Navigating the Pathway of Peace

Text: Joshua 22 Introduction If we shall be the true sons of our Father and if we must resemble his son Jesus, the Prince of Peace, we have no alternative than to always tow the path of peace. Peace is needed in our nation, our community, our families and particularly in the church of Christ. It will be most ironical and unfortunate if battle rages in all other fronts of the society and one gets into the church of the saints and what you still find there is hatred, enmity, strife, envy, quarreling and general lack of peace. That is why we want to take a look at this very interesting story in the Bible and see what vital principles we could draw out that will always help us to navigate the path of peace, tow it and indeed live in it. Backgrounds (22:1-9) The setting of the story in our passage dates back to the time Israel began to conquer territories before the crossing of the Jordan (right from the days of Moses). When the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half tribe of Manasseh saw that the earlier areas conquered were lands of pasture, good enough for their tribes as people with great flocks, they demanded to be given those lands as their own inheritance. Moses consented to this but on the ground that they will follow their brothers to go and conquer their own territories and after that, they would return back to their own allotted land. Record has it that these two and a half tribes were faithful to their promise so much that after the assignment, Joshua commended them, appreciated them, blessed them and gave them a lot of riches and possession to return with to their own land. This ought to become a basis of trust and confidence that Israel ought to repose on these tribes but as we will see later, it didn’t go like that. Concept of Intention As this tribe proceeded on their journey, they built a very impressive or imposing altar in the region of Jordan. (Vrs 10). They had a good intention. Their purpose was stated in verse 24-29

"But in fact we have done it for fear, for a reason, saying, `In time to come your descendants may speak to our descendants, saying, "What have you to do with the Lord God of Israel? "For the Lord has made the Jordan a border between you and us, you children of Reuben and children of Gad. You have no part in the Lord.'' So your descendants would make our descendants cease fearing the Lord.' "Therefore we said, `Let us now prepare to build ourselves an altar, not for burnt offering nor for sacrifice, `but that it may be a witness between you and us and our generations after us, that we may perform the service of the Lord before Him with our burnt offerings, with our sacrifices, and with our peace offerings; that your descendants may not say to our descendants in time to come, "You have no part in the Lord.'' ' “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.'' No intention could be as good as this. They took the action of building the altar in sincerity of heart and in the fear of God and in securing a future for their children as relating to God and his covenant with Israel. Communication of Intention But good intention and sincerity are not enough. Is it communicated and well communicated? Are the right people informed? Are the stakeholders carried along? I have met many people who have been hurt in one way or the other because they took certain actions in the integrity of their heart yet they eventually got misunderstood, got blamed or even punished for it. It has happened to me before and perhaps it has happened to you. It happened to these two and half tribe of Israel. Their intention was misunderstood and they were almost punished for it. But what happened? They were poor in communication. They were just released by Joshua their leader with much commendation, blessing and prosperity. It is proper that they had discussed this issue of building an altar with their leader Joshua before leaving. Joshua to would perhaps have wanted to get the other elders and leaders of Israel informed and mobilized concerning the good intention of these tribes as they return and everyone would have approved of it or at least be aware of it. But they kept it at heart until the point of execution. This kind of secrecy may be good for other things, not for such a sensitive issue like that of an altar. If also they were assuming, it is equally wrong. In the principles of communication, assumption is a great sin. One must never assume the other party understood his intention unless it is well communicated. So our intentions must be well communicated. We must learn to carry all stakeholders along if we will not be misunderstood and if we will not create crisis. These stakeholders could be our spouse, children, siblings, parents, church members, committee, boss in the office, community leaders, project partners, colleagues at work, at school etc. By this we will be avoiding problems that would begin to call for settlement and we will be navigating the pathway of peace. Misunderstanding of intention It is very easy to misunderstand intentions when they are not well communicated. All Israel misunderstood the two and half tribes. This lack of good communication on one side and misunderstanding on the other side produced the following fruits: - Wrong information: An informant gave Israel incomplete information. An incomplete information is as dangerous as a wrong information (Vrs 11) - Wrong interpretation: They interpreted their altar as an altar of idolatry (vrs 16-17) - Wrong conclusion: They concluded that their action is treachery, rebellion and a cause for God to be angry with Israel (vrs 18) - Wrong reaction or counter action: They gathered the whole army of Israel to fight against them (vrs 12). The four elements above are things that are destroying the peace of many human organizations including the family and even the spiritual organism call the church. Where people are wrongly informed, where issues are wrongly interpreted, where wrong conclusions are made and where wrong reactions and actions are taken against issues, there is bound to be trouble. The way of peace is to avoid them like a plague and one non-negotiable antidote against them is proper communication of intention. It is unfortunate to note that all these conclusions were reached without any inquiry or explanation for those concerned. Role of Information Carriers It was just one man that sparked off this whole trouble. Verse 11 (NKJV) says, 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 side occupied by the children of Israel.''

