On the Verge of Civil War

The US Civil War was our country's bloodiest conflict. 620,000 soldiers died in our Civil War. To give you some basis of comparison, when you start beginning to look at the numbers, it is absolutely horrifying the numbers that come out of the Civil War. The nearest war to that in number of casualties was World War II, which many think of as our bloodiest war, but actually only 406,000 soldiers died in that war. That's terrible enough, but 50% more soldiers died in our Civil War. It is estimated that 2% of our population died in the Civil War, just counting the soldiers, not civilians. That was 2% of our population. That would be equivalent to 6 million soldiers today, 5 times the number in all of our armed forces today, just to give you some basis of comparison. When you begin to think about the fact that nearly as many people died in captivity, soldiers died in captivity in the Civil War as died in the whole Vietnam War. It's just staggering. When you think of the fact that the bloodiest battle in the Civil War, the Battle of Gettysburg, where over 51,000 soldiers were killed, there were more soldiers killed in that one battle than the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, and the Mexican War combined. I did a little research this week on the Mexican War. Wasn't this familiar with that? There were over 13,000 soldiers killed more than twice the number as killed in Iraq and Afghanistan and the first Gulf War. That was a significant war. But the Battle of Gettysburg alone eclipses the first three wars our country fought. It's absolutely staggering. The Civil War was a national nightmare as all civil wars are. That's why it is so shocking to find in the book of Joshua that a nation who has spent seven years fighting together to conquer the land of Canaan is now on the verge of civil war. And you think what is happening here? But it is the next significant event after chapter 14, where we were last time. This is in chapter 22. The chapter is in between, chapter 15 to 21, basically talk about how the land is divided up. Unless you're interested in minute details of geography, we'll skip those chapters. And make our way on to chapter 22, where we find the next significant event is Israel on the verge of a civil war. How can this be? They have fought together all 12 tribes. For seven years, if you do the math based primarily on the age of Caleb that he gives us in chapter 14, you find that it took them seven years to conquer the land of the conquer the land. There was a major military campaign that went through the center of the land and then they went north and then they went south and it took them seven years to consolidate the land under their control. Not every tribal people in the land was defeated. That would take some mopping up by the various tribes of Israel, which was not fully completed, ever fully completed. The book of judges tells us. They had fought together for seven years. And now after the land is taken in chapter 22, two and a half of the tribes, whom you may recall had already settled on the east side of Jordan before they actually invaded the land, two and a half tribes had already settled on the east side of the river of Jordan. That was fine. That was legitimate. Moses had given them that land. It was given to them by God. It actually is a part of the original land that was promised to Abraham. So the boundaries of the land do go that far. Nothing wrong with what they were doing. But you remember Moses had commanded them and Joshua had reaffirmed the command earlier in the book that they should send their fighting men across with their brothers and fight for the land and then they could go back and settle in their homes. Well, they had done that. They had fought alongside their brothers for seven years, seven long years. And now they're giving their parting goodbyes. And there must have been some emotional times. Soldiers, I understand, who fight together become very close. And they fought in the same trenches and on the same hillsides and in the same valleys for seven years. And so there are some tearful goodbyes as these soldiers from the two and a half tribes make their way back across the Jordan to their homeland. But something happens almost immediately that brings the nation to the brink of civil war. The nine and a half tribes thinking they must go to war against the two and a half tribes. And I look at that after what we've seen in this book and I'm saying, how can this be? How can that happen? It has to do with something that took place as those soldiers went back to their homeland. We're going to see what it is this morning. But the point of this passage is this. The threat to Israel's unity teaches us important lessons about the church's unity. You see, Israel faces a threat to their unity after they have just fought together for seven years to take the land. And so there are important lessons here for us to learn about maintaining the sacredness of the unity of God's people, the church. So what is it that actually happened? How did it happen? Why was it responded to so strongly? And how was the civil war averted? That's the story of Joshua chapter 22. What I want us to do first is just look at the story. We're going to read parts of it, summarize other parts of it. We're going to see Israel on the verge of civil war. First of all, in the first nine verses, we have the commendation. Those verses describe the commendation of Israel of the two and a half tribes by Joshua. Joshua commends them for the work that they have done. Look at verse 1. In Joshua summoned the Rubenites, the Gadites and the half tribe of Manasseh, and said to them, you have done all that Moses, the servant of the Lord commanded. And you have obeyed me and everything I commanded. For a long time now, to this