Joshua 22

One of the most hilarious party games is basically a hybrid of telephone and Pictionary. Participants sit in a circle with a stack of index cards. On the first card, you write a phrase and then pass the stack to the next person. Next, you look at the phrase you've been given, move the card to the back of the pile, and use your masterful art skills to create a visual depiction of that phrase. You pass the stack again, look at the picture, and write what you think the picture is saying, and so on. The worse your drawing skills are and the more ridiculous the original phrases are, the more uproarious the game is. It's also fascinating to see the odd things that make it all the way through. One time I played, an original phrase was, "I'm walking my dog on a Segway through the neighborhood." The Segway, of all things, made it all the way to the end, but nothing else did.

Such is the lighter side of miscommunication, but it can have grievous effects as well. In Orson Scott Card's Speaker for the Dead, humans colonize a planet with friendly native inhabitants. However, the inhabitants start murdering and eviscerating the bodies of certain humans for no apparent reason. Only near the end of the book do the characters find out that such vivisection in the native culture is a sign of respect and in fact, is a cultural necessity.

No one is sliced and diced in Joshua 22, but the Israelites do avert a crisis by doing what many sometimes forget to do--communicate. The tribes to the east of the Jordan, after their commendable service in the conquest of Canaan, are released to their homes. But they immediately erect an altar on the border of the land, which makes the rest of the Israelites all hot and bothered. Although they're raring to attack, thinking that those crazy Easterners are now worshipping other gods, they send a coalition of elders and a priest first to see what the heck's going on.

The ambassadors make several good points. First, they note that if the Easterners spurn God, God will direct His anger toward all the Israelites (verse 18). Then, the elders welcome the Easterners to come join them (verse 19). Finally, they remind them of the Achan debacle (verse 20). Achan was one man whose sin led to the deaths of his family members. What, then, could the sin of two-and-a-half tribes bring down upon them?

But it's all a misunderstanding. The Easterners did not build the altar to worship other gods, but as a reminder that they are still Israelites and worship the same God (verse 27). The Westerners are "pleased" at this response (verse 30), though I think that's an awfully mild word. What about relieved, rapturous, or reassured? (And those are just words that start with "R.") Anyway, the Israelites were able to stave off a potentially ugly situation by talking to each other to understand the other side's point of view. Though maybe it would have been better if the Easterners had let the rest of Israel know their intentions before they built that altar.