We are in Joshua Chapter 22 today!
And let me just say at the outset, please go back and read this chapter on your own. Study it, I’m going to leave a lot on the table today. There’s so much more in here. And we are going to skim the surface and touch on points. But there’s some deep trails, you can go down on these points, as you study what the Word of God says on them more fully.
But there is still a lot for us that we can cover and glean, as we take this entire chapter in one teaching. And today is all about unity, and our call as children of God to fight for unity within the body. The Lord tells us many times and throughout his word, how much he values unity, and how much he hates those who cause disunity. And we see a beautiful picture today in Joshua 22, perhaps one of the best pictures of conflict and working through conflict that we have in all of Scripture. And so we are going to glean from that, as we go through. We have a three part outline today, as we break up this text into parting words, then provoking works, and then the persistent witness at the end. And we want to some alliteration to break this up. But what has happened? How did we get to this point? Let me give a little bit of background real quick. And then we’re going to dive into our text.
So if you recall all the way back at the beginning of Joshua 1, the tribes of Reuben and Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh, all had gone to Moses, in Numbers 32. And they had said, “Hey, Moses, this land on the east side of the Jordan, that we just conquered these kings that we just took out, this land is really good for our livestock. This land is really good for our herds. And we’d actually just like to stay here.” And Moses was like, “huh, all right, you can stay here, if all of your fighting men still cross over the Jordan and fight alongside their brothers to take the land that God has promised to them.” And they said, we will do this. And so tens of thousands, 40,000 or so men of the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh crossed over with all of the other Israelites, and they fought for seven-ish years, we don’t know exactly how long, they fought to drive out, and well, to subdue the land. And then it was each of the tribes responsibility to drive out the inhabitants that remained. They fought. They overcame the fortified cities and the armies that came against them. And we have just studied over the last several chapters, how the Lord apportioned the land out to all of the other tribes. And the text says there was peace in the land, the land had rest.
Then we studied the allotment to the Levites and the cities of refuge last time. And now after everything has been dealt to all of the children of Israel, it’s time for all these fighting men from Reuben, Gad and Manasseh to return home. To cross back over the Jordan River, and for the first time in the text says they would not return home until all the land had been subdued. Seven years that they’ve, we don’t know exactly that they’ve been gone. They are now returning home to be with their families. And this is where our text picks up. In Joshua 22. We’re not going to read the entire chapter. We’re going to read different little snippets throughout.
Joshua 22:1-9 “At that time Joshua summoned the Reubenites and the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh, 2 and said to them, “You have kept all that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you and have obeyed my voice in all that I have commanded you. 3 You have not forsaken your brothers these many days, down to this day, but have been careful to keep the charge of the Lord your God. 4 And now the Lord your God has given rest to your brothers, as he promised them. Therefore turn and go to your tents in the land where your possession lies, which Moses the servant of the Lord gave you on the other side of the Jordan. 5 Only be very careful to observe the commandment and the law that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you, to love the Lord your God, and to walk in all his ways and to keep his commandments and to cling to him and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.” 6 So Joshua blessed them and sent them away, and they went to their tents.
“7 Now to the one half of the tribe of Manasseh Moses had given a possession in Bashan, but to the other half Joshua had given a possession beside their brothers in the land west of the Jordan. And when Joshua sent them away to their homes and blessed them, 8 he said to them, “Go back to your tents with much wealth and with very much livestock, with silver, gold, bronze, and iron, and with much clothing. Divide the spoil of your enemies with your brothers.” 9 So the people of Reuben and the people of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh returned home, parting from the people of Israel at Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan, to go to the land of Gilead, their own land of which they had possessed themselves by command of the Lord through Moses.”
So again, that right there, there’s more than enough for sermons on that mean. We could break down the paraphrase of Joshua, he repeats to them if you want to write a little cross reference to Deuteronomy 6, he is just repeating to them “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and strength.” He’s putting in a paraphrase. It’s fascinating to break down the Hebrew for serve and to cling to and to continue to love with all the heart, etc. And let me just say that as it comes to unity, that is the most important thing. If we are going to remain united, the easiest way for us to remain united is to just stay focused on Jesus Christ. And if we make him our hope, our love, our devotion, and we devote all of our heart, soul mind strength and cling to Him, we will have unity. That’s just the reality of it.
However, the enemy is very good at what he does, our flesh is weak, and we live in a world that is constantly pressing us to try to conform to its image. And unfortunately, our heart which is deceitful and wicked, can get us to stray off into different paths. And it’s in those paths, in that straying that disunity often emerges.
So, a couple of interesting things we see here just in this first point, three things that Joshua did:
- Joshua commended them. First thing he did was, hey, you guys did great. You did everything that you said you were going to do.
- Joshua commanded them. He said, keep this, keep doing this. Deuteronomy 6, keep it.
