Introduction:
1. I want to begin this morning by assuring you that I am not a closet alcoholic as the skit suggestsed. The skit was written to introduce this morning’s sermon because though not jumping to conclusions isn’t something we talk about often, it really is important.
2. Have you ever had a time when you jumped to a conclusion that simply wasn’t right? You don’t even need to answer that question because I already know the answer. First impressions are often right, but they are also sometimes totally wrong. At times we think we know what’s going on only to discover later that we weren’t even in the ball park when it came to seeing what was happening or why someone was behaving the way they did.
3. Let me introduce the passage we’ll be looking at this morning by giving you a bit of history about what had happened earlier after the Jews conquered the land on the East side of the Jordan River. Moses was going to abandon the land, because the promised land was on the other side of the river, but the leaders of Gad, Rueben and half of the tribe of Manassah had asked if they could stay in the land they had already conquered, because it was just what they needed for their flocks. The land was rich & fertile and there were fine valleys for grazing large flocks. In addition, the land had plenty of water as well. It seemed perfect. Moses agreed on the condition that they had to go across the river with their fellow Jews and help conquer the land of Canaan. After that task was completed they would be allowed to return to their own homes once more. That’s where we are this morning.
4. The Battle for Canaan had been going on for 5 years. So what we read about this morning is at the end of a lengthy war, not what we might guess was a 45 day conflict if we didn’t really study the story of Joshua. The land is finally subdued to the point that the soldiers from 2½ tribes have been given permission to return to their homes and families.
5. You may be sure that soldiers from all the other tribes had said their good-byes & there were probably numerous hugs and slaps on the back. Then the 2½ tribes left to cross the Jordan River and return to their families on other side. The soldiers could probably barely wait to get home, their kids had now grown up & they had many stories to tell of all the great things God had done.
6. As the men of Rueben, Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh made their way east they passed landmarks that must have brought back memories of what God had done. Happy as they were to be going home, it wasn’t easy to say good-bye to their brothers and leave behind the nearness of the priesthood and the tabernacle containing the ark of the covenant. They were leaving the land God had promised to bless. They were going home; but somehow they began to feel isolated from the nation of Israel. That’s probably what prompted them to do what at first glance didn’t make much sense. Let’s read it in our text this morning, though I will warn you that what they did may not make much of an impression at first. Let’s read our text together.
Cell #1-- Joshua 22:10 - 34 (NLT)
10 But while they were still in Canaan, before they crossed the Jordan River, Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh built a very large altar near the Jordan River at a place called Geliloth.
11 When the rest of Israel heard they had built the altar at Geliloth west of the Jordan River, in the land of Canaan,
12 the whole assembly gathered at Shiloh and prepared to go to war against their brother tribes.
13 First, however, they sent a delegation led by Phinehas son of Eleazar, the priest. They crossed the river to talk with the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh.
14 In this delegation were ten high officials of Israel, one from each of the ten tribes, and each a leader within the family divisions of Israel.
15 When they arrived in the land of Gilead, they said to the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh,
16 "The whole community of the LORD demands to know why you are betraying the God of Israel. How could you turn away from the LORD and build an altar in rebellion against him?
17 Was our sin at Peor not enough? We are not yet fully cleansed of it, even after the plague that struck the entire assembly of the LORD.
18 And yet today you are turning away from following the LORD. If you rebel against the LORD today, he will be angry with all of us tomorrow.
19 If you need the altar because your land is defiled, then join us on our side of the river, where the LORD lives among us in his Tabernacle, and we will share our land with you. But do not rebel against the LORD or draw us into your rebellion by building another altar for yourselves. There is only one true altar of the LORD our God.
20 Didn’t God punish all the people of Israel when Achan, a member of the clan of Zerah, sinned by stealing the things set apart for the LORD? He was not the only one who died because of that sin."
21 Then the people of Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh answered these high officials:
22 "The LORD alone is God! The LORD alone is God! We have not built the altar in rebellion against the LORD. If we have done so, do not spare our lives this day. But the LORD knows, and let all Israel know, too,
23 that we have not built an altar for ourselves to turn away from the LORD. Nor will we use it for our burnt offerings or grain offerings or peace offerings. If we have built it for this purpose, may the LORD himself punish us.
