Behaviour Revolution Scriptures

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MATURITY (JOSH.20-22)

One day Yahusha told Joshua: ”When Moses was still alive, I had him tell the Yisharalites about the Safe Towns. Now you tell them that it’s time to set up these towns. If a person accidentally kills someone and the victim’s relatives say it was murder, they might try to take revenge. So anyone accused of murder can run to one of the Safe Towns and be safe from the victim’s relatives. The one needing protection will stand at the entrance to the town gate and explain to the town leaders what happened. Then the leaders will bring that person in and provide a place to live in their town.

One of the victim’s relatives might come to the town, looking for revenge. But the town leaders must not simply hand over the person accused of murder. After all, the accused and the victim had been neighbours, not enemies. The citizens of that Safe Town must come together and hold a trial. They may decide that the victim was killed accidentally and that the accused is not guilty of murder.

Everyone found not guilty must still live in the Safe Town until the high priest dies. Then they can go back to their own towns and their homes that they had to leave behind".

So the Yisharalites decided that these 3 towns west of the Jordan River would be Safe Towns:

Kedesh in Galilee (in Naphtali’s hill country),

Shechem (in Ephraim’s hill country),

Hebron (in Judah’s hill country)

And these 3 were Safe Towns east of the Jordan:

Bezer (in the desert flatlands of Reuben),

Ramoth (in Gilead, which was a town of Gad),

Golan in Bashan (which belonged to Manasseh)

These Safe Towns were set up, so that if Yisharalites or even foreigners who lived in Yisharal accidentally killed someone, they could run to one of these towns. There they would be safe until a trial could be held, even if one of the victim’s relatives came looking for revenge.

21 

While the Yisharalites were still camped at Shiloh in the land of Canaan, the family leaders of the Levi tribe went to speak to the priest Eleazar, Joshua, and the family leaders of the other Yisharalite tribes. The leaders of Levi said, “Yahuah told Moses that you are to give us towns and provide pastures for our animals.”

So since Yahusha had said this, the leaders of the other Yisharalite tribes agreed to give some of the towns and pastures from their tribal lands to Levi. The leaders asked Yahusha to show them in what order the clans of Levi would be given towns, and which towns each clan would receive. Yahusha had told Moses that He would show the Yisharalites which towns and pastures to give to the clans of Levi, and he did. Yahusha gave the Yisharalites the land He'd promised their ancestors, and they captured it and settled in it. 

There were still enemies around Yisharal, but Yahusha kept His promise to let His people live in peace. And whenever the Yisharalites did have to go to war, no enemy could defeat them. Yahusha always helped Yisharal conquer and promised to do many great things for Yisharal, and He kept His promises every time.

PART OF THE RESPONSIBILITY OF EACH TRIBE WHO TOOK THEIR LAND INHERITANCE WAS TO FINISH CONQUERING IT. THERE WAS ONE NOTABLE EXCEPTION TO THIS RULE: THE LEVITES. THE LEVITES WERE NOT TO BE ENGAGED IN THE BATTLE FOR CANAAN. THEY WERE YAHUSHA’S SERVANTS, SET-APART FOR THIS SET-APART DUTY. FURTHER, SINCE THEY WERE NOT TO DO MILITARY SERVICE, WHATEVER LAND THEY RECEIVED FOR THEIR USE HAD TO ALREADY BE CONQUERED AND UNDER YISHARAL’S CONTROL. SO THE TIMING OF NOT RECEIVING THEIR CITIES AND VILLAGES UNTIL AFTER ALL THE OTHER TRIBES GOT THEIRS IS VERY LOGICAL.

22 

Joshua had the men of the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and East Menassah come for a meeting, and he told them: “You have obeyed every Instruction of Yahuah your Alahim and of His servant Moses. And you have done everything I’ve told you to do. It’s taken a long time, but you’ve stayed and helped your brothers. Yahuah promised to give peace to your relatives, and that’s what He’s done. Now it’s time for you to go back to your own homes in the land that Moses gave you east of the Jordan River. Moses taught you to love Yahuah your Alahim, to be obedient to Him, and to serve and obey Him with your whole heart and with all your strength. So be very careful to do everything Moses instructed. You’ve become rich from what you’ve taken from your enemies. You have big herds of cattle, lots of silver, gold, bronze, and iron, and plenty of clothes. So take everything home with you and share it with the people of your Tribes. I pray that Alahim will be kind to you, You are now officially free to go home”.

So the tribes of Reuben and Gad started back to Gilead, their own land. Moses had given the land of Bashan to the East Menassah tribe, so they started back along with Reuben and Gad. Yahusha had told Moses that these two and a half tribes should conquer Gilead and Bashan, and they had done so.

Joshua had given land West of the Jordan River to the other half of the Menassah Tribe, so they stayed at Shiloh in the land of Canaan with the rest of the Yisharalites. The tribes of Reuben, Gad, and East Menassah reached the western side of the Jordan River valley and built a huge altar there beside the river.

And when the rest of the Yisharalites heard what these Tribes had done, they met at Shiloh to get ready to attack the two and a half tribes. But first they sent a priest, Phinehas the son of Eleazar, to talk with the two and a half tribes. Each of the tribes at Shiloh sent the leader of one of its families along with Phinehas.

So Phinehas and these leaders went to Gilead and met with the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and East Menassah and they said: “All of Yahuah’s people have gathered together and have sent us to find out why you are disobedient to our Alahim? You have turned your backs on Yahuah by building that altar. Why are you rebelling against him? Wasn’t our people’s crimes at Peor terrible enough for you? Yahuah punished us by sending a horrible sickness that killed many of us, and we still suffer because of that wickedness. Now you’re turning your backs on Yahuah again. If you don’t stop this evil behaviour right now He’ll be furious at the whole nation. If you don’t think your land is a fit place to serve Alahim, then move across the Jordan and live with us in Yahuah’s own land, where His set-apart Tabernacle located. But don’t rebel against Yahuah our Alahim or against us by building another altar besides Yahuah’s own altar. Don’t you remember what happened when Achan was sneaky and disobedient and took some of the things that belonged to Yahuah under the ban? This made Him angry with the entire nation. Achan died because of his wickedness, but he also caused the death of many others".

