The Threat of Civil War / Joshua's Farewell Address (Joshua 16-24)

Joshua’s Farewell Address and the Center of Worship at Shiloh

Let's start at chapter 18, Joshua chapter 18. So this will be an overview of chapter 16 through 24. Joshua before his death, he exhorts the children of Israel to remain faithful and serve the Lord as he had done, not to turn to the right, not to turn to the left and serve other gods.

But there's several things we're going to cover. One of the main topics is the central site of worship for the Israelites. Most people think of Jerusalem, that's where the temple was built, the first temple and then the second temple.

But before Jerusalem, there was a place called Shiloh, and that was actually the center of worship for the Israelites for a long time. We're going to look at that and several other things. But right now, we're going to listen to chapter 18 verses.

1 through 10. Now the whole congregation of the children of Israel assembled together at Shiloh and set up the tabernacle of meeting there. And the land was subdued before them. But there remained among the children of Israel, seven tribes, which had not yet received their inheritance.

Then Joshua said to the children of Israel, how long will you neglect to go and possess the land which the Lord God of your fathers has given you? Pick out from among you three men for each tribe, and I will send them.

They shall rise and go through the land, survey it according to their inheritance and come back to me. And they shall divide it into seven parts. Judah shall remain in their territory on the south, and the house of Joseph shall remain in their territory on the north.

You shall therefore survey the land in seven parts and bring the survey here to me, that I may cast lots for you here before the Lord our God. But the Levites have no part among you, for the priesthood of the Lord is their inheritance.

And Gad, Reuben, and half the tribe of Manasseh have received their inheritance beyond the Jordan on the east, which Moses, the servant of the Lord, gave them. Then the men arose to go away, and Joshua charged those who went to survey the land.

Go, walk through the land, survey it, and come back to me, that I may cast lots for you here before the Lord in Shiloh. So the men went, passed through the land, and wrote the survey in a book in seven parts by cities.

And they came to Joshua at the camp in Shiloh. Then Joshua cast lots for them in Shiloh before the Lord. And there Joshua divided the land to the children of Israel according to.

Their divisions. So this chapter ended, chapter 18, where it says the Lord dwelt in Shiloh. And the reason the Lord dwelt in Shiloh is because the ark was there. That's where the tabernacle was set up.

So I just want to read a little information about this site, Shiloh, from the encyclopedia of the Bible. It says, after the conquest, Joshua first dwelt at Gilgal and then at Shiloh. Why Shiloh was chosen is not known, though the fact that it was seemingly uninhabited in Canaanite times may have suggested it as an uncontaminated location for worship.

But the bottom line is nobody really knows why they chose that site. The importance of Shiloh as the center for Israelite worship continued into the time of the judges. Judges 18, verse 31 clearly states that the house of God was in Shiloh.

Shiloh continues to figure largely in the religious life of Israel during Samuel's time. Samuel's father went to Shiloh year by year to sacrifice to Jehovah. Eli and his two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were priests in Shiloh at the time.

And it was in the temple at Shiloh that Hannah, or the tabernacle, that Hannah prayed for a child and there she brought him to be dedicated to Yahweh's service. And who was Hannah's? Samuel. Yahweh's appearance to the boy Samuel at Shiloh in his establishment as a prophet there also emphasizes the centrality of the place in the religious history of Israel.

And when the ark of God was captured and Israel was defeated at the hands of the Philistine, at that point, Shiloh lost its significance. So the ark was, remember that story with the ark was captured?

God didn't dwell there anymore because God dwells between the cherubim at the ark. So no ark, no presence of God, Shiloh is no longer important. So as of right now, being established in Joshua's time, Shiloh is the center of the nation.

So as I was saying with capital cities, we have in our capital, we have a secular government. So the center of our nation is the White House or the Capitol building. But remember, Israel is more of a theocracy.

So the center of Israel is a worship site. It's the tabernacle. Now let's flip over to chapter 22. And that's significant because the civil war almost breaks out in Israel and it's all over which worship site is the true site of worship.

