Bible Commentaries
Numbers 32

Verses 1-42

We have here the record of what without doubt was a wrong committed by two and a half tribes, of Moses' failure in judgment, and, consequently, of a grave mistake.

Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh looked on the lands which recently had been depopulated by the conflict and desired immediate settlement therein. The distinctly avowed purpose of Jehovah for His people was that they should go over Jordan. The request of these two and a half tribes was of the nature of compromise.

There is no account of Moses seeking divine guidance as he had so constantly done. His own first judgment was against granting the request in this matter. He pointed out to the two and a half tribes that in essence it was of the same spirit which their fathers had manifested forty years before and which had resulted in the long and wearying discipline of the wilderness.

They, however, persisted in urging their plea, promising that they would cross the Jordan to help in the conflict there. Moses yielded to them and so permitted their settlement on that side of the river. Subsequent events reveal how wrong the compromise was.

No desire of our own for early and easy realization of peace ought to be allowed to interfere with the declared will of God. No policy of compromise can ever justify a modification of a divine method toward the accomplishment of divine purpose.