Joshua 22:1-34 – Slow Down and Shut Up
(NOTE: I draw heavily on Brian McLaren’s A New Kind of Christian for this message. And the reference I make to Pentecostals are towards the Jesus-only variety, not the Trinitarian varieties.)
Maybe you have heard the poem called The Cookie Thief, by Valerie Cox. It goes like this: A woman was waiting at an airport one night, With several long hours before her flight. She hunted for a book in the airport shops, Bought a bag of cookies and found a place to drop.
She was engrossed in her book but happened to see, That the man sitting beside her, as bold as could be. Grabbed a cookie or two from the bag in between, Which she tried to ignore to avoid a scene.
So she munched the cookies and watched the clock, As the gutsy cookie thief diminished her stock. She was getting more irritated as the minutes ticked by, Thinking, "If I wasn’t so nice, I would blacken his eye."
With each cookie she took, he took one too, When only one was left, she wondered what he would do. With a smile on his face, and a nervous laugh, He took the last cookie and broke it in half.
He offered her half, as he ate the other, She snatched it from him and thought... “Oooh, brother. This guy has some nerve and he’s also rude, Why he didn’t even show any gratitude!”
She had never known when she had been so galled, And sighed with relief when her flight was called. She gathered her belongings and headed to the gate, Refusing to look back at the thieving ingrate.
She boarded the plane, and sank in her seat, Then she sought her book, which was almost complete. As she reached in her baggage, she gasped with surprise, There was her bag of cookies, in front of her eyes.
“If mine are here,” she moaned in despair, “The others were his, and he tried to share. Too late to apologize,” she realized with grief, That she was the rude one, the ingrate, the thief.
Today we are looking at making false assumptions about other people. Our passage today deals with one group of Israelites flying off the handle at another. Let’s read Joshua 22:1-12.
So the fighting against the foreign armies was over, but obviously there was still some fight left in some people. Now, granted, I could see the possibility here. The Lord had just granted peace to the land, and here they were, the western tribes, doing something that looked a lot like turning away from God. The western tribes had built a large altar, and the eastern tribes assumed it was to offer sacrifices to foreign and false gods, and not to the true and only God. So, immediately, the assembly of Israel prepared to fight their brothers and sisters because of their apostasy, their turning away from the Lord, after all He had done for them.
That sounds familiar, to me. It sounds like a mob mentality that has pursued all people for ages. An issue arises, people don’t like it, and they storm off to do something about it, usually without finding all the facts about it first. Now, granted, you have to give the western tribes credit for their enthusiasm. They were passionate about the Lord, and they were afraid that the eastern tribes were about to turn from the Way. Their zeal and devotion are commendable.
But they didn’t look into the situation first. It’s like the old saying: ”Shoot first, ask questions later.” They were ready to go to war with their family, simply because it appeared that something was wrong. It appeared they were wrong, and something had to be done about it.
Some unknown author said: “The only exercise some people get is running down their friends, side-stepping responsibility, pushing their luck, dodging deadlines, and jumping to conclusions!” Folks, I’m here to tell you, we are very good at jumping to conclusions.
I have to admit something: when I first came to Doaktown, I was hard on the local Pentecostals. I criticized way too much, feeling all smug with my own version of grace and holiness. I believe I was wrong. Whether I disagreed with their official theology or not, I was pretty un-gracious towards them as a people. I jumped to conclusions about their spirituality, based on the issues they embrace and the theology they hold. It was not fair to them, and very un-Christlike of me.
You see, you don’t know what goes on inside a person. You don’t know what they are thinking or feeling. You don’t know how you would act if you were in the same place. You don’t know the whole story in someone’s life. You don’t have the right to judge someone else’s faith. Even if you can see a person from the outside, from time to time, you never see their heart or their thoughts and feelings. You don’t know why a person does what they do.
The passage goes on. The western tribes send delegates to go and scold the eastern tribes. They go a-preachin’, criticizing them for their lack of faith, for their wandering from the way. They listen to the sermon, and then the eastern tribes reply: v21-26.
