The Altar by the Jordan

Spears are being sharpened. Armies are gathering. The tribes of Israel are about to go to war, not against an enemy, but against their own brothers. And it is all because of a pile of stones.

Years before, while Israel was still east of the Jordan, the tribes of Reuben and Gad and half the tribe of Manasseh had asked Moses if they could settle there, in good grazing land for their herds. Moses agreed, on one condition. Their fighting men must cross the river and help the other tribes win the land of Canaan. And they did. For years they fought alongside their brothers. Now the land is at rest, and Joshua calls them to him at Shiloh, where the tabernacle stands. You have done everything Moses asked, he tells them. You have not deserted your brothers. Now go home. Love the LORD your God, walk in his ways, hold fast to him, and serve him with all your heart. He blesses them, and sends them off with great wealth to share.

So the eastern tribes set off for home. When they come to the region by the Jordan, still on the western side, they stop and build an altar. Not a small one. A big, imposing altar, the kind you could see from far away. Then news reaches the other tribes. The Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh have built an altar at the border. And everyone knows God has said there is to be one place of sacrifice, at his tabernacle. Is this rebellion? Are they turning away from the LORD? The whole community gathers at Shiloh, ready to go to war against them.

But before anyone marches, they send messengers. Phinehas, son of the high priest Eleazar, goes, with ten leaders, one from each tribe. They cross over to Gilead and they speak plainly. What is this unfaithfulness? Why have you turned away from the LORD by building yourselves an altar? Remember the sin at Peor, and the trouble it brought on us all. Remember Achan, and how one man's sin brought anger on the whole camp. If your land feels unclean to you, then come over to the LORD's land where his tabernacle is, and live among us. But do not rebel against the LORD, and do not rebel against us. It is a hard speech. But it is a speech, not a sword.

Then the eastern tribes answer, and you can hear how shaken they are. The Mighty One, God, the LORD! The Mighty One, God, the LORD! He knows, and let Israel know! If this was rebellion, do not spare us. But it was not. We were afraid. We were afraid that one day your children would say to our children: the Jordan is the border God put between us. You have no share in the LORD. And our children might stop worshipping him. So we built this altar, not for burnt offerings or sacrifices, but as a copy of the LORD's altar, a witness between us and you and the generations after us, that we too belong to the LORD. When Phinehas and the leaders hear this, they are delighted. Today we know the LORD is among us, says Phinehas. They go home and report, and all Israel praises God. No one talks of war again. And the eastern tribes give the altar a name: Witness. For it is a witness between us that the LORD is God.

Shiloh, where the tribes gathered, was Israel's centre of worship in the days of Joshua and the judges. The book of Joshua says the whole community set up the tent of meeting there. The site, now called Khirbet Seilun, lies in the hills north of Jerusalem, and archaeologists led by Israel Finkelstein excavated it in the early 1980s.

The altar by the Jordan. You'll find this story in Joshua chapter twenty-two. A misunderstanding nearly started a war, until the tribes chose to talk before they fought. So here is a question to carry with you. When you think someone has wronged you, how could you ask and listen before you decide?