Fears of Exclusion

The western tribes of Israel have accused the tribes living east of the Jordan River of falling into sin by constructing a large altar on the riverbank. But the eastern tribes have declared that the altar was not built out of rebellion, and that both Israel and God may judge them if their actions were sinful. They have stated that their consciences are clear—but they have not said why. Only now do they explain their reason for building the altar.

Far from rejecting God’s covenant with Israel, the eastern tribes assert that they built the altar because they feared exclusion from the covenant. When and why did this fear strike them? We can only surmise that it occurred as they journeyed from Shiloh toward their homelands in the east, for it seems likely that if their concerns and the idea for the altar had come to them before their departure that they would have brought them to Joshua. But perhaps the distance to their homelands and a difficult crossing of the Jordan caused them to reflect that they very well might be unable to worship at the tabernacle as often as members of the other tribes. Also, the distance and the Jordan’s periodic floods might make it impossible for them to attend all three of the yearly feasts. That in itself would be regrettable, but in their speculations they conceived a more troubling prospect. “What if,” they said to one another, “our less-frequent attendance at the tabernacle causes our brothers to the west to begin to see us as second-class Israelites? And what if, over time, they come to believe that we have no place at the altar at all?” Though it might not happen in their own generation, or even the next, they could foresee that the western tribes eventually might say to the easterners, “ ‘You have no part in the LORD.’ ” By doing so, they might cause the easterners’ descendants to “ ‘cease fearing the LORD.’ ”

Thus, while the westerners suspected the easterners of sinning in their construction of the altar, the easterners respond that they built the altar because of their own suspicions and doubts about the westerners. The eastern tribes (particularly Reuben and Gad, for the Manassehites had relatives in Canaan itself) wanted to somehow stake their claim to a place in the commonwealth of Israel. In our next study, we will learn why they chose to do it by building an altar.