God Who Blesses the Community

24“If we have not out of concern done this, and for a reason, saying, ‘In time to come your children might speak to our children, saying, “What have you to do with Yahweh, the God of Israel? 25For Yahweh has made the Jordan a border between us and you, you children of Reuben and children of Gad. You have no portion in Yahweh.”’ So your children might make our children cease from fearing Yahweh. 26“Therefore we said, ‘Let’s now prepare to build ourselves an altar, not for burnt offering, nor for sacrifice; 27but it will be a witness between us and you, and between our generations after us, that we may perform the service of Yahweh before him with our burnt offerings, with our sacrifices, and with our peace offerings;’ that your children may not tell our children in time to come, ‘You have no portion in Yahweh.’ 28“Therefore we said, ‘It shall be, when they tell us or our generations this in time to come, that we shall say, “Behold the pattern of Yahweh’s altar, which our fathers made, not for burnt offering, nor for sacrifice; but it is a witness between us and you.”’ 29“Far be it from us that we should rebel against Yahweh, and turn away today from following Yahweh, to build an altar for burnt offering, for meal offering, or for sacrifice, besides Yahweh our God’s altar that is before his tabernacle!” 30When Phinehas the priest, and the princes of the congregation, even the heads of the thousands of Israel that were with him, heard the words that the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the children of Manasseh spoke, it pleased them well. 31Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest said to the children of Reuben, to the children of Gad, and to the children of Manasseh, “Today we know that Yahweh is among us, because you have not committed this trespass against Yahweh. Now you have delivered the children of Israel out of Yahweh’s hand.” 32Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest, and the princes, returned from the children of Reuben, and from the children of Gad, out of the land of Gilead, to the land of Canaan, to the children of Israel, and brought them word again. 33The thing pleased the children of Israel; and the children of Israel blessed God, and spoke no more of going up against them to war, to destroy the land in which the children of Reuben and the children of Gad lived. 34The children of Reuben and the children of Gad named the altar “A Witness Between Us that Yahweh is God.”

Through the book of Joshua we have come to see how highly God values the community. He gave the law to keep the community of Israel from falling apart, and he taught his people how much their relationship with him mattered. One person’s sin could plunge the whole nation into crisis, and one person’s sound judgment and decision could rescue it from death. Of course, if a believer keeps a right relationship with God, that person will receive a special blessing of their own.

Yet when every member of God’s community stands firm in faith, the community can receive a blessing far greater than any one person receives alone. It is like a household that grows strong when the whole family is united in faith, loving and cherishing one another and sacrificing themselves for one another. But if people will not follow God’s law and press only their own opinions, the community will accomplish nothing and in the end will collapse.

When Christians lay down their own interests so that others can grow, look to God alone, and serve faithfully without seeking notice, the church will grow on a steady footing. The Holy Spirit sees those who quietly give themselves for the Kingdom of God, and he will pour out a special blessing on them. People hold back from such service because they do not know what a great blessing it is to have the Holy Spirit walk beside them and lead them in the good way. We must remember that the praise of people pleases the ear for a moment, but God’s regard lasts forever.

The affairs of the world are judged and decided from self-interest, so success and failure are bound to come. God’s work is different. The Holy Spirit helps us to judge by God’s word and will, which is why those who obey do not fail. When the church works by a good standard, God helps it bear beautiful fruit, and because of that help a good community can labor for the Kingdom of God.

If you do not lay down your own righteousness within this community we call Watercourse Church, if you will not sacrifice, and if you do not truly keep God’s law, the church cannot grow as it should. When a church with many members is still at peace, it shows that someone is sacrificing. And if the church, the nation, and your home are at peace even though you are not working, it means someone else is giving themselves for them.

Israel was a people who had taken God as their king, and all the way into Canaan they labored without ceasing to hold together and to live as God’s people. There was the sacrifice of Moses and Joshua, there were warriors of faith like Caleb, and there were brothers in faith like the tribe of Judah, who shared what was their own. Because they strove to live as the people of God, every tribe of Israel could receive its portion, and the three tribes could go back east of the Jordan to their families.

The Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh had served faithfully so that the land west of the Jordan could be conquered. As their reward they received a great deal of livestock, gold, silver, bronze, and iron, and clothing that was precious in those days, and they returned to Gilead, where their families were.

Joshua 22:10

10When they came to the region about the Jordan, that is in the land of Canaan, the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh built there an altar by the Jordan, a great altar to look at.

Back in Gilead after the war, these tribes suddenly built a great altar by the Jordan, one that could be seen plainly from the western side. They had not said a single word to Joshua or to the rest of the people about it, so when the altar went up beside the river, the Israelites in the west were dismayed. Because it was so large and so easily seen from their side, they took it to mean that the faith of the three tribes east of the Jordan had gone bad and that they had raised a new altar for themselves. Those who saw it could not forgive the three tribes for breaking God’s word and building another altar, and they gathered at Shiloh to go to war against them.

