And when they came to the region of the Jordan which is in the land of Canaan, the children of Reuben, the children of Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh built an altar there by the Jordan— a great, impressive altar. 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 of it, the whole congregation of the children of Israel gathered together at Shiloh to go to war against them. Joshua 22:10-12
Who has never jumped to a conclusion only to find out the hard way we had it all wrong? Sometimes such an error in judgment causes no serious harm, but sometimes we may do real and lasting harm by simply not getting the facts straight before reacting. The example above illustrates how dangerous jumping to conclusions can be. Thankfully, they investigated the situation and averted a devastating and unnecessary civil war (Joshua 22:13-34). We will ponder a few other examples where jumping to conclusions caused real harm before concluding with the biblical imperative of carefully investigating matters before making judgments.
In 1 Samuel 1:8-18, Hannah, facing intense sorrow over her barrenness, took her anguish to the Lord at the tabernacle. As she prayed, she moved her lips but did not make a sound with her voice, prompting Eli the priest to assume she was drunk and confront her for a sin she did not commit (1:13-14). After she explained herself, he wished her well and sent her on her way. Sadly, before he did so, he caused unnecessary sorrow to an already broken-hearted woman. Rather than jump to conclusions, he should have inquired about her circumstances and spared her more pain.
Another biblical example where jumping to conclusions brought real consequences to an innocent person is in Acts 21:26-36. Though we know God used these wrongful deeds to bring about His intended ends (Acts 23:11), the Jews who opposed him provoked his false imprisonment. One of their primary grounds for seeking his arrest was that he “…also brought Greeks into the temple and has defiled this holy place” (21:28). However, they made this accusation, not because they saw him bring Greeks into the temple, but because they saw him in the city with Trophimus the Ephesian (21:29). They jumped to the conclusion that he had defiled the temple, though he had not. Though God used it for good, Paul still suffered many things wrongfully.
Shifting from biblical examples, consider a modern example of this issue. A few years ago, I read about a husband who noticed his wife acting suspicious with her phone. For weeks she would get text messages and clearly work to keep him from seeing who texted or what was texted. She would leave the room and make phone calls without him knowing who was on the other end.
One day, he confronted her about the situation. Rather than carefully investigate and confirm what these strange new behaviors meant, he bluntly accused her of having an affair. She then shared all the texts with him, revealing that she had indeed been sneaking around behind his back, plotting a surprise birthday party for him. I do not know how the situation ultimately unfolded for the couple, but by jumping to a terribly mistaken conclusion, this husband drove a knife into his wife’s heart.
The moral of all these stories is, we must carefully confirm every fact before we assume the worst about anyone. Throughout the biblical text we find the demand that every accusation be established on the testimony of multiple witnesses (Numbers 35:30; Deuteronomy 17:6; 19:15; Matthew 18:16; John 8:17-18; 2 Corinthians 13:1). This is essential to not judging according to appearances but judging righteous judgment (John 7:24). May we never cause undue hurt by jumping to conclusions. Sometimes the damage of such error cannot be undone.