very day, you have not deserted your fellow Israelites, but have carried out the mission of the Lord your God gave you. What he's talking about there is the seven years of warfare that they had been involved with with their brothers. To take the land where they wouldn't even settle. They were going to go back across the Jordan settle on the east side, but they have been faithful to do what Moses commanded and what Joshua commanded. And go with their brothers to fight this battle and win this land. They've done it. They've done it well. So he commends them for that. In verses 4 and 5, he then commends them to the care of God. He says in verse 4, Now that the Lord your God has given them rest as he promised, return to your homes in the land that Moses, the servant of the Lord, gave you on the other side of the Jordan. But be very careful to keep the commandment and the law that Moses, the servant of the Lord, gave you, to love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, to keep his commands, to hold fast to him and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul. We're going to come back to that verse later in the message. It's the key verse to understanding unity. Then in verses 6 through 9, he basically blesses them and sends them off to go home. So verses 1 through 9, the commendation of these tribes for their good work. But in verses 10 through 12, immediately something happens that brings consternation. So we have the consternation in verses 10 through 12. Look at verse 10. When they, speaking of the two and a half tribes that are going back home, when they came to Galiloth near the Jordan in the land of Canaan, the Rubenites, the Gadites and the half tribe of Manasseh, built an imposing altar there by the Jordan. And when the Israelites heard that they had built the altar on the border of Canaan at Galiloth near the Jordan on the Israelite side, the whole assembly of Israel gathered at Shiloh to go to war against them. Shiloh is where the Tabernacle is. In these early days of the nation in the land, that's where the Tabernacle is. That being the worship center, that kind of is the unofficial capital of Israel at this early point in their history. Later, of course, under the reign of David, Jerusalem would become the capital. But now it's Shiloh, and that's the reason why they all gather there. What happened here? Well, the two and a half tribes on their way back to their land, build an imposing altar. And when the nine and a half tribes hear about it, they automatically assume that this is an altar that is going to set up some kind of competing worship center. This is going to be a competing religion with the true religion that Moses gave us. And so they are incensed, and they decide we have got to go to war. We cannot tolerate this violation of the mosaic law. That's what they assume. So what happens next is a key part of this story. The next few verses, verses 13 through 20, describe the confrontation. We'll come back to these verses again, but let me just summarize them. What they decide to do before they send troops, before they actually go into conflict, they decide to send some representatives to go talk and find out exactly what's going on. So they send one of the priests and ten of the tribal leaders, one leading man from each of the nine and a half tribes that are left on the cane inside of the land, and they send them over across the river to talk with these two and a half tribes to discover what's going on here. And they actually give it to them pretty good. We'll get to these verses again later as I said, but they condemn them pretty harshly. They accuse them of violating the mosaic law. They accuse them of bringing God's judgment. If they go through with this on the nation of Israel, they remind them of two incidents in Israel's history, where some of the people send, and God judged the whole nation, because of the sin of a few. In one case, it's very recent in their memory. It's Aiken back in chapter seven. And so he reminds, they remind these two and a half tribes that they're bringing God's judgment. So there is this confrontation that takes place. And that is followed by the explanation in verses 21 to 29. The explanation, let me summarize, is this, when the two and a half tribes hear what they're being accused of, they can't believe it. They're horrified. And they spend three verses saying, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, you've got it all wrong. The Lord knows, now let Israel know that's not at all what our motives were. That's not at all what we were thinking. And they go on to describe in verses 24 to 29, this is not a competing religious center. In fact, four or five times, depending on how you read it, they say this altar is not for sacrifices. We're not going to offer any sacrifices there. It is simply a witness. And they describe that we were concerned that at someday, because of the natural boundary of the Jordan River, that the nine and a half tribes would someday say to us, the two and a half tribes, you don't belong to us. You shouldn't come worship in Shiloh. You're not a part of us. You live on the other side. And they said, we were concerned about this unity in the nation. And so we built this altar as a witness to all 12 tribes that we belong together. And that our only worship center will be at the Tabernacle. And they repeat over and over again. We're not going to offer sacrifices there. That's not the purpose for this. You've totally misunderstood our motives. And thank God that explanation is understood and grasped by the 10 leaders who represent the nine and a half tribes. And in verses 30 through 34, we find the termination, the termination of the effort to go to civil war. Notice if you will, verse 30, when Phineas the priest and the leaders of the community, the