“And when the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done unto Jericho and to Ai,
They did work wilily, and went and made as if they had been ambassadors, and took old sacks upon their asses, and wine bottles, old, and rent, and bound up;
And old shoes and clouted upon their feet, and old garments upon them; and all the bread of their provision was dry and mouldy.
And they went to Joshua unto the camp at Gilgal, and said unto him, and to the men of Israel, We be come from a far country: now therefore make ye a league with us.”

“And the men took of their victuals, and asked not counsel at the mouth of the LORD.”

                                 -Joshua 9:3-6, 14

I know this passage is significantly longer than most texts that I use, but it carries a vital message which I’d like to share with you, so please bear with me.

You see, as the Israelites began making their way into the promised land, the inhabitants of Canaan and the surrounding territory became exceedingly fearful for their own safety. And who could blame them? Rumors of a people whose God could part seas and bring plagues upon those who opposed them were not taken lightly by the Gibeonites, and so they devised a plan whereby to ensure their survival: they would fool God’s people into making a covenant of peace with them. In order to do so, they put on old, worn clothes,  put moldy bread in their sacks, and everything else necessary to give them the appearance of weary travelers.

Being deceived by the Gibeonite’s disguises, the Israelites did indeed make the desired covenant, probably never expecting to see this caravan again. But as it turned out, these people were anything but weary travelers from a far country; they pretty much lived next door. Now, because of their oath, they were unable to fulfill the commandment of God and destroy all the inhabitants of the land. Naturally, this caused problems in the days ahead.

Moving on to verse 14, however, we find that the whole reason this deception was successful in the first place was because nobody in the Israelite camp prayed about this crucial decision. It seemed right at the moment, so they acted on impulse. But on the other hand, if they had sought God’s direction they would have seen it was not His will for any kind of agreement to be reached between the two nations. Now I’m not saying He would’ve showed them the big picture of what was going on, but at the very least they would been able to avoid making a very costly mistake.

Do you see what God is trying to teach us here? Every decision we make, big or small, should be brought before God in prayer to ensure we don’t make the wrong choice. Now does this mean we made a wrong turn somewhere along the line if things suddenly start going wrong in our life? Not necessarily. Sometimes God purposefully leads us down a more painful path in order to teach us something useful. But rest assured, taking things into our own hands is never the way to go.

What choices has life presented you with today? A new job opportunity? A decision between colleges? Whether or not to touch on a sensitive topic in one of your blog posts? Whatever it is, God has an opinion, and we would all do well to make sure we get His input first.