Counsel of the Lord

02.11.05

“Gibeon was a great city, like one of the royal cities… and all its men were mighty.”¹ The other kings gathered together to fight Israel² but the Gibeonites sent diplomats to make a covenant with Israel. They knew of God’s command to Israel to take the land and destroy all the inhabitants.³ They heard what Israel did to Jericho⁴ and were afraid for their lives.

Wearing tattered clothes and worn sandals, and carrying old patched up wineskins and dried bread, the Gibeonite diplomats pretended to be on a long journey from a distant land. They came to Joshua and the men of Israel. Seeing the convincing evidence, Israel fell for the Gieonite’s ruse and “Joshua made peace with them and made a covenant with them.”⁵

Everyone in Israel had heard the Law⁶, which instructed them in dealings with cities during the conquest of Canaan. “When you approach a city to fight against it, you shall offer it terms of peace. If it agrees to make peace with you and opens to you, then all the people who are found in it shall become your forced labor and shall serve you… Thus you shall do to all the cities that are very far from you, which are not the cities of these nations nearby.”⁷ The cities of their inheritance were to be utterly destroyed.

Given God’s policy previously established through Moses, and the convincing evidence the Gibeonites brought forth to persuade Israel of their origins, the decision wasn’t a difficult one. But the men of Israel “did not ask for the counsel of the LORD.”⁸ We don’t know what God’s verdict would have been – but we can only assume that the Gibeonites deception would have been revealed.

As the story continues, Israel didn’t try to “correct” their mistake by allowing the five kings to destroy Gibeon. Israel’s entire army came to their rescue⁹ and God honored the right decision and fought for Israel. The LORD confounded¹⁰ the enemy and threw large hailstones from heaven. Joshua commanded the sun and moon to stand still, and so it was. “There was no day like that before it or after it, when the LORD listened to the voice of a man.”¹¹ That is, the God of the universe was obedient to Joshua and extended the daylight until the battle was won.

There are some important lessons in this passage. The Gibeonites believed that what God said would come to pass. They could’ve aligned their mighty men with the other kings against Israel, but instead they aligned themselves with the people of God. Even though it would mean becoming servants and giving up their royal city. That resonates our own need to align our thoughts and life with God, to give up the royal position over our own lives, in order to be servants of a better King.

Israel knew the Law ­– all that God had said in the past. Knowledge of the Bible is good, as is evaluating the evidence and using our God-given minds. Yet with all that knowledge and wisdom, we can still be deceived. God is the God of the present – always available to give counsel – we only need ask. Our King is not distant, we can be friends with the King.

Yet a lot of times we get our roles confused – rather than asking God for His will to be done in our lives, we tell Him what we think is best. Then we get disappointed because God doesn’t see it our way. While God did as Joshua said, that isn’t to be the expected case. God is our King – we can bring requests to Him, but always with the attitude of a servant.