They set up the Tent of Meeting at Shiloh to survey and divvy up the rest of the land. Seven tribes meet at Shiloh -- the Place of Peace. This is the calm in which they divide their inheritance and enter into prosperity. But we know that Israel has not seen the end of fighting and suffering. Nor have we. War is too much a part of this world. Nearly every year I travel with a scout troop to the Shiloh Battlefield on the Tennessee/Mississippi border. This Shiloh, too, is on a battlefield. Around it raged one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War. How quiet a place it is now. I wonder how quiet the Israel's Shiloh was, too, devoid of all its people who were utterly destroyed by the Israelites? Empty homes and fields and towns. I wonder who buried all of the bodies? And was there an eerie calm that seems to attend a field where the blood of many men has been spilled? Was the Promised Land a hallowed place consecrated by blood? Our peace and our Promised Land have been purchased with blood.
The Bible keeps bringing up again and again that tribe of Levi has no inheritance. Seems like it would be kind of annoying for the priests to keep being reminded of this over and over again. "Ok, already. We get it." But do they? Their success, their prosperity is only realized in the devotion of the people. If the people remain faithful and perform the prescribed sacrifices, the Levites will have their due. If they don't, Levi doesn't receive its portion. Read into that what you will.
Then there's this Half Tribe of Manasseh. How confusing is that? Kind of odd, too.
"I'm from the Half Tribe of Manasseh."
"Which Half."
"The Half."
"Is that the East Manasseh or West Manasseh Half Tribe?"
"No, we're the Half Tribe of Manasseh."
I bet they had mail going to the wrong Half Tribe all the time.
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