The last time we left off, the 2 1/2 half tribes had constructed a huge altar on the west bank of the Jordan River.
Why?
Because they were worried that since they’d no longer be living inside Canaan, they’d be abandoned by their brothers who were living inside Promised Land territory.
What was the response of the 9 1/2 tribes who where living inside the land when they found out about it?
To put it simply, they went freakin’ BALLISTIC.
There were 2 reasons why they went nuts.
First, they immediately assumed that Reuben, Gad and 1/2 of Manasseh had already abandoned Hashem to worship another god.
That’s right.
The 9 1/2 tribes jumped to the conclusion that they were dealing with grand apostasy here on the level of the Golden Calf rebellion that occurred back in Moses’ day.
Second, they were pissed because the 2 1/2 tribes had built this altar NOT on their territory but inside the Promised Land…
…which means they erected it on real estate that belonged to another tribe (most likely Benjamin territory).
So as I just mentioned, when the Israelites living inside the land heard about it, they freakin’ lost their marbles!
They had just disbanded their army but they immediately put it back together again and made a beeline to Shiloh.
Again, remember Shiloh was now central headquarters where Joshua ruled and where the Tabernacle was located.
This whole scenario just blows me away.
The very same brothers who just a week ago had stood shoulder-to-shoulder on the battlefield to fight a common enemy were now going to go to war against each other.
Man, I don’t even know where to begin when it comes to analyzing this situation.
Heck, I’m not even sure what the main theme of today’s article should be.
Maybe I should call it...”Why the Israelites would sooner make war on their own family members rather than fight off the common gentile enemy”.
Think about this situation for a second.
For like the past several years, Joshua went through heaven and high hell just to get 7 of the Israelite tribes to accept their land inheritance, which was a free gift from the Lord.
However, the 7 tribes hesitated because they didn’t want to go to war with the Canaanite tribes living in the territory they had been assigned to.
Yet now they were willing to gang up against their brothers on the east side of the Jordan River.
This is just another accurate snapshot of the irrational ugliness of human nature.
A fellow Israelite tribe is being attacked by a neighboring enemy tribe?
Well, that’s just too bad because their territory ain’t my problem man.
But let a fellow Hebrew tribe do something questionable, the motive behind which you know nothing about and that equals dropping everything and going to war against them screaming bloody hell.
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