{"id":13799,"date":"2021-01-22T21:00:45","date_gmt":"2021-01-23T04:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/joshua_22_1-9-copy\/"},"modified":"2021-01-22T23:08:55","modified_gmt":"2021-01-23T06:08:55","slug":"joshua_22_10-20","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/joshua_22_10-20\/","title":{"rendered":"Look Before You Leap"},"content":{"rendered":"

Joshua 22:10-20 Click here for Bible Verses<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Joshua 22:10-20.\u00a0\u00a0Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

Joshua 22:10-20 (NIV)\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>
\n10\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0When 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.
\n11\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0And when the Israelites heard that they had built the altar on the border of Canaan at Geliloth near the Jordan on the Israelite side,
\n12\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0the whole assembly of Israel gathered at Shiloh to go to war against them.
\n13\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0So the Israelites sent Phinehas son of Eleazar, the priest, to the land of Gilead–to Reuben, Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh.
\n14\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0With him they sent ten of the chief men, one for each of the tribes of Israel, each the head of a family division among the Israelite clans.
\n15\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0When they went to Gilead–to Reuben, Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh–they said to them:
\n16\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0“The whole assembly of the\u00a0LORD\u00a0says: ‘How could you break faith with the God of Israel like this? How could you turn away from the\u00a0LORD\u00a0and build yourselves an altar in rebellion against him now?
\n17\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Was not the sin of Peor enough for us? Up to this very day we have not cleansed ourselves from that sin, even though a plague fell on the community of the\u00a0LORD!
\n18\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0And are you now turning away from the\u00a0LORD? “‘If you rebel against the\u00a0LORD\u00a0today, tomorrow he will be angry with the whole community of Israel.
\n19\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0If the land you possess is defiled, come over to the\u00a0LORD’s land, where the\u00a0LORD’s tabernacle stands, and share the land with us. But do not rebel against the\u00a0LORD\u00a0or against us by building an altar for yourselves, other than the altar of the\u00a0LORD\u00a0our God.
\n20\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0When Achan son of Zerah acted unfaithfully regarding the devoted things, did not wrath come upon the whole community of Israel? He was not the only one who died for his sin.'”<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 10-20:\u00a0\u00a0The tribes of Reuben, Gad and half of Manasseh (whom I\u2019ll call collectively, \u201cTeam RGM\u201d) are traveling on their way back to Gilead, their lands located east of the Jordan River.\u00a0\u00a0On their way to Gilead they stop and build a huge altar on the western or \u201cIsraelite\u201d side of the Jordan River (v10).\u00a0\u00a0When the rest of the tribes see the huge altar that Team RGM have built, they immediately assume that Team RGM were worshiping another god.\u00a0\u00a0So the rest of the Israelites prepare to go to war against Team RGM.\u00a0\u00a0They send a delegation consisting of Phinehas the priest\u2019s son and some tribal leaders to speak with Team RGM\u2019s leaders.\u00a0\u00a0The delegation accuses Team RGM of turning away from the Lord.\u00a0\u00a0The delegation compares what Team RGM have done to \u201cthe sin of Peor\u201d (v17), which happened generations prior when some Israelite men slept with Canaanite women and worshiped their gods (see Numbers 25).\u00a0\u00a0The delegation also compares what Team RGM have done to the sin of Achan in Joshua 7 where Achan coveted the wealth of other nations and died as a result (v20).<\/p>\n

Later in verses 21 to 29 we will learn that the reason why Team RGM built this altar on the western side of the Jordan had nothing to do with worshiping another god.\u00a0\u00a0On the contrary, Team RGM built this huge altar as a visual reminder for all the Israelites and their descendants that, regardless of which side of the river they lived on, Team RGM and the other tribes of Israel were one nation worshiping the same Lord together.<\/p>\n

What can we learn from this?\u00a0\u00a0Notice that the Israelite tribes living to the west of the Jordan jumped to the conclusion that Team RGM were sinning by worshiping another god, when in fact they were doing the opposite.\u00a0\u00a0They began accusing Team RGM before they fully understood the situation.\u00a0\u00a0They could have benefitted from following James 1:19, which tells us to \u201cbe quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0Thus one lesson we can learn from this event is:\u00a0\u00a0before you reach a conclusion about someone, before you accuse them of anything, be sure you understand the situation first.\u00a0\u00a0Don\u2019t jump to conclusions before understanding the situation.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Look before you leap.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0As Proverbs 18:13 (TLB) says,<\/p>\n

13\u00a0<\/sup>What a shame\u2014yes, how stupid!\u2014to decide before knowing the facts!<\/em><\/p>\n

You will save yourself and others a lot of unnecessary embarrassment, trouble and conflict if you would ask questions and understand the other side\u2019s situation first before arriving at your conclusion.<\/p>\n

Heavenly Father, thank You for Your Word which shows me the importance of looking before I leap.\u00a0\u00a0May I be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to be angry.\u00a0\u00a0May I not foolishly jump to conclusions before trying to fully understand the situation first.\u00a0\u00a0In Jesus\u2019 name, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Joshua 22:10-20.\u00a0\u00a0Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

Joshua 22:10-20 (NIV)\u00a0
\n10\u00a0\u00a0When 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.\u00a0
\n11\u00a0\u00a0And when the Israelites heard that they had built the altar on the border of Canaan at Geliloth near the Jordan on the Israelite side,\u00a0
\n12\u00a0\u00a0the whole assembly of Israel gathered at Shiloh to go to war against them.\u00a0
\n13\u00a0\u00a0So the Israelites sent Phinehas son of Eleazar, the priest, to the land of Gilead–to Reuben, Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh.\u00a0
\n14\u00a0\u00a0With him they sent ten of the chief men, one for each of the tribes of Israel, each the head of a family division among the Israelite clans.\u00a0……<\/p>\n

On verses 10-20:\u00a0\u00a0The tribes of Reuben, Gad and half of Manasseh (whom I\u2019ll call collectively, \u201cTeam RGM\u201d) are traveling on their way back to Gilead, their lands located east of the Jordan River.\u00a0\u00a0On their way to Gilead they stop and build a huge altar on the western or \u201cIsraelite\u201d side of the Jordan River (v10).\u00a0\u00a0When the rest of the tribes see the huge altar that Team RGM have built, they immediately assume that Team RGM were worshiping another god.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13801,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13799"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13799\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13911,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13799\/revisions\/13911"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}