heads of the clans of the Israelites, heard what Ruben Gad and Manasseh had to say, they were pleased. And Phineas, son of Eliezer, the priest, said to Ruben Gad and Manasseh today, we know that the Lord is with us, because you have not been unfaithful to the Lord in this matter. Now you have rescued the Israelites from the Lord's hand. So there's what he's saying there is, we realize now we misunderstood what you were doing. And because of a clear explanation, which we now understand, we realize that God's not going to judge us. You haven't been unfaithful to the covenant God made with Israel. So in verse 33, verse 32, then Phineas, son of Eliezer, the priest and the leaders returned to Canaan from their meeting with the Rubenites and Gadites and Giliad and reported to the Israelites, they were glad to hear the report and praised God. And they talked no more about going to war against them to devastate the country where the Rubenites and the Gadites lived. And the Rubenites and the Gadites gave the altar, this name, a witness between us, that the Lord is God. This is really a tragic and yet a blessed story as it ends. It's tragic in the way it almost happened and almost developed, but then in what was done to resolve the situation and how it actually ended up, it becomes a beautiful lesson for us as God's people today about how to maintain unity. First of all, how fragile it is, how easily unity can be broken and how to maintain that unity as the people of God. This is a tremendous historical object lesson for the church as to what happens, how unity can be easily shattered and how we need to preserve it at all costs. And it even gives us a way to do that, a process by which we can maintain unity in the church. So that's what we're going to look at. We're going to use this historical story to describe for us so that we can learn lessons about unity in the church. So what are the principles of unity in the church that we can learn from this incident in Israel's history? I think the first principle is this. And by the way, before we get to that first principle, let me say that by unity, I am not talking about uniformity. Unity does not mean that everybody in a particular group, church, like ours, has to look the same, dress the same, talk the same, act just exactly the same. We all have different personalities and likes and dislikes and those kinds of things. We're all going to differ on. That doesn't mean uniformity. It also, unity does not mean unanimity. In other words, it doesn't mean that we will agree 100% on everything. It doesn't mean that. And you know what, that's not required for unity. It's not required that we agree on every issue. Now, we're going to see in a moment, it's required that we agree on major doctrinal issues, but not every issue of Christian conviction, where there are issues of Christian liberty and we are free to disagree about certain things. It doesn't mean that we have unanimity. 100% agreement on everything. This is what unity is. Unity is a commitment to one another, to love one another, to accept one another, to serve one another, and to follow biblical principles in dealing with one another in spite of minor differences we may have. That's what unity is. And unity really is focused around the core purposes of a church. Why are we here? What are we supposed to be doing? There may be some minor things we disagree on procedurally or methods and so forth. But why are we here? We've got to be in unity about that. So that's what unity is. So what principles can we learn? The first one I believe is this. Unity is built on faithfulness to God and His Word. That's where unity must begin. Unity has a foundation, and that foundation is a commitment of faithfulness to our God and to His Word. I want to go back to verse five, where Joshua reminds the two and a half tribes. You're going to be leaving us now going across the Jordan to where your homes are, but he challenges them strongly. Notice six commands. He gives them in verse five. He says, but be very careful to keep the commandment and the law that Moses, the servant of the Lord, gave you. To love the Lord your God. To walk in obedience to Him. To keep His commands. To hold fast to Him. And to serve Him with all your heart, with all your soul. There are six commands to do this. To, to, to, to. Six commands, He gives them. And they all have to do with faithfulness to God and His Word. And if you'll skip down to verse 21, when the, the two and a half tribes are challenged as to whether or not they violated that, whether or not they violated God's commands, notice what they say in verse 21. Then Ruben Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh are replied to the heads of the clans of Israel. The mighty one, the, the mighty one, God, the Lord, the mighty one, God, the Lord, He knows and let Israel know. If this has been in rebellion or disobedience to the Lord, do not spare us this day. If we have built our own altar to turn away from the Lord and to offer burn offerings and grain offerings, or to sacrifice fellowship offerings on it, may the Lord Himself call us to account. You see what they're saying? They're saying, we agree with you. If we have disobeyed God and His Word, then you ought to take us out and God Himself will call us to account. They recognize that. They understand that it is serious business to go against God and His Word. And they recognize if that's what we have done, then yeah, take us, go to war against us. We deserve it. Don't spare us. In fact, we're calling on God to judge us if that's what we've done. So even the two and a half tribes, although they go on to explain, you misunderstood what we were doing. That's not at all our motive. They understand and agree that if we have been disobedient to God, then there is no unity left in