So when the tribes, what tribes are on the east of the Jordan? We've talked about this a lot, two and a half tribes. Right. Reuben, Gad, the half tribe of Manasseh. They're on the east of the Jordan. They're separated.

They kind of have their own thing going over there, so to speak. So when they build their own altar in chapter 22, this is seen as an act of rebellion, as if they are declaring their own nation east of the Jordan with their own capital or worship site.

So just to kind of help us understand what the Israelites were thinking, let's think back to history class when our nation went through a civil war. What happened? The confederacy declared its independence.

They had their own capital. They elected their own president with Jefferson Davis and a war was fought over that division. Right. So that same thing is being threatened right here. Now, later in Israel's history, they will have a break, but it will be north versus south.

Remember, to the north, it's the 10 tribes of Israel. To the south, it's the tribe or the nation of Judah. So Judah to the south, Israel to the north. They do end up splitting and they end up fighting between the two.

But long before that, there is a threat of civil war, east versus west. So let's look at Joshua 22 verse 10. This is something I had totally forgot about. I know I've read this before, but the fact that they almost had a civil war in Joshua's day, this is something that doesn't get a whole lot of attention.

Okay. Joshua 22 verse 10, it says, and when they came to the region of the Jordan, which is in the land of Canaan, the children of Reuben, the children of Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh built an altar there by the Jordan.

A great and impressive altar. Now the children of Israel heard someone say, behold, the children of Reuben, the children of Gad and the half 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 side.

And when the children of Israel heard of it, the whole congregation of the children of Israel gathered together at Shiloh at their capital to do what? To go to war. This is, they were going to go to war.

The nine and a half tribes were going to go to war with the two and a half tribes on the other side of the Jordan. Why? Because they built an altar. Okay. So you now explain it to me, give it to me in your own words, why this was such an offense.

I mean, they're building an altar to worship God. What's the big deal? What is the big deal? Okay. So that God can only be, um, at one spot there, the worship of God can only be in one place. Okay. Yeah.

That's the thing. They assumed that the altar was built to worship foreign gods or idols because the worship of Jehovah was at the tabernacle because that's where the ark was. So if they're building an altar way over there, they assumed that they were worshiping a different God, or at the very least that was illegitimate.

It was an illegitimate site of worship. Now they weren't completely wrong. Um, because Moses did give some instructions that you couldn't just build an altar anywhere that had to be authorized. So this is kind of a tricky thing.

Um, so we're not going to read through this whole story. If it piques your interest, you can read these chapters on your own, but clearly this altar is being misinterpreted. The lesson is sometimes in trying to apply this, sometimes we see people do things, or we hear that someone is doing something.

And what do we do? We jumped to conclusions, right? And we assume the worst. And I wonder how many wars throughout history have been fought because one King is assuming the worst of another. And he's not actually doing what this guy thinks he's doing, or one nation is assuming that these people want to do X, Y, or Z, and they're just getting bad intelligence or something like that.

So, uh, rushing to judgment or assuming the worst, uh, of others is a very, very dangerous thing. And personally, if we assume the worst of someone else, we can have a conflict with them. What's the best approach.

Yeah. Just go to the person and ask them, just go and talk to them. And you might find out that you got it all wrong. That's what's happening here. They, the children of Israel, they're ready to go to war.

They have it all wrong. That's not really what's going on. Uh, look at verse 13. Then the children of Israel sent Phineas, the son of Eliezer, the priest to the children of Reuben, to the children of Gad and to the half tribe of Manasseh into the land of Gilead.

And with him, 10 rulers, one ruler, each from the chief house of every tribe of Israel. And each one was the head of the house of his father among the divisions of Israel. Then they came to the children of Reuben, to the children of Gad and to the half tribe of Manasseh to the land of Gilead.

And they spoke with them saying thus says the whole congregation of the Lord, what treachery is this that you have committed against the God of Israel to turn away this day from following the Lord and that you have built for yourselves an altar that you might rebel this day against the Lord.

So they are accusing them of apostasy that by building this altar, you are rebelling against God. You're basically sort of starting your own religion or you have your own religion. Um, has anything like this happened within Christianity?

