Maintaining Purity and Unity Within the Family of God
Notes
Transcript
Tonight, we are going to look at a familiar passage to everyone, Joshua 22.
MIT – In Joshua 22 we see Israel’s commitment to following God faithfully.
MIS – As the family of God today, the church should have the same resolve to faithfulness and unity within the body of Christ.
I want to open this evening with 3 simple questions.
Are we concerned for the faithfulness of our brothers and sisters in Christ?
Are we willing to have the hard conversations to maintain faithfulness?
Will we respond rightly when asked hard questions regarding our faithfulness or perceived lack thereof?
This morning I want to show you four ways Joshua and the sons of Israel maintain faithfulness in the family of God.
1st we see, Joshua’s
I. Charge to Faithfulness. (VS 1-9)
I. Charge to Faithfulness. (VS 1-9)
At that time Joshua summoned the Reubenites and the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh, 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. 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. 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. 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.” So Joshua blessed them and sent them away, and they went to their tents. 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, 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.” 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.
I am going to walk through Joshua’s charge pretty quickly then look at some lessons learned.
A. Joshua commends the obedience of the eastern tribes. (VS 1-3)
A. Joshua commends the obedience of the eastern tribes. (VS 1-3)
i. First, Joshua recognizes the eastern tribes have kept the commandments of Moses (vs 2)
ii. Secondly, Joshua commends them for not forsaking their brothers (vs 3).
iii. Third, they kept charge of the commandment of the Lord their God (vs 4).
B. Joshua exhorts the People of God as They Return Home. (VS 4-5)
B. Joshua exhorts the People of God as They Return Home. (VS 4-5)
i. Be careful to observe the commandment and law the Lord commanded.
ii. Love the Lord your God.
iii. Walk in all His ways.
iv. Keep His commandments
v. Hold fast to Him
vi. And finally serve him with all your heart and soul.
C. Joshua blessed the People of God and Sent them Home. (VS 6-9)
C. Joshua blessed the People of God and Sent them Home. (VS 6-9)
i. Joshua sent them home with a verbal blessing.
ii. Joshua sent them home with material blessings.
iii. Joshua sent them home to share the blessings with their brothers.
What can we learn from verses 1-9 as God’s people today.
1. Joshua is to ultimately point us to the Jesus. Joshua was a great spiritual and military leader. He humbly submitted to God and had a great desire for faithfulness not only from himself but also from the people of God. However, as the book of Judges and the rest of the OT shows us when Joshua left the people struggled to remain faithful to the commandments of God. This left them and us in need of another leader and Savior.
This Savior would come as a baby, born of a virgin, live a sinless life, not only lead us by example and perfect teaching, but He also gave His life as a substitute for ours so that He might pay the sacrifice our sin had earned. He then rose from the dead and defeated our enemy. He then left those who repent and trust in Him with great spiritual blessings. The blessings of redemption, adoption, justification, sanctification, and one day our final glorification!
2. Joshua’s commendation shows us the importance of encouragement. Joshua begins his speech to the eastern tribes by recognizing and commending the eastern tribes for their faithfulness. He doesn’t just go straight to barking orders at the people.
Ralph Davis comments, “Pastors and other Christian workers should heed such counsel. We can be a rather negative lot, always able to see where most holes in the kirk dike are, knowing who the most obstreperous saints are, and aware of how many uncleansed spots and unpressed wrinkles remain in the churches robe. But there is the elder who thoughtfully leads the congregation in worship or who conscientiously checks on the welfare of the flock; there is the school teacher who holds a steadfast witness among her peers and her students; there is a couple that calls on other believers in distress. One is sometimes surprised how such servants find encouragement and gain fresh heart from a pastor or friend expressing gratitude for their labour done in love.”
How true is that! We can all notice the negative things going on in the body of Christ. But how often do we fail to recognize the faithfulness of God’s people.
