Jumping to Conclusions...

Reading in the Old Testament book of Joshua, this morning I arrived at chapter 22 and uncovered an interesting case study in crucial relational skills.

If you're familiar with the Biblical story of the people of Israel, you'll know that God freed them from a life of slavery and took them on a journey to find their promised land. Some of the tribes claimed good pasture land on the east side of the Jordan river, but were nonetheless required to cross the river and help their brothers fight to conquer the land on the west side of the Jordan.

As chapter 22 begins, Joshua is affirming these so-called transJordan tribes for their faithfulness and obedience to God. Now that the rest of the land has been conquered, the eastern tribes are heading home to their own land on the other side of the river. And that's when an interesting misunderstanding takes place.

The western tribes hear that the eastern tribes have "built an altar" next to the river. (vs 11 - 12) Horrified that their brothers are so quickly abandoning the one true God, they prepare to go to war against them... but fortunately, they have the wisdom to first send a delegation to hear what the others have to say about it.

Just as well that they did! It turns out the truth of the situation was the complete opposite of how they had interpreted it. Rather than being an expression of idolatry, the building of the altar was in fact an expression of the eastern tribes' desire to safeguard their relationship with the Lord and make sure that future generations always had the right and the freedom to worship the God of Israel.
(vs 24 - 28)

So everything ended peacefully, the eastern tribes continued their journey home and the altar was allowed to remain by the river as a memorial and a witness between them that both the western and eastern tribes were committed to the one true God.

The Israelites' good responses in this critical situation are in contrast to the relational mistakes that we sometimes make when we jump to conclusions about the motives and actions of someone else.

1. Sometimes we "rush to war" before taking time to check the facts. It can be easy to pass judgement on others and jump to conclusions about what they did and why. Let's learn from the example of these western tribes who had the wisdom to engage in dialogue and check their own understanding before rushing to war against their brothers.
2. When the other party tells us their side of the story, it's so important to embrace their account with trust and humility. How often has a misunderstanding been made even worse by our arrogantly insisting that our initial conclusion was the right one. "You're lying. We know that you built that altar out of rebellion towards God." The western tribes didn't do this, but had the humility to acknowledge their own mistake.
3. On the other hand, it can be easy for the misjudged party to respond with outrage and offence - "How dare you..." or "How could you possibly think that we would build an altar to false gods?" - especially if the accusation has not been expressed very diplomatically. ( vs 16 says that the delegation demanded to know why the transJordan tribes were betraying the God of Israel!) Fortunately the eastern tribes responded with humility and not with anger in explaining their side of what had been done.

Three simple principles, but they can make all the difference when we are dealing with potentially crucial situations. How quick we can be to jump to conclusions about others. Let's extend them the grace and understanding that we would want them to give to us if the shoe were on the other foot.

Jesus said, "Blessed are the peacemakers..."