The loyality of people to each other.

Numbers 32:1–15
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’The Israelites had been camped in the plains of Moab. From this position, they were ready to enter the Promised Land. Up to this point, all the tribes of Israel had fought together, traveled together, and sometimes had sinned together. But now things were changing as two of the tribes, Reuben and Gad (later half of the tribe of Manasseh would be included) asked permission to settle on the eastern side of Jordan (vv. 1-5). This was an area stretching from the Dead Sea in the south to the Sea of Galilee in the North. These two tribes had been blessed with large herds and flocks and it seemed desirable to remain on this side of the Jordan because of the suitable pasture land. The leaders of these tribes requested from Moses that they be allowed to settle there because of their needs and because the land had been conquered and was ready for occupation.

Moses’ initial reaction to Reuben and Gad’s request was unfavorable because he assumed they had selfish motives and were trying to avoid helping the others fight for the land across the river (vv. 6-15). He used the example of their fathers whom he said had done the very same thing when they listened to the report of the spies and lost heart about the conquest. This had caused the Lord to be angry (v. 10), and as a result caused that generation to die in the wilderness. Now, Moses said, they wanted to repeat the sin of their fathers and bring God’s anger on Israel again.  Even worse, He might just abandon the nation and let them die in the wilderness. To Moses, it was a terrible sin for any of the tribes to retreat from conflict and fail to do their part in conquering the land.

Application

It is so easy to judge the motives of others and come to wrong conclusions. In my dealing with people, I must be very careful in judging motives. To falsely accuse them is sin and can hurt them as well as the cause of Christ.