Seeking and Obeying the Prince of Peace
Joshua 22:1-34
St. John’s United Church of Christ
Greeley, Colorado
December 7, 2025
Rev. Juvenal Cervantes
On this second Sunday of Advent, consider this truth: Jesus is the only baby who chose to be born.
The observable universe is currently estimated to be about ninety-two billion light-years across. Traveling at 186,232 miles per second, it would take you that long to travel from one edge to the other. If your mind can grasp such expansive immensity, it is more capable than mine.
And yet the Creator measures all of that “between his thumb and little finger” (Isaiah 40:12, MSG). Furthermore, it was by Jesus that “all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible” (Colossians 1:16). It is also in him that “all things hold together” (v. 17).
When Jesus unveiled even a glimpse of his heavenly divinity to his best friend John on Patmos, the apostle “fell at his feet as though dead” (Revelation 1:17). Christ is so majestic that when he returns, “on his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords” (Revelation 19:16).
And yet he voluntarily “emptied himself” of his indescribable immensity (Philippians 2:7) to become a fertilized egg the size of a pinhead in the womb of a peasant teenage girl. He grew as a fetus and was born as a helpless baby who was then laid in a stone feed trough and worshiped by dirty field hands. He was the only baby in human history to choose to be born and to choose the manner of his birth—and this is what he chose.
Three decades later, he made another fateful choice, again humbling himself “by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (v. 8). He could have been executed by stoning at the hands of a Jewish mob (John 8:59), but he chose to die for our sins by Roman crucifixion, the most painful, tortured manner of execution ever devised.
And now we come to a passage in the book of Joshua that teach us that Peace is possible when we follow God’s voice (Joshua 22:10.21-29).
Now came a decision which would threaten the very alliance forged in years of shared battle, sacrifice, and victory.
The eastern tribes “came to Geliloth near the Jordan in the land of Canaan” (v. 10a), most likely a site due east of Shiloh, the location where the tabernacle of God had been placed in the Promised Land. Here they “built an imposing altar there by the Jordan” (v. 10b). “Imposing” translates a Hebrew word which means “large in appearance.”
Constructing this structure was not part of God’s revelation to the people through Moses or Joshua. It had no place in the law or its interpretation. The eastern tribes moved ahead of God and his will, choosing a strategy born of their own reason and will. And their decision led the tribes to the west to gather for war against them, assuming an idolatrous action on their part.
The actual motive of the eastern tribes was meritorious and understandable: so that the descendants of the twelve tribes would be able to look across the Jordan, see the altar built there, and know that the eastern tribes were part of their nation and their faith (vs. 24-28).
When confronted, they proclaimed “The Mighty One, God the Lord!” (v. 22a). They were willing to die if they had acted in rebellion or disobedience (v. 22b). If their altar were intended to replace the tabernacle at Shiloh, “may the Lord himself call us to account” (v. 23). Their confession of faith was powerful and persuasive: “Far be it from us to rebel against the Lord and turn away from him today by building an altar for burnt offerings, grain offerings and sacrifices, other than the altar of the Lord our God that stands before his tabernacle” (v. 29).
Their problem was not with the motive of their action, but its origin. By stepping ahead of the will and word of God, they risked a war which could have ended their tribal alliance and destroyed their nation. Their action, while commendable in purpose, was unnecessary to the future; not once in all of recorded Scripture did the altar built by these tribes ever serve the purpose which its creators intended.
God’s word shows us that well-intentioned impatience is a pattern of human nature, with tragic consequences. If Abram and Sarai had waited on God for their child, could the centuries of enmity between the heirs of Ishmael and Isaac have been avoided? If Moses had not murdered the Egyptian, would he have been banished to the desert for 40 years? If Peter had not promised prideful loyalty to Christ, would he have denied his Lord three times?
Is there a place in your life where patience is required of your faith? Where you must continue to pray, though it seems you are not answered? Where you must continue to serve, though it seems your ministry is not as effective as you had hoped? Where you must continue to trust God for his provision, though you cannot see its result?
God waits to guide his people into a future filled with promise and purpose. But if we get ahead of him, he may not follow. He would rather lead us than fix us. His hope for tomorrow is predicated on our obedience today. Rather than asking God to bless our decisions and work, the eastern tribes would teach us to seek his will before we begin such work.
If we truly love our Father, we want our work to honor him. And so we seek his will and search his word before we begin our work. Before you serve in whatever capacity, will you first take such a step on your knees?