Thursdays with Joshua

Read Joshua 22:24-27 – “But in fact we have done it for fear, for a reason, saying, ‘In time to come your descendants may speak to our descendants, saying, “What have you to do with the Lord God of Israel? For the Lord has made the Jordan a border between you and us, you children of Reuben and children of Gad. You have no part in the Lord.” So your descendants would make our descendants cease fearing the Lord.’ Therefore we said, ‘Let us now prepare to build ourselves an altar, not for burnt offering nor for sacrifice, but that it may be a witness between you and us and our generations after us, that we may perform the service of the Lord before Him with our burnt offerings, with our sacrifices, and with our peace offerings; that your descendants may not say to our descendants in time to come, “You have no part in the Lord.”’” (NKJV) 

Can the actions of a friend be perceived as the actions of an enemy? They can if we lack understanding. Here, Israel’s tribes that settled on the east side of the Jordan have constructed an altar lest their western brothers forget their relationship and someday allow the Jordan River to justify rejecting them. Why did these tribes fear such a future outcome? It’s hard to say, but it seems likely that they had perceived their connection to the remainder of Israel as uncertain. Of course, the western folks misconstrued the intent of their eastern brothers in this action and war was imminent. On both sides of the Jordan, the actions made sense to those who had taken them, just as our actions make sense to us, but we can easily misunderstand the actions of others. The solution? It seems that only a sincere effort to communicate will bridge the gap. After all, when we believe others are responding to us negatively, our fears can lead us down many uncertain paths. Talk before you act and you might save yourself from tragedy.

– Dr. Mike Clarensau serves as Senior Director of the Healthy Church Network of the Assemblies of God.