Joshua 22:1-34 | "To Be A Witness"

I. Reading of Scripture

Joshua 22:26–27 ESV

26 Therefore we said, ‘Let us now build an altar, not for burnt offering, nor for sacrifice, 27 but to be a witness between us and you, and between our generations after us, that we do perform the service of the Lord in his presence with our burnt offerings and sacrifices and peace offerings, so your children will not say to our children in time to come, “You have no portion in the Lord.” ’

This is God’s Word, Amen!

Pray

II. Introduction

A. Introduction to Theme

A very practical and needful outcome of our worship of God as His Church is to ensure that our worship is a witness to Jesus.

Worship is not just for our own souls, but also for the benefit of our family, our children, and even the watching world.

If we attend worship for our own benefit, WE easily become the object of our worship. If we attend worship with our eyes turned upon God, then God is the object of our worship.

This is why I title these worship services “The Worship of God” to remind myself and all of us that God is who we worship.

In this way, the worship of God is not something that fills us as some have come to believe.

The worship of God is something that fuels us. The worship of God empowers us for a purpose — to be witnesses for Jesus in our homes and in the world!

The title of this sermon is “To be a witness” and it comes straight out of this text which at its core, describes a controversy regarding worship.

B. Introduction to Text

This text begins the final section of the book of Joshua which is rich in application for godly living!

The people have CLAIMED the land. CONQUERED the Land. DIVDED the Land. And now — they must LIVE and SERVE God in the land.

Living and serving God requires a relationship with God. A relationship of worship.

This idea is captured in the New Testament with a familiar text like:

Romans 12:1–2 ESV

1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Our bodies are living sacrifices to God. Our worship is spiritual worship. We live as people who worship.

Every section of Joshua has had its challenges for God’s people. And God showed His people that He Himself was their victory and means of deliverance and success.

With all the events of Chapters 1-21 behind them, the question is raised going forward:

What challenges could Israel now possibly face RESTING in the land, having already received and inhabited their inheritance, a good gift from God?

Anyone who has ever been married can understand something of the challenges Israel might face —

What happens with a young couple that begins to fall in love? They fight the battles and challenges of dating, courtship, and engagement to finally get married.

And once married, do they find out that their problems have ended? In the rest of marital bliss do they find out that there are no longer any challenges? NO! Marriage presents a new set of challenges and problems — namely, LIVING WITH someone you have never lived with before!

Anyone who has ever retired can understand something of the challenges Israel might face —

For decades we fight for our careers, to make the best we can of ourselves and what we have to offer the world. Only to retire one day and live in rest and discover that living in rest can be very difficult and challenging. Living in rest is a lot of things BUT restful.

Joshua summoned the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh at the beginning of Joshua 22. These were the tribes that inhabited the land east of the Jordan River, but they had crossed the Jordan and united with their brother tribes to conquer Canaan.

The job is done, and Joshua sends them home, saying:

Joshua 22:4 ESV

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.

We can think of this final section of Joshua under the heading: “Resting” in the land — and that might be most appropriate, because resting in this sense does not mean ceasing activity.

Resting in God IS activity — resting in God is an activity called worship, which requires living with God and serving God — and doing so by faith — God’s way.

Times of rest can produce wonderful fruit unto God — when we are no longer burdened with battles and can turn our focus on living for God and serving Him.

But times of rest can also produce BAD fruit — like complacency. Pride. Ignorance. Disobedience. And even apostasy.

And so it is that the first chapter in this section of resting in the land presents a controversy of worship for Israel that threatened their unity and the true worship of Israel’s ONE God.

III. Exposition

A. 22:10-12 | A worship war.

Joshua 22:10 ESV

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.

An altar is a place of worship. A structure in which offerings and sacrifices were made to God in worship. An altar signifies the presence of one God.

So in Israel, ONE God was worshiped upon ONE altar. There were not many altars, because Israel did not worship many gods.

The message is clear: God’s united people have only ONE way and ONE access to God.

Carry that imagery forward to Jesus, who said:

John 14:6 ESV

6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Carry that forward to:

Ephesians 4:1–6 ESV

1 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. 4 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

With the building of this altar by these TransJordanian tribes, the unity of Israel in worship is threatened because now — there is two altars, instead of one.

