God at Work in History (7): When We Fail to Ask God — Joshua 9

When We Fail to Ask God

Joshua 8 ended with Israel standing before God’s Word.

After the defeat at Ai, God restored His people. Israel won the battle, Joshua built an altar, sacrifices were offered, and the Law of Moses was read before the entire nation.

The lesson seemed clear:

Listen to God. Obey God. Trust God. Remember God.

Then Joshua 9 begins—and Israel faces a different kind of danger.

• Not an army.

• Not a fortified city.

• Not an open enemy.

• A deception.

• And this time Israel's greatest problem is not rebellion.

It is failing to ask God.

When the Enemy Changes His Strategy

The kings of Canaan hear what has happened at Jericho and Ai.

They understand that Israel is moving through the land, and they know that they cannot defeat Israel easily by themselves.

So several kings prepare for war.

But the people of Gibeon choose another strategy.

They use deception.

They take worn-out sacks, patched wineskins, old sandals, old clothing, and dry, crumbly bread. Then they travel to Joshua and present themselves as travelers who have come from a distant country.

Their story sounds convincing.

They say they have heard about the name of the LORD and about everything He did in Egypt and to the kings east of the Jordan.

Then they ask Joshua to make a treaty with them.

It is a clever deception.

And Joshua and the leaders of Israel examine the evidence.

• They look at the clothes.

• They look at the bread.

• They examine the supplies.

• And then comes one of the most revealing statements in the chapter:

“The Israelites sampled their provisions but did not inquire of the LORD.” — Joshua 9:14

• There it is.

• They looked.

• They examined.

• They reasoned.

• They reached a conclusion.

But they did not ask God.

The Danger of Making a Reasonable Decision Without God

This is one of the most important lessons in Joshua.

• The Israelites were not being rebellious.

• They were not worshiping idols.

• They were not deliberately disobeying God's command.

• They were simply making a decision based on what appeared to be good evidence.

And they got it wrong.

That should make us stop and think.

Some of our most serious mistakes do not begin with obvious rebellion against God.

Sometimes they begin with something much more subtle:

We make a decision without asking Him.

• The evidence seems clear.

• The circumstances seem convincing.

• The plan seems reasonable.

• The people involved seem trustworthy.

• So we move ahead.

But where is God in the decision?

Joshua had learned in chapter 8 that victory came through following God's instructions.

Now, in chapter 9, Israel discovers that dependence upon God is not only necessary for battle.

It is necessary for decisions.

Three Days Later

The deception does not last long.

Three days after making the treaty, Israel discovers the truth.

• The Gibeonites are not from some distant country.

• They are neighbors.

• They are living in the very land Israel is taking.

• The people are angry with their leaders.

But there is a problem.

The leaders have sworn an oath in the name of the LORD.

They cannot simply break their promise.

So the Gibeonites are spared.

They become woodcutters and water carriers for the congregation and for the altar of the LORD.

The mistake has consequences.

But something else is revealed.

Even when God's people make a mistake, God is still at work.

God Is Faithful Even When His People Fail

Joshua 9 does not excuse Israel's failure.

They should have asked God.

They did not.

The consequences were real.

But neither does the chapter suggest that God's purposes have suddenly collapsed.

Instead, God continues to work through the circumstances.

The Gibeonites, who had feared for their lives because of Israel's God, are brought into service connected with the worship of the LORD.

Their deception does not become a model of faith.

But God is able to work even through the consequences of human failure.

That is something we see repeatedly throughout Scripture.

• Human beings make mistakes.

• God does not.

• People misjudge.

• God does not.

• People act without asking.

• God remains faithful.

  
  

Joshua 7, 8, and 9

There is an interesting progression here.

• Joshua 7 showed Israel what happens when there is hidden sin.

• Joshua 8 showed Israel what God can do when His people return to obedience.

• Joshua 9 shows that even obedient people can become careless when they fail to seek God.

The danger is not always open rebellion.

• Sometimes it is self-confidence.

• Sometimes it is assuming that because something looks right, it must be right.

• Sometimes it is moving so quickly that we forget to stop and ask:

“Lord, what do You want me to do?”

