The Memorial Altar in Gilead
(This message is based on a sermon preached at New Hope Baptist Church near Fulton, MO on Sunday evening, May 25, 2025 and is not an exact transcription).
Introduction: Well-meaning things aren’t always perceived that way. In this message, we’ll see that a gesture of goodwill and unity was clearly misunderstood.
1 The decision to build the altar
Text: Joshua 22:10-12, KJV: 10 And when they came unto the borders of Jordan, that are in the land of Canaan, the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh built there an altar by Jordan, a great altar to see to. 11 And the children of Israel heard say, Behold, the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh have built an altar over against the land of Canaan, in the borders of Jordan, at the passage of the children of Israel. 12 And when the children of Israel heard of it, the whole congregation of the children of Israel gathered themselves together at Shiloh, to go up to war against them.
Altars have been a part of Old Testament worship since the days of Cain and Abel (Genesis 3), Noah, Abraham, and others. The Tabernacle had the (large) bronze or “brazen” altar where sacrifices were offered plus the altar of incense inside the Tabernacle itself. These veterans of the war of reclamation (the land of Canaan was promised to Abraham, Genesis 15:18-19) had no doubt not only seen the brazen altar but also had offered their sacrifices on that altar.
By now the war was over and the soldiers from the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and half-Manasseh were going home to the land they had requested from Moses (Numbers 32). So far, so good, and there was no problem at the time. But soon, some must have expressed concern about the very river, the very border, between the two sides or portions of land Israel now owned.
The result, no doubt after much debate, was to build a “great altar to see to”. The original bronze altar was fairly good sized, five cubits (half-English yards) wide and long, then three cubits (half-English yards) in height. The length and width, then, would be about seven feet and six, and the height would be four feet and six inches. With the poles used to carry the altar, this would have been a very impressive thing to see.
Even though we’re never given the actual dimensions of this “altar-on-the-river”, it’s easy for us to see that it was large enough for the other tribes to take notice. And notice, they did.
The next few verses explain how a delegation of some of Israel’s leaders made the trip to the altar in order to find out just why that altar was there in the first place.
2 The delegation who inquired about the altar
Text, Joshua 22:13-20, KJV: 13 And the children of Israel sent unto the children of Reuben, and to the children of Gad, and to the half tribe of Manasseh, into the land of Gilead, Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest, 14 And with him ten princes, of each chief house a prince throughout all the tribes of Israel; and each one was an head of the house of their fathers among the thousands of Israel. 15 And they came unto the children of Reuben, and to the children of Gad, and to the half tribe of Manasseh, unto the land of Gilead, and they spake with them, saying, 16 Thus saith the whole congregation of the LORD, What trespass is this that ye have committed against the God of Israel, to turn away this day from following the LORD, in that ye have builded you an altar, that ye might rebel this day against the LORD? 17 Is the iniquity of Peor too little for us, from which we are not cleansed until this day, although there was a plague in the congregation of the LORD, 18 But that ye must turn away this day from following the LORD? and it will be, seeing ye rebel to day against the LORD, that to morrow he will be wroth with the whole congregation of Israel. 19 Notwithstanding, if the land of your possession be unclean, then pass ye over unto the land of the possession of the LORD, wherein the LORD'S tabernacle dwelleth, and take possession among us: but rebel not against the LORD, nor rebel against us, in building you an altar beside the altar of the LORD our God. 20 Did not Achan the son of Zerah commit a trespass in the accursed thing, and wrath fell on all the congregation of Israel? and that man perished not alone in his iniquity.
Again, we’re not told how the men were selected to make the journey to Gilead, the land of the two-and-a-half tribes. Phinehas was son of Eleazar, son of Aaron, and he had earned the LORD’s approval earlier when 24,000 Israelites were put to death because they worshiped Baal-Peor. That was bad enough, but even worse came when an Israelite man brought a Midianite woman into a tent. Phinehas took a javelin and put both of them to death. This act of zeal for the LORD was rewarded when the LORD promised him the priesthood (Numbers 25 has the whole story).
Further, we don’t know if the other ten men who traveled with Phinehas were the same heads of a tribe mentioned in Numbers 7 or not. Regardless, they knew something didn’t seem right and these men traveled to the eastern tribes to get to the bottom of this whole thing. Someone once observed, “Prompt action lowers the chance for painful results”.
Whoever these men were, they didn’t waste any time in stating the obvious: “Why have you done this?” They went on to express some clear and unpleasant facts, reminding them of the (rather unpleasant) incident at Baal-Peor (remember, Phinehas had been there!), then speaking plainly to tell them that they were on the way towards facing the LORD’s wrath. They closed by urging the eastern tribes to not rebel, reminding them of what had happened to Achan when he had rebelled against the LORD—and paid dearly (Joshua 7).
The delegation had made their statement, and now it was time for the eastern tribes to make a response. Would they rebel against the other tribes, maybe causing a civil war? Or, would they listen to Phinehas, leave Gilead and move back to the original land the LORD promised?
3 The declaration of the eastern tribes
Text, Joshua 22:21-29, KJV: 21 Then the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh answered, and said unto the heads of the thousands of Israel, 22 The LORD God of gods, the LORD God of gods, he knoweth, and Israel he shall know; if it be in rebellion, or if in transgression against the LORD, (save us not this day,) 23 That we have built us an altar to turn from following the LORD, or if to offer thereon burnt offering or meat offering, or if to offer peace offerings thereon, let the LORD himself require it; 24And if we have not rather done it for fear of this thing, saying, In time to come your children might speak unto our children, saying, What have ye to do with the LORD God of Israel? 25 For the LORD hath made Jordan a border between us and you, ye children of Reuben and children of Gad; ye have no part in the LORD: so shall your children make our children cease from fearing the LORD.
