"If you rebel against the Lord today, tomorrow he will be angry with the whole community of Israel." Josh. 22:18
God wants us to know and deal with and work through and come together in community. Lord knows it will be a struggle. Every relationship in life is - parent child, sibling, husband wife, brothers and sisters in the Kingdom. He made it that way. But, I believe, it is for our good.
It's especially difficult in a land that stresses individuality and the rights of the individual (as long as those individuals live on this side of the womb). The struggle to achieve a cohesive community that works as one in the Lord is difficult. We don't know our neighbors. We don't in the mistaken belief that this sacrifice will buy us unity. It's love and sharing together that brings us together. Not silence.
Why is that opinions and views other than our own threaten us?
In today's reading, the children of Israel almost go to war because they misinterpreted the religious expression of the Ruebenites, Gadites and half-tribe of Manasseh. On their return to their homeland on the other side of the Jordan, these fellow children of Israel stopped to build an altar. Over this religious point, the people almost go to war. Ironically they all most kill one another to preserve unity.
The Ruebenites, Gadites and half-tribe of Manasseh fear that a river separating them will lead to the failing of their one faith. But it's the figurative distance, the lack of communication and faith in the hearts of others that is almost their undoing.
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