Joshua 22:21-29 | Episode #1254

August 6, 2026

Hope Alive: Applying God’s Word to Your Daily Life

Joshua 22:21-29

I am Chad Harrison, and I am the teaching pastor of Lake Community Church and had been serving as a pastor for over 25 years. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word verse-by-verse and find God's will for your life. The purpose of studying scripture is that you might know the character of Jesus Christ, and that you might see the world from the Father's perspective. That you gain wisdom that changes your life. I pray in the name of Jesus right now that God would open His word to you and allow you to see Him and to know Him. To know His will, that you might glorify Him and that you might walk in faith and power each day, especially today. In Jesus name.

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Transcript

This is Hope Alive, where we apply

God's Word to our daily life. My name is Chad Harrison. I'm first a husband, a father and a grandfather. I'm also the teaching pastor at Lake Community Church in Dadeville, Alabama on beautiful Lake Martin. I've been serving as a pastor for over 30 years. I also serve as the Tallapoosa County District Judge. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word verse by verse through the Bible and to find his purpose and will for your daily life. If you would like sponsor this podcast, go to the Show Notes where there's a link where you can make a donation. I pray in the name of Jesus

that God would open his word to

you, allow you to see him and to know him, so that you would know his will and his way for your life, that you might walk in faith and power each and every day, especially today.

Word of God, please speak to the

hearers of your voice today in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Well, good morning. Welcome to Lake Community Church's morning Bible study. We are in Joshua, chapter 22, starting with verse 13. And we're going to hear what Israel has to say to the two and a half tribes of Manasseh about this altar. And actually, it is a important kind of understanding that they relate to the two and a half tribes of Manasseh. Now, it's out of context because that's not what's going on. But it is important that you kind of read, think and work your way through this from a spiritual perspective, because sometimes we do these things ourselves and the. The context or the situation is not right, but the truth is still there and the understanding's still there. And the reason why, well, the half tribe of Manasseh and Reuben and Gad were in this position is because it looked that way. It looked as if that's what they were doing. And so that's where we're at. It's a good study. It says then the children of Israel sent Pinehis, the son of Eleazar, the priests to the children of Reuben, children of Gad to the half tribes tribe of Manasseh into the land of Gilead. Pinehaz is going to replace Eleazar as priest. He replaced him as priest when Eleazar passed away. So we're sending a pretty important figure. And notice, we're not sending Joshua. Joshua's not going out to battle. We're sending a religious figure. We're sending their spiritual leader, not their physical leader, their spiritual leader. And so the spiritual leader is going to go deal with this altar and its purpose and effect in the children of Israel with the tribes across the river. And it says, and with him, 10 rulers, one ruler each from the chief house of every tribe of Israel, meaning they took a ruler from the nine tribes and then the other half tribe of Manasseh, which was on this side of the river. So they took 10 leaders. So we've got a. A religious leader who is. Well, we got a spiritual leader who is leading the expedition. And along with him, he's got a representative, a leader from every tribe that is on the other side of the river, so that you have a full accounting to every tribe of what happened. It says, and each one was the head of a house of his father among the divisions of Israel. So they didn't necessarily have to be the head of the whole tribe, but. But they are a leader from a important family in those tribes. It says, then they came to the children of Reuben, to the children of Gab, to the half tribe of Manasseh, to the land of Gilead, and spoke with them, saying, thus says the whole congregation of the Lord. Meaning, this is what we say. Notice it didn't say thus saith the Lord. They said, thus saith the whole congregation. This is what the people on this side of the river perceive. Now, that's something that's important. Yesterday I talked about people coming to their own assumptions and a couple of people causing problems. What they're saying here is this is a problem. It's a visual problem. There's something going on here. And the whole congregation is saying that this is a problem. Now, when that happens, it's got to be addressed, okay? When there, when there is, when there is trouble in the camp, well, first of all, the troublemaker needs to be dealt with. If, if, if the troublemaker is wrong, which happens, okay? And then second of all, if there's trouble in the camp because there's a legitimate concern, well, the concern's got to be dealt with. And so you've got both sides of the equation here. He says, what treachery is this that you have committed against 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. What they're saying is you built your own altar, really, in a context for us, as we would use this as a teaching tool for ourselves as the Old Testament is meant to be. It's our schoolmasters to teach us. The Old Testament is telling us that you can't choose the way you're going to worship God. You worship God from the way he has led you to worship Him. Listen, spelled out by his word, not what you think, not how you think about things. You can't say, well, I worship God in my own way. The problem with that is worship has two parties involved, the worshiper and the worshipee. The worshiper is you, the worshipee is God. Okay? The person being worshiped plays a huge role in it. And because the person being worshiped is being worshiped, they're superior in the relationship. So who gets to decide how the worship is to take place?

Not you.

Not you. You don't get to decide. God decides how the worship is to be done, how you would rightly worship him, meaning how you would rightly present yourself to him in his presence. God gets to decide that, and you don't get to decide that. And so they're calling them on the table, saying, you're choosing to do worship which is outside the commandments, the instructions, the precepts, the, the, the teachings of what God has said already about how we're going to do this worship thing and how we're going to do that. He's going to pick a place. They're going to place the tabernacle there. Tabernacle right now is at Shiloh. You're supposed to worship there until the tabernacle moves. Eventually there's going to be a permanent place where a temple's built. When that temple is built, you're going to worship God there and you're going to worship him as he's prescribed in pretty much detail, a lot of detail. I mean, we spent weeks going over all the details of how God said to do this worship. Well, you can't just decide, well, you know, life is, life's changed for me. I'm gonna do it my own way. I worship God in my own way. You don't do that. You can't do that. He says, he says, is the iniquity of Peor not enough for us from which we are cleansed? Till this day, though, there is a plague in the congregation of the Lord. This is he's heart. Now what Eleazar is doing is he's hearkening back to situations where people did things as far as the holiness of God and as far as worship, which is wrong and it has caused problems. And so they were worshiping wrongly at BAAL Peor. Go back and study that. And he says, they say, did not a plague come on us. And isn't there even sickness to this day, but that you must turn away this day from following the Lord. What he's saying is, why are you doing this? And it shall be if you rebel today against the Lord, that tomorrow he will be angry in the whole congregation of Israel. Meaning not only is God going to be angry, but we're going to be angry because you are going to unleash a plague on us, too. We're together in this, and that's important. Also. You going rogue in.

