Sometimes, wars can be avoided. But what if the war is over how we worship God? This devotion looks at how the break of the Wilderness Wanders into the Promised Land dwellers and the Transjordan dwellers almost led to war.
Nuggets
- The Promised Land dwellers thought the Transjordan dwellers had already defected from God, and they were ready to go to war.
- So, the Promised Land dwellers call the Transjordan dwellers on it – which is what we are supposed to do as disciples.
- But they only had part of the truth.
- The Transjordan dwellers did it for the kids.
Devotions in the What I Believe series
Devotions in the Peace and War category
Sometimes War Can be Avoided
Sometimes War Is Judgment
Wars as a Sign of the End Times
Sometimes, we think we know everything, don’t we? We know why someone does something – without asking them why they did what they did.
That can even happen on a national level. However, that can have more disastrous effects. Let’s look at a time when that happened to the Wilderness Wanderers.
Let's Put It into Context #1
I am entitling this category Peace and War – but we are only going to touch on the peace as being the opposite of war.
I am doing this because we have had many discussions about peace. We’ve said peace is an inward tranquility resulting from a balanced life with spiritual order, equity, and truth.
Glossary
War, according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, is “a state of usually open and declared armed hostile conflict between states or nations.”
Resource
Let's Put It into Context #2
“The Reubenites, Gadites, and half the tribe of Manasseh left the Israelites at Shiloh in the land of Canaan to return to their own land of Gilead, which they took possession of according to the Lord’s command through Moses. When they came to the region of the Jordan in the land of Canaan, the Reubenites, Gadites, and half the tribe of Manasseh built a large, impressive altar there by the Jordan” (Josh. 22: 9-10 CSB)
The Wilderness Wanderers were heading toward the Promised Land. They were right on the brink of entering it, when the Reubenites, Gadites, and half the tribe of Manasseh threw a curve ball.
They didn’t want to live in the Promised Land. Moses questioned if it was right that the rest of the tribes went to war and they didn’t.
It ended up that, if they let them build cities and sheep pens, the Reubenites, Gadites, and half the tribe of Manasseh would go fight with the other tribes.
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This passage occurs after all the fighting has stopped, and the Promised Land has been won.
The two tribes and a half came home and built an altar. It isn’t just any altar. It is a “… large, impressive altar …” (Josh. 22: 10 CSB).
When I was researching altars, this was the only directions from God that I found as to how to build one. “Make an earthen altar for me, and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, your flocks and herds. I will come to you and bless you in every place where I cause my name to be remembered. If you make a stone altar for me, do not build it out of cut stones. If you use your chisel on it, you will defile it. Do not go up to my altar on steps, so that your nakedness is not exposed on it” (Ex. 20: 24-26 CSB). It doesn’t give any directions as to where, just how.
Assumptions
“Then the Israelites heard it said, “Look, the Reubenites, Gadites, and half the tribe of Manasseh have built an altar on the frontier of the land of Canaan at the region of the Jordan, on the Israelite side.” When the Israelites heard this, the entire Israelite community assembled at Shiloh to go to war against them” (Josh. 22: 11-12 CSB)
At first glance, it may seem strange that the Promised Land dwellers questioned the memorial. They had made a stone memorial at the Jordan River. “So Joshua called together the twelve men he had appointed from the Israelites, one from each tribe, and said to them, “Go over before the ark of the Lord your God into the middle of the Jordan. Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’ tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever’” (Josh. 4: 4-7 NIV).
That wasn’t the first – and others had built altars. Noah built an altar after they got off the ark (Gen. 8: 20-22). Abraham built altars (Gen. 12: 7; 12: 8; 13: 18; 22: 9). Isaac built an altar (Gen. 26: 25). Jacob build altars (Gen. 33: 20; 35: 1). Moses built altars (Ex. 17: 25; Ex. 24: 4). There may be more, but that makes the point.
But the Promised Land dwellers thought the Transjordan dwellers had already defected from God. They were ready to go to war.
Whoa! Is this the same Wilderness Wanderers who time after time disobeyed God? And now they are up in arms because the Transjordan dwellers seem to have gone to the dark side?
The Promised Land dwellers got it into their heads that those in the east had turned away from God. So, they marched, prepared to do battle with their brothers.
Accusations
“This is what the Lord’s entire community says: ‘What is this treachery you have committed today against the God of Israel by turning away from the Lord and building an altar for yourselves, so that you are in rebellion against the Lord today? … and now would you turn away from the Lord? If you rebel against the Lord today, tomorrow he will be angry with the entire community of Israel. But if the land you possess is defiled, cross over to the land the Lord possesses where the Lord’s tabernacle stands, and take possession of it among us. But don’t rebel against the Lord or against us by building for yourselves an altar other than the altar of the Lord our God’” (Josh. 22: 16, 18-19 CSB)
So, the Promised Land dwellers called the Transjordan dwellers on it – which is what we are supposed to do as disciples. “Brothers and sisters, if someone is overtaken in any wrongdoing, you who are spiritual, restore such a person with a gentle spirit, watching out for yourselves so that you also won’t be tempted” (Gal. 6: 1 CSB
Stephenson noticed a problem, though. He wrote, “Their jealousy was hasty, it was ignorant and uncharitable, but it was not unnatural.”
Resource
Ouch. The first three were bad enough – hasty, ignorant, and uncharitable. But we hate it when we told that those are our natural states.
I get that we have to talk first to tell someone else that we have a problem with what they’ve done. This is a great example of how presentation can escalate or defuse a situation.
