It Will All Work Out in the End

It Will All Work Out in the End

An intriguing story in the Bible is found in Joshua 9, called the Gibeonite Deception. Bob is probably covering this chapter this week in adult Sunday School, so I will try not to steal his thunder, though one verse sticks out: “the men of Israel … did not ask for the counsel of the LORD” (v.14).

It all worked out in the end, since the Gibeonites became “hewers of wood and drawers of water” for the Israelites. Just think, every day, heavy chores that the Israelites themselves would have had to do, they had slaves to do for them. What a blessing! It all worked out in the end. Except for the hidden costs. What costs?

Again, Bob will tell the full story on Sunday, So let me just read between the lines a little, and say that one of the reasons that Israel was to destroy the inhabitants of the Promised Land, including the Gibeonites, was because of the evil influence the idol-worshipping inhabitants would have on Israel which was to worship the one true God, the LORD, and God alone. But instead, they kept that evil influence in their midst. Are we to suppose that the evil influence did not in fact influence? We do not want to harbor cancer in our bodies, nor evil influences in our souls.

A cross-reference to Joshua 9:14 is Numbers 27:21. Someone was needed to lead the people of Israel after Moses, someone upon whom rested the Spirit of God. It would be Joshua, a uniquely suited candidate. If the people would just follow this man, it would all work out in the end. Right? That’s not what Scripture says. Our trust is not to be in the wisdom of men and their best ideas or strongest intuitions. It is to be in the guidance of God. What is the counsel of the Lord?

The text tells us (Numbers 27:11) that even the great leader Joshua is to go to the high priest, in this case, Eliezer, and seek the counsel of the Lord. Eliezer, the high priest, was outfitted with the Urim and Thummim, a breastplate by which God would signal His will. It is mysterious to us, and it is not in use today. We are to follow the dictates of Scripture and the leading of the Spirit, and not just one’s individual leading, but the counsel of spiritual leaders. This is in line with 2Pet. 1:20 “But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation.”

Are there exigencies in which we are justified in acting without God’s counsel? Are some crises so urgent that we need not ask for direction from above? I suppose that someone, somehow, could come up with a scenario. But such a situation is not common in life, and yet we act as though most every situation is so urgent that we must just do what comes natural, out of reflex, and not from a place of prayer that seeks the counsel of the Lord.

And do we think that it will all work out in the end if we just continue to go our own way and do what seems right in our own eyes? Or should we rather prepare to slow down and ask, along with the disciples of Jesus, “Lord, teach us to pray” (Luke 11:1)?