How willing are we to put God first in any situation?
What is happening here is that these two and a half tribes are going home. They are part of Israel, but they are separated from the rest of the tribes by the Jordan River. Back in chapter 18 when Joshua called all of Israel to Shiloh to help the seven tribes how hadn’t gotten their inheritance yet, there two and a half tribes came to help and had been helping the whole time. Finally, everybody was settled and Joshua gave them permission to go back home across the Jordan River. On their way back, they built a huge altar. When the rest of Israel heard about it. They were ready to go to war with them.
The rest of Israel thought that these tribes were building this altar as a rebellion against God. It was later explained by the two and a half tribes that it was more a memorial that they will still serve God though they are separated by the river from the rest of the people.
Something that I see is that these two and a half tribes had just spent a good amount of time away from their home land helping these people their fellow country men. I’m sure the people were very thankful for the help of these two and a half tribes in inheriting their land. However, as soon as they thought that they might be a problem with their relationship with God, they were ready to cut it off and shut it down. Like, “We really appreciate you helping us fight these people so that we can now have our home, but you got to go. You can’t just rebel against God like that. We have a problem and we’re going to destroy you.”
Even though they just finished helping them, the people knew their relationship with God was more important than their relationship with their family or friends. They were ready to cut people off, good people who laid down their lives for them. God is still more important.
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