June 10 - Joshua 9:14

So the men of Israel sampled

the provisions [of the Gibeonites]

but did not ask

for the councilof the Lord.

Joshua 9:14

Last week we focused on the story of an unnamed prophet in the book of Judges. He listened to God and spoke boldly to Jeroboam. Then he listened to the lies of the world and it led to his destruction.

Today's reading in David Chotka's 50 Days of Prayer begins with a lie too.

Joshua and the Israelites enter the Promised Land. They conquer cities like Jericho miraculously.  And all the neighboring towns (and kingdoms) are afraid.

But the neighboring Gibeonites are clever. They devise a sneaky plan. They will wear old clothes and bring moldy bread and pretend they have traveled from afar and want to make a treaty with the Israelites.

The Israelites have been forbidden by God to make a treaty with neighboring peoples, but the ruse began to work. As it says in our verse for today, "the men of Israel sampled  their provisions but did not ask for the council of the Lord."

They were lied to. And as a result, Israel made an irrevocable covenant with the Lord.

There are three points to this story …

1.    God honors covenants. He had made a covenant with Israel that he didn't break, even when they made a covenant with the enemy. In fact, God blessed Israel when they stood by a covenant – even when it was hard.

2.    Before making any decision – see our verse for today – check with God! (That, of course, is the main point in our whole journey of discernment.)

3.    Finally, two weeks in a row, we've been told stories about faithful people being deceived by liars and the lies of the world. I don't know if that was intentional – or not – in the thinking of Pastor Chotka. Nevertheless, these lies are pervasive, and we dare not miss a good point: Even faithful people  can be all too easily deceived. Beware! Listen twice to God before you listen once to the world.

In Christ's Love,

a guy who checks with God

about the big things,

but wants to check more and more

about the little minute-to-minute things too

(because that's the true beginning of

a life of discernment and power)