I want to take our thoughts to near the end of Joshua's life. The promised land is theirs. 600 years of promise have come to fruition, and with all the good that has happened one scene catches my attention. The land is conqured, and the 2 and 1/2 tribes can now return to the east side of the Jordan. They build an altar, and the west bank tribes see this as a threat to national unity, and they arrange a war party led by the grandson of Aaron, Phinehas.
The nation is on brink of a civil-religious war.
"If history is any teacher, the book of Numbers makes it transparent that internal crises (Numbers 11, 12, 13-14, 16, 20) carry a far greater potential to sidetrack the advancement of God's people that does an external crisis (Numbers 22-24). A Korah is more dangerous than a Balaam. God turns curse into blessing, but does not turn rebellion into blessing" (Victor Hamilton, HandBook on the Historical Books, 76).
The charges brought against the transjordan tribes are three fold.
1. They are guilt of apostasy. They have turned away from following the Lord....
2. The two and one-half tribes are guilt of rebellion...
3. The third charge is that of "breach of faith" (Hamilton, 77).
The nation of Israel has several incidents from their past to serve as markers of the dangers of internal strife (Achan Joshua 7 and Peor Numbers 25) and "if one individual could, via his unfaithful actions, threaten the existence of all Israel, how much more could two and one-half tribes do so! Hence, this act of religious malfeasance must be aborted promptly" (Hamiton, 77-78).
As it turns out the delegation come to blot of their brothers are misinformed. At least to Phinehas' credit and those with him, they take the time to discuss the construction of this altar. It turns out that this newly built altar is to serve as a reminder to the west bank tribes that the transjordanians are God's people too.
Boy, our churches would do well today to talk out issues. I can think of numerous stories of misinformed, maybe well-intentioned believers have castigated or even ex-communicated brethern over an issue that they didn't even take the time to find out more information about.
I have even noticed today that once the rumor mill gets started, some of our people don't take the time to check out the rumor at all and assume since brother so and so reported the news that it must be true, or brother so and so found the information of the internet and therfore it must be true.
When we will learn that it is better to talk about our problems however, misinformed or whatever our mis-perceptions maybe.
In youth culture, this sort of thing is real too. She/he said such and such. Maybe we all have encountered this sort of thing with our own kinds or once was caught in the middle of one of these accusastions.
I am working with a young man right now who seems to jump at the first indication of trouble. Someone is talking about him or his family, and he would rather react with his fist than respond with gospel ethics.
History is great teacher. When will we learn?
Could this be a let's talk topic, if we haven't already set those topics in stone? (Gossip, rumors, dealing with these issues, etc.)
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2 comments:
Jason,
Thanks for your thoughts here. I am learning over and over the importance of listening to what's behind the nagging, not that my spouse does this (I confess, I am the nagger), anyway, you bring up an excellent point.
Thanks.
I agree that this is a good illustration for conflict resolution. When talking about it in a previous post (Particular passions), the thing I found significant was the failure to recognize the passion of the other person in its own unique shape. We consider ourselves to be serving God in a way that shows a proper zeal, but when someone else serves God in a way that we didn't think of, or which makes us nervous, we tend to go ballistic (the 9 1/2 tribes), go sullen, or become passive aggressive. I think that you both are on the right track.
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