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In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
Then Joshua summoned the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh and said to them, "You have done all that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded, and you have obeyed me in everything I commanded. For a long time now—to this very day—you have not deserted your brothers but have carried out the mission the Lord your God gave you. Now that the Lord your God has given your brothers rest as He promised, return to your homes in the land that Moses the servant of the Lord gave you on the other side of the Jordan. But be very careful to keep the commandment and the law that Moses the servant of the Lord gave you: to love the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways, to obey His commands, to hold fast to Him and to serve Him with all your heart and all your soul."
Then Joshua blessed them and sent them away, and they went to their homes. (To the half-tribe of Manasseh, Moses had given land in Bashan, and to the other half of the tribe Joshua gave land on the west side of the Jordan with their brothers.) When Joshua sent them home, he blessed them, saying, "Return to your homes with your great wealth—with large herds of livestock, with silver, gold, bronze and iron, and a great quantity of clothing—and divide with your brothers the plunder from your enemies."
So the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh left the Israelites at Shiloh in Canaan to return to Gilead, their own land, which they had acquired in accordance with the command of the Lord through Moses.
When they came to Geliloth near the Jordan in the land of Canaan, the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh built an imposing altar there by the Jordan. And when the Israelites heard that they had built the altar on the border of Canaan at Geliloth near the Jordan on the Israelite side, the whole assembly of Israel gathered at Shiloh to go to war against them.
So the Israelites sent Phinehas, son of Eleazar, the priest, to the land of Gilead—to Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh. With him they sent ten of the chief men, one for each of the tribes of Israel, each the head of a family division among the Israelite clans.
When they went to Gilead—to Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh—they said to them: "The whole assembly of the Lord says: 'How could you break faith with the God of Israel like this? How could you turn away from the Lord and build yourselves an altar in rebellion against Him now? Was not the sin of Peor enough for us? Up to this very day, we have not cleansed ourselves from that sin, even though a plague fell on the community of the Lord! And are you now turning away from the Lord?’
‘If you rebel against the Lord today, tomorrow He will be angry with the whole community of Israel. If the land you possess is defiled, come over to the Lord's land, where the Lord's tabernacle stands, and share the land with us. But do not rebel against the Lord or against us by building an altar for yourselves, other than the altar of the Lord our God. When Achan, son of Zerah, acted unfaithfully regarding the devoted things, did not wrath come upon the whole community of Israel? He was not the only one who died for his sin.'"
Then Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh replied to the heads of the clans of Israel:
"The Mighty One, God, the Lord! The Mighty One, God, the Lord! He knows! And let Israel know! If this has been in rebellion or disobedience to the Lord, do not spare us this day. If we have built our own altar to turn away from the Lord and to offer burnt offerings and grain offerings, or to sacrifice fellowship offerings on it, may the Lord Himself call us to account.”
"No! We did it for fear that some day your descendants might say to ours, 'What do you have to do with the Lord, the God of Israel? The Lord has made the Jordan a boundary between us and you—you Reubenites and Gadites! You have no share in the Lord.' So your descendants might cause ours to stop fearing the Lord.”
“That is why we said, 'Let us get ready and build an altar—but not for burnt offerings or sacrifices.' On the contrary, it is to be a witness between us and you and the generations that follow, that we will worship the Lord at His sanctuary with our burnt offerings, sacrifices, and fellowship offerings. Then in the future, your descendants will not be able to say to ours, 'You have no share in the Lord.'”
"And we said, 'If they ever say this to us, or to our descendants, we will answer: Look at the replica of the Lord's altar, which our fathers built, not for burnt offerings and sacrifices, but as a witness between us and you.'”
"Far be it from us to rebel against the Lord and turn away from Him today by building an altar for burnt offerings, grain offerings, and sacrifices, other than the altar of the Lord our God that stands before His tabernacle."
When Phinehas the priest and the leaders of the community—the heads of the clans of the Israelites—heard what Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh had to say, they were pleased. And Phinehas, son of Eleazar, the priest, said to Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh, "Today we know that the Lord is with us, because you have not acted unfaithfully toward the Lord in this matter. Now you have rescued the Israelites from the Lord's hand."
