So...We Built An Altar

Cultivate a desire to obey God.

Now that the land has been taken and divided and the special cities have been alloted and named, it’s finally time for the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and half-Manasseh to return home.

They received land EAST of the Jordan river.

Moses commanded them to help their fellow Israelites in taking the Promised Land: Dt.3:18-20 ““I commanded you at that time: The Lord your God has given you this land to possess. All your valiant men will cross over in battle formation ahead of your brothers the Israelites. But your wives, dependents, and livestock—I know that you have a lot of livestock—will remain in the cities I have given you until the Lord gives rest to your brothers as he has to you, and they also take possession of the land the Lord your God is giving them across the Jordan. Then each of you may return to his possession that I have given you.”

Joshua commends their obedience to what the Lord expected of them. Josh.22:2-3 “and told them, “You have done everything Moses the Lord’s servant commanded you and have obeyed me in everything I commanded you. You have not deserted your brothers even once this whole time but have carried out the requirement of the command of the Lord your God.”

A commendation precedes a command. As they are sent, and with quite the blessing as well — “cattle, and silver, gold, bronze, iron, and a large quantity of clothing” — they are reminded of the need to remain faithful to YHWH. Josh.22:5 “Only carefully obey the command and instruction that Moses the Lord’s servant gave you: to love the Lord your God, walk in all his ways, keep his commands, be loyal to him, and serve him with all your heart and all your soul.””

That’s the Transjordan tribes, but we also see a desire for pure faith and obedience from the western tribes. As a way of building the suspense for how the passage unfolds, they’re referred to as ISRAEL. And what do we see out of them?

After the eastern tribes build this “large, impressive altar,” the Israelites assemble “at Shiloh to go to war against them” (Josh.22:12). So, our question is, “Why?”

Deut.12:13-14 “Be careful not to offer your burnt offerings in all the sacred places you see. You must offer your burnt offerings only in the place the Lord chooses in one of your tribes, and there you must do everything I command you.”

Further, Phinehas, a priest and one of the members of the contingency headed out to confront the eastern tribes, vividly remembers what can happen when there is sin in the camp.

Check out Numbers 25:1-3 “While Israel was staying in the Acacia Grove, the people began to prostitute themselves with the women of Moab. The women invited them to the sacrifices for their gods, and the people ate and bowed in worship to their gods. So Israel aligned itself with Baal of Peor, and the Lord’s anger burned against Israel.”

There’s a plague that the Lord causes to befall Israel, and it’s not dealt with until Nu.25:6-9 “An Israelite man came bringing a Midianite woman to his relatives in the sight of Moses and the whole Israelite community while they were weeping at the entrance to the tent of meeting. When Phinehas son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, saw this, he got up from the assembly, took a spear in his hand, followed the Israelite man into the tent, and drove it through both the Israelite man and the woman—through her belly. Then the plague on the Israelites was stopped, but those who died in the plague numbered twenty-four thousand.”

And finally, Phinehas reminds them of the episode with Achan and Ai where the disobedience of one man brought destruction on Israel as a whole.

Ultimately what the western tribes are concerned with is faithfulness to YHWH, understanding that even a little bit of sin, let alone a treasonous act of rebellion, has far-reaching consequences.

Both of these things can be commended. The eastern tribes have exhibited complete faithfulness to their call, and the western tribes are motivated by continuing fidelity in YHWH worship. What’s at stake for everyone is the glory of the Lord. With this, I think we must be challenged to cultivate our obedience to God.

When transgression is a possibility, we must deal graciously and seek to reconcile and restore.

Some scholars treat this passage as a manual on how to handle conflict from a biblical perspective. I don’t think that’s the heart of the passage, but I do think there are some principles on dealing with conflict that naturally arise out of the passage.

First, as Calvin puts it, there is “an illustrious display of piety, teaching us that if we see the pure worship of God corrupted, we must be strenuous” in confronting it. We should be anxious whenever we see believers and churches wandering from the path of piety. There is one standard with which we have been called to live — God’s standard. Inherent in our democratic society is the assumption that we should function as a democracy in all things, but that’s simply not the case. The church is a theocracy, living in surrender to Christ our King in all things (see Eph.1:20-23 “He exercised this power in Christ by raising him from the dead and seating him at his right hand in the heavens—far above every ruler and authority, power and dominion, and every title given, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And he subjected everything under his feet and appointed him as head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of the one who fills all things in every way.”)

