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Joshua, chapter 21, verses 2045 as to the rest of the Kohathites belonging to the Kohathite clans of the Levites, the cities allotted to them were out of the tribe of Ephraim. To them were given Shechem, the city of refuge for the Manslayer with its pasturelands in the hill country of Ephraim Gezur with its pasture lands Kibzaim with its pasture lands Beth Horon with its pasture lands, four cities and out of the tribe of Dan Eltike with its pasture lands Gibbethun with its pasturelands Ajalon with its pasture lands Gathrimmon with its pasture lands, four cities and out of the half tribe of Manasseh, Taanach with its pasture lands and Gathrimmon with its pasture lands, two cities. The cities of the clans of the rest of The Kohathites were 10 in all with their pasture lands and to the Gershonites, one of the clans of the Levites were given out of the half tribe of Manasseh, Golan and Bashan, with its pasturelands, the city of refuge for the manslayer and Beashtirah with its pasturelands, two cities and out of the tribe of Issachar, Kishion with its pasture lands Debarath with its pasture lands Jarmuth with its pasture lands Engannim with its pasture lands, four cities and out of the tribe of Asher, Myshal with its pasture lands, Abdon with its pasture lands Helkath with its pasture lands and Rehob with its pasture lands, four cities and out of the tribe of Naphtali, Kadesh and Galilee with its pasture lands, the city of refuge for the manslayer, Hamathdor with its pasture lands and Kartan with its pasturelands, three cities. The cities of the several clans of the Gershonites were in all 13 cities with their pasturelands. And to the rest of the Levites, the Merarite clans were given out of the tribe of Zebulun, Jokneim with its pasture lands Carta with its pasture lands Dimnah with its pasture lands Nahalal with its pasturelands, four cities and out of the tribe of Reuben, Baser with its pasture lands Jahaz with its pasture lands Kedemoth with its pasture lands and Mephaoth with its pasture lands, four cities and out of the tribe of Gab, Ramoth and Gilead with its pasture lands, the city of refuge for the manslayer Mahanaim with its pasture lands Heshbon with its pasture lands Yazer with its pasture Lands, four cities in all. For the cities of the several Merarite clans, that is, the remainder of the clans of the Levites, those allotted to them were in all 12 cities. The cities of the Levites in the midst of the possession of the people of Israel were in all 48 cities with their pasturelands. These cities each had its pasturelands around it. So it was with all these cities. Thus the Lord gave to Israel all the land that he swore to give to their fathers, and they took possession of it, and they settled there. And the Lord gave them rest on every side, just as he had sworn to their fathers. Not one of all their enemies had withstood them. For the Lord had given all their enemies into their hands. Not one word of all the good promises that the Lord had made to the house of Israel had failed. All came to pass. Joshua chapter 22 the Eastern tribes returned home. At that time Joshua summoned the Reubenites and the Gadites and the 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 in all that I have commanded you. You have not forsaken your brothers these many days down to this day, but have been careful to keep the charge of the Lord your God. And now the Lord your God has given rest to your brothers as he promised them. Therefore turn and go to your tents in the land where your possession lies, which Moses the servant of the Lord gave you on the other side of the Jordan. Only be very careful to observe the commandment and the law that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you to love the Lord your God and to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments and to cling to him, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul. So Joshua blessed them and sent them away, and they went to their tents. Now to the one half of the tribe of Manasseh Moses had given a possession in Bashan, but to the other half Joshua had given a possession beside their brothers and in the land west of the Jordan. And when Joshua sent them away to their homes and blessed them, he said to them, go back to your tents with much wealth and with very much livestock, with silver, gold, bronze and iron, and with much clothing. Divide the spoil of your enemies with your brothers. So the people of Reuben and the people of Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh returned home, parting from the people of Israel at Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan, to go to the land of Gilead their own land, of which they had possessed themselves by command of the Lord through Moses. The Eastern tribes Altar of Witness and when they came to the region of the Jordan, that is, in the land of Canaan, the people of Reuben and the people of Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh built there an altar by the Jordan, an altar of imposing size. And the people of Israel heard it said, behold, the people of Reuben and the people of Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh, and have built the altar at the frontier of the land of Canaan, in the region about the Jordan on this side that belongs to the people of Israel. And when the people of Israel heard of it, the whole assembly of the people of Israel gathered at Shiloh to make war against them. Then the people of Israel sent to the people of Reuben and the people of Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh in the land of Gilead, Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest, and with him 10 chiefs, one from each of the tribal families of Israel, every one of them the head of a family among the clans of Israel. And they came to the people of Reuben, the people of Gad and the half trib of Manasseh and the land of Gilead. And they said to them, thus says the whole congregation of the Lord, what is this breach of faith that you have committed against the God of Israel in turning away this day from following the Lord by building yourselves an altar this day in rebellion against the Lord? Have we not had enough of the sin at Peor from which even yet we have not cleansed ourselves, and for which there came a plague upon the congregation of the Lord, that you too must turn away this day from following the Lord. And if you too rebel against the Lord today, then tomorrow he will be angry with the whole congregation of Israel. But now, if the land of your possession is unclean, pass over into the Lord's land where the Lord's tabernacle stands, and take for yourselves a possession among us. Only do not rebel against the Lord, or make us as rebels by building for yourselves an altar other than the altar of the Lord our God. Did not Achan the son of Zerah break faith in the matter of the devoted things? And wrath fell upon all the congregation of Israel, and he did not perish alone for his iniquity. Then the people of Reuben, the people of Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh said in answer to the heads of the families of Israel, the mighty one God, the Lord, the mighty one God, the Lord he knows. And let Israel itself know if it was in rebellion