Are You Zealous for Your God?

The Israelites almost went to war with the eastern tribes because they thought they had done something against God. But after confronting them, they realized these tribes did what they did because they loved God and wanted to remain close to Him and His people. They were both zealous for their God and all that passion almost dissolved into a civil war. It is obviously good to be passionate about our relationship with God and also to be willing to defend Him, but we also need to have all the facts before we act purely on our emotion.

The Eastern Tribes Return to Their Land – Joshua 22:1-9

After Joshua had given all the tribes their land, it was time for them to settle in it. So, Joshua told the eastern tribes that they had faithfully fulfilled their duty to fight with their brothers, and they were free to go across the Jordan and settle their land. But before they left, he reminded them to follow God in their new land, to walk in His ways, to keep His commands, to hold on to Him, and to serve Him with all their hearts and souls. Then he blessed them and sent them away with livestock, silver, gold, bronze, iron, and clothes.

They Build an Altar – Joshua 22:10-12 (Leviticus 17:8-9, Deuteronomy 12:1-14)

            But just before they crossed the river, these two-and-a-half tribes erected a huge altar, even though God had forbidden them to sacrifice or worship anywhere but the place He had chosen as His dwelling place. For the time being, His house was the Tabernacle in Shiloh, the only place where altars were supposed to be built for burnt offerings. If they were to burn sacrifices away from the Tabernacle, they could not bring them to the Lord because every sacrifice was presented to God in the place He called home. That meant that they were not really sacrificing to God, which was a grave offense worthy of death. So, when the rest of the Israelites heard this, they assumed these tribes had broken God’s law, and they gathered in Shiloh to prepare for war.

The Israelites Confront the Eastern Tribes – Joshua 22:13-20

            But before they went to war with their brothers, Phinehas confronted them with the ten heads of the other tribes. Phinehas was the son of Eleazar, the priest who had been zealous for his God in the case of the Midianite women. (Numbers 25) Evidently, his character had not changed. He was being zealous for God regarding this altar, too. If the people had done as it seemed and gone against the Lord by building another altar for themselves, He was willing to go to war against them for God’s sake.

So, this priest and the heads of each tribe approached the eastern tribes in Gilead and asked why they had breached their faith with God and turned away from His commands by building the altar. They also brought up what had happened in Peor when many of the men sinned against God with the Midianite women, and they reminded the eastern tribes that God sent a plague on the whole nation because of those men’s sin. He also punished everyone when Achan took the spoils of war in Jericho. It was clear that the Israelites were upset with their brothers for putting them all in jeopardy like that again, and they also wondered how these people could have forgotten those instances so quickly. They still did not feel a clear conscience from their sin in Peor, yet these other two-and-a-half tribes seemed to have forgotten completely.

These 11 men also didn’t seem to understand why they would build the altar in the first place. So, they told them if their new land was so unclean that they needed to offer sacrifices to cleanse it, they could just take their allotment in the West with their brothers. The Israelites had just received their inheritance and finally found rest. They did not want the Lord to be displeased with them before their nation even began, so they tried to handle the situation before it got out of hand.

The Eastern Tribes Defend Themselves – Joshua 22:21-29

            The eastern tribes responded by stating twice how powerful God was and that He was their Lord. By saying the exact same words two times, they were showing that they demonstratively knew He was Mighty and declaring He was their Lord to say they had not gone against His commands before they ever began explaining. Then they said God already knew their hearts and was aware of what they were doing, but they wanted the rest of the nation to know, too. They had not built the altar out of rebellion to God, and they had not lost their faith in Him. They had no intention of using it to offer any sort of sacrifice. It was only a copy of the true altar to witness that even though they did not live in the same land, they still belonged to the same nation and worshipped the same God. They did not want the Israelites living in the West to ever exclude them from corporate worship and sacrifice. So, they built the huge altar for everyone to see as a reminder that they all worship the same God and should always be allowed to sacrifice at the true altar that stood before the Tabernacle of the Lord. This huge altar would stand for generations and be a witness between them forever. So, they had not built it in rebellion but for the sake of unity so they would never be isolated from the nation of Israel or their God.

Unified Once Again – Joshua 22:30-34

            When Phinehas and the heads of the other ten tribes heard their explanation, they understood and were relieved. They did not have to go to war with their brothers after all. The eastern tribes had not betrayed them or the Lord. So, this altar was named “Witness” because it was a witness between them that the God of Israel was indeed their Lord. It testified to everyone who saw it that they followed Israel’s God.

Get the Facts Before You Jump to Conclusions

            Once we see what was really going on, it is such a relief that the Israelites did not go to war before talking to the eastern tribes. They thought was happening was totally obvious and that they were acting to defend God, but they did not have all the facts. If they had proceeded without gathering more information, they would have brought themselves into a civil war just as their nation was beginning.

            We all jump to conclusions from time to time. Sometimes, what is happening seems so obvious, that there seems to be no reason to investigate any further. But the Israelites could have said the same thing about this altar, yet they would have been wrong. This should cause us to pause the next time we think we know what’s going on and make sure before we take action. The last thing we want to do is stumble into a preventable war. Assuming things before we have all the facts can get us into trouble and cause hurt feelings. We should never be so arrogant as to think that we know someone else’s heart or motives, or that we know everything we need to know without anyone else’s input. The other person may have a perfectly good explanation for what they did. We should always give them the chance to explain themselves before we just attack, forcing them to defend themselves instead.