And look in verse 10 how the Scriptures describe this altar:

“an altar of imposing size.” That is, a “large altar in appearance” (KM).

This altar was meant to be seen!

Joshua 22:12 ESV

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.

This is a worship war in a very real sense. Israel was ready to go to battle against their own over this threat to united worship.

This may be a shocking statement that Israel gathered to make war over this, but the unfortunate truth is that God’s people all the way up to present day have made war over lesser things in matters of worship.

At least in this circumstance, there was a real and perceived threat of apostasy and idolatry.

B. 22:13-20 | Priestly mediation.

Joshua 22:13–16 ESV

13 Then the people of Israel sent to the people of Reuben and the people of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh, in the land of Gilead, Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest, 14 and with him ten chiefs, one from each of the tribal families of Israel, every one of them the head of a family among the clans of Israel. 15 And they came to the people of Reuben, the people of Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, in the land of Gilead, and they said to them, 16 “Thus says the whole congregation of the Lord, ‘What is this breach of faith that you have committed against the God of Israel in turning away this day from following the Lord by building yourselves an altar this day in rebellion against the Lord?

The charge in the Hebrew language says it this way:

The NET Bible

“What is this unfaithfulness with which you have been unfaithful against the God of Israel,

Worship is threatened by UNFAITHFULNESS.

There is no worship of God without faith. There is no worship of God without faithfulness.

To be God’s people means to be God’s people — God’s way.

This is why our lives are interconnected with our worship. What we do when we gather one day a week doesn’t say nearly as much as the way we live during the week.

We cannot live one way, and worship another. The way we live is a witness to who we worship.

Phinehas cites two examples from Israel’s history of the kind of unfaithfulness Israel refused to allow.

The first is unfaithfulness of idolatry.

Joshua 22:17 ESV

17 Have we not had enough of the sin at Peor from which even yet we have not cleansed ourselves, and for which there came a plague upon the congregation of the Lord,

Israel became idolatrous with Baal and God plagued them because of it. 24,000 died because of the plague, and the consequences were so severe they continued to be felt to this day. (Num 25).

So Phineas makes this offer and reveals a second kind of unfaithfulness in Israel’s recent history:

Joshua 22:19–20 ESV

19 But now, if the land of your possession is unclean, pass over into the Lord’s land where the Lord’s tabernacle stands, and take for yourselves a possession among us. Only do not rebel against the Lord or make us as rebels by building for yourselves an altar other than the altar of the Lord our God. 20 Did not Achan the son of Zerah break faith in the matter of the devoted things, and wrath fell upon all the congregation of Israel? And he did not perish alone for his iniquity.’ ”

Israel was rebellious with Achan’s sin — when he kept for himself what belonged to God.

Notice the end of verse 20:

“And he did not perish alone for his iniquity.”

With the idolatry of Baal and the rebellion of Achan, both sins affected more than just the few sinners. These sins caused many to perish.

This is why faithfulness matters for worship.

As we say — it is better that we be fewer and faithful, than many with even one who is faithless. That is how much faithfulness matters to how we live as a people of God.

Galatians 2:20 makes this connection clear:

Galatians 2:20 ESV

20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

The people of Reuben, Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh now respond.

And they explain why they have built this altar. It is not an altar of worship — but instead, an alar of witness!

C. 22:21-29 | A witness, not worship.

They answer:

Joshua 22:22–25 ESV

22 “The Mighty One, God, the Lord! The Mighty One, God, the Lord! He knows; and let Israel itself know! If it was in rebellion or in breach of faith against the Lord, do not spare us today 23 for building an altar to turn away from following the Lord. Or if we did so to offer burnt offerings or grain offerings or peace offerings on it, may the Lord himself take vengeance. 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.

Notice how in a sense, the book of Joshua has come full-circle.

The SAME boundary that posed an obstacle for the people entering into the land of promise, is now cited as an obstacle for united worship in the land!

We should never become complacent. We will not encounter new and different problems. We encounter the same problems in new and different ways.

The main concern was that this boundary would be a cause of division for their children. When the present generation has passed, will the future generation forget what God has done to make them one?

So the people figure, if God can bring His people over the boundary of the Jordan into the land, God can also keep His people united even with that boundary — so long as they have a witness to the true worship of the true God!