- Joshua blessed them. And he blessed them both materially and, more importantly, he blessed them spiritually. He prayed that the Lord’s favorite would go with them and in particular that His power and His presence… Remember blessing in Scripture is God’s favorite and always equates to in some way shape or form God’s power and/or his presence with that person.
When read through the Beatitudes in Matthew 5, blessed are… that is talking about as we walk in those qualities, as we mature, as we go through our own process, we will experience more of God’s presence and more of God’s power in our life. We will be blessed. We will have his favor.
So, Joshua commends them, commands them, and blesses them. Specifically telling them to share all of the spoil they have with their brothers and sisters. How many of you know that money is one of the quickest ways for disunity to enter into a relationship? Joshua immediately addresses that and says, Hey, share it with everyone who’s back home. Share it with the folks who remained and protected the families who were on the east side of the Jordan, while you were off fighting. There’s more than enough share it.
Some points of application that we want to draw from this first section. These parting words that Joshua gives to them. First question to ask ourselves as it relates to Unity. How regularly? Do I speak words of encouragement and commendation to those around me, especially to my fellow believers? How regularly am I acknowledging a job well done? Now, there’s this strange thing within Christianity. When someone does say to you, hey, Molly, that was really well done. It’s almost like oh, well, I can’t wait. I it was oh, God, it was just as it was all God. Like it’s okay to be complimented. Right, we have this weird, like false humility thing that can kind of creep in and it is actually appropriate and right to recognize work in someone, recognize a thing. To compliment, to commend them, for that person to receive that, say thank you. And then you both acknowledge that ultimately, it’s the Lord who is behind it, right? Praise God, that he gave me the strength and power to do that. Praise God, that He gave you the strength and power to do that. But for sake of unity is healthy and good to recognize the value in our brothers and sisters around us. Because when we don’t do that, look at the flip side, what happens? And the flip side when I don’t recognize the value of others, all I’m doing is just putting myself up high. All we’re doing is if we do not have the ability to recognize others, and to compliment others that just says something about the pride in our own hearts. And that can go both ways. Either I think I’m better than them so I don’t say anything. Or I don’t think I’m as good as them so I don’t say anything. Either way, that’s pride. Either way that’s unhealthy. Either way, we need to recognize it and ask the Lord to help work it out. Do I have an unhealthy spirit of competition? By tearing others down? Joshua could have been like, Well, I mean, you guys are pretty good fighters, but I was better. So quickly within our little circles, and especially with folks who we work alongside, our pride, our egos can get worked up to the place where I can’t compliment because I have this competitive thing. Recognize obviously, that while competition can help us to achieve greater results, that’s not always the best when it comes to the Lord’s measurement of success. So we have to have the humility to work alongside, to lift others up and to commend.
Secondly, how regularly do I seek to exhort others to hold fast to the standards of the Lord? Now this is very tricky because it can come across as a self-righteous thing, can’t it? Listen, Matthew, you better love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind strength. You better do that. Right? This is very much in the tact and the delivery with how we go about it. If the Lord can give us tact, if the Lord can give us a gentle word, to approach someone. Even if they’re not in sin. Sometimes just the exhortation can put someone on edge. What do you mean am I not doing that? And so you have to have wisdom. But there is value in the pursuit of unity of reminding people, reminding one another, our brothers and sisters of what God’s standards are. What His expectations are. And when you exhort someone to that, include yourself right on in there. Niko, we got to do this together, brother, you got it. Right, we got to do this together to we’re going to seek the Lord together with all of our strength, right, all of our soul, all of our mind, all of our heart, all of our mind. So do not shy away from commending and commanding, as Joshua did. Exhorting. But have wisdom in how we do that. Have that tact, have the right words. Now, if you are someone who is in a position of authority, like Joshua was, it’s even more important that you have tact in how you do that. Because you can very easily, the enemy can very easily cause friction and division and resentment as soon as there are power dynamics in play. That’s just the reality of it. And so folks who have positions of authority and influence and who can literally give commands, be extra mindful of how easy it is for you to cause disunity and division with how you lead.
Did you notice that Joshua didn’t come right out and give a command? The first thing he did was commend them. We see that the progression of tact there, right? So be mindful of that as we pursue unity, especially if you are in a position to exert influence and authority, to lead, to command. You also have a greater risk of causing disunity.
Thirdly, it is such a beautiful thing to be able to bless others. One of the easiest ways to break down walls and eliminate barriers is to sincerely and genuinely listen to someone who’s going through something and to pray over them. And to ask the Lord to move in that situation. Ask the Lord to bless them, to be with them, to show them His favor, His power and His presence.
