The Israelites really embarrassed themselves when wrongly judging the motives of their chums in the tribe of Gad.
The Gadites had done nothing wrong too. Quite the opposite: they’d “done all that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded,” Joshua 22:2. And what’s more, they’d been highly commended by Joshua, because “For a long time now,” he told them in verse 3, “you have not deserted your brothers (your fellow Israelites) but have carried out the mission the Lord your God gave you.”
They truly hadn’t deserted their brother Israelites either. The Gadites had voluntarily offered “to arm ourselves and go ahead of the Israelites (into Canaan west of the River Jordan)” and continue to fight alongside them “until every Israelite has received his inheritance” and every enemy had been defeated (Numbers 32:17-18, 21). Only then would the Gadites return to their own homes and families east of the Jordan (26-27) – and without receiving any inheritance of their own in Canaan either (19).
So the Gadites had thoroughly put themselves out for their fellow Israelites, fighting with them to win their land for them, and without receiving any of that land themselves. And with that job done Joshua “sent the Gadites home” with his blessing, Joshua 22:6-8.
But that’s when the trouble began, because “When they came to Geliloth near the Jordan in the land of Canaan, the Reubenites, Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh built an imposing altar,” verse 10. Well, that did it, because when the Israelites got wind of this altar, they immediately assumed the worst, that the three tribes, including Gad, had “turned away from the Lord and built an altar in rebellion against him” (16). They were so convinced their judgment was correct that “the whole assembly of Israel gathered to go to war” (11-12) – no questions asked, no facts checked, no consultation done, just charge the Gadites as guilty and feel justified in lopping their heads off.
How embarrassing, then, when the Gadites explained they’d built this “replica of the Lord’s altar” (28) as “a witness between us and you and the generations that follow, that we will worship the Lord at his sanctuary” (27). They’d built the altar as visible proof that even though they weren’t living alongside the other Israelites they would remain loyal to Israel’s God too (24-29, 34). At which point there was no more talk of war (33). But the Gadites’ story doesn’t end there either, because they also became “A lesson in why nations fail”….(nest blog)
