Next: Divine Discernment (Joshua 9:3-15, 22-27)

Introduction

Each of our lives are an accumulation of our decisions to this point. Klyne Snodgrass shares a from World War II when Winston Churchill was forced to make a painful choice. The British secret service had broken the Nazi code and informed Churchill that the Germans were going to bomb Coventry. Churchill had two choices. First, he could evacuate the citizens and save hundreds of lives at the expense of indicating to the Germans that the code was broken. His other option would be to take no action, which would kill hundreds but keep the information flowing and possibly save many more lives. If you were in his shoes, which choice would you go with? Churchill had to choose and followed the second course. Fortunately most of our decisions though are much simpler. Madeleine Weiss says, “of the 35,000 “remotely conscious” decisions we make every day, 226.7 of them are about food alone.”

Today we continue our journey through Joshua in the series we are simply calling Next. Joshua is a book of triumph and transition. It’s a story of moving forward as God’s People move into what is next for them. As we look at what God has next for the Israelites and for Joshua, we look at what God has next for us. In Joshua 9, Joshua fails to seek God in his decision, and the people are hurt by it. In a similar way today, failing to seek the mind of Christ leads to problems. On the other hand, seeking the direction of Jesus makes our paths straight. How does God teach us to make decisions? Joshua 9 teaches us three lessons on decision making.

Seek counsel from God

The word has gotten around about the Israelite invasion, so the remaining Canaanite cities are getting nervous. Several form an alliance. One, Gibeon, decide a much different tactic. The Gibeonites decide to trick the Israelites into making a covenant with them. They go all out in their deception. They learn that the Israelites are not to make a treaty with anyone from Canaanite, so they have to appear to be from far, far away. They use worn out sacks and wineskins for their journey. They use worn-out and patched sandals and clothes. They use provisions that are dry and crumbly so they look like they’ve been on the road for a long time. Although Joshua and the Israelites are suspicious, they nonetheless fall for the deception and make a covenant. Verse 14 says, “so the men (referring to Israelite men) took some of their provisions, but did not ask counsel from the Lord.” The men simply take their food, but they fail to ask God what he thinks about all of this. If they had taken the time to slow down the process of the treaty, sought the face of the Lord, and listened for his prompting, they could have recognized that the Gibeonite story didn’t pass the smell taste. Instead, they did the precise thing God had told them not to do.

Watchman Nee tells the story of a poor, Christian Chinese farmer who had rice fields high in the mountain. Every day he spent hours pumping water into the rice paddies; but when he returned to the fields the next morning, he would find that his unbelieving neighbor, who lived down the hill, had opened the dikes and drained the water to fill his own fields. For a while the Christian ignored the injustice, but at last he became desperate. His rice would die if this continued, and this was his livelihood. So he gathered his church, and they prayed and discussed the situation and came up with a plan. The next day the Christian farmer rose early in the morning and first filled his neighbor’s fields; then he attended his own. He counted his neighbor more significant than himself and looked to his neighbor’s interests as well as his own. Soon the neighbor wanted to know the Jesus whom the farmer served as Lord and master. He eventually came to faith by seeing how the mind of Christ radically reordered the attitude and thinking of another man. He was forever transformed by the man’s shining example of Christ.

Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2:16, “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?’ But we have the mind of Christ.” We access the mind of Christ in many different ways. As we grow in faith, we are transformed through the renewing of our mind. We also access the mind of Christ through prayer, listening to what Christ tells us through the Holy Spirit. Proverbs 3:5-6 says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.” The first lesson that this passage teaches for decision making is, seek the counsel of God. What decisions weigh upon your heart today? Have you prayed and sought the mind of Christ for them?

Follow God’s direct instructions

The Israelites were told by Moses in Deuteronomy 7:2 “when the Lord your God gives them over to you, and you defeat them, then you must devote them to complete destruction. You shall make no covenant with them and show no mercy to them.” They had been directly told do not make a covenant with them. Show them no mercy. So of course, when the Gibeonites reach out to Joshua and the Israelites for a covenant, they tell them, no way. Right? Wrong. Instead, verse 15 tells us that, “Joshua made peace with them and made a covenant with them, to let them live, and the leaders of the congregation swore to them.” Instead of following God’s direct instructions given to them, the Israelites allowed themselves to be duped into making a covenant. Some decisions in life we can call wisdom decisions. Do you go to this college or that college? Do you accept this job offer or that offer? Do you retire this year or next year? These decisions are not clear cut. They require discernment and prayer. But God gives us his Word to make other decisions black and white. For example, should Joshua and the Israelites have made a covenant with the Gibeonites. They had already been told by God point blank that no, they should absolutely not make a covenant with them. For us, this can look like, should I or should I not get married before starting a family. Scripture gives a black and white, yes. Should I or should I not apologize and ask for forgiveness when I make a mistake. One again, yes. Some decisions we don’t need to decide for ourselves so much as we simply should surrender to God’s direction in his Word. When we steer outside of what he tells us to do, that’s when we run into trouble. That’s when we create pain, not just for ourselves, but for other people affected by it. Just like the decision Joshua and the Israelites had to make here was cut and dry, similarly we have a lot of cut and dry decisions. Unfortunately, just as Joshua and the Israelites went against what God told them to do, so can we. That’s where grace comes in.

