JOSHUA 9 - TAKING COUNSEL FROM GOD
Joshua 9
After resounding victories in taking the cities of Jericho and Ai, the end of Joshua 8 tells us that the people of Israel held a time of worship, and that Joshua read the Word of God to them. Worship of the One True God, and the proclamation of His Word, is a fearful thing to the enemies of God. So, not unexpectedly, the beginning of Joshua 9 tells us that when the kings of the surrounding nations heard of this, they gathered together to fight against Joshua and Israel. However, one of these nations embarked on a different course of attack. The people of Gibeon, also known as the Hivites, decided to instead employ deception as their way of attack. So, instead of participating in an armed attack on Israel, they disguised themselves as having come from a distant country, and pretended to be tired from a long journey, so that they would be invited into the nation of Israel for rest and to live peaceably among them. The people of Israel fell for this ploy, and made a covenant of peace with them. As the people of Israel moved on to take on the kings and peoples of the surrounding nations, they were obligated by this covenant to spare the people of Gibeon.
Satan, who is the prince of darkness, and the force behind all of the enemies of God, generally employs two strategies against God’s people.
One is to directly attack them, but the other is to deceive them. As we see in this Chapter, deception is often much more effective than direct attack. This may be attributable to a couple of factors. First, a direct attack is much more obvious, and easier to guard against. Second, what often happens, is that when God’s people get so focused on and looking out for the direct attacks, it takes their focus off of the more subtle indirect attack of deception, and they can end up inviting the enemy right into their midst, just as the people of Israel did here.
Throughout the history of the church, Satan has usually made much more progress through deception, than he has through direct confrontation or persecution.
Yet, the method of defense against both means of attack employed by the enemy is the same – seek counsel from the Lord, and do what He tells you to do. Yet, this is what the people of Israel failed to do in this Chapter. Vs. 14 tells us that they did not seek counsel from the Lord in their dealing with the deceptive people from Gibeon. Instead, they tried to deal with and respond to the situation on their own, and they ended up doing what made sense to them humanly speaking. As a result, they were unable to see the deception going on, and fell for it. Rather than driving their enemies out of the land God had given them, as God had called them to do, they ended up inviting one of them right into their midst.
There are a multitude of good reasons for us to always take counsel from the Lord.
Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega, so He knows the beginning from the end, and everything in between. We cannot possibly know all the facts in the situations and challenges we face in life, and in the decisions we have to make, but He does. Jesus is the Wonderful Counselor and Mighty God referred to in Is. 9:6. Therefore, it is Him that we should consult with first and foremost in our decision making process. He is a far better counselor than any human being can ever be, and not only that, but as Mighty God, He can actually also do something to resolve our difficulties for us, and that is something that no human counselor can do.
Col. 2:2-3 tells us that in Jesus, are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, and James 1:5-6 tells us that God will give us wisdom when we ask for it in faith. So, Jesus stands ready, willing, and able to give us His perfect wisdom in every situation we face in life. All we need to do is ask Him for it, and do so in faith, trusting that He will not only give it, but that it will also be the best advice we could ever be given, and which should always be followed. The advice and counsel of Jesus can come in many ways, but the principal ones are through prayer, His Word, the promptings of the Holy Spirit, and wise counsel from other Godly believers.