I am the Lord of...the contrite in heart

There is a story about a woman who was in an airport waiting to get boarded on her airplane. While she was waiting she went to one of the gift shops and bought a newspaper and a pack of cookies to enjoy while in the air. Afterwards as she is sitting down and getting comfortable for her flight a man sits next at the end of her row. She puts her purse beside her and gets out the newspaper to read. As she is reading she notices that the gentleman in her row starts eating her cookies. She is appalled, but she doesn’t want to say anything, I mean they are just cookies. So instead she decides to take one her cookies herself hoping that this guy gets the hint and stops eating them. So she takes one, eats, it and continues to read. But to her surprise he takes another cookie! She can’t believe it, but she takes another cookie, thinking maybe he didn’t notice the first time. But yet he then takes another cookie! So notices there are only two cookies left, and so she takes one thinking there is no way this guy has the audacity to take the last cookie. But she see’s him and he goes for the last cookie, but then he takes it, brakes it in half and gives her half of the cookie. About this time the plan lands, the man she was sitting next to gets off the plane. And she she is going to put her newspaper back in her purse she notices that her cookies were in her purse the whole time.

People are naturally very assumptive creatures. We assume other people’s motives, we assume we know how people interpret our own motives. Yet oftentimes rather than deal with an issue head on we just let things fester, we don’t deal with it we just let it continue to go on because we would rather not create any issues. But at the same time we don’t deal with the issue we act as if our motives are perfectly pure while others motives are twisted.

The last two weeks we have seen how the land of Israel has been allotted out among all the people and we have a nice summary at the end. “The Lord gave them rest on every side according to all he had sworn to their ancestors…Everything was fulfilled.”

So now it seems like it is time for them to sit back, relax, and enjoy this wonderful like that God had promised. But what happens after any time we feel like we can relax, something comes up. But this time internally. They are forced to deal with an issue and consider their motives but also the motives of their fellow Israelites. But as these people deal with this issue we see that their desire is to continue in this rest, to not let this continue on any longer, not to ignore the issue, but rather to resolve it even if it means confronting another person.

Through this what we see is that God is a witness to His people, a witness to His people worship Him.

The Lord is a witness to those who worship Him.

What this means is that He knows their hearts. He doesn’t just know our actions or our words, but He knows our hearts and He stands on behalf of His people who desire Him.

Jeremiah 17:10 Tells us: “I, the Lord, examine the mind, I test the heart to give to each according to his way, according to what his actions deserve.”

God looks into our hearts and He knows the intentions we have with any of our actions. And in his ability to know our hearts God witnesses to if we our worshipping Him or if we are worshipping an idol.

See, for us, in any dispute we often get lost in our own frustration and anger. We lose the ability to evaluate fairly what our intentions are vs the person we are in a disagreement with. We are complex by nature in that we can show love but also give discipline. But we have a hard time being loving and showing discipline at the same time. If someone has wronged us it is often our judgment that takes over our brains, and even though we can be a compassionate person we do not show compassion in our judgment.

But God does not have this problem, because His discipline is His love and His love is His discipline.

In this chapter we see how these things combine because we see two sides of a story. Two groups of Israel who are in a disagreement but who are also both coming with the desire to worship God. What we see is that God stands as a witness to both groups that seek to worship Him but in different ways. One group comes seeking righteous action for those whom they believe are acting against God’s commands. Another group comes seeking unity with those they believe might cause divisions against them later.

The Lord is a witness to those seeking righteous action.

22:1-8

The two and a half tribes had obeyed God and Moses by continuing on in the mission before returning back to their land. Even as they were in this campaign for some period of time. Now, because of their faithfulness, they are receiving the same rest that the other tribes are receiving. But in this Joshua warns them to continue in obedience. To faithfully serve and worship God alone. Looking forward as we see the dispute that will take place.

Some interesting points to this section. First, that we see the western 10 tribes described as "Israel" until it has been established that the other 2 1/2 are also faithful to Yahweh. To be considered "true Israel" the 2 1/2 tribes needed to demonstrate they worshiped God and God alone. This altar could reveal they worshipped or were devoted to other gods.

The provides some important points: 1. The danger posed to false worship. 2. The The potential it had to "irreparably divide the nation"

They built the altar at "Geliloth" which means "region of" and is the place where the Israelites built the memorial stones to God and circumcised all men at the beginning of their journey. So they built this altar at an important place in their history. You could easily see how they could make this site into a place of idolatry.

But why did they react so severely? Why did they believe they needed to go to war?

The reason for the reaction of the Israelites to this altar can be seen in Leviticus 17:8-9 ““Say to them: Anyone from the house of Israel or from the aliens who reside among them who offers a burnt offering or a sacrifice but does not bring it to the entrance to the tent of meeting to sacrifice it to the Lord, that person is to be cut off from his people.” .

So the Israelites send Phinehas as their priestly representative. Phinehas had shown his commitment to the Lord by preventing worship to Baal at in Numbers 25:6-18 which is given as an example of the devastating affects of sinful worship in v. 17 here. At Peor 24,000 Israelites were killed by a plague because they worshipped the Moabite God Baal. They saw this not as an act of rebellion against them but against God.

There were also representatives from each of the 10 tribes of Israel. Not just a representative though but a head of each family.

This group are called "The Lord's entire community" or "the whole assembly of the Lord" because Phinehas and each representative served as representatives of the godly nation of Israel. They were going on behalf of God to ensure His people we acting obediently to Him.