There’s a story about a party of climbers who after a half day of climbing a range of mountains, came to the realization that they were lost. They took turns studying the map, and each tried to figure out where they were. One of the climbers began to match up the surrounding landmarks with the ones shown on the map as he confirmed his findings with his compass. After careful charting, he announced to the others, “See that big mountain over there?” “Yes,” answered his fellow climbers eagerly. “According to the map, we’re standing on top of it.” The moral of the story is that when we fail to follow or understand God’s road map for life, we get lost and miss out on the life God has for us. The second lesson this passage teaches is to follow God’s direct instructions.

Be a person of integrity

Verses 24-25 tell us that when the Gibeonites were confronted by Joshua about what they had done, they answer Joshua saying, ‘because it was told to your servants for a certainty that the Lord your God had commanded his servant Moses to give you all the land and to destroy all the inhabitants of the land from before you—so we feared greatly for our lives because of you and did this thing. And now, behold, we are in your hand. Whatever seems good and right in your sight to do to us, do it.” When called on it, the Gibeonites admit their deception. But what does Joshua do now? On the one hand, he has disobeyed God and made a treaty with people who God directly said not to make a treaty with. On the other hand, a covenant isn’t simply a business contract. He can’t simply exercise his termination clause in the fine print of the covenant to get out of it. A covenant is a commitment for life. So, is Joshua a man of his Word, or does he go back on his Word in his attempt to follow God? We just talked about how many decisions are black and white, cut and dry, easy because God already told us which way to go. But many more are like these. In order to uphold the value of following God’s direct instructions on how to deal with the Canaanites he has to go against the biblical teaching on integrity. On the other hand, in order to be a man of integrity, he has to go against what God had told him to do with the Canaanites. What do you think he should do? If you were in his shoes, how would you handle his predicament? We get the answer in verses 26-27. They say, “So he did this to them and delivered them out of the hand of the people of Israel, and they did not kill them. But Joshua made them that day cutters of wood and drawers of water for the congregation and for the altar of the Lord, to this day, in the place that he should choose.” Joshua chooses to be a man of integrity, a man of his Word.

In his book Loving God, Charles Colson recounts an incident involving an Indiana judge named William Bontrager. Bontrager had to pass sentence on Fred Palmer, a decorated Vietnam veteran who was found guilty of burglary. The crime was caused partly by involvement with drugs and alcohol. Indiana law required a sentence of ten to twenty years for Palmer's offense. However, new regulations designating a lesser penalty had gone into effect eighteen days after Palmer's arrest. To complicate matters, Palmer had become a Christian in jail and seemed to have changed. Should the judge sentence Palmer, a man who had never been in jail, to ten years or more? Or should he declare the older statute in violation of Indiana's constitution and give him a lighter sentence? Bontrager did the latter. Fred Palmer was out of jail in seven months, had a job, and was paying back his former victims. The events that followed received national attention. The Indiana Supreme Court reversed the judge's decision and ordered Fred Palmer sent back to prison. The judge's attempts to fight the court's decision during the next two years led to his own indictment for criminal contempt of court and, finally, his forced resignation. Fred Palmer was sent back to prison, only to be released twenty months later by the governor. Bontrager's convictions cost him his job, but not his integrity. The third lesson this passage teaches on discernment is to be first and foremost a person of integrity.

Conclusion

Joshua 9 teaches us three lessons on decision making. First, seek the counsel of God. Second, follow God’s direct instructions. Third, be first and foremost a person of integrity. In 1914, Ernest Shackleton and a team of explorers set out from England to do something that no one before had accomplished—cross Antarctica from one side to the other across the South Pole. It’s an expedition that became forgotten at the time due World war 1 breaking out. In recent years, Shackleton and his team’s expedition has reached almost mythical proportions. Disaster struck when the team’s ship, Endurance, became entrapped in ice and eventually sank after her hull was crushed. Marooned on nearby Elephant Island, there seemed little hope for their survival. In a desperate effort to get help, Shackleton and five others set out in a twenty-foot lifeboat across some of the most dangerous and storm-filled waters in the world. It was an eight hundred-mile journey to South Georgia Island where help could be found. For fifteen days the men battled the treacherous seas and massive storms with waves of up to one hundred feet. Using only a compass and a sextant, Frank Worsley (who had captained the Endurance) navigated their course until they safely reached land and found help. Shackleton procured another ship and returned to rescue all of his men. He became a national hero in England for his courage and persistence. Making wise decisions about an uncertain future is difficult. It requires an objective source of truth to serve as our guide. Just as a compass can guided Shackleton and his men through the icy waters of the South Atlantic, God’s Word can guide us through tough decisions and the deception of others. Therefore, let us trust in God’s divine discernment as we seek his counsel, follow his direct instructions, and finally, live as men and women of integrity before anything else. When we do this, we may not always make the right decision, but we will also draw close to God and feel his wind in our sails regardless of where we are in life.