Joshua 22:26–29 ESV

26 Therefore we said, ‘Let us now build an altar, not for burnt offering, nor for sacrifice, 27 but to be a witness between us and you, and between our generations after us, that we do perform the service of the Lord in his presence with our burnt offerings and sacrifices and peace offerings, so your children will not say to our children in time to come, “You have no portion in the Lord.” ’ 28 And we thought, ‘If this should be said to us or to our descendants in time to come, we should say, “Behold, the copy of the altar of the Lord, which our fathers made, not for burnt offerings, nor for sacrifice, but to be a witness between us and you.” ’ 29 Far be it from us that we should rebel against the Lord and turn away this day from following the Lord by building an altar for burnt offering, grain offering, or sacrifice, other than the altar of the Lord our God that stands before his tabernacle!”

“To be a witness.” “To be a testimony.” That was the point of this large and imposing altar.

Notice that the Reubenites, Gadites and half-tribe of Manasseh recognized that something intentional and tangible and visible was profitable for passing on the faith to their children.

The building of this altar was an intentional act of passing on the faith to future generations and securing the inheritance in God for their children.

Joshua 22:34 ESV

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.”

The worship war was prevented when the cause for division became centered upon God.

When the cause for division became a witness to what existed with the true altar in the land of Canaan.

IV. Conclusion

We have a very real example of such an altar today. It is not called “witness” but it is called “the cross.”

And the cross serves as a witness to the person and work of Christ — the basis of true worship.

The cross of Christ is an earthly witness to something that was done on earth but also in a better way in heaven, in the true, heavenly tabernacle.

Hebrews 9:11–12 ESV

11 But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) 12 he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.

If we remove the cross from worship, we remove Christ from worship. If we remove Christ from worship, we have not worship! We have no connection between what is in earth and what is in heaven!

The cross is our altar of Witness proclaiming to every generation what true worship is about.

What heavenly worship is about — a heavenly worship that we all anticipate where there will be no divisions but all peoples, tribes, languages and tongues will gather around the throne for ONE reason — the lamb on the throne.

True worship is not about about certain rituals and practices which represent PARTS of a WHOLE.

True worship is about the totality of what God has done in His Son, Jesus!

And if any part of our worship: any song, any gift, any prayer, any reading, any sermon — if any part of our worship doesn’t bear witness to JESUS then it is not worship at all!

Here’s a way to measure the effectiveness of worship: Don’t ask “did I feel encouraged, did I feel convicted, did I feel informed, did I feel uplifted?”

These are self-centered questions that reflect ultimately, self-worship.

Ask this question instead — What does our worship today say to our children about Jesus?

What does our worship today say to the world about Jesus?

If we can produce an answer, then we can know that our worship exalted Jesus and honored him as central to all!

The true worship of God bears witness to Jesus. There is no worship apart from Him. That is the message for today.

A. Gospel Proclamation

With Jesus, worship is not restricted to a certain time or place or altar, because by faith Jesus will dwell in our hearts (Eph 3:17). This is the good news in Jesus!

Joshua 22 tells us that certain tribes in Israel needed proof that God is near — a witness to what existed some geographical distance from them.

But with Christ, the Spirit of God is that ever present and near witness.

Romans 8:16 ESV

16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,

The Spirit bears witness of Jesus in our heart. And this gives us assurance that we can carry forward into future generations by being witnesses for Jesus with the life he gives us.

B. Application

With Christ in our hearts, we are empowered by the Spirit to be witnesses for Jesus to future generations and to the world.

Many centuries later, such a witness for Jesus — the Apostle Paul, stood in the midst of the Areopaugs in Athens and said this to an enquiring crowd that worshiped so many gods they had even made a provision for gods they did not know.

Paul proclaimed:

Acts 17:22–31 ESV

22 So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. 24 The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, 25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. 26 And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, 27 that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, 28 for “ ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, “ ‘For we are indeed his offspring.’ 29 Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. 30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, 31 because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”

A very practical and needful outcome of our worship of God as His Church is to ensure that our worship is a witness to Jesus.

And if our worship is a witness to Jesus, that worship will proceed out of this place into the world, and it will be noticed. It will be noticed in our lives and with our words so that we become living witnesses of a living Lord.