We will not return unto our houses, until the children of Israel have inherited every man his inheritance.
The tribes of Gad and Reuben pledged to fight at the side of the rest of Israel until every Israelite had received his own inheritance. Their families were permitted to settle east of the Jordan, yet the men themselves refused to remain behind in that settlement. They would not turn that eastern arrangement into an excuse to escape the shared labor and hardship of taking possession of Canaan. Their pledge therefore shows that God's people are not to seek personal ease while leaving fellow believers to bear alone the burdens of their common cause.
The tribes of Gad and Reuben pledged to fight at the side of the rest of Israel until every Israelite had received his own inheritance. Their families were permitted to settle east of the Jordan, yet the men themselves refused to remain behind in that settlement. They would not turn that eastern arrangement into an excuse to escape the shared labor and hardship of taking possession of Canaan. Their pledge therefore shows that God's people are not to seek personal ease while leaving fellow believers to bear alone the burdens of their common cause.