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Michigan Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

Talking Points 4th Quarter 2025: Lessons of Faith from Joshua

Kameron DeVasher

Mark Howard

01 Recipe for Success

02 Surprised by Grace

03 Memorials of Grace

04 The Conflict Behind All Conflicts

05 God Fights for You

06 The Enemy Within

07 Ultimate Loyalty - Worship in a War Zone

08 Giants of Faith: Joshua and Caleb

09 Heirs of Promises, Prisoners of Hope

10 The True Joshua

11 Living in the Land

12 God is Faithful!

13 Choose this Day!

I'm Cameron DeVasier and I'm Mark Howard and this is Talking Points.

We are now at the 11th lesson of our study, the book title or the quarterly title, Lessons on Faith from Joshua.

And I was kind of joking with Pastor Howard, there's a lot of talk about the land and the inheritance land, giving up the land, dividing up the land and taking the land and this week's lesson is titled living in the land so kind of give us an overview what is this lesson about?

That makes more sense I should have thought about that whole land theme because as I went through this week's lesson I thought it should be called conflict resolution because it's basically it's Joshua 22 where there's a conflict between the tribes in the east of the Jordan and the west of the Jordan.

Okay well I'm sure there's some- but they are living in land when it happens.

Also there's probably some lessons we can draw today from conflict resolution or is that just a test of a theme?

Okay so you put the lesson together and so I'm gonna have a word of prayer pass it back to you and you can lead us walk us through this week's.

Heavenly Father thank you so much for the opportunity we have to study together from your Word.

Help us to understand not only the facts of the stories recorded in scripture but the lessons we can apply in our lives and in our churches today.

Bless us now as we study and be with every Sabbath school class as they discuss for we pray it in Jesus name, amen.

Okay, well, this is going to be, I don't want to say tricky, it's a little tricky.

It's always tricky in Sabbath school because you get in there and some of the folks have gone through the lesson and some haven't.

And a lot of the application here is gonna be based on this story.

So what I did in my outline is my first talking point basically gives a rundown a review of what's happening in Joshua 22 and identify some things so that we get to the other 2.

So my first talking point in fact my introduction to this week's lesson my paraphrase of what they've said here is this week's lesson draws insights on conflict resolution from a misunderstanding arising from the tribes across the river and that would be on the east side of the Jordan River the tribes of Reuben, Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh which that's interesting because the half the other the other half is on the west side of the Jordan.

So that- There'd be some interesting things we can get into there too, but- So talking point number 1 is don't rush to judgment.

And that is primarily from Sunday through Wednesday.

Talking point number 2 is our response is often more about how than what, and that is also a little bit from Wednesday and then Thursday's lesson, which Thursday's lesson is entitled conflict resolution.

And then finally, talking point number 3, our unity must be sought in Christ is from a little bit of Sunday and also a little bit of Wednesday.

So apparently if you just took Wednesday, you could have a good chunk of the lesson take care of yeah All right.

Give us this overview about don't rush to judgment.

Well, so first first of all, we need to understand that Moses had the tribes of Reuben Gad and a half tribe of Manasseh noticed that the land to the east of The Jordan was perfect for their flocks and herds and what-have-you So they requested that instead of getting an inheritance in Canaan that that be their inheritance You can see it in numbers if you want to read numbers 32, 1 through 5.

I was in the book of Joshua's like there is not 32.

Now the children of Reuben and the children of Gad had a very great multitude of livestock and when they saw the land of Jazar and the land of Gilead that indeed the region was a place for livestock.

The children of Gad and the children of Reuben came and spoke to Moses, to Eleazar the priest, and to the leaders of the congregation, saying, Adharoth, Dibon, Jazar, Nimrah, Heshbon, Elam, I really wanted to throw you a verse that has all the names.

It goes on, Shabam, Nebo, and Beon, The country which the Lord defeated before the congregation is a land for livestock and your servants have livestock.

Therefore they said if we have found favor in your sight Let this land be given to your servants as a possession.

Do not take us over the Jordan Okay, so there was there was this request and there was a concern right away of Moses in fact you see it in verse 6 and Moses said that the children of Gad and the children of Reuben shall your brethren go to war while you sit here?

Like, oh, you guys are trying to get out of the battle.

