being herded in the mountain areas where there are bear, wolves, mountain lions, coyotes, and the like. A narrow opening allowed the sheep to enter. The three in this area have since been altered. The one has two openings and they’ve been widened for cattle. But the narrow opening was just enough for the sheep to get into and the shepherd used his bedroom to sleep in that opening, as a bar to animals. In effect, he became the door.

Our Lord refers to this fact in John 10:7-10. “Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture. The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” Christ as the door guards His sheep from the enemy, whereas false shepherds, false pastors, kill and destroy them spiritually.

To return to Reuben and Gad, and the request of these two plans, the request was granted. Moses was used to dealing with the older generation, and they were hard of heart, cynical, and rebellious. The younger generation, although not without its faults, still had a different spirit, and this comes out in verses 25-27. “And the children of Gad and the children of Reuben spake unto Moses, saying, Thy servants will do as my lord commandeth. Our little ones, our wives, our flocks, and all our cattle, shall be there in the cities of Gilead: but thy servants will pass over, every man armed for war, before the Lord to battle, as my lord saith.” This, as John Sturdy pointed out, was formal, court language in the style commonly used in addressing a king. One of the interesting bits of archeological research in the past generation has been the discovery of tablets and documents which revealed very clearly that when the Bible speaks of being the old and new covenants or testaments, it’s saying that it is a book of law, and the word “old” and “new” applies not to the fact that one is done away with, but one deals with one people, and the other the other, but all apply equally for all time.

Now, this is an important fact, because what they have found is that the form of biblical language was the legal language of Antiquity, that wherever you found these documents, they were the same language as the Bible, the same terminology, because a covenant is a law book, and therefore, from beginning to end, the language is legal.

Well, Moses who was so used to insults in this respect must have been startled by this respectful attitude of the younger generation, and it was clear that another generation, very different from their fathers, stood before him. Another evidence of the difference appears in verses 34-42, where we are told of the cities taken by Reuben and Gad, and renamed to do away with pagan names. About half the tribes of Manasseh decided that some of the same area was more suitable for their purposes, and Moses allowed them to settle in to areas which had belonged to Sion, King of the Amorites, and Og, King of Bashan. These men of Manasseh also seized Gilead and adjacent areas.

Now the initial response of Moses in verses 6-15 had been one of disgust and condemnation, but the gracious response of these clan leaders, when severely rebuked by Moses, and their firm promise to help in the conquest of Canaan, changed Moses’ mind as did their differential courtesy as to a king. He had called them their father’s children, an increase or a brood of sinful men, but this hard language did not alter their respectful approach to Moses. Their counterproposal was a thoughtful one. They asked first, that the east Jordan available lands be given to them and second, they asked permission to build these stone corral sheepfolds for their animals and fortified cities for their wives and children, as protection in their absence. The boys not of military age, under 18, would then be in charge. Then third, the fighting men would cross the Jordan with the rest of Israel to assist in the conquest and stay with it until accomplished.

Now, in that era, the east side of Jordan was a forest of oaks, of rich soil, meadows, and also tillable land. It was also then well watered by streams of various sizes. Its elevation is about 2,000 feet above sea level. It was a well-forested area. Those peoples who became what we know as Arabs, began the destruction of it, but the Turks totally destroyed it and turned it into a desert area.

While accepting their terms and promise, Moses issued a warning, one of the great statements on judgment, verse 23. “But if you will not do so, behold ye have sinned against the Lord, and be sure your sin will find you out.” Now, when I was a boy, this sentence was a very common subject of sermons. It is now very much neglected. I guess people are not interested in being found out by their sins. In fact, in the midst of typing out that statement by Moses, I was interested by a telephone call from one of Chalcedon’s supporters who works with troubled people in family services. He has a woman who faces hostility from her church for not allowing her children to see their father who abused her sexually when she was young, and she is told by her church that love covers a multitude of sins, which is a radical abuse of the Bible. Love has become the cure-all for all sins and a substitute savior and the churches have become the purveyors of a Satanic faith. I was interested yesterday in rereading a statement by Franz Verfal of almost fifty years ago, and he said the one thing about Satan and all Satanists is that they are elegant people. Elegance, not morality, is their watchword.

Moses knew that he would not be around to see if the clans of Reuben and Gad kept their promise. He therefore ordered Eleazar, the high priest, and Joshua, together with all the clan heads to see to it that the terms were met by Reuben and Gad. If these two tribes or clans fought with them to conquer the land, then they would be allowed to retain their land east of the Jordan. If they refused to fight with them, they were to be dispossessed of the east Jordan areas and given whatever remained in the west Jordan area. This would be the leftover, or least desired areas. In verse 1, the Reubenites are mentioned first because of their seniority among the sons of Jacob. Then in verse 2, the Gadites are mentioned first, as in verse 6 and in verse 29. This being as in all the Bible legal language, verse 1 pays respect to Reuben’s priority, but thereafter, the terminology indicates that the actual leadership belongs to Gad in this effort.