Israel. You need to take us out. You see, unity is based on faithfulness to God and His Word. There's a lot of unity that's talked about today, a superficial unity that all people who claim to be Christians, no matter what they believe, no matter whether they're really faithful to the Bible, ought to be able to be one, to be unified. I want to say to you, that's an unbiblical unity, because unity is built on faithfulness to God and His Word. Even Jesus, and this is the passage is often used in John 17 and is high-precision prayer, when he prayed that all of his followers may be one, he qualified it this way, may be one as you and I, Father, are one. And let me tell you something, there is perfect doctrinal agreement in the Trinity. They don't disagree on who Christ is, or whether or not Christ was the Son of God, whether or not His death is sufficient for our salvation. They're in complete agreement on that. So the kind of unity that Jesus was talking about is unity based on a commitment to God and His Word. You see, there are commands in the New Testament for the church to break fellowship with some people, even who claim to be Christians, if they depart from the basic teachings of the Bible. For instance, if they no longer believe the Bible is God's Word, if they no longer believe that Jesus Christ is God's Son and come in the flesh, if they no longer believe that Jesus' death and Jesus' death alone is what is needed for our salvation. If they no longer believe in the literal resurrection of Christ from the grave and the literal second coming of Christ to this earth, those are basic core, cardinal truths of the faith. You can't call yourself a Christian without believing those. But when someone departs from those cardinal teachings of the faith, then the Bible calls on us to break fellowship with them. There is no unity when those kinds of truths are violated. But give you just a few examples of New Testament commands this way, they'll be on the screen to save a little time. Romans chapter 16, in verse 17 says this, I urge you brothers and sisters to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Contrary to the Word of God, he says, keep away from them. There is to be no fellowship with those who claim to be Christians but whose denomination or church or whatever have violated the core truths of the scriptures. Unity is based on obedience to God and His Word, faithfulness to God and His Word. Another passage is second Corinthians chapter six, a passage that's often used for issues of separation. Paul says to the church at Corinth, do not be yoke together with unbelievers for what new righteousness and wickedness have in common or what fellowship can light have with darkness. If you read the whole context, he's talking to them about whether or not they should be engaged with the cults of their day or the pagan temples of their day. The false religions of their day and he says, there's nothing you have in common with those folks who don't believe the Bible at all. And then he quotes in verse 17 from the Old Testament. The Old Testament says this, therefore come out from them and be separate says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, talking about these ungodly pagan religions and I will receive you. So you see the Bible makes it clear separation from ungodliness, separation from those who are false teachers is a biblical command. One other passage, second John, verses nine through 11, John says, anyone who runs ahead and does not continue notice, does not continue in the teaching of Christ. The teaching not only passed down by Christ but the teaching about Christ, who he is and what he's done. His person and his work does not have God. Whoever continues in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, notice this is doctrinal separation here. Does not bring this teaching do not take them into your house which is where most churches met in that day. Do not take them into your house or welcome them. Anyone who welcomes them shares in their wicked work. So you see the Bible talks about the fact that we can't just have fellowship with everyone. We can't have unity with everyone who's religious or goes to church or even claims to be a Christian. If they have clearly departed from the basic truths of scripture, unity cannot be maintained. Unity is built on faithfulness to God and his word. The same thing is true of church discipline, a policy that we just acted on in our business meeting. The Bible makes it clear. We went through all of those passages on those five Wednesday evening studies. The Bible makes it clear that in some cases where a believer has departed from godly living to such an extent that it becomes a public shame on the church and on Christ, the church has to break fellowship because the church cannot condone ungodly lifestyles. Now there is a process of reaching out to people seeking to win them back. And that's what our discipline policy includes. The goal is always to restore and to bring them back, not to kick them out. That's not the goal. But there comes a point where someone shakes their fist in the face of god and says, I will not live like a Christian should live. The church has to say, I'm sorry, we have to break fellowship. The Bible makes that clear. Unity is not just unity based on, well I claim to be a Christian. Unity is based on faithfulness to god and his word. That is very clear. The nine and a half tribes recognize that. They thought the two and a half were violating god's word, so they were gonna take him to task. And the two and a half tribes agreed. If that's what we've done, then we call god to judge us. We deserve his judgment. They all recognized that unity is based on faithfulness to god and his word. But the second principle that I think we can learn from this passage is this. Unity