So the men took some of their provisions, but did not ask counsel from the Lord.
(Joshua 9:14, ESV)
Have you ever had experience where you have mistakenly thought someone as your friend but apparently a stranger? I had some experiences with this where i was walking and suddenly i saw my friend standing not far from me; and so i approached him from behind and pat him on his shoulder. I was shocked that when he turned to me, he was totally a stranger to me. I thought he was my friend: i saw him from behind and i saw his hair, his height, his physical appearance, and more over his way of walking was exactly the same as my friend. I couldn’t believe that he was actually somebody else - a stranger. I also remember another experience when i was a kid, i think i had some occasions where i thought it was my mum who was standing beside me, and so as a kid, i would take her hand to walk with me; and she did answer my body language by holding my hand as well; and after a while i started to realise that she was not my mum at all - she is a stranger - my mum was there few metres on the other side..
I’m not sure if this kind of experience happen to you as well, but it did happen to me, and now when I read this passage in Joshua 9:1-14, it has some sort of similarity in it. The story in Joshua 9 told us that the Israelites was being tricked by the Gibeonite. The Gibeonite acted as if they were coming from a distant country, they acted as if they were not part of the Canaanites by proving to the Israelites that all their belongings had worn out because of their long journey: their food had become dry and crumbly, their wineskin had burst, even their garment and sandals too had worn out. They made this as a reason so that the Israelites trust them that they were really coming from a distant country, so that they might be able to make covenant with the Israelites. As we know then the Israelites fell for it. The Israelites had examined, and they made conclusion that these were real. They used their wisdom to evaluate all the facts that they saw.
This story is reminding us or teaching us some lessons about us, and what God wants us to do:
1. Human’s wisdom is limited
It doesn’t matter how good we are on planning our future, or how careful we are to analyse something, or how strong we are to maintain problem in life - our wisdom is limited. We can only plan as far as man can be, but we can never guarantee the outcome. The problem of our living, is that we tend to live by sight and not by faith. We tend to have confidence in self, rather than to have confidence in God, that is why we often fell for the evil thing. The word holiness is such a strange word in our daily lives, and no wonder that our attitude is driven by self-pleasure or self-comfort.
This passage teach us that no matter how real it is, there is always a room for mistake if we are not seeking God’s counsel. The Israelites did try to follow God’s command to not make covenant with the Canaanites by making a careful observation and asking some question, but they fail to ask God’s counsel. This is why the bible noted their failure in verse 14: “So the men took some of their provisions, but did not ask counsel from the Lord”.
2. To Seek God’s will is what’s important
If we continue to read the story, we may find that at the end, God’s grace was upon Gibeonite, God’s grace has allowed Gibeonite to be part of the Israelites. We then might think that nothing was wrong with the Israelites, because at the end Gibeonite had become a good ally. But then if that is true, the Bible does not need to put verse 14 there. Verse 14 mentioned things that the Israelites failed to do. In otherwords, the Bible teaches us that the end does not justify the means: God looks more on how we do things, how is the process more than the goal. The goal is important, but the process is more important. God wants us to do not just the right thing, but more importantly to do things right. At the end of the day, our live should be a life pleasing God. once we live a life that is pleasing Him, we shouldn’t be worry of other things.
But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
“Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. (Matthew 6:33-34, ESV)
~ Paul Hartono
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