Chapter 22
Reuben, Gad, and one half of the tribe of Manasseh have done as they promised, and accompanied Israel in the conquest of Canaan. Now they return to the East side Jordan with great wealth for their tribes. Israel is still camped at Shiloh at this point. So here is the record that these tribes had done as promised, and that a general state of war no longer existed. Perhaps the situation is that all the fortified cities, all the armies, all the organized resistance of the Canaanites has been eliminated, and all the remaining tribes need do is a little mopping up in order to fully possess the land allotted to them. I also suppose that not all of them did so. Maybe none of them did so.
This verse of explanation:
7 Now to the one half of the tribe of Manasseh Moses had given a possession in Bashan, but to the other half Joshua had given a possession beside their brothers in the land west of the Jordan. And when Joshua sent them away to their homes and blessed them, [Jos 22:7 ESV]
As they leave Canaan, these tribes made a sizable altar on the West side Jordan. The rest of Israel is so angry about this that they gather to make war on Gad, Reuben, and Manasseh. But first a delegation is sent to these East Side tribes to inquire about this altar. These verses:
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? [Jos 22:16 ESV].
Notice that they are angry about a breach of faith against God, who has not ordered any such altar, and in fact commanded that only one altar was going to be acceptable to Him. This is also not about inter-tribal jealousy. The 10 tribes do not want the 2 tribes to bring damnation on them all. The reason the 10 believe this is such a big deal goes all the way back to Peor, when the snakes visited everyone, not just the guilty, as found in these verses:
17 Have we not had enough of the sin at Peor from which even yet we have not cleansed ourselves, and for which there came a plague upon the congregation of the LORD, 18 that you too must turn away this day from following the LORD? And if you too rebel against the LORD today then tomorrow he will be angry with the whole congregation of Israel. [Jos 22:17-18 ESV]
2021 - 18 ... And if you too rebel against the LORD today then tomorrow he will be angry with the whole congregation of Israel. [Jos 22:18b ESV]
Here is a principle that we rarely discuss. Israel was a people set apart, as 12 tribes. Within that people, we have seen God's wrath directed toward individuals - that one guy who kept gold at Jericho, Miriam, toward tribes (or have we???), toward groups comprised of multiple tribes - the rebellion against Moses and Aaron, and now we see a group of tribes in rebellion. And we see the warning that if they do this, God will be angry not only with them, but with all of Israel for what this one group is doing. I wonder if this applies today? The group that is set apart today is the church. It occurs to me that when I rebel, when I fail, when I fall short - and continue in that state - I might be bringing God's wrath/punishment/retribution on my local church, and on the church in the world. Could the principle be that the more "rebellion" there is in the church as a whole the more general will be God's anger toward it? As time went on, God eventually got angry enough to scatter the northern tribes, and later he allowed the rest of Israel to go into captivity, keeping only a few for himself. Is that also how it will go with the church in our time? It will grow smaller and weaker as time goes on because of the dilution of the church by the culture? Aren't we already seeing that with whole denominations accepting things that are absolutely not according to God's written word - homosexuality, female clergy, and so on? As the world grows more sinful, the church is also undeniably getting smaller and smaller, until we get to a time like the days of Noah, when the little remnant that remains of the church is raptured out. So. The point of this is that we each need to remember that when we embrace some sin, continue in some secret sin, we do not sin alone, we do not invite wrath on ourselves only, but on our families, our neighbors, and most of all, on our church. It is never just about us with God. It never has been.
Possible FB post or website article. However, reading on, this may be too broad an application. But maybe not...they had taken their eyes off of the Oneness of God. They were making a secondary place to worship - a lesser place - and it looked as if they were in rebellion. Turned out they were not, but still.
And this last is even more to the point:
19 But now, if the land of your possession is unclean, pass over into the LORD's land where the LORD's tabernacle stands, and take for yourselves a possession among us. Only do not rebel against the LORD or make us as rebels by building for yourselves an altar other than the altar of the LORD our God. [Jos 22:19 ESV]
The 10 tribes offer to further divide the land of Canaan, and to bring these other tribes home, rather than have them feel like they must disobey God in order to worship God. And that line that says don't make us rebels by being rebels yourselves. Here is another statement of how God deals with nations as opposed to individuals. Here is how sometimes the innocent fall with the evil, here is how good people are taken into Assyrian and Babylonian captivity because of the pervasive and widespread sin of a nation as a whole. While this may apply as a general principle of how God works, it was specifically about how God dealt with Israel, according to the conditional covenant in place with that nation. I don't think it really works this way with say, the US of A, and I do not think viruses are God applying the curses of the Sinai covenant on the US.
God had said all were to worship at the place where He put His name. This was the Tent of Meeting, which was at Shiloh. By building another altar, these three tribes were repeating an earlier sin - for which God had punished the nation, not just the individual sinners. The 10 remaining tribes will go to war rather than let this sin, which will affect both they and their children, stand un-reproached.
The three tribes answer that if they are guilty as charged, then kill them. But unlike the earlier incident, they have not sacrificed on this altar, and they built it to the one God, not to any other. They haven't built it as a place of worship but as a memorial, that as the generations pass, this altar will remind their descendants to the west that they are brothers to the descendants to the east. Therefore, as brothers, those from the East of Jordan will always be welcomed into the tabernacle, and later the temple, to worship God as Israelites and not kept at a distance, as strangers.