And that was it! Just a piece of information from someone. This man or woman did not ask any question, he/she did not make any investigation. All he did was to go and spread the rumour or directly report a sensitive case that would have brought the destruction of hundreds of thousands of people without a genuine cause. These kind of people are very much alive today. Perhaps you are one of them. This are people who cannot confront issues and make their investigation especially from the mouth of the person a mater concerns. Their job is to report people, spread rumour, gossip and backbite. They are fire kindlers and when they are discovered to be the smoke behind the flame, they thin out in fear and shame. It is better not to carry any news you have not confirmed. It is better not to pass any information across which you cannot stand to say “I said it”. It is better not to welcome anyone who wishes to speak about another person but would not like to have his/her name mentioned or say the same thing in the presence of the person he/she is speaking about. Cowards are destroyers of peace. Power of Investigation The other tribe still did well by not attacking the two and half tribe without hearing from them. A powerful delegation of Phinehas (the Zealous Priest) and ten rulers from the chief house of the ten tribes was raised both to investigate and confirm the matter. (Vrs 13-15). This is a good step in peace making. We will always be on the peaceful and safer side when we learn to find out where the truth of any matter is. We must never assume or act without consulting the person/people who is/are involved before we resort to taking any action whether positive or negative. But when investigating, we need to go in the spirit of wisdom and humility, not to condemn but to confirm. Our intention, presentation and disposition may determine the response of the person we went to meet. In a modern culture like ours, the delegation might have met a communication block because they came with a wrong mindset and the speeches they out forward might have done more harm than good. But thank God for the large-heartedness of the two and half tribes. The Power of Explanation The two and a half tribe gave a good answer to the investigators backing it up with statements to really prove their integrity. They did not reply with pride or insult nor did they start to use question to answer question. Their response was not like that of the Benjaminite in Judges 20 who responded to their brethren with war and almost got their tribe exterminated if not for God’s mercy and commonsense among the remaining tribes of Israel. To tow the path way of peace we must learn the skill of simple explanation when required to do so. It should not be done in pride, arrogance or resentment. It should be done to make room for clarity and a fair sense of judgment. The truth should also be spoken. It is better not to take an action you will not be able to confidently defend when asked to do so. These are what lead to lie and economizing or negotiation of truth. The Power of trust and integrity After the two and half tribe spoke, the strong delegation of priest and elders had no choice than to believe them. First their speech was so convincing and their integrity was proven beyond doubt. The testimony was this:

And 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.

Secondly the delegation too trusted their words and that settled it. In peace-making, trust is a fundamental issue. Love believes all things especially when spoken with precedence of integrity. At least, these two and a half tribe had a precedence of faithfulness as we just saw in the way Joshua commended them and blessed them. Once someone has explained a case (unless maybe when he/she has a precedence of lack of integrity) the best is to believe and lay the case to rest. Conflict Resolution Eventually the conflict was resolved. Israel was pleased, pacified and they shelved the idea of going to fight with their brothers. They sheathed their swords. In fact they blessed God at the end of it all and acknowledged his presence in their midst. (Vrs 30-33). This is what we call win-win conflict resolution. The end of every conflict resolution should be peace and acceptance of each other. The matter should totally melt away from the heart of all the parties and every evil intention should be done away with. Everyone should acknowledge the presence of God and God would be blessed and glorified. A conflict resolved and communication is still poor - no greeting, no warm relationship among the parties – is a conflict not resolved. The God of peace will not be happy. Conclusion Therefore let us pursue the things which make for peace and the things by which one may edify another. Romans 14:19.