among god's people is vitally important. The two and a half tribes recognize that. In fact, amazingly enough, that's the reason they built this altar. They built it to establish and maintain unity between the two and a half tribes and the nine and a half. Look at verse 24. They say, in verses 21 to 23, if we violated god's word, then yes, we call god to judge us. But verse 24, no, we did it for fear that someday your descendants might say to us, what do you have to do with the Lord, the God of Israel? The Lord has made the Jordan, the boundary between us and you, you Ruben, Rubenites and Gadites, you have no share in the Lord. So your descendants might cause hours to stop fearing the Lord. That is why we said, let us get ready and build an altar. But not for bird offerings or sacrifices. On the contrary, it is to be a witness between us and you and the generations that follow that we will worship the Lord at his sanctuary, speaking of the tabernacle in Shiloh, with our bird offering, sacrifices and fellowship offerings. Then in the future, your descendants will not be able to say to ours, you have no share in the Lord. And we said, if they ever say this to us to our descendants, we will answer, look at the replica of the Lord's altar which our ancestors built. Not for bird offerings and sacrifices, but as a witness between us and you. Far be it from us to rebel against the Lord and turn away from him today by building an altar for bird offerings, grain offerings and sacrifices other than the altar of the Lord, our God, that stands before his tabernacle. You see there, they're crying in the heart. You can just see it coming through. The reason we built this altar was to unify the 12 tribes. We realize how important it is that we stay unified in our worship of the true God at his tabernacle in Shiloh. And so if there were to ever come a time in the future, when because of this natural boundary of the Jordan River, the nine and a half tribes on one side would look at us and say, you don't belong to us. You live way over there. You have no right to come worship at our tabernacle. They said, the reason we built this altar as a memorial, as a replica to show all 12 tribes that we do belong together. So the whole motive behind it was to promote unity. Unity among God's people is vitally important. It is a most worthy goal for any church. We should pursue it. Our focus should be on what unifies us, what we have in common, the passion that we have to reach the lost and to build up believers and see God glorified in this work. That's the basis. That's what we should all want to see happen. There are a couple of passages where Paul tells two different churches to really work hard on this thing of unity. Romans 14, verse 19, after describing differences they may have on issues of Christian liberty, he says this to the Roman church, let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification, building each other up, not carrying each other down, building each other up. Let's make every effort. That's where our energy should be focused. He said something very similar to the Ephesian church in Ephesians 4, verse 3. He said, make every effort to keep the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace. Unity, unity among God's people is vitally important and should be what we strive for and make every effort to maintain. That much is seen with the tribes. It is also commanded of us as the church and the New Testament. But here's where things can get kind of nasty. Yes, unity is built on faithfulness to God in His word and it should be a major goal of the church to maintain unity, but principle number three, unity is often shattered by misunderstanding. This is what happened with the nine and a half tribes. Look again at verse 10. Speaking of the two and a half tribes in verse 10, it says when they came to Gellalaw, near the Jordan and the land of Canaan, the Rubenites, Gatites, half the tribe of Vanessa, built an imposing altar there by the Jordan. Now there's no explanation given. So the nine and a half tribes jumped to a conclusion about what that is. Verse 11. And when the Israelites heard that they had built the altar on the border of Canaan, Gellalaw, near the Jordan on the Israelite side, the whole assembly of Israel gathered at Shiloh to go to war against them. How easy it is to misunderstand and misread someone's actions. A rumor gets started. Why have they built this altar? It's got to be because they're going to establish a competing worship center. That was not at all their motivation. It's not at all what they were doing, but it's very easy to jump to that conclusion. We see an altar, we assume they're going to destroy the unity of our nation. They're going to form a separate worship center than the one God's given us in Shiloh at his tabernacle. Rumor, stokes the fire of emotion, and the gas of incorrect information causes it to flame up. Once we begin to jump to conclusions about what someone's doing that we may see and misunderstand, or once we begin to jump to conclusions about people's motives for why they are doing what they're doing. It's very easy to come to the wrong conclusion, and that's how unity gets shattered. Have you ever found yourself forming an opinion about what you think someone else is thinking about you? And we're really getting into gray area here. You can't read their minds, but you just know this is what they're thinking about you. And then find out later you were totally wrong. You misunderstood that glance or that look or that word. You totally misread it. It's so easy to jump to conclusions and come to wrong conclusions about brothers and sisters in Christ. Can't use in his excellent commentary on Joshua has said this. We have a sad tendency to believe the worst of others. A disposition to gloat over a