In.

In the way worship's done and the way worship's carried out. You going rogue in that way doesn't just affect you, it affects everyone. And you can go to 1 Corinthians and study through the body of Christ. Can the hand say that I'm not a hand to the rest of the body? And the answer is no. Just because you want to do it some other way, you can't do that. And if you're a part of the body of Christ, and you are, if you're born again, you can't just say, I'm going to do it my own way. I'm going to do my own thing. Now, there is. There are nuances to worship. There are cultural things that go on in. In New Testament Christian worship that are different in different places. But I will. I will tell you this. What I find so super interesting about the worship that I have seen all over, well, all over this hemisphere and, you know, a little bit in the other, in Europe. What I've noticed about the worship that goes on when I've been in its presence is that there is a pattern to it. There is prayer, there is singing, there is offering in some way. It can be a physical offering, usually is, and we're talking about money. But it also can be an offering of subjecting yourself, humbling yourself before God, prostrating yourself before God. And then there is in some way a teaching of God's word. And when it's done well, there's a pretty deep dive into some aspect of God's word. And then there is some call to deal with that, some call to the believer to deal with what God has said to them. Now, I'm going to tell you, no matter where you go in the world, as far as Christian faith is concerned, you're going to see that pattern nuanced for the culture that it's in, but you're going to see that pattern go on everywhere around the world.

Why?

Because that's the biblical model. That's a picture of the tabernacle. It's a picture of the Temple, it's the New Testament worship. Now, some people say it's supposed to be done on Saturday. Some people, most of the Christians in the world believe it's to be done on Sunday. But you know, even if you go to the ones who do it on Saturday, they do it very much similar to the way that the ones who do it on Sunday are. And each and every place has a different way of looking at it. And by the way, there's a lot of places where they provide for worship opportunities not on Sunday. And they don't believe it's legally required, but they do. Why? Because it gives you an opportunity to enter into his presence, whereas you might have to work on Sunday somewhere. So as those things are going on, they're nuanced. And so they're saying, don't do it differently than the way God has said do it. Nevertheless, verse 19, the land of your possession is unclean. Then cross over to the land of the possession of the Lord, where the Lord's tabernacle stands, and take possession among us. But do not rebel against the Lord, nor rebel against us by building for yourselves an altar beside the altar of the Lord your God. What they're saying is, don't go over there and start doing your own worship and make that land unclean. You'd just be better off coming back over the river and being with us. And that's true. They would be better off coming back over the river and being with them if they're going to do worship their own way. Why? Because God is not going to be pleasing to God. Remember? How do I please God? By faith. Without faith, it's impossible. Please God. Well then tell me how that deals with worship. Well, faith is, I hear God's word, I believe God's word. I trust in God's word. It manifests itself physically in this world by my actions and by my words. I hear God's word, I believe God's word. I act upon God's word. Okay? That is what faith is. How do I please God? I hear him, I believe Him. I act upon it. It manifests in the world. Okay, if that's what faith is, then I can't worship him in a way that's outside of how he has instructed me in His Word. And so they're just saying you're better off coming back over here and not becoming a wasteland, becoming unclean to God. Did not Achan, the son of Zerah. Now remember, this is where Achan took the gold and silver and hid it under Babylonian garment and Placed it in his tent and him and his whole family were killed. This story is important because it's actually in this book, the Book of Joshua, and it relates to us and it tells us that you can't take God's holiness and use it in a way outside of how he's instructed you to do it. And so he says, did not Achan and Zerah commit a trespass in the accursed things? The wrath fell on the congregation of Israel, meaning it fell on all of us. And the man did not perish alone in his iniquity, meaning we had to deal with the problem and then him and his whole family passed away. What he's saying is, is the these things, as far as worship is concerned, have consequences. And the reason they have consequences is because we're consequential. We matter and we are the body of Christ and we have a purpose for, for existing. And so if that's the case, we matter. And, and God wants to make sure that, that we understand that. That. That he is the leader of worship. Okay, we don't lead. We do as he is instructed. Now remember, like I said, it's not a rote thing, but it definitely has some, some parameters that God desires. And how do we know those things? Well, we study Scripture and we figure them out. That's how we know it. And that's how we get to the end of the matter, the conclusion of the matter. And so as you're thinking about this passage, Pine Haz is right. He has come in and said, here's the problem with what we perceive you're doing now. They're going to give a perception. They're going to give their reason for building the altar, and it's going to be satisfactory. And we'll figure that out tomorrow. But that satisfactory answer is going to be really, really good for God's people because they're not doing it for that reason. But it also has given us this really good discourse here where Pine Haas spells out the importance of doing what God has said rightly. And you know, I don't get legalistic about this, but I do understand the principle and I understand that it has importance and that we don't need to miss that importance and we need to work out his worship the way he says do it. And it does have an. I'll dare say this, it does have order and it should be orderly. Okay, As you go today, I pray that the Lord will bless you and keep you, that he'll make his face to shine upon you, and that he will give you hope and peace today. In Jesus name.