Today’s Scripture: Joshua 22-24
Hannah was praying in her heart, and her lips were moving but her voice was not heard. Eli thought she was drunk and said to her, “How long will you keep on getting drunk? Get rid of your wine.” – 1 Samuel 1:13-14
The war in the land of Canaan had ended. They had rest according to all that God had promised, and every man had a clear title to his farm. Joshua dismissed those whose inheritance was on the east side of Jordan, so they started for their homes. And then they did something that almost led to tragedy. When they came to the borders of Jordan, they built an altar.
When the children of Israel in the west heard about what they had done, they gathered together at Shiloh to go to war against their eastern brothers! But before the army marched off to battle, they did a very wise thing. They sent Phineas the priest and ten leaders to Gilead to talk to their brothers and find out why they had built an altar. They found that the eastern tribes had not built an altar for sacrifice, but as a witness to the present and future generations of their vow to worship the Lord in His sanctuary.
Here is a tremendous lesson for us today. Hasty suspicion leads to false accusation and division. It is so easy to jump to conclusions and go off half-cocked and say things or do things that we will regret later–things Satan can use to bring reproach on the cause of Christ.
Are you in the midst of making some battle plans today? Your cause may be just, and the sin you are opposing may be serious. But are you sure the fellow Christians you’re getting ready to fight have actually done what you think they did? Do you know the motive behind their apparently wrong action?
Prayer
Lord, as Your Word says in James 1:19-20, teach me to be “slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.” Amen.
To Ponder
“He who answers before listening–that is his folly and his shame” (Proverbs 18:13).
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