26 Therefore we said, Let us now prepare to build us an altar, not for burnt offering, nor for sacrifice: 27 But that it may be a witness between us, and you, and our generations after us, that we might do the service of the LORD before him with our burnt offerings, and with our sacrifices, and with our peace offerings; that your children may not say to our children in time to come, Ye have no part in the LORD. 28 Therefore said we, that it shall be, when they should so say to us or to our generations in time to come, that we may say again, Behold the pattern of the altar of the LORD, which our fathers made, not for burnt offerings, nor for sacrifices; but it is a witness between us and you. 29 God forbid that we should rebel against the LORD, and turn this day from following the LORD, to build an altar for burnt offerings, for meat offerings, or for sacrifices, beside the altar of the LORD our God that is before his tabernacle.
The leaders of the eastern tribes promptly declared what they intended to do when they built this altar, or memorial. They knew that Israel was a good sized nation, with over 600,000 men of military age; allowing for them to have a wife and some children, there may have been nearly 2 million or more at the time! It’s probably under the surface, but the eastern soldiers had joined hand in hand with the others to take Canaan as their possession and they all knew what kind of soldiers they’d been in those campaigns. No need to make something that would provoke or cause the other tribes to think something was up.
But there was something that the eastern tribes realized, and that was the Jordan River making a natural border or boundary between the eastern and western lands of Israel. They, the eastern leaders, reminded the delegation (Phinehas and the others) that this altar/memorial was not, absolutely not, intended for any of the offerings demanded by the Law. They did know that in time to come, their descendants and the descendants of the western tribes would grow to think that the Jordan wasn’t just a river to be utilized, but also a barrier or border between the tribes.
Worse, the eastern leaders had a feeling or fear that in the future, there might arise a concept along the lines of “They don’t live near us, so we don’t want them worshiping the LORD like we do (implying the western tribes were right and the easterners were in the wrong)”.
And that’s why these eastern leaders said it as plainly as they knew how, ”We wanted to build a memorial for a witness. We on the east side of Jordan worship the LORD God of Israel just as much as those of you on the east side. We don’t intend to start a rival system of worship at all! It’s just a witness to the LORD, and nothing more than that.”
The eastern leaders had explained what they did, and why. Now it was up to the others to decide what additional actions, if any, they needed to do at the time.
4 The decision by the eastern leaders
Text, Joshua 22:30-34, KJV: 30 And when Phinehas the priest, and the princes of the congregation and heads of the thousands of Israel which were with him, heard the words that the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the children of Manasseh spake, it pleased them. 31 And Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest said unto the children of Reuben, and to the children of Gad, and to the children of Manasseh, This day we perceive that the LORD is among us, because ye have not committed this trespass against the LORD: now ye have delivered the children of Israel out of the hand of the LORD.
32 And Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest, and the princes, returned from the children of Reuben, and from the children of Gad, out of the land of Gilead, unto the land of Canaan, to the children of Israel, and brought them word again. 33 And the thing pleased the children of Israel; and the children of Israel blessed God, and did not intend to go up against them in battle, to destroy the land wherein the children of Reuben and Gad dwelt. 34 And the children of Reuben and the children of Gad called the altar Ed: for it shall be a witness between us that the LORD is God.
Phinehas and the leaders of the tribes living west of the Jordan had gone to Gilead, the land requested by the tribes of Reuben and Gad, plus part of Manasseh. As we’ve seen, these eastern leaders had built a memorial altar, much like a copy of the brazen or bronze altar of sacrifice, if I read the text correctly, as a witness. They didn’t want or intend to make a copy or other imitation of the Tabernacle worship, and they had no intention of making sacrifices or offerings on this memorial altar. It was simply a witness that even though the tribes were separated, partly, by the Jordan River, they would always be united in the worship of the LORD God of Israel.
Phinehas and the others, then, heard and agreed, “No problem here!” They realized there was no rebellion, nor anything else, just a reminder and witness that they were united as a nation. Further, there was no intention of the eastern tribes starting a new nation or starting a new war among the tribes (verse 33). The text ends here but we may reasonably suppose the eastern leaders returned home and everybody set to work living in the land of promise.
What, then, does this mean to us in these days? First, there is no mention of this memorial altar that I’ve found anywhere in the rest of the Bible. How long did it stay up? How and when was it destroyed, if that’s what happened? We’re not even given the location of this altar but it was probably close to one of the “fords” or narrow places where the Jordan wasn’t very wide at its normal stage (clearly not at flood stage: probably there were some of these very people who remembered when they first crossed near Jericho and the Jordan WAS at flood stage, per Joshua 3 and 4)!
At any rate, the eastern folks built that altar/memorial with good intentions. A river can be a blessing, a border, and a burden, and the easterners knew human nature well enough to erect a witness that the God of the west side was the same God of the east side, and they were all part of the nation of Israel.
We as New Testament believers can look back at this and realize that a witness does not always have to be made of wood, stone, metal, or anything else. We don’t need to build physical altars because Jesus took all of our sins on His body as He died on Calvary. He took a cross, and made Himself the sacrifice for all our sins!
There could be more but may I close with this: those men built a copy of an altar as a witness, a reminder, that they were all on the same team, so to speak. The Jordan would not be a barrier, just a border, and this memorial witness altar was proof of their good intentions. May we, too, seek to be living stones and living sacrifices, living witnesses, not built of natural materials but by the Spirit of the Lord to bring glory to our blessed Lord!
Scripture quotations taken from the King James Version of the Bible (KJV)