Yeah. Yeah. It's called the Protestant reformation. The Catholic church thought they had exclusive rights that you need to worship this way, uh, with our rules and with our doctrine and the Protestants, they looked at the Bible and they said, well, your way isn't lining up with what the scripture says.

Now, the Protestants weren't looking to worship other gods or worship the devil or anything like that. They were worshiping what they believed was the same, same, same God. You're saying it's, it's Jesus.

He died on the cross, but you know, one side thinks they have exclusive rights. And if you're doing your own thing, Hey, we're going to go to war and we're going to kill you. So this type of thing has happened throughout history.

And if the Lord Terry's, it will probably, uh, happen, happen again. So they're accusing them of apostasy. Now, I think the reason why they're assuming the worst is because this type of thing has happened before in Israel's history.

What are some other sites they've built or altars they've built that were actually wrong and simple. We've, we've covered that, uh, tower of Babel. Okay. Yeah. I mean, certainly, uh, the Lord was not pleased with that, but just within Israel's history, you think of the golden calf, right?

They built an altar, they built this idol and they started, and they said, this is our God. And they were worshiping Jehovah, it seemed, but like the wrong way. There's like a mixture of the worship of Jehovah and idols.

And of course, Moses and the Levites ended up killing those rebels. And that's what they think is happening here. Something similar, but it's not also in the book of numbers. I think it was, there was the incident with Baal of Peor.

I remember a group of Israelites got swept away and in idol worship. So this has happened in, in fairness, this has happened in Israel's history before. And they think this is just a repeat, but again, they're jumping to conclusions.

Look at verses 30 through 33. Now, when Phineas, the priest and the rulers of the congregation, the heads of the divisions of Israel who are with him, heard the words of the children of Reuben, the children of Gad and the children of Manasseh or heard the words they 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. Verse 34, the children of Reuben and the children of Gad called the altar, what?

Witness. For it is a witness between us that the Lord is God. So they send the delegation, they talk about it, find out what's really going on. And actually they were doing a righteous thing. So if sometime in the next few days, the next week, the next month, you find yourself assuming the worst of a fellow believer, just remember, maybe it's not as bad as you.

I mean, maybe it is, you know, you never know, I guess, but try not to jump to conclusions. Uh, so some more information about this altar. I got this off of the website, gotquestions .org. Who's ever seen this website?

If you type in a biblical question, yeah, got questions. It's, it's actually pretty good. I've never seen anything off base on this website. So, uh, here's what they say about the, the altar. After the conquest of Canaan, while Joshua was still alive, an altar was built that caused quite a stir and almost led to civil war in the newly founded nation of Israel.

When God revealed the law of Moses, God prohibited the building of altars other than those he commanded. And that's Deuteronomy 12, one through 14. So they did have some reason to be concerned. Uh, yet the tribes on the east side of the Jordan river, Reuben Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh, they constructed an altar in Joshua 22.

And as a result, the Western tribes felt that the law had been violated and intended to go to war against their own people. The Western tribes suspected the altar in Joshua 22 represented the beginnings of idolatry.

Fortunately for all involved, the Western tribes investigated the allegation to discover the truth of the situation before they went to war. And that's what we would pray for our leaders that you, that you investigate and you, because I don't know if you saw the news today, but a missile struck, uh, somewhere in Poland.

And it said the president and world leaders had an emergency meeting because they don't really know where the missile came from, but you could assume the worst. Oh, Putin bought, you know, bombed Poland and that could lead Poland's and NATO country could lead world war three, if you rushed to judgment.

So we need to pray for our leaders that they fully investigate, um, uh, all of these things and not rush. Uh, because throughout history, there are people who want war. And obviously if you want war, then you're, you are going to rush to judgment because that's what you want.

So, uh, hopefully that's not the case. Uh, but back here, they, they, war was averted because they investigated, they talked to their brethren and they actually found out that the tribes on the East of the Jordan wanted to show spiritual, uh, solidarity.

So they're actually, they're actually had the best of motives, not the worst. All right. Any questions on this whole, whole event? So what's the moral of the story? Don't assume, don't assume the worst, especially don't assume the worst of your brethren.

