…forgetting to consult the Lord
I read Joshua 7:7 and realized Joshua asked the Lord the wrong question and as a result, he came to the wrong conclusion. Worse, he did all of these things because he had not inquired of the Lord before going to battle with the city state of Ai after they had defeated Jericho. I read chapter 7 and noticed that Joshua and his men assumed battling Ai would be easy, but they never asked God for his strategy. Earlier God had warned Joshua and the Israelites that if anyone took treasures from the doomed city, Jericho, that person would be set aside for destruction, and all of Israel would also be held guilty. Yet Joshua never connected that warning with the resulting disaster that followed. Joshua was not listening closely to the Lord, nor consulting him carefully. As a result, he developed wrong thinking. Please join me as I examine the stories of Jericho, Ai and Gibeon; Joshua and the Israelites failed to consult the Lord, and sadly we sometimes do this too.
In Joshua 6:18, God clearly warned the Israelites, “Do not take any of the things set apart for destruction, or you yourselves will be completely destroyed, and you will bring trouble on the camp of Israel.” Joshua did not know Achan, an Israelite, stole some Jericho treasures and pretended he did not. But because Joshua had clearly heard God’s warning if something like that did happen, he should have been alert when the men of Ai defeated the Israelites. Joshua should have suspected that someone had violated God’s warning about destruction and trouble for the camp of Israel. But, because Joshua never inquired of the Lord before attacking Ai, he did not realize God was neither pleased with Israel, nor would he go with them into that battle of Ai.
Let’s look at Joshua’s statements in 7:7a, “Oh, Sovereign Lord, why did you bring us across the Jordan River if you are going to let the Amorites kill us?” In this question, Joshua assumes God carelessly allowed the Amorites to kill some Israelites. Now Joshua makes his foolish conclusion, in the rest of verse 7, “If only we had been content to stay on the other side!” Then Joshua also says (verses 8-9), “Lord, what can I say now that Israel has fled from its enemies? For when the Canaanites and all the other people living in the land hear about it, they will surround us and wipe our name off the face of the earth. And then what will happen to the honor of your great name?” Joshua’s conclusion was faulty, because his question was wrong.
Notice, he called God, “Sovereign,” but he did not treat God as the Sovereign when he did not inquire of God’s plan before attacking Ai. If he had, God would have told Joshua to NOT attack, but instead to deal with the sin in their camp. Now 36 Israelites had died at Ai, and God had to deal with Joshua, once he did finally come to God in prayer.
In the next verse (10), the Lord said, “Get up! Why are you lying on your face like this? Israel has sinned and broken my covenant! They have stolen some of the things that I commanded must be set apart for me. And they have not only stolen them but have lied about it and hidden the things among their own belongings. This is why the Israelites are running from their enemies in defeat. For now Israel itself has been set apart for destruction. I will not remain with you any longer unless you destroy the things among you that were set apart for destruction”
If Joshua had asked God for guidance before attacking Ai, he would have learned this lesson, but instead many Israelites died, and only when Joshua was complaining to God, did God reply. We see this carelessness continues when Joshua encounters the deceptive Gibeonites. The Gibeonites pretended to come from a land outside of Canaan, and thus be a people group the Israelites were allowed to make treaties with. Somehow, the Gibeonites knew God’s commands regarding no treaties with Canaanites, (Exodus 23:32). Pretending to be non-Canaanites (people living outside those borders) the Gibeonites requested a treaty that they knew Joshua would allow. Joshua’s error shows up in Joshua 9:14, “So the Israelites examined their food, but they did not consult the Lord. Then Joshua made a peace treaty with them…”
Soon after his fateful mistake, Joshua learned the Gibeonites were Canaanites, close neighbors of the Israelites. But now the Israelites could not break the treaty, because they had made it before God.
This has happened to some Christian women who married men who pretended to be Christians when they were not. Many people tell these Christian wives to divorce their unbelieving husbands. Yet, like Joshua and the Israelites, God commands the believers to honor the vow they made before God (1Cors.7:12-13).