But remember, this isn’t just you and me talking. This is Promised Land dwellers (nine and a half tribes) and Transjordan dwellers (two and a half tribes).
If 2.4 million people left Egypt – and it seems like families were more than the 2.5 kids in those days – there would have been more than that. We are talking about a lot of people.
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That would be a lot of military-age people who were riled up.
The Promised Land Dwellers misunderstood the situation. They assumed when they shouldn’t have.
But they only had part of the truth. Look what Lund said.
“A fact is not necessarily the truth, because it may be but part of the truth. Part of the truth is often the most dangerous, subtle, and wicked lie. A fact is after all but the expression of a motive; so that to grasp the bearing of a fact the motive must be first of all understood. … Notice how a religious symbol, employed with the most innocent design and for a praiseworthy end, was interpreted as a signal of idolatry and rebellion.”
Rebuttal
“The Mighty One, God, the Lord! The Mighty One, God, the Lord! He knows, and may Israel also know. Do not spare us today, if it was in rebellion or treachery against the Lord that we have built for ourselves an altar to turn away from him. May the Lord himself hold us accountable if we intended to offer burnt offerings and grain offerings on it, or to sacrifice fellowship offerings on it. We actually did this from a specific concern that in the future your descendants might say to our descendants, ‘What relationship do you have with the Lord, the God of Israel? For the Lord has made the Jordan a border between us and you descendants of Reuben and Gad. You have no share in the Lord!’ So your descendants may cause our descendants to stop fearing the Lord” (Josh. 22: 22-25 CSB)
The Transjordan dwellers did it for the kids. One day, they were going to be gone. There was no internet. There weren’t even books that individuals read.
If they didn’t make a memorial, the kids would forget their history.
God Himself has given us memorials and symbols to remember. They are called ordinances. Ordinances are an expression of the disciples’ obedience.
Isn’t baptism a symbol of the cross? Isn’t the Lord’s Supper a symbol of Jesus’ sacrifice for us?
To read a related devotion, click on the appropriate button below.
The Transjordan dwellers reacted the correct way. They were the injured party. What if they would have said, “Oh. You don’t want to ask us why we built the altar? You just want to accuse us? Well, we’ll meet your march, and raise it by a full-out war.”
The passage doesn’t say the Transjordan dwellers called the Promised Land dwellers names. It doesn’t say they erupted in anger. They defused the situation.
Making the Connections
We have to look at this another way. These were family. Oh, yeah. Sometimes, we argue the most with our family members!
But this was taking the argument to the next level. “We are going to kill you because you don’t believe as we do.”
Times haven’t changed much, have they?
Look what else Stephenson said. He wrote, “They were very anxious to have a symbol of unity. They themselves, who had borne a part in every conflict, could never forget the battle or the victory; but to their children those memories might become dim, and might even become to be thought mere myths, and so they desired a symbol, the existence of which could only be accounted for by the fact symbolised, and the sight of which, exciting curiosity and comment, should keep the glorious facts alive amongst them.” That was why they built the altar.
Resource
Unity is what God wants. But He also wants compassion kindness, and love.
To read a related devotion, click on the appropriate button below.
We each have different beliefs because our relationships with God is different. That doesn’t make my beliefs right and yours wrong – as long as we all believe we need to ABCD.
The D can look very differently. We just have to be sure that D means we are obedient to God and following His laws and commandments without rewriting them.
The ABCDs of Salvation
If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the
Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.
A – admit our sins
B – believe His Son Jesus is our Redeemer
C – confess God as Sovereign Lord
D – demonstrate that commitment by making any changes needed in our lives to
live the way in which God has called us
The Disciple’s Job Description
But more importantly, God knows our hearts. He knows our motivations. He knows why we are worshiping Him.
Making the Connections to Self-Discipline
Ooo, baby. Self-discipline in interpersonal communications. Dealing with (who we think) are difficult people (when we are the difficult people). Foisting our beliefs on others.
Oh, yeah. Those topics may come up in witnessing.
We’ve been looking at defending our beliefs when we are witnessing. That means we have to be secure enough to convince someone to accept our beliefs.
Our questions should still serve us to determine on what we need to focus.
- What does the Scriptures say?
- What do I believe?
- Why do I believe the same/differently than the Scriptures?
- What are the talking points when witnessing to a non-believer?
Related Links
I have created a worksheet of the questions above. Click on the button below to access it.
How Do We Apply This?
- We’ve got to keep close to God. He will always be close to us – even when we don’t feel like He is. It is us that moves away from Him.
- We need to have our memorials to remind us what God has done for us. Mine is my Warrior Princess bracelet.
- Most importantly, we need to pass our beliefs on to our children. A friend and I were just talking about building foundations for our kids. We want that foundation built so they have somewhere to come back to after they try expanding boundaries as they grow. If we don’t tell them about God and establish a foundation for Him in their lives, they won’t have that foundation.
- “Innocent until proven guilty” is a good thing. I know. I wonder how much that is followed these days.
- We should ask before we jump to conclusions. We should look at all sides of the situation.
At times, we think it is others starting the war. Sometimes, it is us. Don’t be like the Promised Land Dwellers. Let’s avoid the war.
Father. We want to live in unity with others. We want Your love to be our love. Help us to not overreact in situations – but always lovingly bring our brothers and sisters back into obedience with You. Amen.
What do you think?
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This is such a practical devotion and reflection for such a time is this, Elaine! Thank you for these words of encouragement. I feel a little like I’m experiencing this very thing…of being misunderstood.