What Won’t Suffice For Today

There’s an interesting statement in the book of Joshua that jumped off the page as I was reading the Word the other day.

Joshua 9:14 – “So the men took some of their provision, but they did not ask counsel from the Lord.”

Such a tragic statement that demands some explanation.

The back story is that a people group near the Israelites called the Gibeonites, tricked the Israelites into making peace with them because they had heard of their brutal slaughter of other cities and peoples. Out of desperation, they came to Joshua seeking to make peace—who wouldn’t? But they lied and deceived Joshua explaining that they lived in a distant land, far removed from the Israelites. The reality was, however, they were next-door neighbors.

The tragedy, of course, is that Joshua and his men did not ask counsel from the Lord. But what makes this scenario even more tragic is that it involved … JOSHUA.

Spiritual leader Joshua.

Man of God Joshua.

Leader of the Israelites Joshua.

One in the same.

The same Joshua who a chapter earlier had literally heard the voice of God in the midst of the chaos of battle telling him when exactly to attack the city of Ai (8:18 – the minutiae of detail involved in Joshua’s hearing of this command is astounding in itself). A man who walked with God.  A man who feared the Lord.

And yet, when the Gibeonites came seeking peace, they caught Joshua at a moment when he apparently wasn’t walking in the Spirit, and he consequently made a wrong decision.  He made a decision based on his own instinct.  He made a decision without seeking counsel from the Lord. And in the end, it cost him.

It reminded me of the fact that even godly men fail to hear from God at times. And it reminded me of the fact that I’m no different than Joshua. In fact, I can’t say that I’ve ever heard the voice of God as Joshua did in the midst of battle. I can’t say that I’ve ever experienced His manifest presence as Joshua did just before he charged the city of Jericho. If Joshua failed to hear God’s voice in the Gibeonite scenario, than I’m just as susceptible, if not more so, of repeating that tragedy. I’m just as susceptible as the next guy in making decisions based on my own intelligence, or my own wisdom, or my own cleverness of thought.

The bottom line is this: The voice of God that we heard in the past, will not suffice for today.

We must train ourselves to hear the voice of God on a daily basis—on a moment-by-moment basis. We cannot afford to assume that because we heard it sometime in the past, that makes us privy to this spiritual reality indefinitely.

It’s on this front that Joshua and his people failed.  And it’s on this front that you and I must continually evaluate ourselves—longing to hear the voice of God—never satisfied with the voice we heard yesterday—always seeking fresh, daily intimacy with Jesus.