Matot-Massei
Torah Reading: Numbers 30:2-36:13
Reading #3 - Numbers 32:1-19
My Thoughts:
Today’s reading is about negotiations. Leaders from the tribes of Gad and Reuben come to Moses and ask to stay on some land east of the Jordan. Moses is expressing they are like their ancestors, discouraging the Israelites to go into the Land. However, the leaders agree to let their families stay and they will go and fight for Israel. Moses agrees. Apparently, staying in this particular land was important to these two tribes. Important enough they were willing to negotiate and be flexible. This is a really good lesson to learn from. If you have been told to do something but really feel there is a better plan, then see if you can work something out with leadership. Be flexible and be willing to give and take. Look for Hashem’s solution through it all. And work together peacefully and with fairness.
Challenge:
In verses 11 and 12 we read, “...because they have not wholly followed Me, 12 except Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite, and Joshua the son of Nun, because they have followed Hashem completely.’” Moses is revisiting the reasons why they ended up in the desert for so many years, and why some of the people would not be able to enter the Land. Remember when the 12 spies returned and only two supported Hashem’s vision to enter the Land. In today’s reading we see that it is because they did not “completely follow Hashem”. It makes me think. Am I completely following Hashem? Am I surrendering my plans and my life totally to His direction and following? Are you? That is my challenge today for you and me. Let us make sure we are “completely” following Hashem -- without exception. That we are loving Him with our whole heart, soul and strength. SHEMA.
Reading #3 - Numbers 32:1-19
32:1 Now the children of Reuben and the children of Gad had a very great multitude of livestock. They saw the land of Jazer, and the land of Gilead. Behold, the place was a place for livestock. 2 Then the children of Gad and the children of Reuben came and spoke to Moses, and to Eleazar the priest, and to the princes of the congregation, saying, 3 “Ataroth, Dibon, Jazer, Nimrah, Heshbon, Elealeh, Sebam, Nebo, and Beon, 4 the land which Hashem struck before the congregation of Israel, is a land for livestock; and your servants have livestock.” 5 They said, “If we have found favor in your sight, let this land be given to your servants for a possession. Don’t bring us over the Jordan.”
6 Moses said to the children of Gad, and to the children of Reuben, “Shall your brothers go to war while you sit here? 7 Why do you discourage the heart of the children of Israel from going over into the land which Hashem has given them? 8 Your fathers did so when I sent them from Kadesh Barnea to see the land. 9 For when they went up to the valley of Eshcol, and saw the land, they discouraged the heart of the children of Israel, that they should not go into the land which Hashem had given them. 10 Hashem’s anger burned in that day, and He swore, saying, 11 ‘Surely none of the men who came up out of Egypt, from twenty years old and upward, shall see the land which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; because they have not wholly followed Me, 12 except Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite, and Joshua the son of Nun, because they have followed Hashem completely.’ 13 Hashem’s anger burned against Israel, and He made them wander back and forth in the wilderness forty years, until all the generation who had done evil in Hashem’s sight was consumed.
14 “Behold, you have risen up in your fathers’ place, an increase of sinful men, to increase the fierce anger of Hashem toward Israel. 15 For if you turn away from after Him, He will yet again leave them in the wilderness; and you will destroy all these people.”
16 They came near to him, and said, “We will build sheepfolds here for our livestock, and cities for our little ones; 17 but we ourselves will be ready armed to go before the children of Israel, until we have brought them to their place. Our little ones shall dwell in the fortified cities because of the inhabitants of the land. 18 We will not return to our houses until the children of Israel have all received their inheritance. 19 For we will not inherit with them on the other side of the Jordan and beyond, because our inheritance has come to us on this side of the Jordan eastward.”