You see, the altar was built to the Lord. It was not built to false gods – the motives were, again, pure. In fact, the altar was built, just in case someday the western tribes rebelled against God. The altar was actually a sign of faithfulness and gratitude, not of rebellion. OOPS! Here they were, the western tribes, ready to declare war, on their fellow believers, all because of a misunderstanding. There’s that whole “jumping to conclusions” thing again. Shoot first, ask questions later.
You see, this is why we are not to judge someone else’s faith. We could be very wrong. Just going by appearances can be very deceiving. We fly off into these holy battles, not knowing the details, and injuring people along the way. In a church fight, who gets the most hurt? Usually the people who saw it all happen, but weren’t really heavily involved on either side. Usually it’s the bystanders who become the victims of so-called “friendly fire”.
Making judgements about who’s right and who’s wrong in their faith is not only misleading, but it seems also to be contrary to what Jesus did on earth. In Luke 13, when people asked Jesus about the fate of others, twice Jesus said, “Never you mind. Just live a right life before God yourself.” Even Peter asked Jesus about what would happen to John, and Jesus replied, “It’s none of your business. What about you?” I think that Jesus tried to steer His followers away from in-grouping and out-grouping – “who’s going to heaven, and who’s going to hell.” I think Jesus would say it’s not our business to know or to determine in our own minds.
Yes, Jesus was demanding. He said that the number who follow the right way are “few”. He called people to follow Him whole-heartedly, which is quite a commitment. But Jesus didn’t get crucified for being exclusive – by saying who would not get into heaven. Rather, He was killed by being too inclusive – that is, by saying that grace and heaven were available to everyone, no matter where they were in life. Listen: by adopting an attitude that gives you permission to sit around and look at people’s lives and try to figure out if they are saved or not – that is the opposite of what Jesus did. You can say, “Well, I’m not really judging them, I’m just thinking that’s all.” That might be true, but it’s still the opposite of Jesus’ whole attitude on life.
In Matthew 12, a teacher of the law came to Jesus and asked what the most important commandment was. Jesus said, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.”
The man answered back, “Well said, teacher. You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices."
Then Jesus commended the man for his answer: “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” Not far? The man knew the Bible, he knew what was most important, and gave the right answer. He probably even lived a pretty good life – Jesus didn’t seem to point out anything wrong.
To me, that seems odd. I would think that anyone there would have said the man was already in the kingdom – good life and had good answers. But only Jesus saw the man’s heart. No matter what anyone else there saw, only Jesus was fit to determine the man’s faith. Again, it goes to show that looks can be deceiving. We are absolutely not fit to make a decision, even if it’s only in our own minds, as to whether or not someone will go to heaven. It is not our place to pass that kind of judgement. There is too much we don’t know.
So where does all this leave us? Well, obviously there are exceptions. If a Christian wanted to date/marry only a Christian, which is certainly the best plan, then that person had better get to know the other person’s heart. Granted, you can’t ever really know a person’s final destination, but you can pick up if they’re at least walking in the same direction as you are. You can decide from there if their heart is somewhere near yours.
But as far the majority of people, try not to make a conscious effort to figure out their destinies. I’m not saying their destines don’t matter, or that you shouldn’t be concerned about people. I’m just saying that if God wanted you to know where every person was going, He’d tell you.
So we continue do what we should do: be faithful to Him, speak about Him when He prompts us, and live in obedience to what He tells us. We should pray for people when they’re dying, that they would have the grace to accept what’s happening, that they would be ready to meet the Lord. But don’t assume that someone is doomed, simply based on what you know about them.
So be careful with your words. About people in and outside the church. Don’t make a judgement based simply on what you see about a person. You don’t see the heart. You may not know the real “them”. Don’t jump to conclusions about a person’s faith by what they do or don’t do, or how they worship, or how they spend their time. It is not your place to tell if they are living for the Lord or not. It is your place to love them, to help them, to serve them, to watch out for them, to get to know them. That’s the responsibility we have.