discovered fault and the habit of cultivating a suspicious spirit that we vainly imagine is wisdom. There's a lot in that statement, and I've found myself caught in that very thing before, passing judgment on what I think someone is saying or thinking about me, and then it ends up being completely wrong. And I have to confess to the Lord, I pass judgment on that person incorrectly. It's so easy to see something, to hear something, maybe even to disagree with what you think the motives of someone are, and to make that an issue of contention between brothers and sisters in Christ and unity gets shattered. Isn't it sad that these brothers fought together for seven years? And they're about ready to go to civil war with each other over a misunderstanding of what was done. One group means that this way, the other group sees it differently. How terrible, but it happens all the time in the body of Christ. I remember years ago, this was back in our first church in North Carolina, and I've been thinking a lot about that church. The revival meeting that I just held this past week in North Carolina was about 10 miles from our first church down there. And so the choir from Lietem's Grove came over and sang one night, and a bunch of the folks from the church came another night, and it just kind of renewed the fellowship and friendships with them. And it was wonderful. And the guy who's pastoring the church where I was preaching this past week, I won to Christ as a little child in that first church. And he was 12 years old when we left there in 1980. And so it was just a blessed time to think back. But I've been doing a lot of thinking, Jeannie and I have about those years. And an incident came to mind as I was working on this message. In the late 70s, we had a well for our water. And in the late 70s, the more county health department became concerned about water contamination in many of the wells in our area. And so they sent out a letter requiring us to test our water. They weren't going to send anybody to do it. We had to do it and then send it in a little test tube off to the county health department. And so they gave us explicit instructions as to how to test our water. And one of the first things they said is before you draw water out of the spicket to put in the tube, you need to take either a butane torch or a cigarette lighter, some flame, and burn the mouth of your faucet to get any residual germs and stuff off so it won't contaminate the sample. Well, I didn't have a butane torch and I didn't have a cigarette lighter. Aren't you glad to hear that? So anyway, I decided, okay, I'll make the 25 trip into the nearest town, 25 mile trip to the nearest town of Ashboro and go to the good old faithful K-Mart there and I'll find me a butane torch. And I got to look at the price of that thing. This is in the 70s. There's about $10. And I got to thinking, you know, they sell those little bit lighters up there at the checkout counter for 59 cents. And I want to be a good steward of God's money. And so I just made the decision. I am not going to buy a propane torch just for this little test. I'm going to buy me a cigarette lighter. So I go up to the counter. Now you can imagine, as I'm looking over the cigarette lighters, the thought hits me. What if one of our church members is right behind us? Or what if one of our church members is in the next checkout row and they look over and see me buying a big cigarette lighter? Can you imagine what would happen that week in Seagrove North Carolina? The word would go around. Guess what I saw at K-Mart yesterday. I saw Pastor John buying a cigarette lighter. And he's been hiding that from us all these years. I just can't believe that. And then it would go to the next person, the next person, the next person. So I want to tell you something. I looked really hard all around me before I bought that cigarette lighter. But I bought the cigarette lighter. How easy it would have been for someone to see that and completely misunderstand what I was doing. But it happens with God's people all the time, doesn't it? We observe something. As in these tribes, we hear something. And we immediately form our own conclusions. And often those conclusions are wrong. But when we follow up on those conclusions and we pursue them and we start spreading them with other people, how many lives are damaged because of something we misunderstood. But I'm so thankful this isn't the end of the story because the rest of the story gives us a pattern for how to deal with these kind of situations. Unity is maintained by open communication. By open communication. Now there are four kinds of communication to take place. This is beautiful. As I was thinking about this this week down in North Carolina and working on this text, I was thinking about this is a beautiful pattern for how to deal with these kind of situations. Because what's described here is four different kinds or levels of communication. First of all, there was personal communication. Personal communication. Look if you will at verse 13. Remember they've already come to the conclusion in verses 11 and 12, they're building a competing author. We're going to go to war against them. But then they take a step back. Look at verse 13. So the Israelites sent Phineas, son of Elijah the priest, to the land of Gilead, to Ruben, Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh. With them they sent ten of the chief men, one from each of the tribes of Israel, each the head of a family division among the Israelites, clans. And the whole purpose for this was before we march off the war, let's sit down and talk about what we've observed. Let's talk about this author. And I'll tell you the truth. They didn't go into it with thinking, let's ask them why they built it. They went in accusing. They went in