The question this assembly asks the 2 1/2 tribes is something to the affect of "was that sin at Peor not enough?"

They show that if this was rebellion then it would not just be the 2 1/2 tribes that suffer, but all the tribes. That this sin would not just infect those 2 1/2 but that it would have repercussions in the other tribes.

They use a term for these 2 1/2 tribes actions as "acting unfaithfully" or "breaking faith".

The Israelites claim that the plague that happened in the wilderness still has its affects on them to this day. But even after that plague there were still some who worshipped Baal and were influenced by idolatry.

Oftentimes churches can feel the affects of past sins in a church. People who still feel the hurt from an argument that occurred. Someone who acted sinfully and the affects that had on others can still be seen. Churches can feel the repercussions of one generations choices for generations. Both good and bad. Good when there are those who obediently serve God. Bad when they turn against His commands and continue in sin. When they ignore sin within the church, when they ignore what God says in His word. One generation that doesn’t hold God’s Word in high esteem, that ignores the Bible in their daily life, that doesn’t pass it onto their kids. One generation that ignores serving their community but just focuses inward. One generation that argues with one another rather than find peace. The repercussions can continue on.

So when we ask the question. “Were these Israelites correct in evaluating these tribes actions?” The answer is yes. They were doing their duty.

We can see this in the next the question they ask. "Are you going to refuse to follow the Lord?" and “if you want to why don’t you come back and live in our possession.

They were saying, "if you think your land is not fit to worship in, come worship in Israel."

They were searching the hearts of these 2 1/2 tribes. They were saying “if you truly desire to worship the Lord, why don’t you do this?” They weren’t trying to be legalistic, or trying to force them to do things their way. We can often misinterpret others who confront us as just being “legalistic”. Anyone who has a problem with our actions is being legalistic. Or we say “take out the log in your own eye” quoting Jesus. Yet we forget that next Jesus says once you take out the log in your own then take the log out of your brothers eye. And look, Israel had one giant heaping log in their eye. They had a Sequoya tree in their eye. But in Exodus and Joshua we have seen they have gone through the painful process of taking it out. Now they are coming to their brothers with their speck and saying “don’t let it linger”.

But what we see is that the Lord is also....

The Lord is a witness to those seeking unity

Their response is passionate and even seems repetitive in their desire to prove their innocence in their matter. We could consider how we might feel if someone were to accuse us of something that was not true. We would be shocked and desire to give any evidence we have of our innocence.

The response of the 2 1/2 tribes is "The Lord is the greatest God". They make clear their intention is not idol worship. They repeat twice this name for God.

They state that God knows their hearts and they hope that the 10 tribes will know as well their intentions. They see God as their witness for them of their faithfulness to Him (as there was no plague or any other repercussions up to this point as in other instances where Israel only finds out about the sin after God has acted against it).

They offer transparency and make clear their they do not intend to offer sacrifices on it. Sacrifices had not been mentioned by the 10 tribes but their acknowledgement of this shows their understanding of God's law and the care they took in constructing this altar.

Rather, their intention is that it will stand as a memorial to remind them of their identity as Israelites and unity with them. It is to be a "witness" between them and the other 10 tribes. Because we have seen throughout the book that monuments to the Lord are accepted by God as reminders of how He has cared for them.

They show that the fear they have is that in the future the 10 tribes might think they do not worship the Lord and the 10 tribes would cut them off. That the 10 tribes would see this border of the Jordan and believe this meant the 2 1/2 tribes were not in the Lord's possession.

It should have been clear that this was its purpose since it was built on the side of the Jordan where the 10 tribes lived. This was proof they were seeking to not use it as a consistent place of worship but as a symbol of their desire to be included with Israel and not be forgotten. They wanted it to be seen from across the Jordan so that they may not forget they had constructed it. It would have been difficult for them to cross and use this altar and would not do a great job of serving as a spot of regular worship. But because it was so large it would be seen and remind them of their covenant with the Lord and their desire to worship the one true God.

The 2 1/2 tribes make clear they would never rebel against God or turn away from Him. Using the words that the 10 tribes used in their accusation.

There are many among people who desire to worship God but they can feel like outsiders among God’s people. They can feel like they have been turned away, that others see them as rebelling when their desire is to worship God. So these tribes say “let us find a way to show our unity with our brothers and sisters”. Oftentimes when we think someone is trying to push us out, or we feel we are being attacked our response is aggression or we double down.

“Actually yeah, we ARE going to worship at this tabernacle. Since you see us as such a threat that you brought an army then why don’t you just stay over there and we will take this tabernacle and you don’t have to worry about us anymore.” Or “why would you even think that? If you think that low of us then we don’t want anything to do with us.”

But they stuck to their original intent. “Yes, we do want unity. We do want peace. Let us keep that.”

Christ witnesses to His church to love one another

Matthew 18:15-20 ““If your brother sins against you, go tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have won your brother. But if he won’t listen, take one or two others with you, so that by the testimony of two or three witnesses every fact may be established. If he doesn’t pay attention to them, tell the church. If he doesn’t pay attention even to the church, let him be like a Gentile and a tax collector to you. Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will have been loosed in heaven. Again, truly I tell you, if two of you on earth agree about any matter that you pray for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, I am there among them.””

What is incredible when we read Matthew 18 and Joshua 22:34 is we see that God serves as a witness through any dispute or argument.

Jesus acts as a witness for our hearts now, going past our mind and into our hearts, revealing our true intentions.