|
Jacob’s Twelve Sons — Gad
We know little of the personal history of Gad. He was the seventh son of Jacob and the first of Zilpah, Leah’s maid. We know from Genesis 46:16, that he himself had seven sons. His name means “a troop,” and Jacob in blessing him said, “A troop shall overcome him: but he shall overcome at the last” (Genesis 49:19). Part of the blessing of Moses was, “And of Gad he said, Blessed be he that enlargeth Gad: he dwelleth as a lion, and teareth the arm with the crown of the head” (Deuteronomy 33:20).
The tribe of Gad was one who opted not to settle in Canaan, along with Reuben and the half tribe of Manasseh, see Joshua 22:1-4. Their excuse for not wanting to cross the Jordan to settle was that they thought where they were was better pasture for their cattle, but by the time the Lord came on the scene they were raising pigs, which were unclean to the Jew. Compare Numbers 32:1-5 with Mark 5:1-14. We learn from this that if we do not value our spiritual inheritance, that is, what we have in Christ, we will only regress in our souls and lose our spiritual discernment. We will become worldly Christians with little or no conscience of what is right or wrong concerning God’s truth.
|
