Moses is recounting the the beginning of the division of the land. Some of the tribes wanted to live on one side of the river, and as they cleared it, Moses apportioned it. Moses also asks God to let him go into the land on the other side of the river, but God said no.
This is a tough chapter, and not just because I have a headache. God has commanded Israel to clear the land. Of people. Who already lived there. "Trust in the Lord". But this passage was probably one cited by the Conquistadors and others who thought they knew that God wanted them to wipe out other people. But they didn't have Moses and the pillar of smoke and fire, and manna and all the other miraculous things that God provided specially to those people and to those people only. And along with those miracles came special for-them-only instructions to clear the land of the people who already lived there, leaving no survivors.
Look, even Moses-MOSES, mind you-got wrong with God. He didn't do what God told him to, and later, as promised, God punished him. However, God didn't smite Moses on the spot, or have the earth swallow him, or turn him to a pillar of salt. What does this chapter mean for me, today? Barring any truly rebellious, get-away-from-me-forever kind of rebellion, God will stick with me. He will not give me more than I can bear and He will even punish me if I get too far off track. But He won't forsake me, and He won't let things happen to me that won't, ultimately, be for my own good. even if I can't always figure out that "good" :)
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