Context No. 4159 of 4322 · Numbers

Numbers 26:49-56: in context

49of Jezer, the family of the Jezerites; of Shillem, the family of the Shillemites. 50These are the families of Naphtali according to their families; and those who were counted of them were forty-five thousand four hundred. 51These are those who were counted of the children of Israel, six hundred one thousand seven hundred thirty. 52The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 53“To these the land shall be divided for an inheritance according to the number of names. 54To the more you shall give the more inheritance, and to the fewer you shall give the less inheritance. To everyone according to those who were counted of him shall his inheritance be given. 55Notwithstanding, the land shall be divided by lot. According to the names of the tribes of their fathers they shall inherit. 56According to the lot shall their inheritance be divided between the more and the fewer.”

After the second census in the wilderness, God gives instructions for how the promised land is to be divided among the tribes: to the larger tribe a larger inheritance, to the smaller a smaller one, each according to its numbers, and all determined by lot. The division was to be both proportional, fair to each tribe's size, and by lot, determined by God rather than by human preference.

There is a quiet picture of God's justice in this arrangement. The inheritance was not seized by the strong or claimed by force; it was apportioned fairly, according to need and number, and settled by lot, so that God, not human scheming, decided each tribe's portion. Every tribe received its due, neither cheated nor favored, in a division that was both just and under God's control. He is a God of justice and order, who gives each his rightful portion, not according to human grabbing or force, but fairly, according to his own wise and impartial determination. The God who apportioned the land justly among the tribes can be trusted to provide for each of his people what is right.

Do I trust that God, who apportioned the promised land justly among the tribes, provides fairly for each of his people according to his own wise and impartial determination, so that I need not grasp or scheme but can receive my portion from his hand?

Sources

Numbers 26:54: "To the more you shall give the more inheritance, and to the fewer you shall give the less inheritance. To everyone according to those who were counted of him shall his inheritance be given."
Numbers 26:56: "According to the lot shall their inheritance be divided between the more and the fewer."
Numbers 26:53: "To these the land shall be divided for an inheritance according to the number of names."