(Joshua 22:27) But that it may be a witness between us, and you, and our generations after us, that we might do the service of the LORD before him with our burnt offerings, and with our sacrifices, and with our peace offerings; that your children may not say to our children in time to come, Ye have no part in the LORD.
There is an interesting thought here to consider. It is at this point where Joshua allows the Reubenites, the Gadites, and half of the tribe of Manasseh to return to the other side of the Jordan to where their possession was. They had decided back earlier that they did not want to take their possession across the Jordan, but settled to be "close enough." They were allowed to do so, but only if the men of war went with the rest of Israel to help them posses the land.
Once they return, they build an altar, and this greatly upsets the rest of Israel. As they confront them on why they built it, our text above is the answer that they gave. And this got me to thinking: wouldn't they had been better off not settling, but going completely over to the Promise Land with the rest Israel?
But now that they have settled for less than the best, they are now worried about their children and what will happen to them in the next generation. If they were really concerned with the next generation, than they should have taken their whole family with them and crossed to the other side. But they chose to settle for less than the best, and now they are worried about their children.
Every time we settle in our Christian walk, it is always the next generation that suffers. We need to sow spiritual seed today so that we might see some spiritual fruit be produced in the next generation.
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