Let me give you a positive Illustration of this. I am going to tell you a story about an unnamed lady. Back when we were in FL she saw the Pastor could use administrative help, putting bulletins together, ordering materials, and such. She offered to help him and of course he accepted. Not too long after that he gave a testimony of how the Lord used someone in a great way to help him out. I don’t believe he even mentioned her by name, but he recognized her faithfulness. Of course this meant a lot to her and encouraged her in a great way. I would step out on a limb here and say that it strengthened the relationship between her and her Pastor and to this day although they are separated by distance, they are still good friends and a close brother and sister. She probably even grew in her respect for him and willingness to submit to his authority. Faithfulness was motivated by a little encouragement.
3. Joshua’s exhortations still apply to us today. Let’s read verse 5 again. Is there anything in these verses that we can’t find a similar or the same command from Jesus or the apostles in the NT? Is there any reason we should not observe the commandments and the law of Moses.
Granted there are some of the ceremonial laws that no longer apply, but we can probably learn principles from them. I believe many of these are carried through in Jesus Sermon on the Mount. Do we not want to hold fast to Him still? Shouldn’t we serve Him with all of our heart and soul?
Joshua is not the only one that uses this commendation and command model. The truer and better Joshua, Jesus uses it also.You can look to to Jesus’ message to the churches in Rev. Ch. 2 for a NT example of this. Jesus Commend them and then Charges them to repent of their sin.
4. Finally we should recognize the great blessings we have and be moved to generosity within the body.
We can’t miss all of the blessings that Joshua sent the men back across the river with. But what did he tell them to do, divide the spoil with the brethren. There were those men who had to stay back and take care of the women, children and the land but that did not exclude them from the material blessings. Do we see this principle carried out in the NT? Maybe in Acts 4:32-35. What about us today? Are we supposed to sell everything and lay it a Pastor Josh and Pastor Adam feet? Probably not, but we are to take care of those within the body. We should look for needs within the church and help to meet those needs where we are able.
Hopefully we see in Joshua’s charge to faithfulness as how we as the NT church can promote faithfulness through commendation of obedience and exhortation to faithfulness to Christ and His church.
The Second way we see the sons of Israel maintain faithfulness of God’s people is their,
II. Concern over Perceived Unfaithfulness. (VS10-20)
II. Concern over Perceived Unfaithfulness. (VS10-20)
In verse 10 we see,
A. The act of perceived unfaithfulness. (VS 10)
A. The act of perceived unfaithfulness. (VS 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.
The eastern tribes got back and built an altar. Not just any altar but, a large altar!
This raises the question why would they so quickly erect an altar. These tribes from the east had been with their brothers from the west for about seven years helping them conquer the land of Canaan.
So what’s the big deal? Isn’t this a good thing? Don’t they need a place to worship? Deuteronomy 12 tells us why this is could be a problem.
But you shall seek the place that the Lord your God will choose out of all your tribes to put his name and make his habitation there. There you shall go,
Take care that you do not offer your burnt offerings at any place that you see, but at the place that the Lord will choose in one of your tribes, there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I am commanding you.
The Israelites had been given specific instruction on how they and where they were to worship. They were to worship at a single place, at a place that the Lord chose in one of their tribes.
Ralph Smith, explains this well writing, “the restriction to sacrifice to one sanctuary was preventative theology, intended to preserve the purity of worship. To oversimplify, it meant: one altar, one faith, one people. But allow such worship wherever folks hankered to “experience God”, and it would soon take on a Canaanite color, soak up Canaanite belief, sport Canaanite practices, adore Canaanite gods. In short, it would at one blow kill both fidelity to Yahweh and the unity of Israel.”
So Israel had been commanded to worship the One true God in one place. This was primarily in order to ensure faithfulness to Yahweh. God knew/knows our hearts. He knows we are prone to wonder, prone to allow other thing, places, and desires to corrupt our pure worship of Him and Him alone.
This was the original regulative worship principle!
So what happened next?
The brothers on the west side of the river heard of it in verse 11! Not sure how, but word got to them. Even in OT times it didn’t take long for word to spread. What we see next I believe has a positive and negative side. We see this in….
