Sermon Tone Analysis

Reconciliation – Joshua Style

 

Joshua 22

October 22

 

*Introduction*

A pastor I Know preached on Grace for 3 years.

So I don’t feel so bad preaching once again on the topic of reconciliation.

Just as that pastor’s church needed to hear about living by grace alone, God has led me to share with you “Reconciliation – Joshua style.”

So, let’s see what Joshua chapter 22 can teach us today about how reconciliation is linked to telling people of truth and love.

Someone once said that perception is nine-tenths reality.

What you perceive to be real you conclude as just that.

Right?

There’s a lot of wisdom in that statement, but there’s also a problem.

The problem is that remaining tenth.

Often we don’t have the whole picture when we think we do.

Bob Bugh relates the following story: “When I was in my early twenties, I was discipled for a time by Robert Hendricks, the oldest son of Howard Hendricks.

One day Bob said, “Let’s go out to lunch.”

We went to a place I’d never seen.

As we were sitting around, Bob said, “Look around, Rob.

Do you notice anything different or unusual about this place?”

I looked around, and I didn’t see anything unusual or different and told Bob that.

He said, “Well, look more closely.

Look at the people.”

We were in a restaurant bar in Dallas, and I started to look at the people.

Finally it clicked.

And I said, “Bob, we are in a gay bar.”

He smiled and said, “You got it.”

Then he proceeded to tell me how every week he and his brother, Bill, would go into this bar, sit at that particular table, and use the writings of Henry David Thoreau as a springboard to engage individuals in a conversation about God and the gospel.

He had an evangelistic ministry in this gay bar.

If you were trailing Bob and me that particular day, based on your perceptions, you would conclude that we were gay—especially Bob because he went there every week.”

Now, do you see the problem with perception?

Now, think about this in terms of what’s happened with the murder of Jeffrey Dahmer.

Dahmer died of head wounds in the prison where he was serving a 957-year term for killing 17 individuals.

We look at the murder of Dahmer, the mass murderer, and our perception is that he got his due.

But, you may not realize that earlier that year Dahmer gave his life to Jesus Christ.

He was baptized in a prison whirlpool and was meeting every week with a Wisconsin pastor by the name of Roy Radcliff.

Our perception of Dahmer is that he’s this despicable sinner.

And that’s true.

But it’s only 9~/10 true.

That’s not the whole story.

If these reports are accurate, Jeff will spend eternity in heaven with us.

Perceptions are not always reality.

And this is exactly what Israel discovers in Joshua, chapter 22.

 

Turn with me now to the book of Joshua in the Old Testament as we examine *Harmony and Disharmony among the Tribes of Israel*

 

Let me begin at Joshua 22:1: /“Then Joshua summoned the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh and said to them, ‘You have done all that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded, and you have obeyed me in everything I commanded.

For a long time now—to this very day—you have not deserted your brothers but have carried out the mission the Lord your God gave you.’” /Let’s stop there for the time being to find out what the mission was.

Way back in Numbers 32, when Israel was marching through the wilderness of Gilead, these two-and-a-half tribes—the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh—came to Moses and said, “Moses, wait a minute.

Moses, when it comes to settling the promised land, let us settle this land east of the Jordan River.

After all, God has allowed us to defeat the people who lived here in this land, and we like the land.

Someone needs to occupy it, so let us do just that.”

Moses said they could, under one condition—that the soldiers of the two-and-a-half tribes continue to fight against the enemies of Israel with the rest of the tribes.

The soldiers of those tribes did that faithfully.

That’s what Joshua means here in verse 2 when he says, “You have done all that Moses commanded.”

You have fought, literally speaking, the good fight.

“You have not forsaken your brothers,” Joshua says in verse 3, “but have kept the commands of the Lord your God.”

 

Let’s look at verses 4 and 5: “Now that the Lord your God has given your brothers rest as he promised.

