To show what a great God He is, and how little of these studies are in MY hands, God gave me an object lesson this morning. I woke up, put on my pants and one of my 3 hoodies, and went to take Misty out. Almost immediately I knew something was off about the hoodie I put on. It didn't feel right, even in the dark when I put it on. So I examined. Was it inside-out? No, the pocket was in front, the hood in back. It was blue- which meant it was my work hoodie, which SHOULD have been in the 'dirty pile' in my room, but oh, well, it's a hoodie and on right. So I took Misty out. And in the light of day, I saw the REAL problem. You see, I had worn the RIGHT hoodie- the Green A's one- TO BED. And in the darkness, in my own grogginess, I put the blue on on OVER it. And this process- Doing in the dark, examining but not following the results, and eventually examining in the light- this is what Joshua and Israel learn this week. I am going to take you to three promises (they'll be familiar), three reactions, and three altars, to learn this same lesson.
First set- Memorial altar, task promise, Joseph reaction
That top line is to remind me which ones relate, and the stories are non-connecting, so follow along with me and backtrack with your Bible. The first "altar" we come to, we've already seen- the twelve stones the leaders of the tribes took from the dry bed of the Jordan and placed on the other side, a reminder to their children of how God parted the waters of the river to allow them passage. The first promise is the first "be courageous" we studied early- for you have a job to do. And the first reaction- all of which are negative- comes during the division of the spoils.
Jos 17:13 Now when the people of Israel grew strong, they put the Canaanites to forced labor, but did not utterly drive them out.
Jos 17:14 Then the people of Joseph spoke to Joshua, saying, "Why have you given me but one lot and one portion as an inheritance, although I am a numerous people, since all along the LORD has blessed me?"
Jos 17:15 And Joshua said to them, "If you are a numerous people, go up by yourselves to the forest, and there clear ground for yourselves in the land of the Perizzites and the Rephaim, since the hill country of Ephraim is too narrow for you."
Jos 17:16 The people of Joseph said, "The hill country is not enough for us. Yet all the Canaanites who dwell in the plain have chariots of iron, both those in Beth-shean and its villages and those in the Valley of Jezreel."
Now let's pull this into a more modern wording. Basically, the Tribes of Joseph- Ephraim and the half-of Manasseh that was willing to live west of the Jordan- complained they didn't have room enough. They had an area large enough- but they hid in the mountains, because the Canaanites they were SUPPOSED to be driving out- with God's help- had "chariots of iron". "Waaaah, they're too tough for us, give us easy land."
I love Joshua's answer- GET TO WORK!
Jos 17:17 Then Joshua said to the house of Joseph, to Ephraim and Manasseh, " *** You are a numerous people and have great power. You shall not have one allotment only,
Jos 17:18 but the hill country shall be yours, for though it is a forest, you shall clear it and possess it to its farthest borders. For you shall drive out the Canaanites, though they have chariots of iron, and though they are strong."
Note where I put the three asterisks, because my paper Bible, and only one of the ones on my e-Sword, put in a word that passes on the meaning that the rest skip over- IF. He wasn't giving them new territory- read v 18 again. THEY needed to drive out the Canaanites, even though they HAD iron chariots!
Our lesson: When the job gets tough, the Christian needs to work with Jesus at his side- not just give up and move on.
Second set: Word altar and promise, Gibeon reaction
So after Joshua had led them to several victories, a big city- a "royal city" called Gibeon- came to them suing for peace. By now they knew the purpose of God- He wanted the Canaanites, of whom they were among, all destroyed. Knowing what was about to happen to them would match what had happened to Jericho and Ai, they devised a plan:
Jos 9:3 But when the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and to Ai,
Jos 9:4 they on their part acted with cunning and went and made ready provisions and took worn-out sacks for their donkeys, and wineskins, worn-out and torn and mended,
Jos 9:5 with worn-out, patched sandals on their feet, and worn-out clothes. And all their provisions were dry and crumbly.
