TRANSJORDAN
Today's reading:  Numbers 29-32

"Now the tribes of Reuben and Gad owned vast numbers of livestock.  So when they saw that the lands of Jazer and Gilead were ideally suited for their flocks and herds, they came to Moses, Eleazar the priest, and the other leaders of the people.  They said, Ataroth, Dibon, Jazer, Nimrah, Heshbon, Elealeh, Sebam, Nebo and Beon--the Lord has conquered this whole area for the people of Israel.  It is ideally suited for all our flocks and herds.  If we have found favor with you, please let us have this land as our property instead of giving us land across the Jordan River."  Numbers 32:1-5 NLT

This section of Scripture has always stumped me.

Why would any member of Israel's two-million ever want less than the Promised Land?

Why would Moses allow it?

What were God's thoughts on it?

How much nerve did it take the two and a half tribes to work up the courage to ask?   

How good could this side of the Jordan really be?  

I'm going to do some research into what happened to those tribes.  I'm interested to know if life went well for them.  I'd like to know if their blessings stopped when they settled, literally settled, for less than what God had promised them.  I would like to see what legacy they left to the generations that followed.

Why do these verses always get to my heart?

Probably because I settle for less than God's best on too many occasions.  I'm afraid if I were assigned a tribe of Israelites--it just might be the ones who didn't cross over.