We see this passion and this anxiety over what the western tribes perceive as transgression on the eastern tribes part, so passionate that they’re ready to go to war (Josh.22:12 “When the Israelites heard this, the entire Israelite community assembled at Shiloh to go to war against them.”) Now, I told you this isn’t a handbook on how to confront sin. The best action is not to take up arms and beat the sin out of others. And thankfully, cooler heads prevail.

Phinehas, part of a delegation that is first sent to the eastern tribes, enters into a discussion with the eastern tribes. His approach: accusation. It puts Reuben, Gad, and half-Manasseh on the defensive, a practical reminder whenever we feel that sin must be confronted. I don’t think this is in line with Jesus’ instruction: Mt.7:5 “Hypocrite! First take the beam of wood out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to take the splinter out of your brother’s eye.” Our goal in any confrontation over sin should always be reconciliation and restoration, NEVER judgment.

Because obedience to God should be such a primary concern for believers, and because sinful actions affect the entire congregation, there are times when we will be called to deal with and confront the sinful actions of brothers and sisters in Christ. I won’t belabor the point, because the crux of this passage isn’t conflict resolution, but I’ll leave it with this bit of instruction:

If the goal is anything other than restoration and growth in Christ-likeness, I’d go so far as to say your motivation is wrong and you probably need to deal with sin in your own heart.

God does expect His church to be used as sanctifying instruments in each other’s lives. As difficult as it is, and I think we see this in the eastern tribes’ gracious response, we should prayerfully welcome the encouragement of others in our spiritual walk.

Unify around the central tenets of the gospel.

The eastern tribes give their resopnse: Josh.22:22 ““The Mighty One, God, the Lord! The Mighty One, God, the Lord! He knows, and may Israel also know. Do not spare us today, if it was in rebellion or treachery against the Lord” This in and of itself affirms their commitment to God alone. They use three different words for God, and reiterate it by repeating what they’ve said. It’s a confession of faith in YHWH.

Further, they reveal their concern to be very much in line with the western tribes. Josh.22:23-24 “May the Lord (YHWH) himself hold us accountable if we intended to offer burnt offerings and grain offerings on it, or to sacrifice fellowship offerings on it. We actually did this from a specific concern that in the future your descendants might say to our descendants, ‘What relationship do you have with the Lord (YHWH), the God of Israel?”

This “replica” (Josh.22:28) was only ever meant to be a reminder of the eastern tribes’ inclusion in the people of faith…a people of YHWH…a people committed to obeying His word. In essence, “The things you’re concerned about? We, too, are concerned about those things.” Upon hearing this testimony, the western Israelites were assured that God was at work among them.

So, what are the central tenets, the core aspects, the non-negotiable truth of the gospel?

Jesus was crucified, buried, and raised on the third day according to the Scripture. God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, yet He is one. He is God alone, and Jesus, the unique Son of God, He alone saves, and He saves apart from any human effort. Man is born in sin, spiritually dead, and completely unable to save himself. These doctrines are essential. To deny them is to wander into heresy and practice a faith that cannot truly save.

There is a class of belief, a tier of secondary concerns that do not preclude you from being saved. Yet, they are significant enough that, the way I typically describe it, we’re probably not planting a church together. They tend to be issues of theological orthopraxy…how the church operates and how the true faith is lived out. How should a church be governed? What should lie at the heart of our corporate worship services? What is the significance and how should we practice the sacraments (baptism and the Lord’s Supper)? Here, true commitment to God isn’t in question, but theological differences are significant enough that we might find some aspects of ministry difficult to carry out together.

Third level issues are thing we can agree to disagree on, realizing that believers throughout church history have understood passages of the Bible in different ways, and these folks are far more godly that we will likely ever be. We can peaceably get along, using our differences for opportunities to grow. Take eschatology, for instance. If we disagree, there’s a whole lot more we can learn from one another, sharpen one another, challenge one another. And if you’re a dispensational pre-trib milenialist…or a “Left Behinder,” I can see your point. I’m not, but I get it. Let’s have some coffee and talk about it, and after some gracious discussion, hopefully we’ve helped each other love and serve Jesus better.

A jazz ensemble is an interesting bit of musical practice. I couldn’t pull it off on my best day of guitar playing. The intricacies of the chords alone would do me in. But in Jazz, the song is given the parameters that the band must operate in, but each person then plays his part. So, they know the key of the song and the structure of the chord progression, the timing for the song’s execution, even a general melody. Then, each person essentially plays their own solo in those confines.

Much in the same way, the church must unite around the central truths of the gospel. Unity must be protected. One commentator says, “unity cannot exist with apostasy (vv.13-20), while…fidelity cannot exist without unity (vv.21-29). Ultimately, apostasy must be fought against so unity can be protected, and unity must be protected in order to preserve fidelity.