This is especially easy for people who you get along with. Right? But Scripture is especially clear that we should be insistent upon pursuing blessing with those who are opposed to us. In Luke 6, Jesus says “Bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.” Romans 12, Paul writes, “Bless those who persecute you, bless and do not curse them.” There are going to be times when it comes to your sphere of influence, that people are going to say some nasty things about you. Maybe to your face, more likely behind your back. For the sake of unity, what do we do? We seek to bless them, we return that curse with a blessing, we pray for them, we ask the Lord, to move in their hearts and to give them his favor. And if there needs to be repentance, we pray that the Lord works that in them. But we do not return a curse with a curse. Our flesh wants to obviously, that’s what we fight against. But as we mature, as we grow, in the pursuit of unity, we bless those who curse us. And that’s a very difficult thing to do. And it’s, it gets more and more difficult with the concentric circles of comfort with the people that we are around. So, with my outer circle, it’s easier to bless those who curse. With my inner circle, it’s much harder to bless those who curse because that’s who I just kind of let my hair down with sometimes. It’s in that space in particular, that as we grow, and as we mature, the Lord will help us even with our in our most vulnerable spots. Say, this really hurts. I don’t like it. That’s okay. But let’s pray for them. I want to I want to bless them. And each one of us are going to experience those seasons and moments in our life. That’s part of the faith journey. The good news is that Jesus already went through it, he had a Judas. He experienced the deepest of betrayals, and he worked through it without sin. And so by God’s grace, we can learn to do that too, as we Bless those who persecute us. But generally speaking, we want to have a disposition of blessing. We want to see the Lord’s favor, we want to see his power and presence moving in and through people.
And finally, very practically when it comes to unity, we noticed it already. How regularly am I sharing my material wealth with others? Do we live open handedly because the enemy is so good at causing people to be jealous, causing people to again, that prideful, competitive spirit. Or on the flip side tragically, there’s a lot of need in this world. There’s a lot of people who just don’t have. And so how willing for the sake of unity, for the sake of not being a stumbling block to others, am I willing to share what I have, so that we may all have our needs met, and the enemy has that platform of attack removed. Because if your needs are met, that is one less way that the enemy can try to tempt you towards sin. And lie to you that God doesn’t love you, he doesn’t care for you won’t take care of you. He does love you, He will take care of you. And the most common way that he’ll do that is through his body. So church, are we meeting those needs when we have the opportunity to do so? Are we living open handedly for the sake of being one. We see that in the early church, don’t we? We talk about Acts 2 all the time, especially with our seed groups that devoted themselves to the apostles teaching to fellowship to the breaking of bread into prayer. What’s the rest of that texts talk about? How they held everything in common as any had need. That’s not socialism. And that’s not communism, but it is pursuing unity. They did not want material things to be a stumbling block to their unity. And so they shared as any had need.
There’s so much more there. We’re going to move on to the provoking works, the flashpoint that caused the disunity. And we read verses 10 through 12. After Joshua commends them, commands them, and blesses them, they return.
Joshua 22:10-12 10 And when they came to the region of the Jordan that is in the land of Canaan, the people of Reuben and the people of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh built there an altar by the Jordan, an altar of imposing size. 11 And the people of Israel heard it said, “Behold, the people of Reuben and the people of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh have built the altar at the frontier of the land of Canaan, in the region about the Jordan, on the side that belongs to the people of Israel.” 12 And when the people of Israel heard of it, the whole assembly of the people of Israel gathered at Shiloh to make war against them.
Slight escalation there. You built an altar on my land, I kill you. Well, there’s a lot more to it than that. But how many of you know that one of the most common times for the enemy to attack us is right after a great victory? You’re feeling all good about yourself, because we just whipped those Canaanites in the Promised Land. Seven years but kicking their butts. And now, you’re going to go home with all this wealth and riches, all these spoils. And we’re going to build an altar in praise to our God. Let’s give him the benefit out that a good intentions here. Well, the enemy is going to take that and whip it on up to the other folks. “Do you see what they did? They’re idolaters! They built an altar on our land! Let’s go kill them!” The enemy loves to stir things up, especially after successes. And oftentimes, the reason why that works is because our prideful heart wants to take credit for those successes. And we let our guard down. And then the enemy weaseled his way in with lies, with temptation. And all of a sudden, now there’s an attack. And are we prepared for it? So why did they do this? We don’t know why, per se, they built the altar. We do know this. The Lord didn’t tell them to build it. They did it of their own accord. And they built an altar of imposing size. The text is very clear that this was a Brobdingnagian altar. [Brobdingnagian = gigantic] They built this massive altar and they put it on the western side of the Jordan, which was Israel’s territory, not their territory. You can see how reading into this there could be issues. What are they doing with this altar? Are they worshipping other gods? What’s going on? Why did they put it on our land? Why did they make it so big? Is their altar better than our altar? Remember they built an altar on Mount Ebal and they plastered it and did all the things with the blessings and the curses of the covenant. Remember that they also had an altar at Shiloh where the tabernacle had settled. And all of the people gathered at Shiloh to go and make war against them. Now verse 22, and 23 tell us specifically that this was not an altar for sacrifice. They are very clear in their rebuttal that we were not going to sacrifice anything. Most likely this was simply a duplicate of the altar of witness, of the altar of remembrance at Mount Ebal with the plaster and the 10 Commandments written on it. But again, the Lord didn’t tell them to do it. Now, the other thing that they kind of failed to do was communicate in any way, shape or form to the tribes on the west, that they were going to be doing this thing. So that lack of communication, the enemy loves to operate where there is no communication.
