OUR LORD WHOM WE MUST ALWAYS CONSULT

In Joshua chapter 9 verses 12 - 14, a scene unfolds where the leaders of Israel are being tricked by the neighbouring people of Gibeon (called Hivites) into signing a treaty not to do harm to them.

The Hivites concocted a fictitious tale saying that they had come from a distant land and wanted a peace  treaty between themselves and Israel.

To carry out the deception, they equipped themselves with elaborate costumes and props to provide the Israelites with evidence that they were from a distant land and had travelled a long distance to reach them. 

The passage goes like this:

This bread of ours was warm when we packed it at home on the day we left to come to you. But now see how dry and moldy it is. And these wineskins that we filled were new, but see how cracked they are. And our clothes and sandals are worn out by the very long journey.”

The Israelites sampled their provisions but did not inquire of the Lord. Then Joshua made a treaty of peace with them to let them live, and the leaders of the assembly ratified it by oath.

The Israelites were suspicious at first so the Hivites presented cracked winskins and worn cloths as proof that they had traveled a long distance and thus the Israelites, after examining the evidence, took their claims to be true and signed an oath-bound treaty with them.

The scripture mentions that the Israelites did not inquire of the Lord. It was only later that the Iaraelite's realized that they had been duped but by then, they had already bound themselves by oath to a treaty with the Hivites.

The lesson in this story is that no matter what the evidence that we have around us is, we must always seek the counsel of the Lord our God. He sees all things and His guidance  would include perspectives that would save us from deception and trickery.

Let us inquire of the Lord when faced with conundrums and propositions especially when we do not know all the facts.

Amen.