Thy Servants Have Cattle
Submitted by Ted Mock
March 19, 2025
Nu 32:4 Even the country which the LORD smote before the congregation of Israel, is a land for cattle, and thy servants have cattle:
After the defeat of Midian in the previous chapter, where a great victory was won in a battle that saw no casualties on Israel’s side, and before the children of Israel were to pass over Jordan and take the promised land, a strange thing happens.
The two tribes of Reuben and Gad, along with half the tribe of Manasseh, surveyed the land of the enemy they had just defeated and decided they wanted to live on the east side of Jordan, instead of in the land promised to them by God.
In the verse above, we see that it was a country that the Lord “smote” before the congregation of Israel. It was not the land God said he would give His people, the land He smiled upon. The only reason they gave was, “thy servants have cattle.”
But they still wanted to maintain the bond with the other tribes who stayed west of Jordan. They even went so far as to build a replica of the altar of the Tabernacle on their side of the river. They wanted future generations to know that although there was a river between them, they were still one people.
But the presence of the Lord was in the western Tabernacle and later the Temple. Never did God promise to indwell the place where they worshipped on the west side. They had the name of Jacob on them, and they had an altar, but they did not have the presence of God. They would be the first of the tribes defeated and taken captive by the Assyrians, never to return to the land.
It reminds me of something an old pastor friend once told me. He said, “You can get what you want, but you won’t like what you get, and you will lose what you had.”
They got the land they wanted but they lost their influence in Israel, and they were the first to go into captivity. Their history will be one of subjugation of the Amorites and other enemy tribes until they are removed from the land.
Don’t let your possessions keep you on the wrong side of Jordan. God has something better for you, but there must be a real crossing over to the other side.
Consider – Far too many believers lose sight of the promised land of Heaven and begin to focus on the world.
