June 13 - Joshua 9:15

And Joshua made

peace with [the Gibeonites]

guaranteeing their lives by a treaty;

and the leaders of the congregation

swore an oath to them.

Joshua 9:15

The Gibeonites lied. They tricked Joshua and the Israelites into a making a treaty with them.

Israel should have checked with God first. But they plowed right ahead with what they thought was right.

As a result, they had to live with the consequences. Because they’d cut a covenant, the Israelites could not expel the Gibeonites from the land. Even worse, they had to go to their rescue and fight for them on an occasion or two.

Are you like me? … and the Israelites?

• Like me, I’ll bet you’ve plowed right ahead with decisions that sound good to you at the time.
• And like me, I’ll bet you’ve wound up regretting a few of them.
• And like me, I’ll bet that in hindsight, you wished you’d checked with God first. 

So now we know better, right? Can we pull out an eraser and just put that bad decision behind us? No.

Sometimes we have to live with the consequences.

Sometimes integrity moving forward means living with the stupidity of the past.

I hope these mistakes keep teaching you and me to listen to God more clearly … first!!!

In Christ’s Love,

a slow learner