To Restart Recognizes the Necessity of Unity...

Yesterday, we continued to look at a story in our Bibles from the book of Joshua. In this story, we looked at the tribes that lived west of the Jordan River make a decision to send a delegation across the Jordan River to meet with the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and the ½ tribe of Manasseh. This delegation was sent across the Jordan River to meet with and confront the tribes who had built this altar on their rebellious actions. Instead of rushing to judgment based on hearsay, the Jewish people decided to send ambassadors on a fact finding mission as to the true motives behind their seemingly selfish and sinful behavior. You see, when we rush to judgment based on a conclusion formed on partial information, we risk the danger of coming to a wrong conclusion, don’t we?

After being confronted by these tribes for their seemingly rebellious behavior, we see the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and ½ tribe of Manasseh’s response recorded for us in Joshua 22:21-29. And it is in their response that we see another timeless principle that is necessary when it comes to restarting our lives:

Then the sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh answered and spoke to the heads of the families of Israel. "The Mighty One, God, the LORD, the Mighty One, God, the LORD! He knows, and may Israel itself know. If it was in 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. "But truly we have done this out of concern, for a reason, saying, 'In time to come your sons may say to our sons, "What have you to do with the LORD, the God of Israel? "For the LORD has made the Jordan a border between us and you, you sons of Reuben and sons of Gad; you have no portion in the LORD." So your sons may make our sons stop fearing the LORD.' "Therefore we said, 'Let us build an altar, not for burnt offering or for sacrifice; rather it shall be a witness between us and you and between our generations after us, that we are to perform the service of the LORD before Him with our burnt offerings, and with our sacrifices and with our peace offerings, so that your sons will not say to our sons in time to come, "You have no portion in the LORD."' "Therefore we said, 'It shall also come about if they say this to us or to our generations in time to come, then we shall say, "See the copy of the altar of the LORD which our fathers made, not for burnt offering or for sacrifice; rather it is a witness between us and you."' "Far be it from us that we should rebel against the LORD and turn away from following the LORD this day, by building an altar for burnt offering, for grain offering or for sacrifice, besides the altar of the LORD our God which is before His tabernacle."

The tribes of Reuben, Gad, and ½ tribe of Manasseh’s respond to the questioning with a proclamation of their theology and their innocence: “The Mighty One, God, the LORD, the Mighty One, God, the LORD! He knows.” What is so interesting here is that these three phrases, in the language that this letter was originally written in, represent the three Hebrew words that were used for God. These three words refer to God’s might and power, God as the Creator of the universe, and the Lord, which was the personal and the covenant relational name for God used by the Jewish people.

These tribes were saying “the only true God, the Creator of the Heavens and the earth, He is our Lord who we both worship as a people, He knows our heart and our motives behind the altar. If we are rebelling and rejecting Him by building this altar, He will not save us from you or deliver us from you. If our motive in building this altar is rebellion and idolatry, then God can strike us dead right here right now”.

The tribes then reveal the motivation behind their building of the altar. You see, the tribes that lived east of the Jordan River were afraid that the unity that they had experienced over the past seven years would be severed as a result of the Jordan River, which naturally divided them from the rest of the Jewish people. And, at the same time, the tribes that lived west of the Jordan River viewed the building of this altar as an act of rebellion against God that would destroy the unity that they had as a nation. Both groups were motivated by the same fears and the same desires: the fear of division and the desire for unity.

And it is in this story that we see God reveal for us a timeless principle when it comes to restarting our lives in relationship with one another. And that timeless principle is that to restart recognizes the necessity of unity. To restart our lives in a way that enables us to experience the relationships with one another in the community that we were created for recognizes the absolute necessity of unity. And because the tribes that were to occupy and settle in the land that was east of the Jordan River recognized this reality, they desired to build an altar. This altar, however, was not to be used for worship; this altar was to be used as a witness. This altar was built to testify to the entire nation that it was their unity was based on their relationship with the one true God.

You see, the Jewish people who lived on both sides of the Jordan River recognized that is was their worship of the Lord that united them. The tribes that were to live east of the Jordan River feared that while God had commanded all Jewish people to appear at the altar three times a year at the sanctuary in Exodus 23:17, future generations of Jewish people who lived west of the Jordan may refuse to recognize those that lived east of the Jordan as being God’s people. Thus, this altar was the result not of rebellion, but the desire for unity. And as this story concludes, we see the delegation’s response to the tribe’s proclamation of innocence:

So when Phinehas the priest and the leaders of the congregation, even the heads of the families of Israel who were with him, heard the words which the sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad and the sons of Manasseh spoke, it pleased them. And Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest said to the sons of Reuben and to the sons of Gad and to the sons of Manasseh, "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 from the hand of the LORD."

The delegation responded to theses tribes’ proclamation of innocence by recognizing two things. First, the delegation recognized that the motives behind the building of this altar were well intentioned and focused on pleasing God. Second, the delegation recognized that God had actively entered into the situation in a powerful way in order to deliver the tribes that lived west of the Jordan River from sinning as a result of causing division by going to war for the wrong reasons. The delegation then returned to Shiloh to report back to the Jewish people, whose response is revealed for us in the final verses of this story:

Then Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest and the leaders returned from the sons of Reuben and from the sons of Gad, from the land of Gilead to the land of Canaan, to the sons of Israel, and brought back word to them. The word pleased the sons of Israel, and the sons of Israel blessed God; and they did not speak of going up against them in war to destroy the land in which the sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad were living. The sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad called the altar Witness; "For," they said, "it is a witness between us that the LORD is God."

The Jewish people west of the Jordan responded to their relatives to the east’s heart for God by giving God praise and glory. God’s activity in the midst of this potentially divisive situation resulted in the Jewish people expressing praise and thanksgiving for God’s enabling and uniting power. They responded in praise and thanksgiving because the Jewish people recognized the necessity of unity. The tribes east of the Jordan River so recognized the necessity of unity that they built an altar to testify to the entire nation that it was their unity was based on their relationship with the one true God. The tribes west of the Jordan River so recognized the necessity of unity that they were willing to confront any potential threat that would destroy that unity.

And in the same way today to restart recognizes the necessity of unity. To restart our lives recognizes that unity is not uniformity. The Jewish people were descendants of twelve very diverse sons of Jacob who were united as a result of their confident trust in God and His word. And in the same way the church today is a diverse group of individuals economically, socially, and culturally that are united together as a result of their relationship with Christ. As followers of Jesus, we are united by the truth of who God is, what He has done, and what He has called us to do. And while we are to zealously protect against compromise when it comes to what we believe about the core truths of our faith, we are to reflect a unity in the midst of the diversity of God’s people.

So do you recognize the necessity of unity amongst God’s people? Are you as zealous to protect the unity that is supposed to be reflected amongst God’s people as the Jewish people were in Joshua’s day?