Now, the thing is that this altar was completely unnecessary, because ultimately, and we’ll see this shortly, that they were worried about the unity of the tribes. That the children would forget the people on the other side of the river. So they wanted to build this altar as a memorial that we are all one. It’s like, well, if you would just do what the Lord told you to do, they would remember that. The Lord commanded them three times a year, to return to the tabernacle all of the males from your tribe, three times a year for the feasts to worship. Why did the Lord do that, apart from the fact that the Lord is to be worshipped? Well, it’s shared festival, shared feasting. It is community from all of the tribes, all males from everywhere, the Lord already had instituted ways that they would maintain their unity, maintain their shared identity in Yaweh. Apparently they didn’t think that was good enough.
So here’s a point of application for unity. Clearly, they did not think through the consequences of their decision. This is just a good practical thing for all of us in our decision making, to think through the consequences. But in particular think through how your brothers and sisters will perceive the thing you’re doing. I very much doubt that they expected the Western tribes to respond with a cry for war. But you can also very much see why they would respond that way. If they were in fact committing idolatry. Be mindful of perception.
And communicate, to work through what someone might perceive so that you can be on the same page. It’s just practical, makes practical sense. But so often, we forge ahead with doing what we think we need to do or what should be done. And then all of a sudden, we’re surprised when there is a negative response. Just pump the brakes, think it through, how are the people going to see this? I don’t care how the world perceives it per se. But how do my brothers and sisters see it? I want to not be a stumbling block in any way. Scripture talks about that. Romans 14, for example, do not be a stumbling block to the weaker brother. 1 Thessalonians 5 says abstain or avoid even the appearance of evil. And so we have to have wisdom as to how things are perceived so that we do not give the enemy an opportunity to come in and cause division.
But not only did they fail to appreciate how that might be perceived, but very practically speaking, and I mentioned this, they didn’t communicate at all why they were doing what they were doing. We could do an entire teaching just on healthy communication. When I sit down with couples for pre-engagement or pre-marriage counseling, or couples for post-marriage counseling, inevitably, when there is friction it’s due to some sort of communication breakdown. A failure to communicate expectations, a failure to communicate intentions, the failure to communicate the why behind an action, motivations. And then all of a sudden, the enemy just gets in there, weasels in. And now I’m upset because of whatever my reason is, or they’re upset for whatever their reason is, and it likely could have been worked through and avoided if there was just communication ahead of time. Or even communication while the hurt was going on. Goodness gracious so many times we experienced the hurt, and then we keep it to ourselves and we don’t communicate it. That is equally destructive. So they didn’t have the wisdom to communicate ahead of time. And that gave the enemy the foothold, the opportunity to come on in there, and cause war, almost. And then, though the Western tribes immediately jumped to the worst conclusion. They immediately think that these guys are now worshipping some other gods than Yahweh. They have forsaken, they’ve rebelled against Yahweh, and you’ll see that language in the text, we’re not going to read it, but it’s in there. How could you rebel against Yahweh? How could you stop worshipping the One True God, they just jumped to the worst conclusion.
Point of application for unity: Give your brother or sister the benefit of the doubt. Especially since they’ve been fine alongside each other for seven years. Was there ever any indication from these tribes, the text gives us no sense that they were prone to idolatry. Give your brother and sister the benefit of the doubt. Seek to discern the motives before just jumping to a conclusion. That’s what the enemy wants you to do. The enemy just wants you to jump to the worst conclusion, or get something all worked up in your head. How many of you have done this, I’ve done this. You start thinking about a scenario, you start thinking about a conversation that you’re going to have with that other person. And you start imagining them saying different things, and then you start responding to it. And then suddenly, you’re in an argument your own head has never even happened. You’re getting worked up. Because that jerk’s gonna say this. That’s the enemy. So good at that of getting in our own heads and getting this worked up about things. We didn’t even have a conversation. And then you go up to the person you’re like, Hey, brother, Matthew, so good to see you. Don’t even talk to me like that, you jerk. I got a piece of my mind to give you. Right? Obviously, being ridiculous to an extent, but we do it. I do it. I’ll speak for myself, I do it maybe some of you can relate.