B. The response of the Western tribes to the perceived unfaithfulness. (VS 11- 20)
B. The response of the Western tribes to the perceived unfaithfulness. (VS 11- 20)
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.” 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.
They gathered up to go to war because of what they believed was false worship or a breech of faithfulness. (VS 11-12)
We see a unified response. “the whole congregation gathered themselves”. This to me is positive, because they care about their brothers across the river. They hear of the altar building and are distraught over the fact that they are disobeying the command to worship in a singular location.
Do you see what it is important for us as the people of God to be aware of what is going on in the family of God. It ought not be just the pastor showing concern over the faithfulness of the church.
We see an overreaction in their response. They gathered up to go to war! They were ready to just start taking people out. This is the negative side. They immediately were about to take drastic measures without considering what was going on. In other words, as we like to say they were going to shoot and ask questions later. We would never do something like that would we? We never come to a quick judgment about someone else’s perceived sin do we? We would never discuss the actions of someone else before we go talk to them about it would we?
The good news is they must have recognized the error in their initial response. Look at verse 13-15 with me. We see….
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, 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. 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,
They sent leaders to speak to them concerning the unfaithfulness. (13-15) providentially they slowed the war wagon down. Instead they decided let’s talk to them before we attack them. How about that for a biblical principle? I am starting to see a pattern here that looks a lot like something Jesus teaches us in Matthew 18. Notice what these leaders do in verses 16-18….
“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? 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, that you too must turn away this day from following the Lord? And if you too rebel against the Lord today then tomorrow he will be angry with the whole congregation of Israel.
The leaders questioned the eastern tribes about their perceived rebellion. (16-18) The leaders didn’t just go on the attack, they actually asked them to explain their actions. Granted you don’t see a lot of grace in their question, but they gave them a chance to explain themselves and the situation. But before they let them explain …..
The leaders reminded the eastern tribes of the consequences of unfaithfulness (19-20).
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. 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.’ ”
1. First they reminded them of the iniquity of Peor. Listen to Numbers 25:1-9 where we see the account of the iniquity of Peor.
Numbers 25:1-9 While Israel remained at Shittim, the people began to play the harlot with the daughters of Moab. 2 For they invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods. 3 So Israel joined themselves to [a]Baal of Peor, and the Lord was angry against Israel. 4 The Lord said to Moses, “Take all the leaders of the people and execute them [b]in broad daylight before the Lord, so that the fierce anger of the Lord may turn away from Israel.” 5 So Moses said to the judges of Israel, “Each of you slay his men who have joined themselves to [c]Baal of Peor.”
Numbers 25:6 Then behold, one of the sons of Israel came and brought to his [d]relatives a Midianite woman, in the sight of Moses and in the sight of all the congregation of the sons of Israel, while they were weeping at the doorway of the tent of meeting. 7 When Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he arose from the midst of the congregation and took a spear in his hand, 8 and he went after the man of Israel into the [e]tent and pierced both of them through, the man of Israel and the woman, through the [f]body. So the plague on the sons of Israel was checked. 9 Those who died by the plague were 24,000.
Do you see how seriously God takes pure and unadulterated worship of Him and Him alone? No wonder the western tribes were ready to go to war. They had seen 24,000 people die due to wrong worship.
Second they reminded them of the anger which unfaithfulness stirs up in the Lord. In verse 18 they tell them if you rebel and disobey the Lord will be angry with the whole congregation. Your sin will not just affect you but all of us…. If you need an example, we can give you another one….
They then reminded them of the result of Achan’s sin. Who all did Achan’s sin affect?
Do you understand why the brothers from the west were so concerned over the perceived sin of their eastern brothers? They had experience the wrath of God because of improper worship in sin already.
So in the western tribes concern over their brothers faithfulness we see how they sought to maintain the faithfulness of the people of God. Although they did not handle it perfectly they were concerned and willing to do all they could do to maintain faithfulness of their people.