or in breach of faith against the Lord. Do not spare us today for building an altar to turn away from following the Lord, or if we did so, to offer burnt offerings or grain offerings or peace offerings, on it may the Lord himself take vengeance. No. But we did it from fear that in time to come your children might say to our children, what have you to do with the Lord, the God of Israel? For the Lord has made the Jordan a boundary between us and you. You people of Reuben and people of Gad, you have no portion in the Lord, so your children might make our children cease to worship the Lord. Therefore we said, let us now build an altar not for burnt offering nor for sacrifice, but to be a witness between us and you and between our generations after us, that we do perform the service of the Lord in his presence with our burnt offerings and sacrifices and peace offerings. So your children were not say to our children in time to come. You have no portion in the Lord. And we thought if this should be said to us or to our descendants in time to come, we. We should say, behold the copy of the altar of the Lord which our fathers made not for burnt offerings nor for sacrifice, but to be a witness between us and you. Far be it from us that we should rebel against the Lord and turn away this day from following the Lord by building an altar for burnt offering, grain, offering or sacrifice, other than the altar of the Lord our God that stands before his tabernacle. When Phinehas the priest and the chiefs of the congregation, the heads of the families of Israel who were with him, heard the words that the people of Reuben and the people of Gad and the people of Manasseh spoke. It was good in their eyes. And Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest, said to the people of Reuben and to the people of Gad and the people of Manasseh, today we know that the Lord is in our midst because you have not committed this breach of faith against the Lord. Now you have delivered the people of Israel from the hand of the Lord. Then Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the priest and the chiefs returned from the people of Reuben and the people of Gad in the land of Gilead, to the land of Canaan, to the people of Israel, and brought back word to them. And the report was good in the eyes of the people of Israel. And the people of Israel blessed God and spoke no more of making war against them to destroy the land where the people of Reuben and The people of Gad were settled. The people of Reuben and the people of God called the altar witness, for they said, it is a witness between us that the Lord is God. John 3:1 21. You must be born again. Now, there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him. Jesus answered him, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus said to him, how can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born? Jesus answered, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again. The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. Nicodemus said to him, how can these things be? Jesus answered him, are you the teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and bear witness to what we have seen. But you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world, for God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment. The light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God. Psalm 73:15 28 if I had said, I will speak thus, I would have betrayed the generation of your children. But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task, until I went into the sanctuary of God. Then I discerned their end. Truly you set them in slippery places, you make them fall to ruin, how they are destroyed in a moment, swept away utterly by terrors, like a dream when one awakes. O Lord, when you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms. When my soul was embittered, when I was pricked in heart, I was brutish and ignorant, I was like a beast toward you. Nevertheless, I am continually with you. You hold my right hand, you guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion forever. For behold, those who are far from you shall perish. You put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you. But for me it is good to be near God. I have made the Lord God my refuge, that I may tell of all your works.
Scripture Focus:
Day 122 of the BIBLEin365 journey weaves together the continuing story of Israel’s settlement in the Promised Land, a pivotal conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus about being “born again,” and a psalmist’s honest wrestle with doubt and faith. The focus is on God’s faithfulness to His promises, the necessity of spiritual rebirth, and the comfort of God’s presence in times of trial.
(Joshua 21:20-45, 00:06)
“Not one word of all the good promises that the Lord had made to the house of Israel had failed. All came to pass.” (Joshua 21:45, 08:35)
Memorable Moment:
The reading emphasizes God’s unwavering faithfulness—He delivers Israel into the land, gives them rest, and overcomes their enemies, fulfilling every promise.
(Joshua 22, 08:50)
Joshua commends the Reubenites, Gadites, and half-tribe of Manasseh for their faithfulness and releases them to their lands east of the Jordan.
“Only be very careful to observe the commandment and the law… to love the Lord your God and to walk in all his ways… serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.” (Joshua 22:5, 10:30)
These tribes build an imposing altar as a witness at the Jordan, sparking misunderstanding and distress among the western tribes, who fear rebellion.
A delegation led by Phinehas confronts them:
“What is this breach of faith… by building yourselves an altar this day in rebellion against the Lord?” (Joshua 22:16, 12:20)
The eastern tribes explain the altar is not for sacrifices but as a witness for future generations, affirming unity in worship:
“It is a witness between us that the Lord is God.” (Joshua 22:34, 25:00)
Peace is restored, and the altar becomes a symbol of unity and fidelity to God.
(John 3:1–21, 26:12)
“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (John 3:3, 27:10)
“The wind blows where it wishes… So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” (John 3:8, 29:30)
“As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.” (John 3:14–15, 32:05)
"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." (John 3:16, 32:50)
“God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” (John 3:17, 33:15)
“The light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.” (John 3:19, 34:24)
(Psalm 73:15-28, 36:00)
“When my soul was embittered, when I was pricked in heart, I was brutish and ignorant; I was like a beast toward you. Nevertheless, I am continually with you; you hold my right hand.” (Psalm 73:21–23, 37:40)
“My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” (Psalm 73:26, 39:15)
“But for me it is good to be near God; I have made the Lord God my refuge, that I may tell of all your works.” (Psalm 73:28, 40:10)
This episode blends Old and New Testament themes of God’s covenant faithfulness, the radical new life offered through Christ, and the deep comfort of His presence—even amidst doubt—making it a rich resource for spiritual growth and a reminder to trust in God’s unchanging promises.