The two and a half tribes who settled east of the Jordan have done their duty — they crossed over, fought alongside their brothers for years, and now Joshua sends them home with a blessing. On the way they build a huge altar by the river. The rest of Israel hears about it, assumes the worst, and musters for civil war — and then, before a blow is struck, someone thinks to ask what the altar is for.
A study in Joshua 22 · Arthur Baldwin · StandUp4Jesus.Org · 7 min read
Ye Have Kept All That Moses Commanded
“Ye have kept all that Moses the servant of the LORD commanded you… take diligent heed to do the commandment and the law… to love the LORD your God, and to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, and to cleave unto him, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.”
Joshua 22:2, 5
Reuben, Gad and half of Manasseh had chosen land on the wrong side of the Jordan, but they kept their word: they left their families and cattle and fought through the whole conquest. Joshua sends them off commended, with the same charge Moses gave the nation in Deuteronomy — love God, walk in His ways, cleave to Him. Living at a distance from the sanctuary, they will need it.
They Built There A Great Altar To See To
“The children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh built there an altar by Jordan, a great altar to see to… And when the children of Israel heard of it, the whole congregation of the children of Israel gathered themselves together at Shiloh, to go up to war against them.”
Joshua 22:10, 12
A second altar looked like a second religion, and the law allowed only one place of sacrifice (Deuteronomy 12). Remembering Achan and the disaster at Peor, the western tribes react fast — too fast. They assemble for war against their own brothers on the strength of a report and an assumption, without a single question asked.
That It May Be A Witness Between Us
“Let us now prepare to build us an altar, not for burnt offering, nor for sacrifice: but that it may be a witness between us, and you, and our generations after us… that your children may not say to our children in time to come, Ye have no part in the LORD.”
Joshua 22:26-27
The explanation turns the whole thing around. The altar was never for sacrifice; it was a replica, a monument, built precisely so that a future generation on the west bank could not tell the eastern tribes they had no share in Israel’s God. The river might one day be treated as a border of faith; the altar stands to say it is not. Their motive was the opposite of rebellion — it was fear of being cut off.
They Called The Altar Ed
“And the children of Reuben and the children of Gad called the altar Ed: for it shall be a witness between us that the LORD is God.”
Joshua 22:34
Phinehas hears them out, is satisfied, and the army goes home. A war was avoided by one delegation willing to ask before it accused. It is a small, unglamorous chapter about how much damage a wrong assumption can do among people who all love God, and how a plain conversation can undo it.
“How often serious difficulties arise from a simple misunderstanding, even among those who are actuated by the worthiest motives… No one was ever reclaimed from a wrong position by censure and reproach; but many are thus driven further from the right path.”
Ellen G. White · Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 519