Jos 9:6 And they went to Joshua in the camp at Gilgal and said to him and to the men of Israel, "We have come from a distant country, so now make a covenant with us."
So they pretended to be from far away, so that Israel would spare them. Where the first story was my putting the hoodie on in the dark, this time they were looking at the evidence, but not in the light of day...
Jos 9:14 So the men took some of their provisions, but did not ask counsel from the LORD.
Jos 9:15 And Joshua made peace with them and made a covenant with them, to let them live, and the leaders of the congregation swore to them.
And so it was...
Jos 9:16 At the end of three days after they had made a covenant with them, they heard that they were their neighbors and that they lived among them.
The leaders blew it by not consulting God. They had tried to apply God's rules to the situation as they knew it...
Deu 20:10 "When you draw near to a city to fight against it, offer terms of peace to it.
Deu 20:11 And if it responds to you peaceably and it opens to you, then all the people who are found in it shall do forced labor for you and shall serve you.
Deu 20:16 But in the cities of these peoples that the LORD your God is giving you for an inheritance, you shall save alive nothing that breathes,
Deu 20:17 but you shall devote them to complete destruction, the Hittites and the Amorites, the Canaanites and the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, as the LORD your God has commanded,
Deu 20:18 that they may not teach you to do according to all their abominable practices that they have done for their gods, and so you sin against the LORD your God.
They had treated them as prescribed for NON-Canaanite cities, but they WERE Canaanite. But to go against the oath they swore out to them would dishonor God among the remaining inhabitants, so Joshua and the leaders were forced to play out the hand they chose, and...
Jos 9:18 But the people of Israel did not attack them, because the leaders of the congregation had sworn to them by the LORD, the God of Israel. Then all the congregation murmured against the leaders.
Afterwards, they built an altar onto which were put all the words of the Law, as Moses had ordered in Deuteronomy 27, and the people were made to accept the curses and blessings contained therein.
Lesson for us here is twofold. First, two wrongs don't make a right, and had the leaders listened to the people, a greater sin would have been committed. Second, always check with God on things, no matter how clear-cut they may seem. It is worth noting that there were consequences, both near-term and long-term, though God uses both for the best. In the near term...
Jos 10:1 As soon as Adoni-zedek, king of Jerusalem, heard how Joshua had captured Ai and had devoted it to destruction, doing to Ai and its king as he had done to Jericho and its king, and how the inhabitants of Gibeon had made peace with Israel and were among them,
Jos 10:2 he feared greatly, because Gibeon was a great city, like one of the royal cities, and because it was greater than Ai, and all its men were warriors.
Jos 10:3 So Adoni-zedek king of Jerusalem sent to Hoham king of Hebron, to Piram king of Jarmuth, to Japhia king of Lachish, and to Debir king of Eglon, saying,
Jos 10:4 "Come up to me and help me, and let us strike Gibeon. For it has made peace with Joshua and with the people of Israel."
Which led to the defeat and slaughter of those cities in a miraculous way. Farther on down the line, you might remember from a previous study (in the "Ladies' Night" series, featuring Michal) that it was the men of Gibeon who brought on God's final vengeance on the House of Saul, by demanding redress of David for an 'off-panel' pogrom against the Gibeonites by Saul- a redress that finally ended in the destruction of Saul's line. When leaders mess up, people end up getting hurt. And I end up wearing two hoodies to take Misty for a restroom stroll.
Third set: Witness altar, Presence promise, Israel's reaction
Late in the tale of Joshua, the three tribes that were allowed to stay on the east side of the Jordan- Reuben, Gad, and the other half of Mannaseh) were released to go to their homes across the water. But very soon, trouble seemingly arose:
Jos 22:9 So the people of Reuben and the people of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh returned home, parting from the people of Israel at Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan, to go to the land of Gilead, their own land of which they had possessed themselves by command of the LORD through Moses.
