I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Joshua 21-22.

    The writer finishes describing the land allotment by listing the cities which were given to the various clans of the tribe of Levi. This description tells us how the Levites and the priests were more or less evenly distributed among the rest of the tribes. Then having completed the distribution of the land, Joshua sent the warriors from the tribes whose land was east of the Jordan River home. There are some interesting lessons we can learn from what happened next. On their way home, but before they crossed the Jordan, the tribes whose land was east of the Jordan built an altar which was a copy of the one Joshua had built on Mt Ebal. When the other tribes heard about it they thought that the eastern tribes had set it up as an alternative to the altar at Mt Ebal. If this interpretation of the purpose of the altar was correct, it would have been in direct violation of God’s commands regarding altars (it probably would have also represented the eastern tribes setting themselves up as a separate nation, with a separate god). So, the other tribes prepared to go to war with the eastern tribes. However, before they actually went to war they did something we can learn from. They sent a delegation to the eastern tribes in order to find out what they thought they were doing, and to offer a solution which did not require war. When they learned the reason the eastern tribes built the altar, they were satisfied that war was not necessary. That reason brings us to another lesson, the eastern tribes had built the altar as a memorial to remind their descendants, and the descendants of the western tribes, that the eastern and western tribes were the same nation, the same people, and had equal claim in the worship of God. There is value in building monuments and memorials. They serve as reminders to those who come later of who we are, what our values are, and the lessons we have learned.