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

When Joshua had finished dividing up the land among the tribes he summoned the warriors from the tribes of Reuben and Gad, and the half of Manasseh which had settled east of the Jordan.  He praised them for aiding the other tribes in conquering the land and dismissed them to return to their homes east of the Jordan.  Their work was completed, but Joshua reminded them that they should continue to love and obey God with all that they were.  These men took Joshua’s instructions to heart, and before they crossed back over the Jordan to their homes they built a memorial altar.  The purpose of the altar was to remind the descendants of those settling west of the Jordan that those living on the eastern side were their brothers and worshiped the same God.  Overall some important lessons there for us.  Even when we have finished the mission to which God called us we need to continue to love and obey Him.  And, it is important to build memorials to remind those who come after us that they are not the only ones who love and obey God.

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

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

For the last few days I have been commenting on how much of what was being described appears to me to have happened before the end of Chapter 11 where it says, “Then the land had rest from war.”  I believe that Chapter 22 describes wat happened immediately after that verse: the warriors of the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh crossed back over the Jordan River to the east side.  In any case, the warriors returning to their homes east of the Jordan built an altar as a  monument declaring unity between themselves and their kindred settling west of the Jordan.  The other tribes took this altar as a declaration of separation both from themselves and from their God.  From there this story becomes an example of how to deal with conflict.  The tribes west of the Jordan were angry, they thought the tribes east of the Jordan were rejecting them and their God as not “good enough”, and they believed the actions of the tribes east of the Jordan would negatively impact them.  However, instead of immediately going to war in order to protect themselves and punish the eastern tribes, they selected a delegation to speak with them and find out what they were doing, offering a solution if the eastern tribes had a legitimate reason for rejecting them.  When the delegation came to the eastern tribes, they could have taken it as an insult and immediately mustered to make war on those who showed such little trust in them.  After all, the eastern tribes had just returned from spending a generation fighting alongside their brothers now living to the west of the Jordan River.  But that is not how they reacted.  Instead they explained the purpose of the altar which they had built, they told the delegates that the altar had been built as a declaration unity between the tribes living east of the Jordan and the tribes living west of the Jordan, not as a declaration of independence from them.  Because both sides were willing to talk, and to listen, misunderstandings were resolved and peace was obtained.  Of course, peace would likely not have been possible if the eastern tribes had actually intended what the western tribes thought they intended.

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

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

Reading today’s blog I had a new thought about why the Levites were allotted cities and towns from among the other tribes, or, at least, part of what that meant.  All of the other tribes needed to go out and conquer the lands which were allotted to them.  However, the Levites cities and towns from within the land conquered by the other tribes.  So, the Levites could spend their time focusing on determining God’s will for Israel and helping the members of the other tribes worship God.  Which brings up the other reason that the Levites did not have a separate territory of their own.  The Levites were scattered among the other tribes in order to provide each tribe with people to teach them God’s Law and maintain the worship of God.

The other portion of this passage describes the return home of the warriors from the tribes which settled east of the Jordan River.  We learn an important lesson about asking people to explain their actions when we think they have done wrong.  When the eastern tribes returned home they built a large. impressive altar before crossing the Jordan.  The other tribes thought they were building themselves an alternative place of worship from that used by the rest of Israel.  So, the western tribes gathered to go to war against the eastern tribes.  However, before they began to march, they sent a delegation to the eastern tribes to confront them.  The eastern tribes immediately responded that the western tribes were correct, that it would be wrong for them to conduct their worship and feasts at a separate place from the rest of Israel.  They further explained that they had not built the altar for that purpose.  Rather the altar was built as a memorial to future generation reminding them that the tribes east of the Jordan were every bit as much a part of Israel as the western tribes.  Left unspoken, because everyone in the discussion would understand it, was the fact that if they had built any kind of memorial other than an altar, future generations would have made it an object of worship.

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

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.

I rarely get much out of the passages which describe what land was assigned to which tribe.  However, when I read today’s passage I was struck by how allocating land to the Levites from within the allocations of the other tribes provided for spreading religious teachers among them.  By spreading the Levites among the other tribes the Levites also provided a unifying presence to all of the tribes.  With the Levites spread out among the other tribes, they would have been encouraged to travel further than most people would have done.  This would have meant that cultural practices would have been kept more uniform across the entire nation of Israel, which in turn would have kept the people thinking of themselves as a nation.