accusing. Think this is what you've done. This is why you did it. We know they were totally wrong. But that's what they did. At least they decided to check it out before they went to war. There was personal communication. Typically, what happens with us or quite often at least what happens with us is we would rather go tell someone else what we observed about a brother or sister. We would rather start the rumor circle, the gossip circle, and maybe ask others to pray. Oh, that's the spiritual way to do it. You need to pray for so and so because guess what I saw? Guess what I heard? And the rumor mill starts. And old told damage can be done. At least what they decided to do is we're going to go personally and confront them face to face. And that is the biblical procedure. Whenever you hear something, think something, see something that doesn't seem right to you, you have a biblical responsibility to go personally and confront that person. That's the first step we saw in the teaching about church discipline. The first step has nothing to do with the church. It has to do with individuals caring, concerned about brothers and sisters in Christ and going to them in meekness and humility in the love and seeking to confront them about sin. I read this statement this week. The kind of suspicion that jumps to conclusions is usually linked to a cowardice which refuses to check and see if those conclusions are right. Now think about that. It's exactly what we're seeing here. The kind of suspicion that jumps to conclusions is usually linked to a cowardice which refuses to check to see if those conclusions are right. And when we fail to make the personal communication, to go to the individual and talk to them specifically, not only are we violating scripture, we're being disobedient to God, but we are also creating untold damage for that person who has no right to explain what they were doing, why it happened, what you saw that you may have misunderstood, what you heard that wasn't true. There's no opportunity for that person to respond, and you violated the first principle of dealing with issues, contensions between brothers and sisters in Christ, and that is personal communication. I remind you again that that is the first step even in any church discipline, is personal communication. We saw in Matthew 18, when we were teaching that passage, Matthew 18 says, if a brother sins you individually are to go to him and confront him about that. Even in that situation, there is a personal communication before it ever goes to anyone else with you and the person that needs to be talked to. So there was personal communication, but there was also candid communication. It got pretty honest here, if you listened to what the tribes, the nine and a half tribes say, I mentioned earlier, they didn't go asking questions, they went making accusations, it was very candid, very honest. Look at what they said in verse 15. When they went to Gilead to Rubin and gather half tribe of Mass, they said to them, the whole assembly of the Lord says, how could you break faith with the God of Israel like this? They didn't even ask him what's the author about. They immediately assume you violated God's command, and so they start drilling them on that. How could you break faith with the God of Israel like this? How could you turn away from the Lord and build yourselves an author in rebellion against him now? They haven't even asked why it was built. They're jumping on their assumptions and their conclusions and saying, this is what you've done. I know what you've done. I know why you've done it. And then they remind them of two incidents in their nation's history where because some people sinned, the whole nation was judged. Verse 17, the sin of P or that was when Bailem caused the people of Israel to have immoral relationships with the women of Moab and brought the judgment of God. Numbers 20 something. Look it up. It's that story. He says, up to this day, we have not cleansed ourselves from that sin, even though a plague failed on the community of the Lord. Are you now turning away from the Lord? If you were a bell against the Lord today, tomorrow he will be angry with the whole community of Israel. Then verse 20, they remind him of Aiken. Aiken violated the command of God and brought sin on the people of Israel. So they go in with both guns blazing and they accuse you did this, you did it for this reason. We know and you're going to bring judgment on all the people of Israel. You know what? They were dead wrong. But at least they were honest with their concerns and they addressed them personally, not to someone else. They addressed them personally. But there's one other thing about their communication in this part of the story that impresses me. And that is not only was their personal communication and candid communication, there was some gracious communication too. In the midst of this pretty harsh, candid condemnation of these people, look at verse 19. Here's the grace. They said, if the land you possess is defiled, come over to the Lord's land, where the Lord's tabernacle stands and share the land with us, but do not rebel against the Lord or against us by building an altar for yourselves other than the altar of the Lord our God. You see the grace in that? If the problem is your land is defiled, then we'll make room for you. We can make room for two and a half more tribes. Please come on over and be with us and worship it. The tabernacle will make room for you. They give an offering of help and we'll go out of our comfort zones. We'll scoot over a little from east to west to make room for you. There's grace in this conversation as well. So anytime we communicate with people, it needs to first of all be personal communication between the two people that need to talk, not with someone else. It