Some people judge believers who have been deceived this way, whether they were deceived by unbelieving spouses, siblings, bosses, business partners, or friends. While some relationships are not bound by a vow (like friendship) others may still have binding terms (like work contracts). It is easy to judge the deceived believers, but we don’t know how convincing the deceiver was. Jesus deals gently with those who are not yet ready to hear the truth, as he says in John 16:11-12, “There is so much more I want to tell you, but you can’t bear it now. When the Spirit of Truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own but will tell you what he has heard. He will tell you about the future.”
At times I have been the believer who fell for deceit. At other times I have been the concerned believer who saw a fellow believer being deceived but unwilling to recognize the lie. I cannot be the Holy Spirit inside someone’s mind. But I can encourage my friends to ask the right questions, which Joshua did not ask. Joshua had been warned about trouble coming from even one man disobeying God’s command to turn over Jericho’s treasures to the tabernacle and then destroy the rest.
Instead of asking why God brought the Israelites trouble, Joshua needed to remember God’s earlier warnings. God probably didn’t give you or your friend such an explicit warning, but he does give general warnings we can apply to our lives. Matt. 10:16 says, “Be as wise as a serpent but as gentle as a dove.” We need to be cautious and not jump into situations Scriptures warns u against. Scriptures warn us that the truth must come with love (1 John 3:18, “Let us not love in word or talk, but in deed and in truth.”) That means we must love wisely. We cannot believe everything someone says. Usually God does not tell us everything we need to do in a week, nor give us precise warnings like he did about the treasures of Jericho. But by not telling us everything we need to do throughout the week, God forces us to ask him for guidance throughout the day.
Some may resent the need to ask God for guidance throughout the day, claming God is making them dependent upon him. Yes, God is making us dependent upon him. But only disobedient believers and nonbelievers resent depending upon God for guidance throughout the day. Fake Christians have never surrendered their whole hearts to Christ and refuse to depend on him and obey him throughout the whole day. Continuing to ask God for direction, all day long, brings us closer to him, so true Christians welcome this need.
Only a true Christian yearns to please God by living that way. If you don’t want to live that way, ask God to enable you to surrender fully to him and become a Christian. Otherwise, understand that you (or the person you know is like this) are not a true Christian but a fake like the Gibeonites who pretended to be far away people, and like Achan the guy who stole the Jericho treasures but pretended he did not.
If we encounter trouble, even as true believers like Joshua did, we may be tempted to ask God the wrong question, like: “God why did you let this bad thing happened to me when I do everything right?” Like Job, you may have done everything right. If God shows you you’ve done nothing wrong, then like Job, you must preserve despite the unjust suffering. But if you are like Joshua, you may have sinned. Joshua did not sin by active rebellion, as Achan did, but by a passive sin, not asking God how to attack Ai and by not listening to God’s reply. Joshua did not ask God if he and his people were guilty of sin, even after the defeat at Ai, even after God had warned they would be defeated if there was sin in the camp. Joshua did not heed the recent warning of God. He did not examine his heart for sin (Psalm 139:23-24, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.”) As a result, Joshua made the wrong conclusion, that God had abandoned him and his people.
Joshua’s wrong question lead to his wrong conclusion. We can easily make this same mistake; I have. But as God showed Joshua grace, he can show us grace too and guide us back to the truth. The Israelites had to punish Achan (capital punishment). Only then could the Israelites conquer their enemies at Ai. When we get right with God, he will lead us to our own victory, as he sees fit. So please guard your hearts and consider what you ask God, and what conclusions you come to, due to your questions. God can help you ask the right questions and then come to the conclusions that please God and keep you safe.
I pray I’ve challenged you and encouraged you to guard your heart and your questions and conclusions so fakers (like Achan, the Gibeonites, and Satan) don’t deceive you and rob you of your joy. Thanks for joining us this week. Have a blessed week!