24 "We have built this altar because we fear that in the future your descendants will say to ours, ’What right do you have to worship the LORD, the God of Israel?
25 The LORD has placed the Jordan River as a barrier between our people and your people. You have no claim to the LORD.’ And your descendants may make our descendants stop worshiping the LORD.
26 So we decided to build the altar, not for burnt sacrifices,
27 but as a memorial. It will remind our descendants and your descendants that we, too, have the right to worship the LORD at his sanctuary with our burnt offerings, sacrifices, and peace offerings. Then your descendants will not be able to say to ours, ’You have no claim to the LORD.’
28 If they say this, our descendants can reply, ’Look at this copy of the LORD’S altar that our ancestors made. It is not for burnt offerings or sacrifices; it is a reminder of the relationship both of us have with the LORD.’
29 Far be it from us to rebel against the LORD or turn away from him by building our own altar for burnt offerings, grain offerings, or sacrifices. Only the altar of the LORD our God that stands in front of the Tabernacle may be used for that purpose."
30 When Phinehas the priest and the high officials heard this from the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, they were satisfied.
31 Phinehas son of Eleazar, the priest, replied to them, "Today we know the LORD is among us because you have not sinned against the LORD as we thought. Instead, you have rescued Israel from being destroyed by the LORD."
32 Then Phinehas son of Eleazar, the priest, and the ten high officials left the tribes of Reuben and Gad in Gilead and returned to the land of Canaan to tell the Israelites what had happened.
33 And all the Israelites were satisfied and praised God and spoke no more of war against Reuben and Gad.
34 The people of Reuben and Gad named the altar "Witness," for they said, "It is a witness between us and them that the LORD is our God, too."
Prayer
Cell #2--
I. The Misconception 22:10-14
1. The land is now under the control of God’s people. The tribes have each received their allotted portion of land and now they must begin, in the settled environment of Canaan, to live as the people of God as a nation committed to be obedient to His Law. The 9½ tribes will live on the Western side of the Jordan in the land of Canaan itself, while the other 2½ tribes, Reuben, Gad and half of Manasseh would live on the Eastern side of the Jordan.
2. Things were going so well. The promised land and peace were both finally theirs. It seemed nothing could go wrong & then, at that very moment it did. It wasn’t a small thing either, it was major. The tribes on the Western side of the Jordan, didn’t see it coming, but there it was, the 2½ tribes on the eastern side of the Jordan River did it.
Cell #3--
The 2½ tribes on the Eastern side of the Jordan River built a massive altar.
Deuteronomy 15 said that everyone in any city that built an extra altar for sacrifice was to be put to death.
3. It didn’t take long of course for word to filter through to the western tribes that the eastern tribes had set up a new altar. While an altar may not seem all that significant to us, it raised an alarm with the Israelites because it was clearly forbidden in Deuteronomy 15. In that passage they were told to have only one altar for sacrifices, lest multiple altars lead to a falling away from God’s perfect plan for holy worship. Having only one altar and one place of sacrifice was a way to preserve the purity of the worship of Jehovah. It was a preventative measure to ensure that each tribe didn’t do its own thing when it came to worshiping God. One altar spoke of one faith and one people. In fact the penalty for building another altar was that the everyone in the city which built the altar was to be put to death. This was serious business.
4. So, quite logically, when the western tribes heard another altar had been built they immediately thought – that the Eastern tribes had abandoned God before they even got home. You see this altar was built by the 2½ tribes as they went home, not after they got there.
5. They were also frightened. Remember how 36 people died when Achan took those few items from the tent in Jericho. Though that had been nearly 5 years earlier, they hadn’t forgotten the lesson. They must not disobey clear commands from God or the consequences would be terrible. What should they do?
Cell #4--
The 9½ tribes on the Western side of the Jordan River decided that they had not choice but to go to war with their Jewish brothers.
6. The Western tribes decided that they would go to war against their East bank brothers to overthrow their apostasy and disobedience. Look at verse 12 and you will see the statement, "the whole assembly gathered at Shiloh and prepared to go to war against their brother tribes."