Um, so I wanted to think of a few possible ways that, uh, Christians today, uh, can do this. I think of some of the doctrinal differences between the different denominations and different Christian groups.

Um, most of the time when a church is teaching something different, then what we believe most of the time, uh, obviously there's some things that are just beyond the pale. I think we get that. Uh, but when a church teaches something that's maybe a secondary issue, uh, we shouldn't assume that they're teaching that to corrupt the faith or anything like that.

Uh, for, let me give an example. Uh, I, you know, me, I totally disagree with this whole idea of speaking in tongues as this sort of heavenly prayer language, where it sounds like gibberish. I don't think that's what tongues is.

I think tongues in the book of acts was a noble human language. That's what it says in the book of acts. But I believe there are good brothers and sisters who believe in Jesus who buy into that stuff.

And I, I think they, they mean, well, I think I disagree with them, but I think many of them are still brothers and sisters in Christ. What would be assuming the worst? I've heard people throughout the years say that people who speak in tongues, that's evidence that they're demon possessed, right?

Have you heard this right now? I mean, it's possible there's someone out there doing that who is demon possessed. I mean, that's possible, but to assume the worst of all charismatics and Pentecost that that's, I believe that's wrong.

Um, I would disagree with them, but I believe many of them are sincere. So I don't think we should rush to judgment and assume the worst. Uh, another example, people that believe you can lose your salvation.

I think that's a pretty serious thing. If you teach that you can lose your salvation, but assuming the worst is that, Hey, they believe in salvation by, by works. Cause that that's another thing. You assume the worst that they're actually teaching a workspace salvation.

Some of them probably do, but just because a person believes you can lose your salvation, you can't assume the worst of them that they're, uh, teaching a false gospel. Uh, Christians, one more example, Christians, uh, who are Calvinists.

Uh, I've heard people condemn all Calvinists that they believe, uh, in doctrines of devils. Calvinism is doctrine of devil. So if you're a Calvinist, you're not even saved. And then I've heard people on the other side.

If you're an Armenian, that's a false gospel and Armenians aren't saved. So you have both sides and each of them, if people who assume the worst, well, you're not even saved. You're not even a true Christian.

This is not helpful. This is assuming the worst. Now, again, some people do take those things too far and that's probably true with some people, but you can't lump everybody into the same group. Yes, you had your hand only two.

There's only Armenians and only Calvinists. So you got to fall into one camp. No, I mean that that's usually how people try to frame it, right? So you're either here's how it breaks down. Do you believe you can lose your salvation?

Okay. So people would want to push you into the Calvinist camp because you don't, now, obviously not everyone who believes that as a Calvinist, but to answer his question specifically, no, you do not have to be one or the other.

But the point is if somebody identifies a certain way, Pentecostal, Armenian, charismatic, you can't lump them all together and assume the worst. And because they're different than me, I don't even think they're a true believer.

You understand like this, this is not the way to go. Now, if somebody is a Hindu, that's a, that's a whole other story. That's a different religion. But so all that to say, don't, don't assume the worst.

All right. I hope that's clear. And any other ask questions if you want clarification on that, but okay. Let's go through some of these chapters, chapter 16. We'll just do a brief review of what these chapters are covering.

In this chapter, Ephraim and west Manasseh, Manasseh west of the Jordan, they received their inheritance verse 10. It says, and they did not drive out the Canaanites who dwell in Giza, but the Canaanites dwell among the Ephraimites to this day and have become forced laborers.

Okay. Is this what God told them to do? Hey, take the Canaanites and enslave them. No, that's not what God said. What did God say? Yeah. Why do you say why it's even worse, but no, this is, they're, they're being disobedient.

God did not tell them to do. They should have driven them out of the land, but once again, they're keeping them around and in their mind, they're benefiting. It's going to come back to bite them later on.

Now, these two tribes, Ephraim and Manasseh, they're named after who? Yeah. The sons of Joseph. Why did Joseph get broken into two tribes? Remember Joseph received the double portion of the inheritance from his father, Jacob or Israel.