The Lesson for Us

There is a temptation in Christian life to divide decisions into two categories.

We think some decisions are “spiritual.”

Other decisions are merely practical.

Joshua 9 challenges that distinction.

• Whom should we trust?

• Where should we go?

• What should we do?

• Who should we join ourselves to?

• What promises should we make?

• What opportunities should we accept?

These may look like ordinary decisions.

But for the Christian, there is no part of life that is outside the concern of God.

The question is not simply:

“What does the evidence tell me?”

It is:

“Have I asked God?”

We Need More Than Good Judgment

Joshua was an experienced leader.

• He had seen the Jordan River stop flowing.

• He had watched Jericho fall.

• He had experienced the tragedy of Ai and the victory that followed.

• He knew God's power.

• And yet Joshua could still make a mistake.

  
  

That is an important warning.

• Experience is valuable.

• Wisdom is valuable.

• Good judgment is valuable.

• But none of them replaces dependence upon God.

• We can know the Bible and still make a foolish decision.

• We can have years of experience and still misread a situation.

• We can have excellent instincts and still be deceived.

• What we need is not merely better judgment.

We need God.

And This Points Us to Jesus

The story of Joshua continually reminds us that God's people need a leader who will never fail.

• Joshua was a faithful servant of God.

• But Joshua could be deceived.

• Joshua could make a wrong judgment.

• Joshua needed God's guidance just as the people did.

The name Joshua is the Hebrew form of the name Jesus.

And the story points us beyond Joshua to the greater Joshua—Jesus Christ.

• Jesus does not merely offer better advice.

• He is the faithful Shepherd who knows His sheep.

• He does not merely tell us which way to go.

• He is the Way.

“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” — John 14:6

The answer to our tendency to trust ourselves is not despair.

It is deeper dependence upon Christ.

God at Work in History

Joshua 9 is not primarily a story about clever Gibeonites.

It is a story about the danger of living as though we can figure everything out for ourselves.

Israel had just learned that victory comes from God.

Now they had to learn that wisdom comes from God too.

The people had looked at the evidence.

But they had failed to inquire of the LORD.

And perhaps that is the question Joshua 9 leaves with us:

Before we make our next decision, have we asked God?

• Not merely:

• “What seems right?”

• Not merely:

• “What does everyone else think?”

• Not merely:

• “What does the evidence suggest?”

• But:

• “Lord, what would You have me do?”

Israel's mistake at Gibeon did not end God's work in their history.

God remained faithful.

And that is good news for us.

Because we, too, sometimes get it wrong.

We sometimes move too quickly.

We sometimes trust our own judgment.

We sometimes fail to ask.

But our failures do not make God unfaithful.

The God who was still at work in Israel's history is the God who remains at work today.

And in Jesus Christ, we see the fullest expression of that faithfulness.

“If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself.” — 2 Timothy 2:13

Joshua 9 teaches us a simple lesson that is easy to forget:

Don't merely look.Don't merely reason.Don't merely decide.

Ask God.

Because God is not only at work in the victories.

He is at work even when His people discover that they should have asked Him first.

***************************************Only to be what He wants me to be,

Every moment of every day,

Yielded completely to Jesus alone

Every step of this pilgrim way.

Norman J. Clayton --1938

***************************************

Is your life ful­ly yield­ed to Je­sus?

Is He King alone in your soul?

Is the gov­ern­ment placed on His shoul­der,

Not on­ly in part, but the whole?

Do you look for His guid­ance in all things?

Do you trust Him with ev­ery care?

Do you keep in His pre­sence each mo­ment,

And al­ways your joy with Him share?

Do you sit at His feet in the morn­ing,

And wait ere you go on your way;

Seeking first for the strength and the wis­dom,

To live to His glo­ry all day?

Words: Car­ol Field, in Hymns of Con­se­cra­tion and Faith, by James Mount­ain (Lon­don: Mar­shall Bro­thers, new & en­larged edi­tion, 1902),

Do you trust Him for vic­to­ry ev­er,

Over self and Sa­tan and sin?

Do you fol­low the sure, gen­tle lead­ing

Of God’s Ho­ly Spir­it with­in?