Aren’t you glad today our faithfulness is not dependent on us as the family of God alone? We still react wrongly to sin at times. Here is another place I believe this text points us to Christ. He gives those who trust in Him the perfect plan to remain faithful. He came in the flesh, gave himself up on the cross because of our inability to remain faithful and need for a once for all perfect sacrifice for our sin. It is because of his death and resurrection His people can remain faithful or persevere to the end. It is because of His Holy Spirit who indwells His children that keep us faithful, I love the way RC Sproul changes the idea of perseverance to the idea of preservation. This points us to the primacy and sufficiency of the work of Christ. Although we do work together to maintain faithfulness and unity in the body, Christ ultimately has completed and will complete the work of our preservation in His people.
So far we have seen how Joshua’s commendation and exhortation maintains faithfulness, we looked at how the western tribes concern for pure worship was an effort to maintain faithfulness, now lets look at the ….
third way the God’s people maintained purity and unity, they did this through,
III. Confession and Submission by the People of God.
III. Confession and Submission by the People of God.
A. The sons recognized the authority of God and His family. (21-22)
A. The sons recognized the authority of God and His family. (21-22)
i. They appealed to, “The Mighty One, God, the LORD, the Mighty One, God, the LORD!” and the heads of the families of Israel. (21-22)
Then the people of Reuben, the people of Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh said in answer to the heads of the families of Israel, “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
The sons of Reuben, Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh made it clear first of all who they were worshipping. They recognized the one, true, God. They called Him, The Mighty One. They knew God as mighty, He had delivered them from their enemies, and miraculously helped them cross the Jordan. They had seen His great might, the Mighty God is the one they desired to worship.
They recognized God as Mighty, they recognize Him as One! Sound familiar to the Shema from Deuteronomy 6:4. They wanted Phineas, the leaders, and priests to know that they worshipped God and him alone. Although they may have built and altar in a different location they had not changed the object of their worship.
They recognized Him as Lord – One who possesses and exerciser power and authority and to who respect is thus ascribed.
The brothers from the east wanted to ensure that their intentions were right. You have to love what they didn’t say.
They could have responded, “you mean, you all forged the Jordan in order to come over here and judge us and what we are doing. Why don’t you all stay on your side of the river and tend your own business. Our relationship with God is our business; the way we worship is between us and God. Who do you think you are coming over here and questioning our heart and our behavior?”
Have we ever responded that way when someone questions our behavior? Has someone ever responded that way to us when we had to question their behavior? The response of the eastern brothers revealed their faithfulness to God and their desire to be obedient to Him.
Notice how they continue to respond rightly, next they appeal to the judgment of God in verses 22b, and 23. They say, “If it was rebellion, or if in an unfaithful act against the Lord do not save us this day! If we have built us an altar to turn away from following the Lord, or if to offer a burnt offering or grain offering on it, or if to offer sacrifices of peace offerings on it, may the Lord Himself require it.”
You better be pretty confident in your motive and actions before you appeal to the judgment of God. They basically say if are being disobedient or unfaithful, take us out! I would recommend a more reserved approach. But, they were truly confident their heart was right.
So next they,
Explained their behavior.(23-28)
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. 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? 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. Therefore we said, ‘Let us now build an altar, not for burnt offering, nor for sacrifice, 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.” ’ 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.” ’
1. They did it out of concern to carry on the faith to the next generation. In other words, they they built a place to worship so that they could teach their sons who God was and what he had done for them.
This sounds like a right motive to me. This reminds me of an OT church plant. They had moved to an area that didn’t have a place to worship so they built one. One difference is modern day church plant go with the main intention of planting a church. The brothers on the east side of the river picked the land, and then realized we need a place to worship and teach our children.
The second reason they give we see in verse 26,
2. They desired the altar to be a witness of unity between the brothers. They didn’t want future generations to forget the common bond they had with the people of God across the river. It was important for them to maintain unity with God’s people even if they were separated by geography.
