I Don't Know The Title Yet, But It's Going To Be So Clever
an excerpt

Moses raised his head and spoke very quietly. Joshua, Caleb, and all the other men in the room were silent when he did so.

“Greetings to you, Joash, son of Eliasaph, and you Abimael, son of Elizur. I am told you have come to me with a request?”

Joash, as the elder, spoke for both of them. “Greetings, Moses, servant of the Most High. We do come to you with a request. The cities of Moab and Ammon—the land the LORD subdued before the people of Israel—are good and suitable for livestock. Your servants have livestock in abundance. If we have found favor in your eyes, let this land be given to us, as our possession. Do not make your servants cross the Jordan.”

Abimael had expected when he came to this meeting to receive a simple yes or no answer. It was an uncomplicated request, after all. He had not expected the fire that he now saw in Moses, and was honestly surprised to see it.

Moses anger was practically a physical thing, and it was mirrored in the faces of Joshua and Caleb. Joash held himself calmly, as did Abimael, but both of them were wondering where their miscalculation had been.

“Shall your countrymen go to war while you sit here?” Moses hissed. “Why would you discourage Israel from going into the land the LORD has given them?” He leveled a finger at them. “This is what your fathers did, when I sent them from Kadesh Barnea to look over the land.”

Abimael’s blood froze at the mention of Kadesh, the place of the curse.

Moses was going on. “The LORD’s anger was aroused that day and He laid death on everyone twenty or older—the only exceptions stand before you now—and you, you sinners and sons of sinners, stand in your fathers’ places to make the LORD even more angry with Israel.

“If you turn away from following him, He will again leave us all in the desert—and you will be the cause!”

Moses was breathing quite hard by the end of this speech, and Joash and Abimael glanced at one another. Joash did not speak when Abimael’s answer came to him. And though he was not a prophet, he knew that his next words were the LORD’s will for Reuben.

“Then Reuben would like build pens for our livestock and cities for our women and children, here. But we stand ready to arm ourselves and go ahead of the Israelites until we have brought them to their place. Our women, our children, they will live in fortified cities for protection from the inhabitants of the land. And we will not return to our homes until every Israelite has received his inheritance,” he said.

Joash nodded. “The tribe of Gad stands ready to join with them in leading the armies. Our inheritance has come to us on the east side of the Jordan, but we will not abandon our countrymen to fend for themselves.”

Moses looked at them for a moment quietly. He seemed almost impressed somehow. As if they had passed some sort of a test. At last he said, “If you do this—if you arm yourselves before the LORD for battle, and you will go armed before the LORD, until He has driven His enemies out before Him—then when the land is subdued, you may return and be free of your obligation to the LORD and Israel.”

He looked very seriously at them before continuing. “But if you fail to do this, you will be sinning against the LORD. And you may be sure that your sin will find you out. Build your cities for your women and children, and your pens for your cattle, and do what you have promised.”

Joash and Abimael nodded and Joash said, “Your servants will do as you command.”