1) At least on some level the Western tribes are to be commended for the zeal to look out for the honor of God and for the purity of His worship. The fact that they were so stirred up by what they believed was spiritual infidelity shows that they were deeply committed to God. They had a real desire to maintain the purity of God’s worship. Far too often God’s people gradually accept things that God doesn’t.
Cell #5--
The Western tribes were right to want to stand against sin.
2) However, as proper as it is to stand up against what’s wrong, they were also wrong because they jumped to conclusions that were far off the mark. It appeared that what their brothers were doing was wrong, but they would discover that there was another side to the story. When they heard about the altar being built they had immediately assumed it had been set up in opposition to the altar in Shiloh. They jumped to the wrong conclusions.
Cell #6--
The Western tribes, were wrong to jump to conclusions.
3) That’s something all of us must guard against. The danger of judging people by their outward appearance. The danger of attributing bad motives to people’s actions when the very same actions could in fact be explained in other honorable ways. Let me give an example. Perhaps you meet a Christian friend walking down the street and wave at them. Although they seemed to be looking your direction they didn’t wave back, in fact, they seem to stare right through you. It’s easy if that happens to immediately jump to the conclusion that they are upset with you. When in reality it might be that your friend is upset about some personal matter and is thinking about it at that moment. Far from being a deliberate snub that intense look was in fact the outward evidence of inner turmoil.
7. Someone may be saying about now, "Yes that’s what happened here, but far better to incorrectly judge someone’s motives when they are good, than to ignore sin when it’s clearly wrong. I understand that, but my point is that neither one is acceptable. It is so easy to do what these western tribes did and jump to the wrong conclusions and pass rash judgments upon others. The Pharisees in the New Testament were often guilty of that. Consider what Jesus said to them about this very subject in John 7:24.
Cell #7--
Jesus said, "Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment." (NAS)
8. All of us have had some occasions in our lives when if people had judged us on the way things appeared we would have been in trouble. Because things aren’t always the way they seem. It’s far easier for me to recall the times when others have misjudged my motives and talked about me, than it is for me to remember the times when I have misjudged others and talked about them. Let me share a true story that I remember well, it is a story that happened, but it never happened. Let me explain. It happened as I was serving the First Baptist Church of Bunker, Missouri. I had been an associate pastor for 5 years before that, but this was my first pastorate.
My family had been to revival services at the country church my dad pastored in Ellington about 25 miles from our house. We got the kids packed into the back-seat of the car and headed toward home. It was well past dusk and we were all tired. As we came to the stop sign to get on the main highway I noticed someone had thrown something out right in the middle of the intersection. I said to my wife, "I hate it when people throw trash out on the road. That section of country road isn’t very busy at night so as I rolled up to the stop sign, I opened my door and picked up what appeared to be a magazine, & tossed it in the back seat where my children were already asleep. I didn’t think more about it except to make a mental note to throw it away when we got home. We were all tired when we got home. We carried the children into the house, put them to bed and soon followed ourselves. We lived right across from the church & I didn’t think about the trash in my back-seat until I was walking to my office the next morning. I was nearly across the street when I remembered the trash & went back to the car to get it. It was laying in the back-seat of my car where I had thrown it. I had been right, it was in fact a magazine, but I hadn’t noticed the word "Penthouse" scrawled in large letters across the top of the cover. We lived on main street and in a small town, if anyone walking down the street had looked in my car, it would have been hard to convince them that I was innocent, even though I was. People throughout the town would have been talking about me even though I had really just been trying to do a good deed by picking up some trash from the roadway. I appeared guilty, even though I wasn’t. Some people would have never believed I was innocent because juicy gossip is always more tantalizing than the truth. Which brings us to the second part of this morning’s sermon. I want us to talk about. . .
Cell #8--
II. The Confrontation 22:15-20
1. The 9½ tribes sent Phinehas the priest and 10 other leaders of the tribes to speak with the leaders of Gad, Reuben and the half tribe of Manassah. Phinehas started off under full steam. Instead of listening to the 2½ tribe be began pointing out their failures. The fact that the priest Phinehas was included in this delegation illustrated that this wasn’t mainly a political matter, the primary issue was spiritual. It was a highly charged moment for Israel. The Eastern tribes were accused of breaking faith with God, and building an altar in rebellion against God and the rest of the covenant nation.
