“When all the people had finished crossing, the ark of Adonai passed on, and the cohanim, ahead of the people. The descendants of Re’uven, the descendants of Gad and the half-tribe of M’nasheh went on, armed, ahead of the people of Isra’el, as Moshe had said to them; some 40,000 armed soldiers ready for battle crossed in the presence of Adonai to the plains of Yericho.”-Joshua 4:11-13
Now it would appear that actually a total of 24 stones were set up when we read the text carefully.
FIRST, verse 8 says…“They took twelve stones out of the Yarden riverbed, as Adonai had said to Y’hoshua, corresponding to the number of the tribes of the people of Isra’el, carried them over with them to the place where they were camping, and set them down there”.
AND THEN, verse 9 goes on to say…“Y’hoshua also set up twelve stones in the Yarden River itself, in the place where the feet of the cohanim carrying the ark for the covenant had stood. They are there to this day”.
So we’ve got 12 stones that were set up where the Israelites were going to camp in close proximity to Jericho.
And Joshua also set up 12 stones in the middle of the Jordan where the priests had been standing.
So we’ve got a total of 24 stones.
We also know the recording of this event was later edited because of the bit where it says…“They (the 12 stones) are there to this day”.
Onward.
We’re given an interesting piece of info in verse 12.
We’re informed that the 40,000-men army provided by Reuben, Gad and Manessah crossed over the Jordan first ahead of all the other tribes.
We’re not really given a reason why but it’s probably because they were earlier described to be the most ferocious and skilled warriors in all of Israel.
So it just made good sense to position them in the front lines ahead of the non-military part of the population (namely women and children).
If they ran into the enemy, they’d be able to mop the floor with them and the women and children would be safe.
Quite the opposite of cowardly terrorist groups whose leaders send their own women and children on suicide missions with bombs attached to their bodies.
And we shouldn’t overlook the fact that this also demonstrates just how faithful and loyal the 2 1/2 tribes were for the cause of taking the Land even though they wouldn’t be living in the land.
It wouldn’t be until the rulership of the great King David that we’ll see Israel so united as one.
I say that because once Israel entered into the land and each tribe received its designated land inheritance, the tribes settled down and their attention focused more on taking care of their own tribal brethren and soon lost interest in helping their brothers in the Holy War to conquer all the land per Hashem orders.
They lost the big picture so to speak and there’s a lesson in this for us.
Let’s not let the daily affairs of our life cause us to get so distracted and bogged down that we lose track of what’s really important in our lives: Hashem and the eternal Kingdom to come!
Amen