Thoughts for another day

August 27, 2012.

Today's verse: Joshua 9:14. And the men took of their victuals, and asked not counsel at the mouth of the LORD. (KJV)

(Pls. read the above before you read further. Thanks)

It's indeed amazing and a thing of concern that we who're close to God, knowing Him rather well, don't consult Him in matters of importance in our lives like if we want to be married and there's a 'nice' proposal, we go ahead; all this without asking God if the proposal is indeed nice or just sugar coated.   In our Scripture today, we see how the Israelites under Joshua fared so well in destroying their enemies, but when the Gibeonites approached them with their false story, they accepted it and believed them.  Mind you, they had no business to do that for God had commanded them to destroy everybody so they wouldn't be infected by their gods and their idolatrous ways.

It was a gross error on the part of Israel to not consult God and so they were taken in by the guile of the Gibeonites, and so deceptive were they that they hoodwinked the people of God into believing their story.  In a way they typify the 'army of satan' who go about deceiving people in the world, making them commit gross errors from which sometimes there's no escape; and these people who fall to the guile of satan, don't have recourse to God and so don't experience His salvation.

As believing Christians, we must be counseled by God and do what He wants us to; and His Spirit is there to help.  Now, God sometimes allows you to be tested.  At that time He watches you closely to see if you'll look up and seek His counsel or do your own thing which will lead you to failure.  My friend, blessed is the man who looks up to God to find an answer.  And God does provide an answer if you're keenly seeking it.  It could be in any form: He may push you into doing the right thing or maybe He will put heaviness in you when you choose the wrong thing and then direct you to choose the right one; but be sure that God will lead you if you seek Him.  In the immediate period after the test, you may feel you've done the wrong thing; but by heaven, time will tell, in and through the proof God provides, that you did right – even as He led you.