Year 4, Day 207: Joshua 22

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: Character (Abide, see note below)

• Character: Having the interior life that is necessary to support the work that God sets before a person.  It is hearing from God and obeying.  It is doing the right thing when nobody is looking.

In Joshua 22 we have a great story.  On the way home from completing their work faithfully, the 2 ½ Transjordan tribes build an altar.  They build the altar as a monument of peace between the Hebrew people.  They don’t build the altar in order to stop making sacrifices before God; they build it to remind everyone that the people on one side of the Jordan are devoted to the same God as the people on the other side of the Jordan.

However, the Cisjordan tribes get worried.  They remember what happened at Peor.  They probably also remember what happened at Sinai with the Golden Calf.  They get nervous because the Transjordan people are acting out of character.  So they come and check it out.

We have three great displays of character.  First of all, the Transjordan tribes display character in remaining faithful to God.  The Cisjordan tribes display character by remaining faithful to God and their brothers by checking out their actions and testing the motivation behind the altar.  Finally, we have faithfulness on both sides when the tribes do get together, do actually have a rational conversation, and do seek truth rather than their own agenda.  What a great chapter in which we see character rising to the surface in human action!

<>< 

Note: While I focused on character in this devotion, it is also quite possible to focus on abiding as well.  Given what was said yesterday about abiding after the work is done, this is actually what we see happening here in the opening part of this chapter.  The people of the Transjordan tribes faithfully bear the fruit that is asked of them when the Hebrew people go to war against the Canaanites.  Then they are pruned of the task and are told to go home and abide.  It’s another great example of the semi-circle rhythm at work.