Joshua 22:10-12 (NIV) 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. And 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.

When the Israelites had finally finished conquering all the people of the land of Canaan with God’s help and intervention, the men from the tribes of Rueben, Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh were finally able to go back to the land that had been allotted to them on the other side of the Jordan River. Before crossing the river, however, they built a large altar on the edge of the river and when the leaders of the other tribes heard about it, they were alarmed and prepared to fight them.

So what was the big deal? After all, the tribes of Rueben, Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh would be far away from the Tabernacle and it would be a lot more convenient to just offer their sacrifices and burnt offerings to God on an altar that was a lot closer to them. What was terribly wrong was that the Lord had already warned all the people that there would only be one place to offer their sacrifices and offerings and that was in Shiloh, which was where the Lord chose for the Tabernacle to be. He would not accept any sacrifices or offerings anywhere else. There was only one altar and it was the only one authorized by God for offerings and sacrifices. But why this stringent command? It was because God knew the hearts of the people. He knew that if they chose to build their own altar, they would also choose to offer sacrifices and offerings in the way that they would see fit. If they would break away from God’s command in that instance, then they would continue in their disobedience until they would fall away and begin to worship other gods. Thankfully, that was not the reason that the tribes of Rueben, Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh built the altar. It was not an altar to worship God and offer sacrifices, but a memorial to remind the people on the west side of the Jordan that there were two and a half more tribes on the east side that also had claims to the true Tabernacle, the one altar and everything pertaining to God. They didn’t want to be forgotten and then ostracized.

What does this teach us for our current times? It teaches us that we cannot choose which way we will worship God. We cannot change anything that God has ordained and we can’t make up new regulations. We cannot change what God has put in place and we also cannot change what He has decreed. We can’t say that something is okay that God has said is sin and say that what God has said was for ancient days. We cannot say that the Word of God is not relevant today or add any other books or add teachings that do not appear in His Word. I say that because all of these things are happening in some church today across the country. Many fellowships have gone the way of all the earth and sided with the culture of today, ending up calling evil good and good evil. While the tribes on the east side of the Jordan did not violate God’s Word, later on, many of the tribes did just that. They wound up worshipping other gods with the end result being that they were exiled to a foreign land and lost the inheritance that God had given to them. Let’s make sure that we serve the Lord the way that He has prescribed and that we honor and obey His Word as He has spoken it so that it will go well with us and so that we can be the salt and the light that He intended for us to be. There is only one God, one faith, one baptism and one way to worship the Lord: His way.

Pastor Joey Vazquez