Discern motives, give our brothers and sisters especially the benefit of the doubt. And though the Western tribes jumped to the worst conclusions, here’s one thing they did right. Before sending the armies, before shooting the arrows and sending in the troops, they decided to communicate. Hey, good job, Western tribes. Well done: communication. They sent an entire delegation, including Phinehas, the high priest, and leaders of each of the tribes to go and talk and see what’s going on. Praise God. Good communication, Western tribes.
Now, I have to tell you a little bit about Phinehas, this dude knows how to deal with idolatry. In the book of Numbers, a plague broke out on the people of Israel because they had started shacking up with some of the local ladies who were not pursuing the Lord. And as is the case, all throughout Israel’s history, as they did that, not only were they led astray into sexual sin, but they were led astray into idolatry as they started to worship the gods, Baal specifically as mentioned, of those women. And there was a plague that wiped out thousands and thousands of people in Israel. I think it’s like 24,000, if I remember right. So Phinehas, with the zeal of the Lord, went and put an end to it. He went and found someone who was in the midst of this sexual sin and idolatry. He took a big old spear right through them both. It’s pretty aggressive. It’s aggressive move, Phinehas. But the Lord commends Phinehas for turning back his wrath as it ended that sexual sin and the idolatry because the people saw how serious of an offense it was. So that’s the dude who the Western tribes send to go and talk to these people on the East. So yeah, they’re going communicate, right? But they essentially sent their hitman over there. All right, you guys are going to commit adultery. We’re sending Phinehas, have fun. Good luck with that. So this was no joke. They were serious. And let me just say that zeal for the holy standards of God is a good thing. Amen. We cannot be people who back off from the holy standards of God just because the world doesn’t like what God’s standards are. And in a culture that hates being told it is wrong, there is a constant pressure from the enemy to try to relax God’s standards of holiness or just to remain silent as to them. Church, there is a wise, winsome way for us to have those conversations where we remain zealous for God’s holy standards. Let me tell you what Unity is not. Unity is not tolerating sin. Unity is not relaxing God’s holy standards. And that’s why at the very beginning of this chapter, Joshua was commanding the people to continue to pursue God’s holy standards. Galatians 6 says that if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore them in the spirit of gentleness. There is a way to go about approaching the breach of God’s holy standards. And those who are seeking unity would be wise to remember the call to gentility. But also recognizing that sometimes people are just so far gone that they need the stark truth slapped right across their face, or with a spear through their guts. But we’ll let the Lord do that. The vengeance is his unless you’re Phinehas in the Old Testament. Don’t relax God’s holy standards but do seek to communicate. Do seek to communicate like the Western tribes did. George Bush, not the president. Actually, the President’s great-great-great-great-grandfather, who was a preacher, long time ago said this,
“How many an unhappy strife might be prevented by similar precaution, by simply staying to inquire calmly into that which constitutes the avowed matter of offence! How often would a few words of candid explanation smother in embryo the most angry controversies, violent quarrels, and embittered persecutions! By barely adopting the prudent conduct of Israel on this occasion, individuals, families, churches, and communities, might, in a thousand instances, be saved a world of jealousy, enmity, discord, war and bloodshed.”
Talk to each other. Talk about it. Don’t avoid it, talk about it. Bring it up, communicate. Have zeal but do it with gentility, with calmness, with tact. Wise as serpents, gentle as doves, as Jesus say. Give opportunity for repentance and then remain in relationship with that person to discern if the repentance is sincere and genuine. How many of you know that one of the conflict avoiding tendencies is to work up the hutzpah to go and have a conversation. And then we have the conversation. And I’ve faced them and I’ve shared and they apologize or they repented. And it’s like, okay, now I’m just going to stay away from them, because it’s kind of awkward conversation, and I don’t know what they think about me anymore. And I’m just going to, you know, I did what I was supposed to do. Like, no, no, that was good. We need to remain in relationship, then remain in community, continue to work through and to make sure that it’s sincere. Because we know that scripture says is to our glory to overlook an offense. Praise God when we can do that. But the same text goes on to say that a matter of repeated separates brothers, right? If that same thing keeps happening, we still need to deal with it. It hasn’t been dealt with yet. We don’t know if, and most likely, that person hasn’t genuinely and sincerely repented of that thing that we may have tactfully confronted them on. That does them no good. That does you no good. We have the conversation but then we remain in relationship to see it through, to work through that situation. And thankfully, for the sake of unity, Phinehas and the delegation here choose to communicate and to remain in relationship, to work through the situation. And it’s very interesting, verse 19, it shows very clearly that the people of Israel that is those in the western side of the Jordan did not view the land on the eastern side of the Jordan as the Lord’s land. They did not view where the trans-Jordan tribes, as they’re called, settled as receiving the blessing of the Lord. It was not the Lord’s land, it was their land, the trans-Jordan tribes, and you can see that very clearly in the text. So there are a couple things about that. One, clearly, there was already some sort of elevation that the Western tribes were doing of themselves over the Eastern tribes because they were in God’s land, the Promised Land. That he gave them, that he himself was dwelling in, tabernacle in that land.