2. Phinehas served as their spokesman. He said, "how could you turn your backs on God & break faith with Him & with all the other tribes. You built this altar in rebellion to God. You know how God punished us all when one chose to sin. If the land you’ve chosen is unfit for worship, you can move over to the other side of the river with us. Just don’t rebel against the Lord or against us by building an altar for yourselves."
3. How many of you would have responded well to Phinehas? Imagine someone walking up to you and saying, "Look here you no good backslider. What you have done is rebellion and sin.
Cell #9--
The strongest word used in his attack was the word, "rebel" which means to deliberately resist God’s will & disobey His law
4. On the surface in the story, there seems to be one group which is very right and another group which is very wrong. However, we must be very careful that we don’t become so convinced that we’re right and that everyone else is wrong that we start focusing on how wrong everybody else is. Let me explain what I’m talking about.
Cell #10--
It is often easier to criticize people when they do wrong than it is to encourage them when they do right.
5. Some of us, have become very good at it. But I wonder how many of us are as good at offering encouragement to people for their faithfulness and commitment to God’s work.
1) You remember the parable Jesus told of the talents and how the master in that parable recognized the two servants who had been faithful before He judged the one servant who had not been.
2) I have tried to adopt a basic rule for myself that I want to share with you. I have committed myself to say at least three or four times as many words of encouragement as I do of criticism. At the end of Paul’s letter to the Church at Rome he mentions by name several faithful Christians and commends them for their faithful service to the Lord and to the Church.
3) I don’t want you to think that criticism is never right, that would be wrong, but I believe it should be the exception rather than the rule. Criticism produces stress in a hurry for most of us. Yet some of us try to motivate people to do better by constantly criticizing them. It doesn’t work for about 95% of people. All of us need a little criticism at times, but none of us do well under a constant barrage of criticism. In fact, can I share a little secret. When someone is constantly critical, it’s not very long before people begin turning them off. They aren’t listened to because they are so negative. Think about the last person you criticized for a moment. With that person still in mind let me ask, "When was the last time you complimented that person?" If you have never let that person know that you love and support them, you almost certainly won’t be very successful when you try to correct them.
4) You may think I’m making too much of this but I don’t think so. In the book of James, the brother of Jesus gives us a three point plan for getting along with other people. Let me lay out what he says we are to be.
Cell #11--
We are to be. . .
Quick to Hear
Slow to Speak
Slow to Anger
6. Now I want to get back to Joshua. I want you to notice something else. The delegation doesn’t only accuse and condemn, it makes a very generous offer. If the Eastern tribes don’t think they can worship the Lord on the East side of the river, they can come & live on the western side of the Jordan. This would shrink the territory of all the other tribes. How were they able to make such an offer? It had to be because it had been discussed with Joshua & the other leaders before they left. In other words, as harsh as the confrontation seemed to be, there was a desire for restoration.
Cell #12--
III. The Explanation 22:21-29
1. To their credit, they responded, "God Almighty knows what our motives were. He alone is to be praised. If we have done what you said we have done, then we deserve God’s punishment and more. But we didn’t build this altar to sacrifice here, or worship another God. We built this altar as a witness.
Cell #13--
The 2½ tribes began by acknowledging a very important fact concerning the accusations made against them, God Knew the truth.
2. Stated negatively, they say they have not built an altar as an act of rebellion against God. Worded positively, they have built the altar as a replica of the altar before the tabernacle at Shiloh, as witness to their commitment to keep worshipping at the tabernacle with all Israel, & as testimony of their continuing right to share in the Lord’s worship despite the river that separated them from one another. The altar stood for covenant unity, not division, for firm devotion to God, not for backsliding.
Cell #14--
The Eastern tribes focused their attention on God. They used 3 separate names for (God) in their response to the accusations.