So because Joseph received the double portion, his two sons became two tribes. So they got basically twice as much land. Joseph got twice as much land because of that, that blessing. All right. Chapter 17, let's keep moving.

The other half tribe of Manasseh. There was a man, we covered this, who had five daughters. He had no sons and this was in the book of numbers. And they went to Moses to go to God that, hey, I know we're women and women did not inherit land back then.

That's just the way it was. But they actually went to Moses. Moses talked to the Lord about it. And what did God say? So no, the daughters should inherit the land. So this was kind of a groundbreaking thing.

So the daughters were able to inherit. Verses 14 through 18, the children of Joseph complained that they didn't get enough. And Joshua basically tells them, you need to drive out the Canaanites, you know, chop down the trees and the mountains.

There's plenty of land for you. You're just going to have to do the work. So even though they're receiving this inheritance of land, there was still a lot of work for them to do. And all of the tribes still had to drive out.

Remember there's still some stragglers left from the different Canaanite tribes, but it's all yours. You just have to do the work. And whether they all did the work is another story. All right. Chapter 18, the remainder of the land is divided.

Starting in verse 11, the land of Benjamin is addressed. This is worth mentioning, I think. Look at verse 16 of chapter 18. Then the border came down to the end of the mountain that lies before the Valley of the Sons of Hinnom, which is in the Valley of the Rephaim and on the north, descended to the Valley of Hinnom, to the side of the Jebusite city on the south, and descended to En-Rogel.

So who is familiar with the Valley of the Sons of Hinnom? Who knows the significance of this place? You get a little hint. It's the valley to the side of the Jebusite city. What's the Jebusite city? That you should know, because we talked about it, I think, two weeks ago.

The Jebusites were in the city of Jerusalem, right? And David, many years later, hundreds of years later, took the stronghold of Zion, drove out the Jebusites, and then Jerusalem became Israel's capital.

But at this time, it's the city of the Jebusites. So you have the city of Jerusalem, which is on a hill, right? And the valley on the side became known for something. In the days of Jesus, it was a garbage dump, right?

So all the trash and dead animals was brought to this garbage dump, which had a name. It begins with a G. Gehenna. So Gehenna comes from the Sons of Hinnom. So the Sons of Hinnom, over time, it kind of morphs into Gehenna.

So this is a site where the Israelites, because they left the tribes, the Canaanite tribes, in the land, what did they do? After a while, they started to adopt the practices of the Canaanite tribes. And one of the practices of the Canaanites was human sacrifice.

So the children of Israel, actually, in their history, they fell into the worship of Molech, and they offered human sacrifices, usually children or babies, on the altar to Molech. So this, after there was reform in the nation, the Israelites saw how horrific this was, and it all happened in the valley of the Sons of Hinnom.

And that place was so repulsive to them, they turned it into the city dump. And Jesus used it as an illustration for the picture of eternal damnation. So that's the background for the valley of the Sons of Hinnom.

All right, chapter 19. And we just want to cover all this, because the main events of Joshua, I feel like, are sort of behind us. And we could spend week after week, you know, covering all these little details, but I thought it'd be more beneficial to kind of do it in one lesson.

Chapter 19 deals with Simeon's inheritance. Simeon was different in that his inheritance was within the inheritance of Judah. So if you think of Judah receiving this block of land, Simeon was kind of in the center of it.

And over time, Judah basically absorbed the tribe of Simeon. So the tribe of Simeon just kind of disappears. Judah kind of takes over. The other tribes received their inheritance, and starting in verse 49 of chapter 19, Joshua receives an inheritance.

And here's the neat thing. Remember the book of Numbers, the two spies that were faithful? Joshua and Caleb. Because they were faithful back then, they are the only two, well, I don't know, maybe they're not the only two, but they're two individuals that actually received their own inheritance.

Like a tribe would get an inheritance, but them as individuals got inheritance. Why? Because they were faithful. Chapter 20 deals with the cities of refuge. Because back then, vigilante justice and revenge killing was a real problem.