So right there that’s an opening as soon as you allow the enemy to ever elevate you over your brother and sister: you’re more spiritual, you’re know the Word of God more, you have cooler spiritual gifts. The enemy’s got you, especially if you think that the Lord has somehow blessed you more than them. Oh, that is that is a killer. Enemy’s got you, there’s going to be division and disunity.
Recognize it. Don’t allow it to happen. But the cool thing that the Western tribes says, ‘Look, guys, we would rather have you come and live in our land, God’s land than stay on the western tribe. Don’t do this evil thing come over here with us.’ So while they had this little elevation of place, at least they then said, then come on over, come back, come back. Don’t do this, come back. They were willing to inconvenience themselves. They were willing to make it even more cramped where they were. Give up more of what they had for the sake of their brother and sister not sitting as they saw it right as they perceived it. And while they were wrong in their perception, the principle is a good one as it comes to unity. If we can extend some inconvenience from ourself, for the sake of our brother that they would not sin, do it. Do not hold back. Go the extra mile so that our brother and sister would not be in the place for the enemy to tempt them, for their flesh to well up. This can look a million different ways. One of the most common ones, in our culture in particular, is our time. Someone just needs some of your time to listen to them, to help them, to go and maybe retrieve them from a difficult situation. You can think of a million other scenarios. I think you get the point, right? A people that is united is a people that does not hold on to their things. It kind of goes back to that earlier principle that we are willing to share for the sake of our brother, that they would not be in a place of sin.
And so in verses 21 through 29, we received the trans Jordan tribes response to this charge of idolatry, of rebelling against Yaweh. And they readily acknowledged that if they were rebelling against the Lord and committing idolatry that yeah, they deserve death, Phinehas, you can do your thing. So point of application, unity, wise pursuit of unity finds the place of agreement first. They didn’t just immediately go on the defensive, cross their arms, sit back in their chair, go silent and not talk. They found the place where they could agree. You know what, you’re right. If we were doing that, then the Lord do it to us. The Lord bring his judgment. We agree with your zeal. Find the place for agreement. And then when you respond, this was Proverbs 15:1 to a tee right? A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. They found agreement. And then they gave a rebuttal. That did it. Humbly, winsomely, zealously, keeping in view their shared submission to Yaweh. But in their rebuttal, they do finally get to what was going on in their hearts. And the text doesn’t really go into this from a conflict resolution standpoint. But verses 24 and 25. And we’re going to read them. This is what the motivation was for the trans-Jordan tribes.
24 No, but we did it from fear that in time to come your children might say to our children, ‘What have you to do with the Lord, the God of Israel? 25 For the Lord has made the Jordan a boundary between us and you, you people of Reuben and people of Gad. You have no portion in the Lord.’ So your children might make our children cease to worship the Lord.
Fear is what drove them. Fear is a unity killer. Fear is a killer of so many things as it relates to the Lord. That’s why he tells us over and over and over and over again to fear not. My favorite of those is Isaiah 41:10.
10 fear not, for I am with you;
be not dismayed, for I am your God;
I will strengthen you, I will help you,
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
We know who’s got us. We don’t need to fear; they feared. And it caused them to do something that the Lord never directed them to do, which then caused a massive problem. And recognize, Church, their fears were created by their own actions. They’re the ones who went to Moses and asked to live on the eastern side of the Jordan. And then, did you catch their response? They said that the Lord had made the Jordan a boundary between them, that was a lie. So not only were their fears rooted in their own actions, but then their fears were rooted in a lie that the Lord had somehow divided them. Oftentimes, conflict resolution, and the pursuit of unity is listening well, and understanding what’s going on in someone’s heart to cause them to act that way. Because how many of you know that so regularly, the things that offend us are just leaves on the tree. And if we get down to the real roots, the Heart of the Matter, the fear in this situation, we can deal with the problem for real and have true unity. And we can be in true relationship before our God. But that requires a listening ear, doesn’t it? It requires a discerning eye, to hear and to understand. Oh, fear, okay? Oh, there’s a lie, okay.
So in seeking unity, we have to try to understand the motivations behind the actions. Because in understanding those motivations, that’s when we can get to people’s hearts, the why of what they’re doing, which is going to be far more effective at bringing unity when we understand the why and can address the why. If it is wrong, because if it’s wrong, that it’s going to be rooted in a lie. And that is where then hopefully, we can find unity, that your motivation is rooted in a lie. And this is truth. So they can repent of that lie. Now we’re united again, in the Lord’s truth. We see the progression there. Proverbs 21:2 says, “Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the heart.” So often, when there is a disagreement, when there is a problem, when there is disunity, we need to get through that person’s heart, or our own heart, and be open to being talked to, and worked through. So that we can repent if we need to, or we can give them the opportunity to repent, before we drive a spear through their guts. And even then, we don’t do the spear driving anymore, the Lord does.