Deuteronomy 12:11

11then it shall happen that to the place which Yahweh your God shall choose, to cause his name to dwell there, there you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the wave offering of your hand, and all your choice vows which you vow to Yahweh.

Moses had commanded the people that once they entered Canaan they were to set up an altar only in the one place God would choose, and that anyone who broke this ordinance was to be put to death. All Israel was to offer its sacrifices and gifts to God at a single altar. God gave this law because even the Israelites, if their faith did not stand firm, would build altars wherever it suited them and sacrifice however they pleased. So he told them to sacrifice according to the law, at the altar he had appointed.

So when the three tribes built an altar that loomed large even from the west, the people concluded that they had broken God’s command. Because raising an altar at their own discretion was a betrayal of God, the Israelites were enraged and agreed to bring judgment on the three tribes. But before going to war, they decided first to find out why the tribes had built so great an altar. Their reasoning was this: Moses had charged them to bring sacrifices and gifts only to the altar God had chosen as the place for his name, and if the tribes had built one in spite of that, it would not be too late to learn their purpose first and attack afterward.

To find out the reason, Phinehas the priest, the grandson of Aaron, went east of the Jordan with princes chosen from each tribe. Phinehas followed the faith of his grandfather Aaron and his father Eleazar, and he was faithfully fulfilling his role as priest according to God’s will alone. He was a man of precious faith, who strove to live as God commanded. Earlier, when Israel went to war against Midian, twelve thousand Israelite soldiers marched out, and Phinehas the priest went to the battlefield carrying the vessels of the sanctuary and the trumpets for the alarm.

God struck Midian not to take its land but to judge a people who were leading his own people astray. It was in this war that Balaam was put to death by Israel. Before he came to Midian, Balaam had been asked by King Balak to curse Israel, but God stopped him, and all he could do in the end was pronounce blessings. Yet Balaam did not stop there. He used the women of Moab to seduce the Israelites, causing them to commit sexual immorality and to serve Baal, and it was Phinehas who put an end to it.

Numbers 25:1 records that while Israel stayed at Shittim, the people began to commit sexual immorality with the women of Moab, and Numbers 31:16 reveals that leading Israel into idolatry was Balaam’s own scheme. God had spoken to Balaam directly so that he could not curse Israel, and three times God held him back from that sin. Still Balaam would not let go of his own designs, and in the end he devised a plot to corrupt Israel. The people fell for it and committed immorality with the women of Moab. When the women sacrificed to Baal, they invited the Israelites and made them bow down to Baal, and there, after the manner of Baal’s rites, the men gave themselves to immorality on the spot. Balaam could collect the rewards of divination only by granting King Balak’s request. That is why he engineered the affair at Baal Peor.

God was angry when Israel, whom he had spared no pains to bring all the way to Canaan, gave way to corruption. His anger had a cause: the conquest of Canaan would have been no easy war even for a united people, and they had fallen for Balaam’s plot, committing immorality with the women of Moab and worshiping Baal. Had the people of Israel stood firm in faith, they would not have fallen, however cunning Balaam’s schemes or however strong the lure of the Moabite women. In the same way, if the church lives by the truth, it will not stumble when Satan schemes and the world entices, and it will be able to enter heaven, the eternal land.

Yahweh was furious with Israel in its corruption, and he commanded Moses to take the chiefs of the people and hang them. Moses ordered the judges of Israel to kill everyone who had joined themselves to Baal Peor. Nothing could hold back the wrath of God and of Moses now. Only as they watched the guilty put to death and others dying of the plague did the Israelites at last realize how grievous a sin they had committed.

All the people came out to the door of the Tent of Meeting, begging God’s forgiveness and repenting. Because no one can bear the judgment of God, all Israel pleaded for pardon and repented with all their hearts. Then, before God had even forgiven them, one of the Israelites brought a Midianite woman into his tent in full view of the congregation. Even while the plague raged under God’s wrath and the judges were putting Baal’s worshipers to death, he had no thought of repenting. The woman was Cozbi, the daughter of Zur, a chief of the Midianites.

When the two went into the tent, Phinehas the priest followed them in, burning with anger, and killed them both. God saw his faithfulness and brought the plague to an end. Twenty-four thousand died in that plague, and the number alone shows how great God’s wrath was.

Numbers 25:11

11“Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, has turned my wrath away from the children of Israel, in that he was jealous with my jealousy among them, so that I didn’t consume the children of Israel in my jealousy.

Yahweh told Moses that because Phinehas the priest had been faithful with the same heart as his own, he would not destroy the people. Though all Israel had fallen, Phinehas showed his faith, and God’s wrath was quieted. You must never forget that the faithfulness of one person can hold back the death of a whole people like this.

God also commended Phinehas the priest and promised to give him and his descendants an everlasting priesthood. Phinehas did not kill the two who defied God’s word in order to win God’s praise. He acted rightly because he knew that God is almighty and holy, and that faith brought blessing on his descendants. It is an event that makes us consider once more how much it matters that parents live with a holy faith.