The tribes of Reuben, Gad, and East Manasseh answered: “Yahuah is the greatest Alahim! We ask Him to be our witness, because He knows whether or not we were rebellious or disobedient when we built that altar. If we were wrong, then we pray that Yahuah won’t rescue us today. Let us tell you why we built that altar, and we ask Yahuah to punish us if we are lying. We didn’t build it so we could turn our backs on Him. We didn’t even build it so we could offer animal or grain sacrifices to please Him or ask his blessing. We built simply that altar because we were worried. Someday your descendants might tell our descendants, 'Yahuah made the Jordan River the boundary between us Yisharalites and you people of Reuben and Gad. Yahuah is Yisharal’s Alahim, but you’re not part of Yisharal, so you can’t take part in serving Yahuah'. Your descendants might say that and try to make our descendants stop serving and obeying Yahuah, so that’s why we decided to build the altar. It isn’t for offering sacrifices, not even sacrifices to please Yahuah, for to build another altar for offering sacrifices would be the same as turning our backs on Yahuah and rebelling against Him. We could never do that! No, we built the altar to remind us and you and the generations to come that we will serve only Yahuah our Alahim. And so we will keep bringing our sacrifices to Yahuah’s altar, in front of His Tabernacle. But now your descendants will never be able to say to our descendants, “You can’t serve Yahuah, because if they do say that, our descendants can answer back, 'Look at this altar our ancestors built! It’s like Yahuah’s altar, but it isn’t for offering sacrifices. It’s here to remind us and you that we belong to Yahuah, just as much as you do.'”

Phinehas and the clan leaders were pleased when they heard the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and East Menassah explain why they had built the altar. Then Phinehas told them, “Today we know that Yahuah is helping us. You have not been disobedient to Him, and this means that Yahuah will not be angry with us.” Then Phinehas and the clan leaders left Gilead and went back to Canaan to tell the Yisharalites about their meeting with the Reuben and Gad tribes. The Yisharalites were happy and praised Alahim and there was no more talk about going to war and wiping out the tribes of Reuben and Gad. The people of Reuben and Gad named the altar “A Witness and Reminder to us all that Yahuah is our Alahim.”

DESPITE THE SEVERAL DECADES OF TRAINING AND INSTRUCTION AND EXPERIENCES ALL THE TRIBES OF YISHARAL HAD JOINTLY LIVED-OUT IN THE PRESENCE OF YAHUSHA, THE COMMON WAYS OF THE WORLD (TO WHICH THEY WERE ALL TOO FAMILIAR) CLUNG TO THESE HEBREWS LIKE BARNACLES ON A PIER. THEY STILL DID NOT GRASP THAT THERE WAS ONLY ONE AKAHIM. THEY STILL DID NOT INTERNALISE THAT YAHUSHA HAD NO PHYSICAL LIMITATIONS UPON HIM AND OBSERVED NO TERRITORIAL BOUNDARIES, AS DID THE REST OF THE WORLD. FOR THE HEBREWS, CROSSING A RIVER MEANT THAT YOU MIGHT BE LEAVING BEHIND THE RULES AND RULERSHIP OF ONE ALAHIM FOR ANOTHER.

SO SUDDENLY THE TRANS-JORDAN TRIBES BECOME ANXIOUS; NOW THAT THEY ARE LEAVING CANAAN, WHERE IS THEIR ALAHIM YAHUSHA? WILL THEIR BROTHERS ON THE WEST BANK ALLOW THEM TO CONTINUE PARTICIPATION IN THE ALL-IMPORTANT SACRIFICIAL RITUALS, OR ARE THEY LEFT OUT IN THE COLD ONCE THEY LEAVE CANAAN? THE CENTER OF CANAAN HAD BEEN MOVED TO SHILOH IN THE TRIBAL TERRITORY OF EPHRAIM; AND THIS WASN’T A PARTICULARLY CONVENIENT LOCATION EVEN FOR THOSE TRIBES WHO TOOK THEIR LAND INHERITANCE IN CANAAN. FOR THOSE TRANS-JORDAN TRIBES, IT WAS A CHALLENGING JOURNEY TO GET TO SHILOH TO SAY THE LEAST.

PSYCHOLOGICALLY THE 3 TRIBES OF THE EAST ALSO WONDERED IF THEY’D BE REMEMBERED: BY BOTH THE LEADERSHIP OF YISHARAL AND BY YAHUSHA HIMSELF. IN FACT, WERE THEY STILL UNDER JOSHUA’S AUTHORITY, OR HAD THE DISCHARGE CEREMONY RELEASED THEM FROM SUBMISSION TO JOSHUA TOO? AND IF THEY WEREN’T UNDER JOSHUA’S AUTHORITY, THEN WERE THEY STILL PART OF YISHARAL? IN OTHER WORDS WHILE JOY WAS ABOUNDING ALL AROUND, THIS WAS A TIME OF TRANSITION AND UNCERTAINTY (ESPECIALLY FOR REUBEN, GAD, AND THE ½ TRIBE OF MANESSAH). THINGS WERE CHANGING, BUT INTO WHAT? AND THAT’S WHY THEY BUILT THE ALTAR, NOT TO DEFY YAHUSHA, BUT TO DECLARE THEIR OWN OBEDIENT IN THIS TIME OF UPHEAVAL AND ESTABLISHMENT.

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