But fear is a killer. This is a great example of fear of man. Nothing in there was about fearing the Lord. It was about fearing the response of the Western tribes. And we know again, Proverbs says, the fear of man lays a snare. It will capture you, but those who trust in the Lord are safe. And so as we’re seeking unity, if we have the maturity to evaluate our own motivations and our own heart, if we can recognize the fears that are causing us to act, oftentimes, we can own that, by God’s grace, and help to defuse a situation by saying, Yeah, I was acting in fear here. Which, if we take one step further on the heart evaluation, fear is just a manifestation of pride. Pride will always manifest in one of two ways, which then have a million different permutations and ways that manifests. Either arrogance, I elevate myself, or fear, I lower myself. Both of them are rooted in pride. I’m afraid I’m not going to get what I want. I’m afraid it’s not going to go the way I think it should. That’s the fear rooted in pride. I’m afraid of what they’re going to say about me. I’m afraid of what’s going to happen to my kids. Because I know what’s best for my kids. Because my plan for my kids is what should happen. Pride. You see the pride behind it. Be mindful of our pride, which produces fear, which will kill unity.
We go on to our last section here. The persisting witness after they’ve talked about this disagreement.
Joshua 22:30-34 – 30 When Phinehas the priest and the chiefs of the congregation, the heads of the families of Israel who were with him, heard the words that the people of Reuben and the people of Gad and the people of Manasseh spoke, it was good in their eyes. 31 And Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest said to the people of Reuben and the people of Gad and the people of Manasseh, “Today we know that the Lord is in our midst, because you have not committed this breach of faith against the Lord. Now you have delivered the people of Israel from the hand of the Lord.”
32 Then Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest, and the chiefs, returned from the people of Reuben and the people of Gad in the land of Gilead to the land of Canaan, to the people of Israel, and brought back word to them. 33 And the report was good in the eyes of the people of Israel. And the people of Israel blessed God and spoke no more of making war against them to destroy the land where the people of Reuben and the people of Gad were settled. 34 The people of Reuben and the people of Gad called the altar Witness, “For,” they said, “it is a witness between us that the Lord is God.”
So zealous Phinehas and the leaders of the tribes, they heard the explanation of the trans-Jordan tribes, and they trusted them. Sometimes, oftentimes, for the sake of unity, not only do we give someone the benefit of the doubt, but we also accept the words that they say as true. We can do that sometimes, we don’t have to question everything. Especially when we have a history with that individual. Have they shown themselves trustworthy in the past, then accept their explanation. Now, there needs to be discernment in that. But we trust. Unity trusts. Trust in God first and foremost, but also learns to trust in our brothers and sisters. And let’s just say for the sake of the argument that what the trans-Jordan tribes did was unwise, I think that’s a fair statement. Unity will always give a second chance. Unity is always going to give a second chance. Unity is going to allow someone to repent, to seek forgiveness, to just say they’re sorry, if it wasn’t necessarily sin, but they messed up somehow. It’s going to give him a second chance. Why is he going to do that? Because, because the Lord doesn’t with us, every single day. Talk about breaking unity, every time we sin, if it were not for the Spirit of God within us, sealing us and giving us unity, because we have unity with God, but our sin otherwise would disfellowship us. Praise God for the unity that he gives through His Spirit, through the blood of His Son Jesus, who has cleansed us of all sin, that by faith we have right standing before the holy, righteous God of the universe, through the cleansing blood of Christ. He gives us unity. And yet in our flesh, we sin. Not us as children of God but our flesh. Paul says Romans 7. That would, apart from what Christ has done for us apart from the Spirit sealing us that would breach our unity with a holy God. He gives us chance after chance after chance, by faith through his son Jesus, Amen. We need to do the same. Unity is willing to overlook an offense, to forgive when necessary, to offer a second chance. It’s why in Colossians 3, Paul exhorts the church to put on then as God’s Chosen Ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience are all qualities that are required for unity, bearing with one another. And if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other, all qualities necessary for unity. As the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And he continues: and above all else put on love which binds everything together in perfect harmony in perfect unity.
