Sunday Sermonette: Cleaning up the plot

Numbers 32 is basically just there to solve a technical problem. The basic plot is that the Israelites are going to cross the Jordan from the east and conquer the lands on the west side, but obviously at the time this was written around 620 BCE there were Israelites living on the east side, and they had to be accounted for. Remember, however, that the whole story is fictitious. The people were in fact indigenous to Canaan, this conquest from outside never happened. The only additional point I ' ll make is that God somehow has to make sure that nobody older that nobody older than 60 survives. How this happens is never explained. (Here it says that nobody who was 20 or older at the time of the Exodus can see the promised land, and they ' ve been wandering for 40 years, so that ' s the calculation.)32 The Reubenites and Gadites, who had very large herds and flocks, saw that the lands of Jazer and Gilead were suitable for livestock.2 So they came to Moses and Eleazar the priest and to the leaders of the community, and said,3 “Ataroth, Dibon, Jazer, Nimrah, Heshbon, Elealeh, Sebam, Nebo and Beon—4 the land theLord subdued before the people of Israel —are suitable for livestock, and your servants have livestock.5 If we have found favor in your eyes, ” they said, “let this land be given to your servants as our possession. Do not make us cross the Jordan.”6 Moses said to the Gadites and Reubenites, “Should your fellow Israelites go to ...
Source: Stayin' Alive - Category: American Health Source Type: blogs