They finally explain to the sons from the west,
3. They built it as a copy of the altar their fathers had built. They wanted the altar to be a witness of their connection to the people of God. Back to the church planting analogy. If Pastor Josh and Pastor Adam sent out a church planting team to Ohio, they may call the new church Pray’s Mill II, or PMBC of Ohio. The team may build a similar building, worship in the same manner, and preach following the same model. They would do this to maintain faithfulness to their roots and their relationship with the sending church in Christ. Think about it this way the brothers from the east left the West Jordan Baptist Church and started the East Jordan Baptist Church so they would have a place to worship so they could teach future generations, maintain unity with the family of God, and maintain a witness with their family across the river.
Here is one more note to back up the reason they felt justified in their actions of building the altar.
John Calvin writes, The gross impiety of which they had been accused was now well refuted; and yet they seem not to have been in every respect free from blame, because the Law forbids the erection of any kind of statues. It is easy, however, to excuse this by saying, that no kind of statues are condemned except those which are intended to represent God. To erect a heap of stones as a trophy, or in testimony of a miracle, or a memorial of some signal favor of God, the Law has nowhere prohibited. (Exodus 20:4; Leviticus 26:1; Deuteronomy 5:8) Otherwise, Joshua and many holy judges and kings after him, would have defiled themselves by profane innovation. But the only thing displeasing to God was to see the minds of men drawn hither and thither, so as to worship him in a gross and earthly manner.
These men were not building a statue in the image of God to bow down and worship that statue. They instead piled up a heap of stones to remind them of what God had done for them so that they might worship Him and Him alone.
Let’s consider a couple of modern day examples.
1. The cross. Many churches have a cross hanging in their sanctuary. Most of them are not worshipping the 4X4’s the cross is made out of. Instead the cross is a memorial to remind them of the One who died on the cross and what He has done for us on the cross.
2. The Lord’s Supper. The bread and wine are not what we are worshipping or celebrating when we take the elements. Instead they are to serve as a reminder of Jesus shed blood for our sin and the fact that His body was broken for us. Then as we recognize the forgiveness we have if we are in Christ we worship him for His work. We also can celebrate the unity of the body as we take the supper together.
This is was ultimately the purpose of the stone altar the Israelites had built.
The fourth and final way the family of God maintains faithfulness and Unity is through,
IV. Conflict Resolution Among the People of God. (VS 30 – 34)
IV. Conflict Resolution Among the People of God. (VS 30 – 34)
A. The leaders were grateful for the response of the brethren. (VS 30)
A. The leaders were grateful for the response of the brethren. (VS 30)
After all of the over reaction in the beginning to the misunderstood actions of their brothers, Phineas, the priest and the leaders of the western congregation, even the heads of the families of Israel were pleased with the response of the men from the east. We can we learn several lessons from this verse.
Unity among God’s people is possible! They all agreed, there was no one still fussing about the altar that had been built on the east side of the river. They trusted the words and authority of Phineas and the leaders. They did not all go across the river but they trusted what their leaders had told them. When it comes to tough times and decisions amongst God’s people it is important to have trusted leaders whom you can humbly submit to and be assured they are making the right decisions to maintain unity among God’s people.
Even Leaders with the best intentions may sometimes respond wrongly. Although Phineas and the boys did get their emotions under control, remember initially they were ready to go to war. How would it have worked out if they would have let their emotions dictate their response? Providentially, they slowed down and said let’s question them before we kill them.
A humble God centered response will be more likely to result in reconciliation. When the Sons of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh responded they began with recognizing who God is. In the same way today, our response when we are confronted with sin should be Gospel centered. When we are confronted it is important to recognize who we are, sinners saved by grace. We are not perfect we still are prone to sin. When these situations arise and a brother or sister confronts us we should have a desire to recognize our current state, and what our Savior has done for us. This will create an atmosphere of humility and confidence at the same time. This will go a long way in the resolution of the problem and restoration of the relationship.
B. The leaders recognized the Lord’s presence among them. (VS 31)
B. The leaders recognized the Lord’s presence among them. (VS 31)
I love this verse,
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.”
