I LOVE the Old Testament!

I am scanning through the book of Joshua- let’s face it, I have no idea where the territories are and am not going to memorize which tribe got which land.

I was quick reading and was about to move onto my other Bible reading to see if I could stumble into something less technical and more spiritual meaty elsewhere.

But, I kind of felt the Lord pressing me to be patient and to read just one more chapter….twice.

I came across Joshua 22 and the story of the Offensive Altar.

Never really saw it there before frankly…

As Joshua, the leader of Israel (after Moses), was distributing and dividing the land given to the people by God as He promised (ie: the Promised Land) there were a few tribes that were willing to stay behind and live elsewhere.

Moses, with God’s permission, had given them permission to do so after everyone else was settled peaceably in Canaan.

The time had come for the tribe of Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh to return to their homes with Joshua’s blessing.

He reminds them to be diligent in following the Lord and to stay zealous in their faith because it will be hard for them as they live farther away from the rest of God’s chosen people.

The three tribes move on…

As they leave the safety net of the majority and ready themselves to enter their own region of Jordan they decided to build an impressive altar.

When the rest of Israel heard about this, they were angry and ready to go to war against the 3 tribes!

Why? Because God had specifically told them all through Moses and Joshua to not build altars and burn sacrifices at any other place except the Tabernacle.

The tribes of Israel set out for war….how could these three other tribes do this so soon after leaving the Promised Land? Have they already forgotten God???

Eleazar, the priest, went ahead of those ready for war. He went to talk to those from Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh. He asked the obvious question: how could you???

The explanation was given that because of the distance between the three departed tribes and the rest of the Israel nation, they built an altar, not to burn or offer sacrifices, but to be a witness between us and between generations after us. To be a reminder to ALL of us that we are to perform our service to the Lord and NONE CAN SAY WE HAVE NO PART IN THE LORD (Joshua 22: 27).

The three tribes wanted it to be perfectly clear for generations to come that they have promised to follow the Lord no matter where they lived. That altar was never intended to be used as a place to offer sacrifices.

The priest was pleased with their answer and took that response back to the people of Israel where they were also satisfied.

War was avoided.

Joshua 22:34

The sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad called the altar WITNESS; ” For it is a witness between us that the Lord is God.”

A war almost happened because an assumption was made.

The remaining tribes of Israel saw their brothers leave and then saw this altar and presumed the motives to be sinful.

Maybe they did not like or understand why the three tribes wanted to do life differently…seperately.

Not understanding someone can lead to making assumptions easily, can’t it?

We are all guilty of presuming someone else’s motives at some point in our life, aren’t we?

It is is easy to do…especially when we measure the action against our own moral code or life experience.

We wouldn’t do “that” so how could they…

Sound familiar?

Ting a nerve?

“Jumping to conclusions can bring one to the brink of disaster.”

Too many times relationships end because an assumption was made and the truth was never dug out.

I have been guilty of that and have been on the receiving side as well…

People have walked away from me recently who never tried to hear me out…to question my motives to my face… to inquire where my heart was in the matter.

I have also walked away from those who I presumed judged me incorrectly…I became their judge on the matter.

As with the priest Eleazar, we need to stop and find out what is really going on.

This story is an example of communicating before we act.

Those that were in question were the other son’s of Israel…. are those we make assumptions against our brothers and sisters in Christ?

Dowton Abbey had this great quote: “those we love we don’t often agree with.”

Not understanding and not agreeing with someone does NOT mean there has to be discord!

We are capable of agreeing to disagree but agree to still love each other!

Getting to the heart of the matter is difficult and causes us to become vulnerable and open to conflict but having proper resolution due to good communication can prevent a “war”.

It can lead to forgiveness and therefore healing.

It can lead to restoration.

It’s worth a shot.