...” I picture Joshua with a lump in his throat, thinking about these soldiers who have fought for so long with him—seven years.

Now Joshua says, /“Return to your homes in the land that Moses the servant of the Lord gave you on the other side of the Jordan.

But be very careful to keep the commandment and the law that Moses the servant of the Lord gave you: to love the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to obey his commands, to hold fast to him, and to serve him with all your heart and all your soul.”/

Let me suggest that this was the first Promise Keepers meeting!

Here Joshua calls these tough and seasoned soldiers to a rigorous love for and obedience to God.

If you want to be the man or woman God wants you to be, let me encourage you this morning to *underscore the six simple terms*, we find here in verse five: to keep, to love, to walk, to obey, to hold fast, to serve.

Let me read verse 5 for you again: /“Only be very careful to observe the commandment and the law that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you, to love the Lord your God, and to walk in all his ways and to keep)his commandments and to cling to him and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul."

/Once again, these six simple terms are: to observe, to love to walk, to obey, to cling to Him, to serve Him

 

God’s men go hard after God.

These infinitives are terms of intensity.

They emphasize a relationship with God that’s characterized by a passion for God.

That’s what Joshua wanted from these men, and that’s what God wants from us.

That’s what it means to be a Promise Keeper: we keep God’s commands, we love God, we walk with God, we obey God, we hold fast to God, we serve God.

Our biblical mandate for a God-focused life.

The Bible says it, ; I believe it.

Are we people of the Book?

Then our lives will exemplify observing the commandments, loving God, walking with God, obeying God, clinging to God, and serving God.

Now let’s return to our passage.

In verses 6 through 8, Joshua blesses these hard-working soldiers.

In verse 9, they leave and head back across the Jordan River to settle the east side of the Jordan.

Then in verse 10, it says, /“When they came to Geliloth near the Jordan in the land of Canaan, the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh built an imposing altar there by the Jordan.

But when the Israelites heard that they had built the altar on the border of Canaan at Geliloth near the Jordan on the Israelite side, the whole assembly of Israel gathered at Shiloh to go to war against them.”/

Wait a minute!

Stop the press!

In verse 6, Joshua had just blessed these dudes, and now in verse 12, he wants to blow them away.

Why? What’s going on here?

We can be like this too, can’t we?

One minute we’re getting along with our neighbor, then our dog gets into their garbage or our children fight with theirs over possession of a toy, or we misspeak inadvertently and the war is on.

Fortunately, some cool heads prevail in this Bible passage and, in verses 13 through 14, a delegation is sent on behalf of the nine-and-a-half tribes to begin negotiations towards reconciliation.

Let’s pick up what this delegation says, beginning in verse 15:

/“When they [this delegation headed by Phinehas] went to Gilead—to Reuben, Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh—they said to them, ‘The whole assembly of the Lord says, ‘How could you break faith with the God of Israel like this?

How could you turn away from the Lord and build yourself an altar of rebellion against him now?’”/

Why were these nine-and-a-half tribes ready to blow away the two-and-a-half?

Because they saw this imposing altar as “an altar of rebellion.”

That’s what it’s called in verse 16.

Now travel down to verse 19 for their next step towards reconciliation.

/“If the land you possess is defiled, come over to the Lord’s land,” they go on, “where the Lord’s tabernacle stands, and share the land with us.

But do not rebel against the Lord or against us by building an altar for yourselves other than the altar of the Lord our God.”/

Building a second altar amounted to rebellion, and the nine-and-a-half tribes were convinced that the two-and-a-half had lapsed into apostasy.

They had forsaken their faith.

That is what an apostate is: a traitor to the faith.

Why is this a problem?

Well, hold your place and go back to Deuteronomy chapter 12 for a moment.

We need to look at several passages in the Pentateuch as we travel through the book of Joshua to get a sense of the history behind some of the things that are happening here in Joshua 22.

Notice Deuteronomy 12:10.