“Now the children of Israel heard someone say, “Behold, the children of Reuben, the children of Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh have built an altar on the frontier of the land of Canaan, in the region of the Jordan—on the children of Israel’s side.” And when the children of Israel heard of it, the whole congregation of the children of Israel gathered together at Shiloh to go to war against them.”
Joshua 22:11-12 NKJV
In the 2003 State of the Union address, George W. Bush spoke the following words:
“The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.”
These words would eventuate Operation Iraqi Freedom and the subsequent occupation of Iraq by the United States.
Sadly, the effects of this war further destabilized the Middle East and had untold unintended tragic consequences. Additionally, this war cost tens of thousands of lives as well billions of dollars—and in the end—no evidence of weapons of mass destruction were ever found.
This is not meant to be a commentary on the Iraqi War, but rather, a commentary on the dangers of jumping to conclusions. Whereas there may have been other valid reasons to deal with Saddam Hussein, the premise for the whole Iraqi War seems to have been baseless. But, a bell was rung that cannot be un-rung.
“He who answers a matter before he hears it, It is folly and shame to him.”
Proverbs 18:13 NKJV
We cannot allow the enemy of our soul to cause us to, at best, waste our energy, or, at worst, to do irreparable damage without a cause.
We are living in a time of intense pressure. We must not let the anxiety and hyper vigilance a pressurized situation can produce to cause us to make a terrible error.
Indeed, the children of Israel nearly allowed a false perception to end tragically. And that brings us to today.
We see in our opening scripture that word had come to the other tribes of the children of Israel that Ruben, Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh, were building their own altar in defiance to the altar at the tabernacle. Their immediate response to this news was to mobilize for war. Thankfully, cool heads prevailed. Before mounting an all out assault, the children of Israel decided to ask the altar builders what they were doing. The altar builders explained that they were not trying to usurp the official altar with the tabernacle, and they had no intention of using it for burnt offerings. Rather, they were afraid that because they were on the other side of the Jordan from the other tribes, at some point, other generations (on the other side of the Jordan) might question whether they were really a part of Israel. This replica altar was to be a remedy for that possible eventuality.
“Therefore we said that it will be, when they say this to us or to our generations in time to come, that we may say, ‘Here is the replica of the altar of the Lord which our fathers made, though not for burnt offerings nor for sacrifices; but it is a witness between you and us.’ Far be it from us that we should rebel against the Lord, and turn from following the Lord this day, to build an altar for burnt offerings, for grain offerings, or for sacrifices, besides the altar of the Lord our God which is before His tabernacle.” Now when Phinehas the priest and the rulers of the congregation, the heads of the divisions of Israel who were with him, heard the words that the children of Reuben, the children of Gad, and the children of Manasseh spoke, it pleased them. So the thing pleased the children of Israel, and the children of Israel blessed God; they spoke no more of going against them in battle, to destroy the land where the children of Reuben and Gad dwelt.”
Joshua 22:28-30, 33 NKJV
Here, the children of Israel were getting ready to settle down for a period of peace, and they almost had a Civil War because of jumping to a conclusion. Let us never do the devils work by failing to hear the whole story.
Tomorrow we will look back on our “40 Days in the Wilderness.” But, for today write this in your “wilderness journal”:
Hear the whole story before reacting.
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