Getting Ready for the Settlement

Number 32-34

            I am reminded how some events shape us deeply. We saw it yesterday with the events at Beth Peor, and we see it today with the refusal to enter the promised land 40 years earlier. Moses is downright triggered by the requests of the tribes of Gad and Reuben to settle on the east side of the Jordan. However, after they promise to fight in the conquest, Moses grants them permission. Take this as an example of God’s grace: He is willing to give Israel even more land than He had originally promised.

            My son was in Israel recently, and I was reminded when I heard about his trip and when I read about the boundaries of Canaan that we’re not talking about that big of a country. At its longest north to south it was about 170 miles and at its widest east to west it was about 70 miles. The whole thing would fit from the Illinois border to Green Bay and between Milwaukee and Madison.