Jos 22:10 And when they came to the region of the Jordan that is in the land of Canaan, the people of Reuben and the people of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh built there an altar by the Jordan, an altar of imposing size.
Jos 22:11 And the people of Israel heard it said, "Behold, the people of Reuben and the people of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh have built the altar at the frontier of the land of Canaan, in the region about the Jordan, on the side that belongs to the people of Israel."
Jos 22:12 And when the people of Israel heard of it, the whole assembly of the people of Israel gathered at Shiloh to make war against them.
Misplaced zeal for the Lord was about to strike- just like in the days of the Crusades, the Thirty Years War, the conquest of Middle and South America, to name a few. I see it again in Twitter Christians who go forth to fight Twitter paganism without the left hand of Chesed. But, someone was in contact with God- apparently the High Priest Eleazar:
Jos 22:13 Then the people of Israel sent to the people of Reuben and the people of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh, in the land of Gilead, Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest,
Jos 22:14 and with him ten chiefs, one from each of the tribal families of Israel, every one of them the head of a family among the clans of Israel.
Jos 22:15 And they came to the people of Reuben, the people of Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, in the land of Gilead, and they said to them,
Jos 22:16 "Thus says the whole congregation of the LORD, 'What is this breach of faith that you have committed against the God of Israel in turning away this day from following the LORD by building yourselves an altar this day in rebellion against the LORD?
And what they learned cooled their jets in a hurry:
Jos 22:21 Then the people of Reuben, the people of Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh said in answer to the heads of the families of Israel,
Jos 22:22 "The Mighty One, God, the LORD! The Mighty One, God, the LORD! He knows; and let Israel itself know! If it was in rebellion or in breach of faith against the LORD, do not spare us today
Jos 22:23 for building an altar to turn away from following the LORD. Or if we did so to offer burnt offerings or grain offerings or peace offerings on it, may the LORD himself take vengeance.
Jos 22:24 No, but we did it from fear that in time to come your children might say to our children, 'What have you to do with the LORD, the God of Israel?
Jos 22:25 For the LORD has made the Jordan a boundary between us and you, you people of Reuben and people of Gad. You have no portion in the LORD.' So your children might make our children cease to worship the LORD.
Jos 22:26 Therefore we said, 'Let us now build an altar, not for burnt offering, nor for sacrifice,
Jos 22:27 but to be a witness between us and you, and between our generations after us, that we do perform the service of the LORD in his presence with our burnt offerings and sacrifices and peace offerings, so your children will not say to our children in time to come, "You have no portion in the LORD."'
So this altar- never intended for sacrifice- was to be a WITNESS to all that they were still bonded to the rest of the House of Israel, that the river would never be an excuse for disobedience. That God had not left nor forsaken these tribes to the benefit of the others.
Jos 22:30 When Phinehas the priest and the chiefs of the congregation, the heads of the families of Israel who were with him, heard the words that the people of Reuben and the people of Gad and the people of Manasseh spoke, it was good in their eyes.
Jos 22:31 And Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest said to the people of Reuben and the people of Gad and the people of Manasseh, "Today we know that the LORD is in our midst, because you have not committed this breach of faith against the LORD. Now you have delivered the people of Israel from the hand of the LORD."
You catch that? Like I said, it showed the presence of the Lord, who swore never to leave nor forsake them. And BECAUSE they obeyed God for a change, everyone was blessed and God was glorified. Amazingly, as far as I can learn, the altar remained for that purpose only, unlike half the things that were used as symbols and the people turned them into idols.
I might put one more footnote onto this lesson of, "Look before you leap"; This was a consequence of Moses's allowing the 2 1/2 tribes to settle beyond the Jordan- a long term consequence that could have ended badly, but for the Grace of God. And as it ties the last two sets together, we can take a fourth lesson- we shouldn't just mess up and count on God to do the 'right' thing later. Do it right from the first.
A bloody good read
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