“Before You Commit!” – FBC Morning Light (3/14/2024)

Well, a good Thursday morning to you. Today in our Bible reading, we're reading in Joshua chapters 8 through 10, most of chapter 10 anyway, and I want to point out a mistake that Joshua makes in chapter 9.

It's actually a repeat mistake. Let me explain. After the successful battle at Jericho, you remember what happened? We read about that in yesterday's Bible reading. The people conquered Jericho, and then the next city on the horizon was Ai.

And Joshua had no idea, but Achan had stolen some stuff that was supposed to be destroyed that God said is not to be taken. He committed sin, and that sin caused a disaster. But one of the reasons for the disaster is that Joshua just went ahead and assumed that he was supposed to go ahead and fight against Ai, developed a strategy, sent some spies to check out the area around Ai.

I mean, he's operating on the basis of what happened in the past, you know? He sent out spies to Jericho, they fought the battle of Jericho, walls fell down, so forth. But the key difference here is that when it came to Jericho, the Lord gave some very clear directions.

The Lord came to Joshua and said, this is what you are to do. The Lord didn't give any direction for Ai, and Joshua just moved ahead, and when he did so it led to disaster. In other words, Joshua's mistake here was failing to seek the Lord's direction before going ahead and fighting against Ai.

Maybe the Lord wanted him to fight somewhere else, you know? He didn't ask, he just went ahead with it, and it led to disaster, because the Lord would have either in silence or in clear revelation said, you've got to take care of some sin in the camp before you go do this battle.

So it led to disaster. Well, now we come to chapter 9, and we have this account of people from Gibeon, representatives from the city of Gibeon. Now, where is Gibeon? Gibeon isn't all that far from Jerusalem and so forth, but where the Israelites are right now when chapter 9 opens up, it seems they are near this section of Mount Ebal, Mount Gerizim, read about it at the end of chapter 8, and the distance from Gibeon to Mount Ebal and Gerizim is probably, as the crow flies, probably about 30 miles.

So, you know, men who are used to traveling by camel, by animal, whatever, could cover that easily in two days. So they're a couple days away. But these representatives from Gibeon show up, and it looks like they've been traveling for weeks, and that's intentional.

It's intentional. Clothing looks all worn out, the wineskins are all worn out, their food is yucky, crusty, stale, and they're giving the impression that they live a long way off. Why is that? Because the Gibeonites want the Israelites to make a covenant with them that they won't destroy them, because after all, Gibeon is right there smack in the middle of Canaan, and they are under the curse of being destroyed.

So the Gibeonites make this appeal. Make a treaty with us that you won't destroy us. And Joshua says, well, you know, how do we know that you're from a far country? And they said, well, look at this stuff.

I mean, look, our sandals are all worn out, our clothes all worn out, our bread's old and crusty, it was fresh the day we left, and all this kind of stuff. And so they look at the stuff. They look at the stuff.

We read in verse 9, verse 13, I'm sorry, verse 14, it says the men of Israel took some of their provisions, but they did not ask counsel of the Lord. They looked at the provisions, they looked at the wineskins that had supposedly been new but now were old and worn out, and the garments and the sandals that became old supposedly from the long journey.

The men of Israel looked at those things, and they said, hmm, okay, we'll make peace with you, make a covenant with you, we'll let you live. And everybody said, all God's people said, amen, so let it be.

But the key statement here is, the end of verse 14, they did not ask counsel of the.

Lord.

So, this is the second time when Joshua has moved forward in making a strong commitment, committing God's people to a course of action, without seeking the Lord's direction. And it ends up being a terrible mistake.

The Gibeonites did not live a long way off, they did not live outside the land of Canaan like they tried to represent, they lived right in Canaan. They were supposed to be people under the curse. Well, they made a covenant with Him, and that covenant is going to be binding upon them, upon Israel, for its history.

And they're going to be left to remain in the land. Now, you know, God graciously overrules that eventually and makes these people to be servants and carriers of water and hewers of wood. But nevertheless, the Lord makes it clear to Joshua, you made a mistake here.

This is not what you were to do. This was not the way it was supposed to be. And I think we need to learn from this. I think we need to learn from this. Before I make some binding commitment that is going to affect my life and is going to obligate me in the future, I need to seek the Lord's guidance in this.

I need to seek His counsel. His Word, ministered by His Spirit, will guide me if I will look to Him and ask Him for that guidance. May we do so and keep ourselves from getting into a very unpleasant binding situation.

So, our Father and our God, I thank you for this account that serves to be helpful in providing wisdom to us. May we heed it, we pray, in Jesus' name, amen. All right, well listen, have a good rest of your Thursday, and may the Lord bless you.

Good day.