Numbers 32

16–24 The Reubenites and Gadites immediately assured Moses that they were not trying to get out of fighting and that their men would join with the other tribes until victory over the Canaanites was complete and every Israelite had received his inheritance (verse 18).

Moses agreed to their plan, but he gave the two tribes a stern warning: “Do what you have promised or you will be sinning against the Lord, and your sin will find you out” (verse 23). Our sin is not something merely passive that “waits to be discovered”; our sin itself will expose us—it will “find us out” and cause judgment to be brought upon us. And even if we think we can hide our sin from other people, we will never be able to hide it from God, the final Judge.

25–32 Moses told Eleazar and Joshua that if the two tribes failed to keep their word, they were not to be given the land they wanted east of the Jordan; instead, they would have to accept a much smaller inheritance within Canaan itself (verse 30).

33–42 In verse 33, we notice that half the tribe of Manasseh joined with the tribes of Reuben and Gad in choosing their inheritance on the east side of the Jordan; Manasseh’s inheritance was farther north in the region of Gilead and Bashan. These two and a half tribes settled their families and their livestock in secure areas; then their fighting men joined with the other tribes in the conquest of Canaan.