Then Phinehas, son of Eleazar, the priest, and the leaders returned to Canaan from their meeting with the Reubenites and Gadites in Gilead and reported to the Israelites. They were glad to hear the report and praised God. And they talked no more about going to war against them to devastate the country where the Reubenites and the Gadites lived.
And the Reubenites and the Gadites gave the altar this name: A Witness Between Us that the Lord is God.
Joshua 22
This ends our reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
As we reach the twenty-second chapter of Joshua, the fighting was over for the most part within Canaan and the people of Israel had claimed all the land that God had promised them…land that had been divided up amongst all the tribes except for the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and a half of the tribe of Manasseh. You’ll recall that God had given them the land on the east side of the Jordan River when Moses was leading Israel and before they crossed into the Promised Land.
You’ll may also remember that there was a stipulation attached to the two-and-a-half tribes being granted land on the east side of the Jordan. For God commanded their armies to join forces with the fighting men of the other tribes to cross the Jordan and join the battle to gain control of the land in Canaan. After the victory was accomplished, they would then be permitted to return home, going back across the Jordan to reunite with their families.
As we see in our scripture passage for today, that time had come.
For we read where “…Joshua summoned the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh” saying to them:
“You have done all that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded, and you have obeyed me in everything I commanded. For a long time now—to this very day—you have not deserted your brothers but have carried out the mission the Lord your God gave you. Now that the Lord your God has given your brothers rest as He promised, return to your homes in the land that Moses the servant of the Lord gave you on the other side of the Jordan. But be very careful to keep the commandment and the law that Moses the servant of the Lord gave you: to love the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways, to obey His commands, to hold fast to Him and to serve Him with all your heart and all your soul. Return to your homes with your great wealth—with large herds of livestock, with silver, gold, bronze and iron, and a great quantity of clothing—and divide with your brothers the plunder from your enemies."
And with that, the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh began to return home and all seemed like it was going to be fine at this point with everyone living “happily ever after” as they say. Those Israelites who would live within Canaan were at rest while the tribes abiding to the east of the Jordan would soon be at rest themselves within their land.
But then something happened that disrupted the calm and created a disturbing stir amongst the Israelites in Canaan. For on their way home, the Reubenites, Gadites and half-tribe of Manasseh decided to build an “imposing altar…by the Jordan” at Geliloth.
We see in the scriptures where the word about the altar traveled quickly back to the Israelites in Canaan who “heard that (the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh) had built the altar on the border of Canaan at Geliloth near the Jordan on the Israelite side”. This upset them so much that they assembled at “Shiloh to go to war against them”.
Why?
Because the Israelites in Canaan had made a common mistake…one that people all too often make today. They assumed they knew something that wasn’t even close to the truth.
Have you ever done that?
Have you ever heard about someone doing something and automatically assumed you knew what was going on before knowing all the facts?
You know, there has been a long standing saying about what happens when you assume things but I won’t share it here. The main point is that when we presume something before we know all the information to make a proper judgment on a matter, we too often end up looking foolish in the end, doing things that are not only unnecessary but often embarrassing, damaging, or both.
Going back to our passage and the Israelites living in Canaan, they erred in assuming the Reubenites, Gadites, and half-tribe of Manasseh had constructed the altar at Geliloth for themselves so to perform some improper, inappropriate worship or sacrifice on it. Anyone doing this would anger God to the point where He would exert His wrath on all of Israel, not just the specific offenders. This hypersensitivity which morphed into paranoia was fueled by the prior actions of a man named Achan who you’ll remember decided to keep a few items from the conquest of Jericho when all things were to be given to God. His sin resulted in thirty-six Israelites dying as they attempted to attack Ai for the first time and the people of Israel weren’t spared until Achan was executed for his actions (Joshua 7).
So alarmed by a false assumption, the Israelites of Canaan left Shiloh and went to Gilead where they confronted the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh asking:
“How could you break faith with the God of Israel like this? How could you turn away from the Lord and build yourselves an altar in rebellion against Him now? Was not the sin of Peor enough for us? Up to this very day, we have not cleansed ourselves from that sin, even though a plague fell on the community of the Lord! And are you now turning away from the Lord? If you rebel against the Lord today, tomorrow He will be angry with the whole community of Israel. If the land you possess is defiled, come over to the Lord's land, where the Lord's tabernacle stands, and share the land with us. But do not rebel against the Lord or against us by building an altar for yourselves, other than the altar of the Lord our God. When Achan, son of Zerah, acted unfaithfully regarding the devoted things, did not wrath come upon the whole community of Israel? He was not the only one who died for his sin."