The point is not that Phinehas was faithful so that his children would be blessed. When we live by a good faith that loves God, God sees that faith and blesses our children. Through this war, Balaam, who had schemed to corrupt Israel, was at last put to death by the Israelites. He had been given many chances to live as one of God’s people, yet in the end he died a miserable death along with the Midianites.

Phinehas, in carrying out his calling as priest, knew how terrible God’s judgment for sin is. When he saw that the three tribes had built an altar in the east, fear came over him. Because he knew that their altar was not the three tribes’ problem alone but would affect all Israel, he wanted to hear from them what they intended.

Joshua 22:18

18that you must turn away today from following Yahweh? It will be, since you rebel today against Yahweh, that tomorrow he will be angry with the whole congregation of Israel.

Phinehas asked the three tribes, with great care, why they had made the altar. He was careful because, if they had built it for themselves, to worship foreign gods, the suffering it would bring on the community of Israel would be enormous. Israel was a community that had taken God as its king, so the sin of the three tribes would become the sin of all Israel.

The same is true of your home, your church, and your nation. In a family, when one person lives wrongly, the whole household suffers. That is why everyone must work to protect the home. In the church, too, one careless word or act can wound the whole body, and one person who will not give up their own righteousness can divide the whole church or bring its growth to a halt. Because a matter in the community never concerns one person only but becomes a matter for all the church, we must never hesitate to discipline sin, if only to protect other souls. Even with God’s grace upon it, the church must not let down its guard, because when its members fail to hold fast to their faith, Satan steps in.

Joshua 22:23

23that we have built us an altar to turn away from following Yahweh; or if to offer burnt offering or meal offering, or if to offer sacrifices of peace offerings, let Yahweh himself require it.

The Gadites, the Reubenites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh answered that they had built the altar to show that, though the Jordan separated them from the other tribes, they were one nation. For now everyone knew that they were the same people of Israel even with the Jordan between them, but children born in years to come would not know why these three tribes lived east of the river. So they had raised the altar to remind them that they were one people. Phinehas and the princes rejoiced when they heard that the tribes had made it out of a deep longing to remain Israel’s brothers. Their joy came from this: divided by the Jordan though they were, the altar had been built so that they would never forget they were brothers.

The three tribes named the altar Ed, which means a witness that Yahweh is God. Because they promised to use the altar they had built for no other purpose than to show that they were Yahweh’s people alone, Phinehas and the princes went home with glad hearts.

Like the altar the three tribes built east of the Jordan, we must build a high altar of faith to show that, though we live in the world, we are citizens of heaven. We live in a harsh world, but the altar of faith we build up as we look forward to the day we go home to heaven will prove that we belong to the Lord.

Just as the people of Israel offered sacrifices to Yahweh at one altar only, we must worship God in the name of Christ alone. As building another altar was in itself the sin of rebelling against God, so we must not serve God in any name other than Christ’s. If anyone tries to raise an altar of faith in another name than Christ, God will never accept it, even if it is a devotion that offers up one’s very life.

Today many Christians and many churches are trying to serve God under another name. They seek to take glory for themselves in Christ’s place, and they use Christ to exalt their own names and to gain honor and power. Those who do not know the word, too, are building their altars on a mistaken faith. They believe that large offerings bring blessing, that serving God with their own earnest efforts brings blessing, and they are gripped by the idea that plenty of service will make God bless them. They are serving God in order to be blessed.

The trouble is that the blessings people have in mind all belong to this world. God is spirit, our true home is heaven, and salvation is something the soul receives. Yet people commit the error of serving God to gain the visible things of this world. What a sad way to live out one’s faith!

If we live as God commanded, in the name of Christ, by the words of Jesus and according to his will, we need not cling to a false faith in order to be blessed. God will fill our lives to overflowing, until they shine. Those who have grasped the truth build up their weaker brothers and sisters, sacrifice themselves, and give their utmost to saving souls with love. This is how we must go through life, proud to belong to God. Because a life of faith is itself the proof that we are God’s people, Satan will not be able to attack us at will.

Phinehas and the princes were overjoyed at what the three tribes said. They had thought these tribes had betrayed God, but instead the tribes had built the altar as a witness that they were God’s people, and seeing this, they sang praises together and exalted God. From then on they never again doubted the faith of the three tribes. Looking at Ed, the altar the three tribes had built, Israel grew stronger in the assurance that God is always the God of every one of them. In the same way, it matters for us to confirm one another’s faith. When we confirm that we are one in God, the community grows ever stronger.

You are one in God. The healthier, wiser, and fuller of faith your beloved brothers and sisters are, the more securely you can keep your faith because of them, and the more you can enjoy peace together with them. I hope you will show God your faith and your love. May you show him the proof that he is your God. Then God will open the door of heaven and pour out abundant blessing on you, so that your faith may grow ever more holy. The blessing God gives can never be taken away.

The grace God gives will light the path you walk, and it will cover your worries and cares with the power of his love.

May you always build up the altar of faith and exalt the name of God, and may you grow in a faith that does not waver even under Satan’s temptations. I bless you in the name of Jesus Christ.