It's not really a problem today because if somebody wants to act like a vigilante, what's going to happen to them? Yeah, no, nothing. It depends where they are. It depends what city they're in. But really, if somebody kills someone you know, and then you decide you're going to take justice into your own hands, you're going to be the one in prison.

At least that's the way it should be. So back then, though, that kind of thing happened all the time, and it was easy to get away with it. So if there was an accident and somebody, you accidentally killed someone, you really didn't mean to, well, your life was really in danger.

So because God cared about justice, you know, God doesn't support vigilantes. So they established these cities of refuge. So if somebody killed someone accidentally, they could go to this city and there they would be safe until there could be a trial and figure everything out.

And then if they were guilty, then they would get justice. But these were safe haven. These were a good type of sanctuary city, you know. So God cared about that. Chapter 21 covers the cities of the Levites.

There were 48 in all scattered throughout Israel. Six of them were cities of refuge. That's chapter 21. And chapter 22, the Eastern tribes returned to their land. They built the altar. We talked about that.

And then chapters 23 and 24 records Joshua's final words. This is Joshua's farewell address, where, what does he do? He exhorts and commands, encourages the children of Israel to remain faithful. If you were Joshua, knowing Israel's history, and you know that you've been able to lead, you've kind of kept things under control because Joshua was a great leader, no question about it.

But Joshua realizes he's going to die soon. What do you think he, what's he thinking? He's like, I'm going to die and this is all going to fall apart. I think that's what he's thinking. And was he wrong?

He wasn't, no, he wasn't totally wrong. So he knows their history that they're not going to keep covenant with God. I mean, they do to a degree, but we, at this point going through Exodus and Numbers and Deuteronomy, we know how the story goes.

So let's look at verses 14 and 15 of chapter 24. Joshua gathers them all together at Shechem. He's going to kind of renew the covenant or make a new covenant. He says, now, therefore fear the Lord, serve him in sincerity and in truth and put away the gods, which your father served on the other side of the river and in Egypt, serve the Lord.

Okay. There's, there's an exclamation point there, serve the Lord. That's what you need to do. And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day, whom you will serve, whether the gods, which your father served that were on the other side of the river or the gods of the Amorites and whose land you dwell.

And there's that statement. But as for me in my house, we will serve the Lord. And I think that's the attitude that we have to adopt. And I want you to remember this verse, when you hear about all the things happening all around you, maybe even some distant family members who they used to serve God, and now they don't.

And you hear the craziness in our land. We just have to say, you know, well, as for me in my house, this is what we're going to do. We're going to serve the Lord. And if there's anyone living under your roof, if they're going to live there, they're going to serve the Lord.

We can only control ourselves and what happens under our roof. So sometimes we get distracted and worried about all this other stuff, but we really need to focus on ourselves and remain faithful because more and more people, as time goes, they kind of drop out.

They drop out. Well, you can't control them, but you can control yourself. So as for me in my house, we will do what? Serve the Lord. And the people respond positively. And Joshua warns them again, look at verse 20, because he knows, okay, they're saying the right thing, but they said the right thing in Mount Sinai.

And then they worship the golden calf. So he says in verse 20, if you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, then he will turn and do you harm and consume you after he has done you good. And the people said to Joshua, no, but we will serve the Lord.

So Joshua said to the people, you are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen the Lord for yourselves to serve him. I think of every person who gets baptized, they made a choice. They made a choice.

So what they do from there on out, if they decide to go serve other gods or to serve themselves, that baptism was a public witness against themselves if they choose not to serve God. So, I mean, this is serious stuff.

And I think we have to talk about things that happen now, new Testament things, because the two, the two are connected. The same principles in the old Testament are still true in the new Testament. So verse 25, Joshua made a covenant with the people that day and made for them a statue and an ordinance in Shechem.

But of course, if you know the, if you're a student of the Bible, you know how this goes. Joshua ends in the next book of the Bible is what? Judges. And Judges is known as probably the darkest time in Israel's history.

However, during the days of Joshua, you have to say this about the children of Israel, during the days of Joshua, they were faithful. They walked by faith and because they walked by faith, they possessed the land.