Very interestingly, in this text, Joshua’s name is completely absent after the first pericope. (It’s like a like a section of Scripture, or a section of writing.) But after the first 10 verses or so, Joshua’s not here. They didn’t send him in the delegation. That’s interesting. But what did they do? They sent Phinehas, the high priest, and they sent a leader from every single tribe. So we can imagine that in his old age, Joshua was unable to make this journey. However, they did not take it lightly. But they didn’t send one person. They sent a gathering of experience and wisdom and perspective. How many of you know that conflict can be very sensitive, especially as it’s between people. But with conflict that grows in its impact on others, the number of counselors speaking into the resolution of that conflict should grow. That’s Biblical wisdom. Because too often, when it is simply one person seeking to resolve things, the enemy can weasel in there and cause issues. Cause friction. Healthy conflict in communication is critical in the midst of a multitude of counselors speaking into that situation. This is why in Scripture we see the pattern of Matthew 18. To bring things to the elders if they remain unsettled. This is why Proverbs says over and over again in many different verses the value of having a multitude of counselors. One such example is Proverbs 11:14, “Where there is no guidance, a people falls, but in an abundance of counselors there is safety.” It is much more difficult for one individual’s pride to manifest and dominate when there is a plurality dealing with the situation. Because we can hold each other accountable, we can see each other’s blind spots. And we can work towards conflict resolution as a whole, as a family. And so as we are seeking unity, do not be afraid, as the situation dictates, to escalate the matter to trusted brothers and sisters, godly men and women who will speak truth into the situation, objectively, for the sake of unity. Don’t just keep it behind closed doors. And then when you reach resolution, when you achieve peace once more, you go home and you just complain about it all day long, right? Because you didn’t get exactly what you wanted. Now, what did the people of Israel do? What does it say, after they heard about it, and it was they were good with it? They talked about it no more. Gossip kills unity. Complaining kills unity. “Well it was pretty good, but I wanted this.” No. Pride, your pride is breaking that unity. Be mindful of our words, how quickly festering, complaining and second guessing and gossiping will kill unity. And in the end, they were united around the fact that they serve and worship the one true God. And that is what ultimately the altar stood for as witness. Both sides could be said to bear some fault in this matter. Unwise building of the altar in the first place, jumping to very rash conclusions and escalating things right away. Praise God. They talked about it. And they were reminded of their shared unity through Yahweh. And that is what the altar stood in witness towards and as well we always need to remember as we deal with our brothers and sisters that we are united. The Spirit does unite us. It is our actions that cause moments of broken fellowship, but we’re still united. We’re still going to spend eternity with that person in heaven. So get over yourself and seek that unity. Ephesians 4 says, “I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” Why? Because there is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is overall and through all and in all. We are united, church. And we need to eagerly pursue. And we’re going to mess up, we are, we’re going to mess up. I’m going to mess up, you’re going to mess up. There might have varying degrees of impact for those mistakes. Own them, communicate, follow the principles of unity, work through them, because we know that the world is watching us, right? That altar stood as a witness to their unity. The Lord Jesus gave us a command to love one another, as another witness to our unity. What did he say in John 13:34-35, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
The Hebrew word for witness here is spelled Ed, pronounced aid. It means a testimony. It means evidence, literally, it’s referring to a heap of stones. They heaped up this stone as a witness to their unity. And I love how in the New Testament in 1 Peter 2 and Ephesians 2, we are described as living stones, built upon the cornerstone of Jesus Christ. We are the witness to the world of God’s desire to be united with them. But if we can’t even be united with one another, goodness gracious, how are we going to be a witness to the world of God’s love for them? To be united to be joined in as one of the living stones? Let’s always remember that folks are watching, that we are called to seek unity for the sake of our witness our ability to share the gospel. And as we walk in unity, I love how this whole text ends, it ends ultimately with them, blessing God, right? They blessed God, they worshiped God. A heart of unity, ultimately, is a heart that is seeking to worship God because God is pleased as we walk in unity.
And I’m going to end this by reading from a theologian from Australia. His name was Sidlow Baxter from the early 1900s. He said it well, so I’m just going to close with this:
“Now here is a noteworthy lesson concerning the unity of faith. Had Reuben, Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh settled west of the Jordan with the other tribes, in the promised place of blessing, no such artificial monument of their oneness with Israel would have been required. True unity is not outward but inward. It is not achieved, nor even preserved, by external memorials. It consists in a oneness of inward and spiritual experience. The trend among the various denominations in the organised Church of today is to seek an imposing outward union by the formulation of a common creed and the inclusion of all sections in some single visible body with impressive proportions and social prestige. This is the building of a modern “altar Ed.” It is the confusing of unity with mere uniformity.
“The only true unity is that of a common inward life, a common spiritual experience, and a common heart-loyalty. Those who are really living “in the land,” in the enjoyment of that spiritual Canaan which is in Christ, are conscious of their spiritual oneness with all the elect of God in Christ, whatever outward denominational differentiations may exist between them.”
Church, we are to zealously seek unity. But we need to, by God’s grace, learn from the principles of this chapter as to how to work towards unity in the midst of conflict. Recognizing that it’s all about the heart. Are we submitted to Christ? If we are, we are already united and out of a desire to worship our King, we seek unity, knowing that his Spirit dwells within us, uniting us as one family, brother and sister, for all time. Amen.