“The Mighty One, God, the Lord, the Mighty One, God, the Lord! He knows, and may Israel itself know. If it was in rebellion, or if in an unfaithful act against the Lord do not save us this day!” (Joshua 22:22)

God is addressed in an expansive way; in the original Hebrew the phrase “El Elohim Yahweh” is repeated twice. We sit up and take notice at such an obvious reiteration as this, and sense intuitively the passion in this exhortation. But why the passion?

The back story is about Israel taking possession of the Promised Land and surrounding areas. Moses had passed from the scene, and now Joshua successfully led the charge, with the conclusion that:

“The LORD gave Israel all the land which He had sworn to give to their fathers, and they possessed it and lived in it. And the LORD gave them rest on every side, according to all that He had sworn to their fathers, and no one of all their enemies stood before them…” (Joshua 21:43–44)

Now some of the tribes that had previously asked for their portion—Reuben, Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh—requested permission to return to their assigned land to begin living there. Joshua had reminded them of their commitment to the Law of Moses, blessed them and sent them on their way (Josh 22:5). But this precipitated a problem of geographical proximity.

These two and a half tribes built a large altar, and this upset the rest of Israel, for it looked like they were resorting to idol worship (Josh 22:10). As a prelude to war against them, Israel sent the high priest and ten tribal chiefs to rebuke them for rebelling against the LORD. They rehearsed God’s judgment against Israel over their turn to idolatry at Peor in the wilderness wanderings (Num 25:1-9) and the sin of Achan (Josh 7:1-6), demonstrating that God will judge the nation for their collective sin, as well as the sin of one individual. So Israel as a whole rightly feared what God might do to them all, because of the sin of these two and a half tribes.

One can now understand the passion in the spokesmen for the two and a half tribes. They had not rebelled against El Elohim Yahweh. Absolutely not! If they had, then rightly they should be shown no mercy. Rather, their actions were to guard against the tribes west of the geological divide called the Jordan River, ostracizing them from the worship of Yahweh. So they built the altar as an enduring “witness between us that the LORD is God” (Josh 22:34).

Lord, I resolve to worship You and You alone, even when I am separated physically from other Christians.