The Gadite Bargain: First Inheritance, First in the Fight
Introduction: A Faith That Fights
We live in an age of soft Christianity. The prevailing winds of our evangelical moment blow toward a faith that is primarily therapeutic, personal, and deeply concerned with its own comfort. We want the blessings of Abraham without the grit of Abraham. We want the inheritance without the warfare. We want to be enlarged, but we want that enlargement to come through some sort of spiritual osmosis, while we are sitting comfortably on the couch. We want God to give us the land, but we would really rather not have to deal with the giants.
This is the great temptation of a pietistic faith. It seeks a separate peace. It wants to secure a quiet little plot of land for itself, a "ruler's portion," and then let the rest of the world go to hell in its own way. It is a faith that is quick to claim a personal blessing but slow to enlist in a corporate battle. But this is not the faith of our fathers. It is not the faith of the Bible. And it is certainly not the faith of the tribe of Gad.
In Moses' final blessing of the tribes, we come to Gad, and what we find is a potent corrective to our modern sensibilities. The blessing on Gad is a commendation of a fierce and forward-looking faith. The Gadites were not passive recipients of grace. They were lion-like warriors who understood a fundamental principle of the covenant: privilege is inextricably linked to responsibility. They secured the first inheritance, yes, but they did so by volunteering to be the first in the fight. Their story is a rebuke to all who would take God's promises as a permission slip for selfish quietism. It is a summons to a robust, fighting faith, a faith that understands that every inheritance must be taken, and every promise is fulfilled on the battlefield.
The Text
Of Gad he said, “Blessed is the one who enlarges Gad; He lies down as a lion, And tears the arm, also the top of the head. Then he provided the first part for himself, For there the ruler’s portion was reserved; And he came with the heads of the people; He did the righteousness of Yahweh, And His judgments with Israel.”
(Deuteronomy 33:20-21 LSB)
The Enlarger and the Lion (v. 20)
We begin with the source and the character of the blessing.
"Blessed is the one who enlarges Gad; He lies down as a lion, And tears the arm, also the top of the head." (Deuteronomy 33:20)
The first thing to notice is who gets the credit. "Blessed is the one who enlarges Gad." God is the one who enlarges. God is a God of growth, of dominion, of expansion. This is a postmillennial note sounded deep in the heart of the Pentateuch. The kingdom of God is not a shrinking enterprise. God blesses His people, and that blessing has tangible, historical, geographical results. He enlarges them. This is not the crass health-and-wealth gospel that promises a Lexus in every garage, but it is a robust covenantal promise that faithfulness leads to fruitfulness, and that fruitfulness takes up space in the world. God does not bless His people so that they might retreat into ever-smaller ghettos. He blesses them to take the world.
But what is the character of the people whom God enlarges? He enlarges Gad, and Gad "lies down as a lion." This is not a picture of a timid, fearful people hoping the world will leave them alone. A lion does not lie down in fear; it lies down in confident possession of its territory. It rests in strength. And when roused, it is an instrument of terrifying power. It "tears the arm, also the top of the head."
This is the language of total victory. To tear the arm is to destroy the enemy's strength, his ability to fight back. To tear the top of the head, the crown, is to destroy his authority and his rule. This is not a negotiated settlement. This is conquest. The people God blesses are a people who fight. They are not called to be diplomatic envoys to the Canaanites; they are called to be instruments of God's judgment against them. This is the church militant. We are at war with the world, the flesh, and the devil, and we are not called to a truce. We are called to tear the arm and the crown of the head, to dismantle the power and authority of the evil one in every sphere of life by the power of the gospel.
The Ruler's Portion and the Righteous Promise (v. 21)
Verse 21 gives us the historical background and the covenantal heart of the matter.
"Then he provided the first part for himself, For there the ruler’s portion was reserved; And he came with the heads of the people; He did the righteousness of Yahweh, And His judgments with Israel." (Deuteronomy 33:21 LSB)
This refers back to the events of Numbers 32. The tribes of Gad and Reuben, rich in livestock, saw that the land east of the Jordan was good for grazing. So they went to Moses with a proposition. They asked for their inheritance on the east bank, before the main conquest of Canaan had even begun. They "provided the first part for himself." There is a kind of holy opportunism here. They saw a good thing, a "ruler's portion," and they had the foresight and the boldness to ask for it. God is not offended by men who think ahead and desire a good inheritance for their children.
But here is the crucial point. Moses' initial reaction was suspicion. He thought they were trying to get out of the fight, to secure their own comfort and abandon their brothers. But the Gadites were not pietists. They were not seeking a separate peace. They made a solemn, binding oath. They would build pens for their livestock and towns for their families, and then all their men of war would cross the Jordan "armed for battle before Yahweh" and fight at the very head of the armies of Israel. They would not return to their homes until every other tribe had received its inheritance.
This is what Moses commends here. "He came with the heads of the people." They led the charge. They put themselves in the place of greatest danger. And in doing so, "He did the righteousness of Yahweh, and His judgments with Israel." What was this righteousness? It was covenant faithfulness. It was keeping their word. It was understanding that their blessing was not just for them, but for the whole people of God. Their inheritance was a stewardship, and it came with the non-negotiable duty of fighting for their brothers. They participated in executing God's righteous judgments against the Canaanites, not as a private vendetta, but as a corporate, covenantal act "with Israel."
The Gospel According to Gad
This blessing is not just a dusty commendation of an ancient tribe. It is a picture of the gospel, and a pattern for our lives as Christians. We, like the Gadites, have been given the "first part." In Christ, we have already received an inheritance. We are seated with Him in the heavenly places. We have been blessed with every spiritual blessing. The ruler's portion has been reserved for us.
But what does this inheritance purchase for us? Does it purchase a life of ease? A disengaged spirituality? A quiet retirement from the world's problems? God forbid. Our glorious, unshakeable, first-part inheritance is our war chest. It is the secure home base from which we are to launch our attacks. Because our inheritance is secure in Christ, we are freed to be lions. We are freed to risk everything in the fight, because the one thing that matters is not at risk.
Like Gad, we are called to come "with the heads of the people." We are to be at the forefront of the battle for truth, for righteousness, for the crown rights of Jesus Christ in our homes, our churches, and our culture. We are to do the righteousness of the Lord by being faithful to the covenant, by loving our brothers, and by fighting for and with them. We are to execute His judgments, not with carnal weapons, but with the spiritual weapons that are mighty to the pulling down of strongholds: the preaching of the gospel, the discipleship of the nations, and the application of God's Word to every area of life.
And ultimately, we see this pattern perfected in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the great Lion of the Tribe of Judah. He is the one whom God has enlarged, giving Him a name that is above every name. He secured the ultimate ruler's portion for Himself, the seat at the right hand of the Majesty on High. And how did He do it? He did it by coming as the head of His people, by going first into the battle against sin and death. He crossed the Jordan of death for us, and He did the righteousness of Yahweh perfectly by His obedient life, and executed His judgments perfectly on the cross. He kept the covenant for us. And now, having secured the inheritance, He calls us, His people, to follow Him as He leads the charge, until all His enemies are made His footstool, and the knowledge of the glory of the Lord covers the earth as the waters cover the sea.