El The Mighty One
Elohim God
Yahweh The Covenant Lord Who Is
3. The Eastern tribes utterly rejected all the accusations. In their oath of denial. They basically invited God to call them to account and encouraged Israel to put them to death if the charges leveled against them were accurate.
Cell #15--
We should be willing to listen before we rush to judgment.
4. What a tragedy it would have been if the 2½ tribes to have said, "we know we haven’t done anything wrong and we know what our motives are, and we don’t have to explain it to you." When we love each other, we really do have to explain our motives and we have to be willing to accept the motives of others. This is at the heart of communication. If you find yourself saying, "I don’t have to explain myself, there’s a good chance you’re walking outside of the will of God for your life, and you’re choosing to destroy the relationship."
Cell #16--
IV. The Resolution 22:30-34
1. When Christ is at work in our lives, we think less of ourselves and more of what’s best for everyone concerned. After Jesus told us to love one another, in John 15:13 he said, "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends."
2. Each time we’re willing to say, "I’m sorry" we’re living out a little bit of this verse. These are words of repentance, and repentance means going in the opposite direction. The 9½ tribes went from being critical of the altar to understanding because they were willing to listen and acknowledge that their fellow Israelites had thought of something they hadn’t considered.
Cell #17--
Sometimes we are inclined to fight battles that
do not need to be fought.
3. This incident with the 2½ tribes can teach us an important lesson. Sometimes we are inclined to fight battles that do not need to be fought. We just see two different ways of getting to the same place. Don’t take it personally that your plan was not chosen this time. If the goal is the same, and the end product is the same, then flow with the plan of others. Even if you had the better plan. It’s called teamwork. (3)
4. Because human nature is what it is, there will be times when misunderstanding will occur even among Christians. The spirit and example from this chapter speaks of the proper way to resolve those clashes. We must be governed by our love for the Lord & must be careful that we don’t quickly jump to conclusions about others without giving them the benefit of the doubt. In this case, a few honest, rationale words prevented a civil war.
5. Let me offer balance once more. I’m not suggesting that we gloss over things which really matter, that’s equally wrong. Church history is full of agreements that focused on unity at the expense of truth. The well-known Bible commentator, Matthew Henry, once put it in wonderful perspective when he said. . .
Cell #18--
"Peace is such a precious jewel that I would give anything for it but truth." Matthew Henry
Conclusion:
1. There is a hill in the lake district called Rash Judgment Point and that it was given that name by William Wordsworth. The story goes that while he and his sister were standing at the top of this hill one day during the harvest season looking down on the lake below, they saw a man in a boat fishing. Angered by this, because the community needed every able-bodied man to be involved in gathering in the harvest, Wordsworth decided to go down the hill and challenge the fisherman for indulging in a leisure activity when he should have been busy at work for the good of the local community. Having called the man to the shore, Wordsworth noticed as he got out of the boat that he was old and bent over. Several fish lay in the boat. The man explained that having worked for years gathering in the crops from the fields he was now unable to do so because of his age and the pains that he suffered. Instead, in order to contribute to the life of the community at harvest time, he got up well before dawn and spent all day fishing the lake for fish to add to the communities resources. Wordsworth had passed judgment upon a man’s actions without first giving the man an opportunity to explain his actions. Having listened to the man’s explanation he felt so convicted about the hasty judgment he had made that he named the hill from which he had first seen the man fishing, Rash Judgment point.
2. I have a suggestion for each one of you. The next time you pass the place where you jumped to some inaccurate conclusions rename it just as Wordsworth did. Make it your own personal "Rash Judgement Point." Then, remind yourself each time you pass it that you don’t want to fall into the same trap again in the future of jumping to the wrong conclusions about others.
1) Robert Robb, Rash Judgment, (Sermoncentral.com) July, 2001.
2) Dean Rhine, Conquest and Commitment, (Sermoncentral.com) March, 1999.
3) Rick Gillespi, My Mistake, I’m Sorry, (Sermoncentral.com) February, 2004.
4) Warren Wiersbe, Be Strong: Joshua, (Scripture Press Publications) 1993.
5) Adolph Harstad, People’s Bible Commentary: Joshua, (St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House) 1994.
