“the land that Yahweh struck before the community of Israel, is a land of livestock, and your servants have livestock.”
‭‭Numbers‬ ‭32‬:‭4‬ ‭LEB‬‬

When I read that, this soundtrack starts playing on my mental jukebox:

This is cattle country… 🐂🐂🐂🐂🐂🐂🐂

(I tried Googling “cattle country” and apparently there’s a video game?)

If you don’t know the old tv show Big Valley, you missed out.

But this passage has a few Big Valley and Bonanza vibes. The tribes of Reuben, Gad, and half of Manasseh find land for their cattle and they want to settle there. It was formerly giant territory – the land of Bashan and the land of the Amorites.

Oh… I guess “Big Valley” is an appropriate theme. 😉😏😆

Poor Moses though… He thinks this is a repeat of 40 years ago. So he reads them the riot act and basically says, if they discourage everyone and the whole nation dies, it’s going to be on their heads.

No pressure.

They make a deal with Moses and the rest of the people. We’ll build some homesteads for our families and herds, then we’ll go help you drive the Canaanites off of old Grandpappy Abraham’s claim. 🤠🏜️

Now, I’m sure this didn’t happen in the space of one episode of Big Promised Land Valley. It probably took at least a few months. But they got to it and even renamed towns after themselves.

I don’t have an old-looking map of ancient Israel to set on fire, (a’la Bonanza intro), but here’s something I made to show where these groups have conquered and settled:

😆

The next chapter is a travelogue of Israel’s journeys from Egypt to this point. 👣

It may be helpful to zoom out and put it in the context of the “moves” of God’s people thus far in the Bible.

If you can get your hands on copies of the books The Old Testament Made Simple and The New Testament Made Simple by Melton Short, they are SO helpful! In the OT book, the author outlines the “7 Major Moves” of God’s people in the OT. If I remember correctly it’s something like:

1. Eden to Mesopotamia
2. Mesopotamia to Haran
3. Haran to Israel (Canaan)
4. Canaan to Egypt
5. Egypt to Israel
6. Israel to Babylon
7. Babylon to Israel

Every event in the entire OT is connected to one of these 7. It’s so simple you can teach this to an elementary student. It’s easy to memorize too. And it dramatically simplifies the OT. So when I pick up my Bible and read the OT, I can immediately stick what I’m reading into the broader context. To do good Bible study we have to see BOTH big picture and little details.

Here in Numbers 30, we’re on step 5. And we’re only in the 4th book out of 33 in the OT. We’re about to stay put for a long time.