Josh 22:34, And the sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad called the altar Witness; "For," they said, "it is a witness between us that the Lord is God." 
    	In this morning’s chapter reading we have a most profound account of the Children of Israel being so very concerned about the actions of their own, that they almost went to war with each other. This was over an altar that was constructed by the sons of Rueben and the sons of Gad and the ½ tribe of Manasseh who had their inheritance on the other side of the Jordan River. It was a major misunderstanding that almost resulted in the rest of the tribes of Israel going into battle against their own blood relatives for the sake of the testimony of the Lord in their land.
Joshua had released the Sons of Rueben and the Sons of Gad and the half tribe of the Sons of Manasseh from their oath to help the rest of the Nation of God in the conquest of the Promised Land. They had left the land that was their inheritance in the Land of Gilead on the other side of the Jordan to help in this quest. As they left the land of Promise, they built a large altar as a memorial before crossing the river. 
When the other tribes heard of this, they were enraged. They thought that the Ruebenites and the Gadites and the ½ tribe of Manassehites had turned their back on God and turned to the worship of idols, and had done this wickedness so very quickly on the heels of the glorious victories in Canaan. A delegation was sent to investigate what had taken place before the warriors would be sent into the battle.
	The explanation was given to Phinehas, the Son of Eleazar, the Priest, who was leading the investigation. It is recorded in the 26th through 28th verses of this morning’s reading. It is the response of the representatives which detailed exactly the opposite of what was inferred by the other tribes of Israel. The altar was to be a witness to the sons of the tribes of Israel on both sides of the Jordan River of the faithfulness of God. It was to be a memorial to the fact that The Lord is God and there is no other.
	Josh 22:26-28, "Therefore we said, 'Let us build an altar, not for burnt offering or for sacrifice; rather it shall be a witness between us and you and between our generations after us, that we are to perform the service of the Lord before Him with our burnt offerings, and with our sacrifices and with our peace offerings, that your sons may not say to our sons in time to come, "You have no portion in the Lord."' "Therefore we said, 'It shall also come about if they say this to us or to our generations in time to come, then we shall say," See the copy of the altar of the Lord which our fathers made, not for burnt offering or for sacrifice; rather it is a witness between us and you."'  
    	What the other tribes of Israel thought was a turning away from the Lord was actually a means of setting up a witness to future generations on both sides of the river of the place that the Lord held in the lives of all the Children of Israel. This was a monument to the fact that the Gadites and the Ruebenites and the Manassehites belonged to the Lord and to the rest of the Nation of the Lord’s people despite their physical location on the opposite the Jordan River. 
	This was a witness that would be required of all the tribes of the Sons of Israel just two chapters later in our Book of Joshua. It was at the time of the end of the life of Joshua as he was sending the tribes out to populate and to enjoy their inheritance in the land. He was encouraging the people whom he had led to victory throughout the Promised Land to go forward in their service and their commitment and their faithfulness to the Lord God Jehovah. They were not to waiver from serving Him, Alone, all the days of their lives and throughout their generations. We find this great reinforcement for the nation and for us recounted in the 24th Chapter of Joshua, verses 14-28.
	Josh 24:14-28, "Now, therefore, fear the Lord and serve Him in sincerity and truth; and put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. And if it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." And the people answered and said, "Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods; for the Lord our God is He who brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, and who did these great signs in our sight and preserved us through all the way in which we went and among all the peoples through whose midst we passed. "And the Lord drove out from before us all the peoples, even the Amorites who lived in the land. We also will serve the Lord, for He is our God." Then Joshua said to the people, "You will not be able to serve the Lord, for He is a holy God. He is a jealous God; He will not forgive your transgression or your sins. If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, then He will turn and do you harm and consume you after He has done good to you." And the people said to Joshua, "No, but we will serve the Lord." And Joshua said to the people, "You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen for yourselves the Lord, to serve Him." And they said, "We are witnesses." "Now therefore, put away the foreign gods which are in your midst, and incline your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel." And the people said to Joshua, "We will serve the Lord our God and we will obey His voice." So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and made for them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem. And Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God; and he took a large stone and set it up there under the oak that was by the sanctuary of the Lord. And Joshua said to all the people, "Behold, this stone shall be for a witness against us, for it has heard all the words of the Lord which He spoke to us; thus it shall be for a witness against you, lest you deny your God." Then Joshua dismissed the people, each to his inheritance.    
	The people took upon themselves, by their very own confession, the fact that they were the witness of the Lord God Almighty. They willingly and purposefully swore their allegiance to the Lord as His nation on this earth. The reality was that they fully intended to be such, as was so evident when the altar had been built on the other side of the Jordan by those 2 ½ tribes who took that land as their inheritance. The heart of the people was to honor God and to not be like their fathers and mothers who had died away before crossing the Jordan into the Promised Land. 
Joshua, guided by the Lord, knew that they would not hold very long to that oath. The next generations would not be as fully committed to the Lord because they would be raised up in the land flowing with milk and honey and without all those struggles that often serve to cement hearts into the Lord.
As we know, the people did turn away from the Lord and did become entangled with all the other gods and idols of the nations that had been dispossessed. They were often led astray by their own kings and governors. We find one great account of how the Lord once again turned the hearts of His people unto Himself in the record of Elijah’s sacrifice to the Lord on Mount Carmel where he, alone, stood for the Lord against the 450 prophets of Baal. 
This is found in 1 Kings 18:30-39. Elijah was a witness for the Lord. Here, we read about what happened after the 450 prophets of Baal failed in their attempts to produce fire for their sacrifices as a witness to the power of their false god.
