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The Inheritance of Reuben

Joshua 13:15-23

15 And Moses gave to the tribe of the sons of Reuben according to their families.

16 And their border is from Aroer, which is by the lip of the brook of Arnon, and the city that is in the midst of the brook, and all the plateau by Medeba;

17 Heshbon and all her cities that are on the plateau, Dibon and Bamoth-baal and Beth-baal-meon,

18 and Jahaz, and Kedemoth and Mephaath,

19 and Kiriathaim, and Sibmah, and Zereth-shachar in the mountain of the valley,

20 and Beth-peor, and the watercourses of Pisgah, and Beth-jeshimoth,

21 and all the cities of the plateau, and all the kingdom of Sihon king of the Amorite who reigned in Heshbon, whom Moses smote with the chiefs of Midian, Evi, and Rekem, and Zur, and Hur, and Reba, the princes of Sihon, who dwelt in the land.

22 And Balaam the son of Beor, the diviner, the sons of Israel killed with the sword upon their slain.

23 And the border of the sons of Reuben was the Jordan and the border thereof. This was the inheritance of the sons of Reuben for their families, the cities and their villages.

The Inheritance of Reuben in General

AE 434:11. Because truth from good, which the tribe of Reuben represented, is in the natural man, to the tribe of Reuben an inheritance beyond the Jordan was given (see Num. 32:1 to the end; Deut. 3:12-20; Josh. 13:1 to the end; 18:7). For by “the land of Canaan” the church was represented and thus signified in the Word, that region of it beyond Jordan signifying the external church, the region on this side of the Jordan the internal church, and the river Jordan the boundary between them. And it is truth from good, or faith from charity, that constitutes the church. Truth from good in the natural man constitutes the external church, and because the tribe of Reuben represented this constituent of the church, therefore to that tribe an inheritance beyond the Jordan was given.

The Jabbok River

AC 4270. That the “Jabbok” denotes the first instilling is because it was a boundary of the land of Canaan... All the boundaries of that land were significative of the celestial and spiritual things of the Lord’s kingdom, according to their distance and situation... And thus also the ford or passage of the Jabbok [had its signification], which was such in relation to the land of Canaan beyond Jordan, and it was the boundary of the inheritance of the sons of Reuben and Gad, as is evident from Num. 21:24; Deut. 2:36, 37; 3:16, 17; Josh. 12:2; Judges 11:13, 22. [The reason] this land fell to these [people] as an inheritance was because by Reuben was represented faith in the understanding, or doctrine, which is the first of regeneration; that is, truth of doctrine in the complex, by which the good of life is attained... And by Gad [next to Reuben] were represented the works of faith... These truths of faith or doctrinal things, and the works of faith which are first practiced, are the things through which the man who is being regenerated is insinuated into good. It is for this reason that by the “passage of the Jabbok” is signified the first instilling.

Mount Nebo

Deut. 34:1-4

1 And Moses went up from the deserts of Moab to the mountain of Nebo, the head of Pisgah, that is against the faces of Jericho. And Jehovah showed him all the land, Gilead, even to Dan,

2 and all Naphtali, and the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, and all the land of Judah, even to the sea behind,

3 and the south, and the plain of the vale of Jericho, the city of the palm trees, even to Zoar.

4 And Jehovah said to him, This is the land which I promised to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, I will give it to thy seed; I have caused thee to see it with thine eyes, but thou shalt not cross over thither.

TCR 61. Those whose understandings are in light from wisdom are like men who at midday are standing upon a mountain and seeing clearly all that is below.

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