I would have liked to see the expression on the faces of the tribes of “Reuben, Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh” after they heard what they were being accused of by their fellow Israelites. I would suppose they were in a state of initial shock before responding with this to defend themselves:
"The Mighty One, God, the Lord! The Mighty One, God, the Lord! He knows! And let Israel know! If this has been in rebellion or disobedience to the Lord, do not spare us this day. If we have built our own altar to turn away from the Lord and to offer burnt offerings and grain offerings, or to sacrifice fellowship offerings on it, may the Lord Himself call us to account.”
“No! We did it for fear that some day your descendants might say to ours, 'What do you have to do with the Lord, the God of Israel? The Lord has made the Jordan a boundary between us and you—you Reubenites and Gadites! You have no share in the Lord.' So your descendants might cause ours to stop fearing the Lord. That is why we said, 'Let us get ready and build an altar—but not for burnt offerings or sacrifices.' On the contrary, it is to be a witness between us and you and the generations that follow, that we will worship the Lord at His sanctuary with our burnt offerings, sacrifices, and fellowship offerings. Then in the future, your descendants will not be able to say to ours, 'You have no share in the Lord.' And we said, 'If they ever say this to us, or to our descendants, we will answer: Look at the replica of the Lord's altar, which our fathers built, not for burnt offerings and sacrifices, but as a witness between us and you.' Far be it from us to rebel against the Lord and turn away from Him today by building an altar for burnt offerings, grain offerings and sacrifices, other than the altar of the Lord our God that stands before His tabernacle."
Here we find the Reubenites, Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh speaking with bold confidence because they knew that they had done nothing wrong. In fact, they had given the altar the name, “A Witness Between Us that the Lord is God.” They further validated their actions by affirming the real reason why they built the altar…to glorify God and let it serve as a reminder that Israel indeed was one nation under Him, regardless which side of the Jordan one lived on. They asserted to their accusatory brothers and sisters that the Lord knew the true motives of their hearts and, with that, they had nothing to fear.
Well, imagine how the Israelites in Canaan must have felt after they heard all that the Reubenites, Gadites, and members of the half-tribe of Manasseh said.
Were they relieved?
Yes, of course they were. But they had marched a long distance with rage and warring thoughts in their hearts and minds every step of the way only to discover that the constructed altar wasn’t intended to be used anywhere near the way they thought it would and that had to be more than a little embarrassing.
This leads us to one other question…
Why didn’t the Israelites in Canaan just ask God if the altar was meant to be used in an adverse way against Him before they set out?
We have seen elsewhere in the scriptures provided answers to these kind of questions when they were brought before Him and surely in this case, He would have told His people to not waste their time marching so far over something that wasn’t worth it…and certainly nothing to go to war over.
But the Israelites in Canaan didn’t do that, instead assuming something that wasn’t true and choosing to take matters into their own hands.
Going back to our passage for today, we see where “Phinehas the priest and the leaders of the community—the heads of the clans of the Israelites” were pleased after they “heard what Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh had to say”, saying to them:
“Today we know that the Lord is with us, because you have not acted unfaithfully toward the Lord in this matter. Now you have rescued the Israelites from the Lord's hand."
Of course, this sounds good but we know that the real truth of the matter was that the Israelites were never in danger in the first place.
And so “Phinehas, son of Eleazar, the priest, and the leaders returned to Canaan from their meeting…and reported to the Israelites” who were “glad to hear the report and praised God”, talking “no more about going to war against them to devastate the country where the Reubenites and the Gadites lived”.
Friends, God is seeking to teach us an important lesson within today’s message. For we error when deciding to make assumptions before having all the facts. Given this, we should never operate in life off of gossip, innuendo, or guess work but instead truth…always truth. And the only way we can be assured we have the truth, is to seek it through the One who is THE Way and THE Truth and THE Life…THE only One who will always ensure we understand completely what is going on and, best of all, guide us to either act or not act depending on His will for the situation.
Today and every day, let us always seek the guidance of our Lord who is our precious Counselor in life, now and forever more.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.
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