Word of Encouragement (05/17/2022)

For Gad, Jacob prayed, “Raiders shall raid Gad, but he shall raid at their heels.” Gad was Jacob’s seventh son. He was born by Bilhah, who was Leah’s maid. When Leah saw that Rachel gave her maid, Bilhah, to Jacob and she bore Dan and Naphtali, Leah gave Jacob her maid, Zilpah, as well. Zilpah gave birth to Gad and Asher, Jacob’s seventh and eighth sons.

Jacob’s prayer for Gad is another name-inspired prayer. The name, Gad, sounds like “raiders” and “raid”. So, in this short prayer (which is made up of only six Hebrew words), there are four occurrences of the similar sound—“Raiders,” “shall raid,” “Gad,” and “shall raid”. It seems like Gad would be known for its military conflicts (“Raiders shall raid Gad”) and for its military prowess (“but he shall raid at their heels”).

This is understandable when we consider the portion of the land the tribe of Gad received. They chose to stay with the tribe of Reuben and the half-tribe of Manasseh on the east side of the Jordan River (the Transjordan area), which was outside the promised land proper. This made them more exposed to the attacks from the surrounding nations, especially because they lacked the natural barrier the Jordan River provided for the Cisjordan tribes (on the west side of the Jordan). And why did they want to stay in the Transjordan area? “Now the people of Reuben and the people of Gad had a very great number of livestock. And they saw the land of Jazer and the land of Gilead, and behold, the place was a place for livestock” (Num. 32:1).

But it seems like the frequent battles they had to fight to defend their territories had made them strong. So, we read in 1 Chron. 12:14, “These Gadites were officers of the army; the least was a match for a hundred men and the greatest for a thousand.”

This prophecy could have been applied to the tribe Reuben and the half-tribe of Manasseh since they, too, remained in the Transjordan with the tribe of Gad. We can say that this had a lot to do again with the name of the tribe, Gad, which sounded like “raiders” and “raid,” etc. It could be true that the other tribes experienced many invasions and raids from the surrounding peoples. But this goes to show that the environment alone does not shape an individual or people. It seems that Gad was able to take advantage of their disadvantage and become a strong tribe.

We are constantly engaged in a spiritual war with our mortal enemies. We can complain about this or try to deny it as if we were on a picnic. Or we can also use it to grow stronger in our faith and share in the victory Christ has already won over our enemies. Could this be why God allows the difficulties you are facing?

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