Gad was born to Zilpah, Jacob’s first wife Leah’s handmaid (Genesis 35:26). In Genesis 49:19, Jacob predicted that “Gad will be attacked by a band of raiders, but he will attack them at their heels.” Later on, Moses spoke of Gad being “like a lion, tearing at arm or head” (Deuteronomy 33:20), and back when Gad was born, Leah cried out “A troop is coming!” (Genesis 30:11). Put those three together and a picture emerges of Gad and his descendants being a warrior clan of fierce fighters.
This got them into hot water with Moses, however, because Moses got it into his head that the Gadites weren’t willing to fight, and just when their warrior skills were most needed too, for conquering the land west of the Jordan River as God had instructed.
The Gadites, however, had huge herds and flocks and the land east of the Jordan River was perfect for their livestock, Numbers 32:1, so they asked Moses if they could settle that land instead and not go any further west across the Jordan (2-5).
Well that really got Moses’ back up, and he yelled at them, “Shall your countrymen go to war while you just sit here?” (6). He had a point, though, because the Gadites not proceeding any further west could “discourage the rest of the Israelites from going over into the land (west of the Jordan) that the Lord has given them” (7). And that was a sore point for Moses, because forty years earlier the Israelites had been discouraged back then too from entering the Promised Land as God instructed, because of the spies negative report of the land, resulting in God burning with anger and having the Israelites wander round the desert for another forty years (8-13).
So Moses let fly at the Gadites again in verse 14: “And here you are now, you brood of sinners, doing exactly what your fathers did, which means God will get angry and have us wandering round the desert all over again, and you’ll be the cause of it” (15).
But this is when the Gadites proved themselves to be the “troopers” Leah had called them, but in an even better way than being warriors, because they didn’t get all huffy at Moses calling them a brood of sinners. Instead, despite being hardy fighting men to the core, the Gadites humbly approached Moses with a proposal that would prove to him they could be trusted. It’s an intriguing example of “How anger can be diffused by diplomacy”….(next blog)