Can we all agree this chapter in the Joshua’s narrative is a pretty good picture or example of what we know of in the NT as church discipline? The Sons of Israel on the West side of the Jordan hear of a sin or a perceived sin of the Sons of Israel on the East side of the Jordan. They then go across the river to confront them of their sin. They do this because they know the devastating affect sin can have on the people of God as a whole. Doesn’t that sound very similar to the way Jesus tells the church to handle sin in Matthew 18, and Paul tells the Galatian church to handle sin in Galatians 6?
If we recognize these similarities when we get to verse 31 we really see the One who ultimately brings restoration when we handle sin or even perceived sin among God’s people biblically, the LORD! Here in verse 31 Phineas says, “Today we know that the Lord is in our midst, because you have not committed this unfaithful act against the Lord; now you have delivered the sons of Israel form the hand of the Lord.” The sons of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh had not sinned so they would avoid the judgment of God. Although this is a little different than a case where they would have sinned and had a need of repentance, it is still a case where we see the people of God concerned about the faithfulness of one another and their corporate holiness. They work together to resolve the situation in humility and truth.
The most important part of the entire text is recognizing that it is the Lord’s presence among them who protects and preserves the unity of His people. We see this same truth in Matthew 18:19-20
“Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them [u]by My Father who is in heaven. 20 For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.”
We all know these verses are in the context of church discipline. Jesus says that if two or three are gathered in His name while carrying out discipline in order to maintain faithfulness and obedience to Him, He will be there. We see this is true in with the OT people of God here in Joshua, and it is true with the NT church, the body of Christ.
At the cross God sent His one and only Son to be present among sinful mankind to live a sinless life, so He could be the perfect substitutionary sacrifice for sinful man. In His death on the cross Jesus satisfied and drank the cup of God’s wrath that we deserve as sinful humanity. In doing this he protects all those who will trust in Him and His sacrifice for their sins from the wrath of God. He delivers those who trust in Him from judgment. Even better than the way we see relationships between brothers and sisters in Christ restored through church discipline, faith in Christ restores our relationship to The Mighty One, God, the LORD! So remember as great as it is when brothers and sisters in Christ work together to restore relationships within the body and maintain faithfulness within the body, Jesus has ultimately accomplished the work of restoration and preservation.
C. The leaders brought back word of the restored relationship. (VS 32-33)
C. The leaders brought back word of the restored relationship. (VS 32-33)
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. 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.
Here is the ultimate reason for our concern over our brothers and sisters in Christ’s faithfulness, the testimony of restored relationships.
1. The first restored relationship we should give testimony to is our relationship with God through His Son. Apart from the restoration of this relationship none of our relationships with anyone else will be right. We may get along, but that is about it. We will not have relationships that bring God glory and experience His spiritual blessings through Christ.
2. The second restored relationships we should give testimony to are the ones within the body. We can do this by the way we love and care for one another on a daily basis. We also do this when we show concern for the faithfulness of our brothers and sisters by questioning one another when we get off track spiritually. We may find out that it was a misinterpretation of actions. We may find out that our brother or sister is struggling with sin. Then we should begin holding one another accountable and supporting that brother or sister in their struggle. If they refuse to repent then we should be willing to go to the next level beyond where Israelite brethren had to go. If we are the one who is questioned about our actions we should respond humbly and repent when necessary.
Once our relationships within the body are restored we should give testimony to the work of grace Christ has done in the midst of His people. We can tell people because of the work Christ has done in our life, and obedience to His Word we have won a brother or sister! No one else can give a true testimony like that one.
Are we concerned for the faithfulness of our brothers and sisters in Christ?
Are we willing to have the hard conversations to maintain faithfulness?
Will we respond rightly when confronted with a sin or perceived sin in our own life?
Finally, we must remember that is in Christ and because of His death on the cross that we can experience ultimate forgiveness and restoration through repentance and faith. It is His work of grace that we should be thankful and out of gratitude live a life a loving obedience.