And so the rest of chapter 32 goes into how they said, no, we'll fight alongside our brethren.

And then when that is done, then we'll come back and possess this land.

And so that- It's interesting that they'd made this request even while Moses was still alive.

So this is not like a spur of the moment thing.

And then Moses said, if you go back, you go and fight with your brethren, and as you say, then you can do this thing.

So when we come to Joshua chapter 4, if you read Joshua 4 11 and 12.

Okay, Joshua 4, 11 and 12 says, Then it came to pass, when all the people had completely crossed over, the ark of the Lord and the priests crossed over in the presence of the people, and the men of Reuben, the men of Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh crossed over, armed before the children of Israel, as Moses had spoken to them.

Okay, so they went over to battle, just like the rest of them had battled.

The lesson says that this was probably 6 or 7 years.

So It gives us a little bit of an idea of the commitment of these tribes.

They weren't trying to get out of something.

They left their families behind, left their wives and their children.

They fought in battle for 6 or 7 years before finally they reached a point where it was where they were going to return back.

And if you have Joshua 22, if you wanna read there, verses 1 through 4.

Then Joshua called the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh, and said to them, You have kept all that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you, and have obeyed my voice and all that I commanded you.

You have not left your brother in these many days up to this day, but have kept the charge of the commandment of the Lord your God.

And now the Lord your God has given rest to your brethren as he promised them.

Now therefore return and go to your tents and to the land of your possession, which Moses the servant of the Lord gave you on the other side of the Jordan.

But take careful heed to do the commandment of the law which Moses..." Okay, two-four.

So yeah, I mean, just for sake of going through the lesson, there's a lot in here, but just to highlight, now the time has come where the land has been settled sufficiently, where they are to return home.

They've shown their faithfulness and what have you there to go back to their own lands.

Now what happens, and I've got it highlighted here, our outline might be helpful in teaching the class, especially here if you're wanting to break up verses and stuff.

I'm not going to have you read this, but Joshua 22, 10 and then 24 to 27 tells where the conflict arose, and that is that when these tribes went back to the east side of the Jordan they built an altar there and immediately when word got back to The the tribes in the west of the Jordan.

It was a perception that they built a pagan altar.

The sanctuary is on the west side of the Jordan.

Why are you going to the east side and building an altar?

So there was an immediate rush to judgment.

And if you look at, In fact, go ahead and read verses 11 and 12.

It said, Now the children of Israel heard someone say, Behold, the children of Reuben, the children of Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh have built an altar on the frontier of the land of Canaan in the region of the Jordan on the children of Israel's side.

And when the children of Israel heard it, the whole congregation of the children of Israel gathered together at Shiloh to go to war against them." That's intense.

Yeah, so, you know, I'll probably repeat myself a little bit through here as we're trying to make application but they They hear about this thing.

I mean there's a glaring problem here There's a rumor.

Mm-hmm, and they array themselves for battle, right?

Feel like we're skipping a step in here somewhere before you just full on, we're getting to armor.

That's what they basically, what does it say there, the words of the, they gathered together at Shiloh to go to war.

Which I mean, at first blush, you think like, well, they're being very zealous for the law of God and for the thing, which might be their part of their motive, but to your point, you heard someone say, you know, like, that's it, to war!

So when we go to verse 16, they basically approach these other tribes, and this Bible says in verse 15, they spoke to them at the end of verse 15, they spoke to them saying, verse 16, thus says the whole congregation of the Lord, what treachery is this that you have committed against the God of Israel to turn away this day from following the Lord, and that you have built for yourselves an altar that you might rebel this day against the Lord." So there's accusations flying right away.

There's not been any kind of discussion yet.

And it's interesting, the approach that when they came to them, it's like the whole congregation of the Lord says this.

Well if I'm speaking to you and you're not included in that and it's like hey look the entire church believes this way buddy and you're and again this is an individual this is a tribe the language is basically excluding them from the whole congregation.

Well you could even, you don't have to go to the application part too much, but you can imagine not just 1 person, but maybe a group of people have some thought in the church and the rest of other part of the church doesn't like it and they say the whole church is against it.

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Talking Points 4th Quarter 2025: Lessons of Faith from Joshua

11 Living in the Land

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