There is a positive lesson to be learned about this incident of the 2 1/2 tribes who built their altar on the West Bank of the Jordan River.
We’re shown how to respond when confronting brothers who have done something that seems to be against God but we don’t know for sure yet.
Notice that Pinchas didn’t just jump into going to war against the 2 1/2 tribes.
He instead held a meeting and listened patiently to what the 2 1/2 tribes had to say.
We saw that he was quite humble in his attitude and even admitted he might be in error.
What was the result?
A peaceful compromise was reached.
This enabled all of the 12 tribes to continue to come together and worship the one true God as one unified entity even though one group was living outside the Promised Land and one group was living inside of it.
Also consider this.
Isn’t the situation I have just described a pretty accurate picture of the church today as it seeks to maintain unity amidst a world of differences and disagreements?
And it’s not just the church.
The Jewish world is also struggling with the same predicament.
They want to be accepted by a society dominated by the gentiles, yet they still want to hold on to their identity as the original children of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
And in Christendom, doctrinal disagreements have led to literally thousands of denominations being created all over the world with each one claiming to possess the correct understanding of Scripture and accusing all the others of heresy.
In worst cases, these disagreements have even led to wars.
The Inquisition is a perfect example of this.
Again, I’ve noticed similar heated disagreements in Judaism.
One group of Hebrews will denounce the legitimacy of another group of Hebrews because their particular set of doctrines doesn’t jive with theirs.
The phenomenon of the Messianic Jew is a perfect example of this.
Many Jews who have accepted Yeshua as their Messiah are viewed as traitors to Judaism by both family and country.
In fact, if the Israeli government finds out that a Jew who is seeking to make Aliyah believes in Yeshua, it becomes nearly impossible for him or her to gain citizenship.
Fortunately, I believe in the new world to come, the opposite is going to be true.
Only those who profess faith in Yeshua, will be able to gain entrance to the Kingdom.
This makes sense, because it is Yeshua himself who will be ruling over not just Israel but the whole world from his throne in Jerusalem.
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