Dcn Leah Sandwell-Weiss
Dear friends,
We don’t read much from the Book of Numbers in the lectionary—too many names, laws, history. As a friend of mine would say, “BORING.”
But today’s office reading contains an interesting story about two tribes of the twelve tribes of Israel, Reuben and Gad, who don’t want to enter the Promised Land. Why would they want to stay where they were on the east side of the Jordan? They say it’s because it’s good land for cattle raising, and that’s what these tribes do.
Moses is suspicious. He asks, "Shall your brothers go to war while you sit here?” He thinks they want to avoid the fighting that will be needed to conquer Canaan. Or maybe he thought that if the two tribes were permitted to stay, it would not only weaken the military forces needed to conquer the land, but also weaken the resolution of others to continue.
I wonder if the tribes’ response surprised him. The leaders say if we can build towns for our wives, children, and animals here on this side, we’ll cross over in front of the other warriors and help them conquer the land across the Jordan. We won’t return to this land until the Israelites have conquered the land across the Jordan.
Moses agreed, as long as they understood “if you do not do this, you have sinned against the Lord; and be sure your sin will find you out.” According to the text that’s not in our reading, the tribes did as they promised, fought with the other tribes to conquer Canaan, and then returned to live in the areas east of the Jordan.
The leaders of the tribes of Reuben and Gad could have said, it’s tough that you need us to fight, but we’re happy here and you can’t make us fight or leave this area. But they didn’t. I think they realized they had spent 40 years in the desert with ten other tribes trying to get to the Promised Land. Now they were ready to stop, but they still saw that to support the common good of the whole community they needed to help the other tribes get their land, too.
What can we do to support the common good of our community? As people of God we don’t live just for ourselves.
—Dcn Leah