As I was doing my devotional reading thru the Bible, I was in the book of Joshua. Usually,as I reach the portion of Joshua where they divide up the land of Canaan I lose interest pretty quickly. The names are long, hard to pronounce and are unfamiliar to me. But I was trying hard to make a connection and find an application.
To the Israelite, genealogy and heritage is extremely important to say the least. The Book of Matthew and Luke devote extensive time to recounting the father-son relationship going back to Abraham and to Adam, respectively. Likewise in Old Testament times, most all Jews could easily trace their heritage back to one of the original 12 tribes or sons of Jacob. Who you belonged to, often defined you. Moses and Joshua both reinforced Gods command to them to marry within your own people. So, your brothers and cousins were your family and your family marched together, fought together, lived together and died together.
So, as the Israeli people approached the Jordan to cross over and begin to possess their land, a small detail jumped out at me. Why did Manasseh's tribe split and half of the tribe want to stay on the East of the Jordan and the other half go into Canaan west of the Jordan to receive their inheritance? Together the two half tribes' territory made up the largest portion of the inheritance from God that Moses divided. That is a fact that I am certain is not without an underlying purpose. (But that topic is for a different time to discuss.)
The half tribe of East Manasseh agreed to fight side by side with their West Manasseh brothers under the same banner until Israel won and everyone had received their inheritance. Then they would go back east and settle with their families. Why would they separate from their brothers? These people had lived together and traveled together thru the 40 years in the Wilderness. They had a singular head of the tribe thru out. So, of all the tribes did they separate? Scripture is silent on the reason or rationale for the separation. No mention is made of the problem, or what the disagreement was, (lifestyle, worship style, music .... I don't know).
My point was just that that. We don't know what the problem was but it was big enough to split brother from brother. But they continued to work together toward a common goal for the greater common good. And its important to note that the split part occurred before they proceeded to accomplish a big objective... completing the will of God.
So my take away from all of this. God has certainly given us free will to make decisions. Its okay to disagree and have our own opinions. The difference in the people of Manasseh is that they apparently had a fairly large disagreement but they still chose to be together and work through the tough times. That is to disagree but still be able to work together. It appears as if our society today has become so polarized that we agree on very little and therefore we can't seem to confront a common foe that is opposing us. We seem to think that agreeing to work on anything will weaken our position or standing with those who share our opinions. Whether it is political, religious or even public health topics at hand, we must be able to work together to defeat or conquer that which would destroy us and our way of life. We can do that only by looking up to find the banner and consolidate our battle there.
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