	1 Kings 18:30-39, Then Elijah said to all the people, "Come near to me." So all the people came near to him. And he repaired the altar of the Lord which had been torn down. And Elijah took twelve stones according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord had come, saying, "Israel shall be your name." So with the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord, and he made a trench around the altar, large enough to hold two measures of seed. Then he arranged the wood and cut the ox in pieces and laid it on the wood. And he said, "Fill four pitchers with water and pour it on the burnt offering and on the wood." And he said, "Do it a second time," and they did it a second time. And he said, "Do it a third time," and they did it a third time. And the water flowed around the altar, and he also filled the trench with water. Then it came about at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that Elijah the prophet came near and said, "O Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, today let it be known that Thou art God in Israel, and that I am Thy servant, and that I have done all these things at Thy word. Answer me, O Lord, answer me, that this people may know that Thou, O Lord, art God, and that Thou hast turned their heart back again." Then the fire of the Lord fell, and consumed the burnt offering and the wood and the stones and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces; and they said, "The Lord, He is God; the Lord, He is God." 
      	It was not just the Children of Israel with whom the Lord needed to bring forth the witness of His hand upon their lives. The Prophet Isaiah writes about what needed to take place in the other nations whom the Lord would bring into His inheritance, drawing us into His family of believers. 
We find this prophecy set forth in Isa 19:16-25. Please turn to it so we can marvel at the fact that the Lord was always purposing to bring into His Beloved family the gentile nations. All would become the witness of the awesome splendor and majesty of the Lord God, Jehovah.
	Isa 19:16-25, In that day the Egyptians will become like women, and they will tremble and be in dread because of the waving of the hand of the Lord of hosts, which He is going to wave over them. And the land of Judah will become a terror to Egypt; everyone to whom it is mentioned will be in dread of it, because of the purpose of the Lord of hosts which He is purposing against them. In that day five cities in the land of Egypt will be speaking the language of Canaan and swearing allegiance to the Lord of hosts; one will be called the City of Destruction. In that day there will be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to the Lord near its border. And it will become a sign and a witness to the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt; for they will cry to the Lord because of oppressors, and He will send them a Savior and a Champion, and He will deliver them. Thus the Lord will make Himself known to Egypt, and the Egyptians will know the Lord in that day. They will even worship with sacrifice and offering, and will make a vow to the Lord and perform it. And the Lord will strike Egypt, striking but healing; so they will return to the Lord, and He will respond to them and will heal them. In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrians will come into Egypt and the Egyptians into Assyria, and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians. In that day Israel will be the third party with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, whom the Lord of hosts has blessed, saying, "Blessed is Egypt My people, and Assyria the work of My hands, and Israel My inheritance." 
  	Then, in Isa 43:1-21, we have the conclusion of this consideration of the witness of God that is at the heart of His relationship with all His people. He will redeem all those whom He has so chosen to call forth from among the nations. This is all by the working power of God in the giving of His Only Begotten Son. Everyone who is called by the name of the Lord will become those perfect and glorious witnesses that the Lord God Almighty is the Only True and Living God Who created the heavens and the earth. It will all be as a witness to the praise and the worship and the honor of the Lord God Almighty, Who Alone is worthy of the full declaration of His glory.
	Isa 43:1-21, But now, thus says the Lord, your Creator, O Jacob, And He who formed you, O Israel, "Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are Mine! "When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; And through the rivers, they will not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched, Nor will the flame burn you. "For I am the Lord your God, The Holy One of Israel, your Savior; I have given Egypt as your ransom, Cush and Seba in your place. "Since you are precious in My sight, Since you are honored and I love you, I will give other men in your place and other peoples in exchange for your life. "Do not fear, for I am with you; I will bring your offspring from the east, And gather you from the west. "I will say to the north, 'Give them up!' And to the south, 'Do not hold them back.' Bring My sons from afar, And My daughters from the ends of the earth, Everyone who is called by My name, And whom I have created for My glory, Whom I have formed, even whom I have made." Bring out the people who are blind, even though they have eyes, And the deaf, even though they have ears. All the nations have gathered together In order that the peoples may be assembled. Who among them can declare this And proclaim to us the former things? Let them present their witnesses that they may be justified, Or let them hear and say, "It is true." "You are My witnesses," declares the Lord, "And My servant whom I have chosen, In order that you may know and believe Me, And understand that I am He. Before Me there was no God formed, And there will be none after Me. "I, even I, am the Lord; And there is no savior besides Me. "It is I who have declared and saved and proclaimed, And there was no strange god among you; So you are My witnesses," declares the Lord, "And I am God. "Even from eternity I am He; And there is none who can deliver out of My hand; I act and who can reverse it?" Thus says the Lord your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, "For your sake I have sent to Babylon, And will bring them all down as fugitives, Even the Chaldeans, into the ships in which they rejoice. "I am the Lord, your Holy One, The Creator of Israel, your King." Thus says the Lord, Who makes a way through the sea And a path through the mighty waters, Who brings forth the chariot and the horse, The army and the mighty man (They will lie down together and not rise again; They have been quenched and extinguished like a wick): "Do not call to mind the former things, Or ponder things of the past. "Behold, I will do something new, Now it will spring forth; Will you not be aware of it? I will even make a roadway in the wilderness, Rivers in the desert. "The beasts of the field will glorify Me; The jackals and the ostriches; Because I have given waters in the wilderness And rivers in the desert, To give drink to My chosen people. "The people whom I formed for Myself, Will declare My praise.     
	We will declare His praise because of the salvation that He has put into place by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. He stands as the eternal witness that the Lord, Alone, is God. Praise His Name, The Lord God Almighty, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit! So be it!
And the sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad called the altar Witness; "For," they said, "it is a witness between us that the Lord is God." Amen.

This morning’s benediction is Deut 4:9. "Only give heed to yourself and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things which your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life; but make them known to your sons and your grandsons. Amen.