Poetry

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In Joshua chapter 7, after defeating Jericho, Joshua sent spies to see the town of Ai. They returned and said it wouldn’t take the whole army to capture the small town. So three thousand soldiers attacked Ai and were soundly beaten.

The humans had gone and observed, and returned with a logical assessment. The small city wouldn’t take a large force. They just forgot 1 critical thing: Joshua never asked Jehovah for advice – and it cost Israel!

God would have told Joshua there was sin in the camp – so there would be no divine blessing on the soldiers. Israel could have averted defeat if they had just asked the Almighty instead of trusting to human perception.

Later men from the Canaanite town of Gibeon came to the camp and told Joshua lies. They wore old clothes and sandals, had old sacks, old wineskins and moldy bread. Joshua asked who they were and where they came from.

They said they were from a far country and came because they had heard the fame of Israel’s God – how He defeated Egypt, and lately Jericho and Ai. They wanted an unbreakable covenant – and said they were Israel’s servants.

Once again Joshua and Israel trusted their eyes and forgot to ask for divine wisdom. So they made a covenant and swore peace to these people – only to find out 3 days later they were Canaanite neighbors.

Human wisdom can never do the work of God. “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” says the LORD. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways...” Isa 55:8-9 NKJV.

Anyone who tries to do the work of the Most High according to human wisdom will fail miserably. Our smartest thinking is worldly and no good – we NEED divine guidance, period. We need to seek the face of God like never before.

Only Jehovah knows the future; only God never fails; only Yahweh is never fooled – why would we want anything besides His guidance? One of the great things about King David was he continually “enquired of the LORD.”

David might have been king, but he realized Jehovah always had the best plan. So he repeatedly sought divine instruction before he started something. We modern people could learn an important lesson from him.

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