Sermon Tone Analysis

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.