Numbers 32: Autonomy and disobedience

Numbers 32: Settling Down Outside Canaan

Generally dialectical tensions - the disconnect between God's will and human action - involves an expression of disapproval by God, delivered through his intermediary Moses. Today's reading shows Moses directly defending God's will seemingly without God's input. This is an odd position for Moses to take, as he is generally portrayed as a reluctant leader. But he has reason enough to be angry, as we shall see.

Settling Down Outside Canaan: Numbers 32
Two tribes of Israel, the Reubenites and the Gadites, realize the land the Israelites have just captured is great for raising cattle. They approach Moses and ask to live there to raise cattle. The Lord "subdued" this land and they do not wish to cross the Jordan into Canaan.

Moses responds angrily that they are letting down the other tribes, who will have to fight for every inch of Canaan once they cross the Jordan. They are also abandoning the land promised to their ancestors - Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Moses takes their desire to settle down as a fear to fight more, which is in fact plausible. Moses cuts to the heart of the issue, saying that the spies that were sent into Canaan pulled a similar trick, lying about the ferocity and size of the Canaanite warriors so that the Israelites would not have to enter Canaan and fight. This in turn distressed the people so that they lost faith in God. For this reason no one of the Egyptian generation will enter the promised land, with the exception of Caleb and Joshua. Moses essentially accuses the Reubenites and Gadites of attempting to strike a similar fear into the heart of the Israelites. And if the Israelites turn away, or if the Reubenites and Gadites do not remain loyal to God, the Lord will turn away and the Israelites will be destroyed.

R&G strike a bargain with Moses. They will build fortified towns for their women and children, then accompany the rest of the Israelites into Canaan. They will not inherit any land there, and will not return to their towns until every tribe gets its land.

Moses remarkably agrees, but warns that if they back out of the agreement and sin against the Lord, the Lord will see it.

Moses instructs Eleazar, the heads of the tribes, and Joshua of the agreement.

In the end, Manasseh joins R&G in keeping land opposite the Jordan of the Promised Land. A list is then given of the towns each conquers and inhabits.

Ostensibly this warfare is done without God's protection, since God protects Israel as a whole. This is a very interesting demonstration of autonomy, then. These tribes are not really cowardly, because they do fight with the rest of Israel, and fight also without God's protection in other wars. But they do not want the land that was promised to them. They have abandoned the future their ancestors wanted them to have. And that, for the biblical author, is a disappointment.