should be candid. You express your concerns candidly, but it should also be salted with grace, seasoned with grace, as Paul says in Colossians 4, seasoned with grace. But there's one other thing about this communication that I think is so important. It was also two way communication. After they express their concerns and they expressed them pretty strongly, didn't they? You know what they did? They listened. They listened. They stopped talking and they listened. Verses 21 to 23. The two and a half tribes we read it earlier, they basically said, the mighty one God, the Lord, the mighty one God, the Lord, he knows and let Israel know it's like they're panicking because they realize what they've done has been totally misunderstood. And so they say, oh no, we call God to witness. That's not the reason we did this. He knows our hearts, he knows our motives. And we want all Israel to know our motives. We didn't do this to build an altar to worship that. That was not our plan at all. And we read in verses 24 to 29, they described five times. We're not going to worship there. We're not going to worship there. We're not going to worship there. Please understand this was a testimony of our unity in case the nine and a half tribes were ever to tell us because of this natural border you don't belong with us. So they explained, they had the opportunity to explain and to their credit, Phineas and the 10 representatives from the nine and a half tribes listened. They listened how much grief, civil war, pain, heartache, slashing of brothers and sisters in Christ could be avoided if we simply expressed our concerns. And then we had the grace to listen and let there be two way communication. And when they listened, they got it. They understood. And in verse 30, as we read earlier, Phineas and the other 10 leaders say, oh, wow, did we ever have this wrong? That's King John translation. It's not quite that way in there. But basically, they're saying, we got this totally wrong. We misunderstood what we observed. We misread. And we surely misread your motives. Now we understand why you did this. And they take that report back to the nine and a half tribes. And guess what? Thankfully, there was no civil war. Unity was maintained by open communication. I've struggled this week with whether or not to say what I'm going to say next, but obviously I've decided to say it. Unsigned letters break all four of those biblical principles of communication. When you do not have the guts, the courage, and I don't even know who I'm talking to, but I'm talking to someone. When you do not have the courage to come personally face to face and say, these are my concerns, and you can express them strongly. But if you don't have the courage to do that, but you write a typewritten letter unsigned full of all kinds of wrath and invective against me, then you're breaking every command of scripture here. It's not personal face to face. It's maybe a little candid, but not in the setting it should be. It certainly is not gracious, and it is not too way communication. Because when a person, a pastor, or anyone else receives that kind of letter, there's no opportunity to explain what the motives are. There's no opportunity to explain why. No, you misread this. You misunderstood this. That was not my feeling of motive at all. But there's no opportunity to say that. So I've concluded people who don't have the courage to do what the Bible says to do are not interested in resolving issues anyway. They're just interested in sneaking up behind you with a knife when you can't defend yourself and shredding you to bits. That's all they're interested in. And I'll say if that's what you want to do, you will answer to God for that someday. This is the biblical way. And if I knew who wrote that letter, I would be confronting you personally, but I have no opportunity to do that. You didn't give me that chance. Unity is very, very fragile. Unity is a precious possession that can be easily shattered. The Bible says that we should make every effort to maintain it. So how do we do that? Well, first of all, we've got to make sure we're faithful to God and His Word. Faithful to God and His Word. Then secondly, we've got to make sure that we're not quick to jump to conclusions about others based on things we saw or heard and may have misunderstood. Rather, we should openly communicate person to person with humility, gentleness, patience, candidness, yes, but then listen to the explanation. And that, my friend, is the biblical way to deal with controversial issues in the church. Any other way is a violation of God's Word. And to the degree we do that, we will be held accountable to God. And remember what the two and a half tribes said, if we've done that, we realize we need to be judged by God. Would you pray with me, please? Father, I pray that we would not shatter the unity of your body, of your church, by unbiblical, ungodly, unkind, ungracious ways of handling things we may see or hear that we don't agree with. I thank you, Father. I want to be careful to confess this to you and to this congregation. I thank you for the many dozens and scores of people who do come, like the Bible says they should, and express concerns, ask questions, or even write a letter with their name signed to it and say, I'd be willing to sit down and talk with you. I thank you for those people because they're following a biblical pattern. Thank you for the many, many people that do that. I pray, Father, that we will always seek both now and as we move forward into the future, to maintain the unity of this body, we are at a perilous time, Lord. In our history where people can misunderstand what's happening, and I pray, God, you protect us, so that this church will always be strong and a force for you in this world, in Jesus' name we pray, amen.