‘But They Did Not Ask Counsel of the Lord’

Soon after Israel’s victories over Jericho and Ai, several of Canaan’s southern city-states formed an alliance and immediately set out to fight against God’s people (cf. Gen. 9:1ff). The fearful Gibeonites, however, had a different strategy. They chose to deceive Israel into thinking they were somebody that they were not (non-Canaanite inhabitants) with hopes of a peace-treaty being struck between themselves and Israel. Their deceptive scheme worked, and it was successful because “they (Israelite leadership) did not ask counsel of the Lord” (Jos. 9:14). Tragically, the masses still today are buying in to the falsehoods being uttered by enemies of truth because they are not asking (seeking) counsel of the Lord. Our failure, as a nation, to seek counsel of the Lord has had devastating consequences as evidenced by the rapid decline of morality, the ever-increasing number of broken and dysfunctional homes, financial woes, religious division and confusion, etc. Hosea…