There is another once famous sentence in our text, one not used to my knowledge since I was a child. In verse 6, Moses asks of Reuben and Gad, “Shall your brethren go to war and shall ye sit here?” Very often used to incite men to action in one sphere or another, and to the fact that some responsibilities cannot be delegated, but with the rise of humanistic statism, more and more problems are delegated to the worse possible place, to the state. In verse 7, Moses asks, “Wherefore discourage ye the heart of your fellow Israelites of the other tribes?” The expression in the Hebrew is literally “make the heart to waiver.”

Moses has often been criticized for being overly suspicious of Reuben and Gad, but to think so is very wrong. Moses had a realistic and experienced knowledge of the depravity of man. He had no right under God to assume a good motive on the part of these clans. It was his duty to ascertain the truth as a wise judge, and this is exactly what he did. The text of verses 16-32 make clear that the outcome of the request by Reuben and Gad resulted in a covenant, or a contract, which was formally agreed to by Gad and Reuben as well as the Manasseh group on the one hand, and the other clans on the other side, and Eleazar and Joshua as the witnesses.

The seriousness of this chapter is due to the fact that the earth is the Lord’s, and therefore, land tenure depends on the sufferance of God. As a result, any independent action by Reuben and Gad was strictly subject to a legal covenant under God and with the other clans. The area of the east Jordan was a rich one then, but also vulnerable. It was the first area from whence captives were taken by the Assyrians; the Reubenites, Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh. Let us pray.

Bless us, our Father, in the study of thy word, and in obedience thereto. Thou hast made us thy chosen people. Give us a heart filled with a desire to bring all things to captivity in Christ. In His name. Amen. Are there any questions now about our lesson? Yes?

[Audience] You were talking about, since the Tower of Babel, there is no organizing principle around which humanity can gather other than God, law order. How is that brought out in the story of the one you just, Numbers 32. I did not see the connection.

[Rushdoony] Yes, because the organizing principle was to be the kingdom of God, and they were disbursing themselves, Moses was afraid, from the kingdom. Now, they were not as it developed, but ultimately, this is what took over when they ceased to be godly. They disbursed, and sin became the disbursing factor, but God wanted the organization to be not a Babel, but the kingdom of God. Yes?

[Audience] You said that Moses knew that he wouldn’t be alive to see whether they kept their promise. Is there any reason to believe there was more than a verbal agreement between these tribes and Joshua, or would there have been a written agreement?

[Rushdoony] If I understand your question, the witness would be Joshua and Eleazar, and the leaders of the twelve tribes.

[Audience] But there would have been no written agreement necessarily?

[Rushdoony] Oh yes, oh yes, it would be a written agreement. Yes?

[Audience] It seems to me that there is a great application in any time of this, specifically in our time {?} where we live, when God seems to bless a group of Christians or individuals. It seems that the tendency would be to do exactly as what these two tribes might be, have attempted to do, which is to settle down and only go so far, and not continue to lead the fight.

[Rushdoony] Exactly. That’s the tendency over and over again, and that’s why the verse was once commonly used that I called attention to, “Shall your brethren go to war and shall ye sit here?” IN other words, when you have a Christian responsibility, you cannot delegate it, and this is what caused St. John Chrysostom his bishopric in Constantinople and Byzantium. Here he was, one of the greatest orators the church has ever known, a powerhouse, but he hit people hard on the fact that “Don’t expect church and Christian agencies to do all the work for you. You cannot delegate your responsibility,” and he was very pointed on issues, and he called attention to the sins of people in high places and low, and people in high places and low said, “Chrysostom has to go.” So, that was the end of the matter. People have never liked to be reminded of their duties. Yes?

[Audience] God prefers a volunteer army, in other words?

[Rushdoony] Yes, and the premise of the Constitution was that a militia, a drafted army, was necessary and could be commanded for enforcing the laws of the Union, suppressing insurrection, or repelling an invasion. Only volunteers for any foreign wars, because it was felt very strongly, these were duties that belonged to every man, and these were things that men were not obligated to do, and it was Woodrow Wilson who overthrew that provision. Well, our time is up. Let us conclude now with prayer.

Our Father, we give thanks unto thee for thy word, and we pray that in this generation, when indeed there is a war on every continent against thee, and against thy kingdom, we do not sit idly by, but become faithful warriors and faithful supporters in the cause of thy kingdom. And now go in peace. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost bless you and keep you, guide and protect you this day and always. Amen.

End of tape