Just Ask
Joshua 9:13-14 MKJV
(13) And these wineskins which we filled were new. And, see, they are torn. And these clothes and shoes of ours have become old because of the very long journey.
(14) And they received the men because of their provisions, and did not ask at the mouth of Jehovah.
As years pass, each with its own set of victories, challenges and failures, there is a tendency and a temptation to move into the next with an assumption that the details and choices are obvious enough, that we can make the decisions quite on our own. These ‘Chosen of God’ should have been able to see through the deception of those they were to have conquered. They, as much as anyone, should have been able to sense that these men were not from a distant country but were wanting to be received and assimilated rather than dominated and destroyed. By simply making this critical decision on their own and failing to ‘ask at the mouth of Jehovah’, they were committed to a relationship that became a weight and a hindrance.
It’s a bit like those suspense movies where you as the viewer have knowledge of what lies behind the door the character is about to open. It doesn’t matter how much you yell at the screen, unless there is this miraculous transformation of reality that provides for interaction with the story and the script, Harrison Ford is just going to have to deal with the consequences of his own decisions. Not too distant would also be the desire of a parent to protect their offspring from the pitfalls and stumbling blocks that are oh, so obvious. Relationships and enticements that have a clear and definite result are yet chosen by those children desiring independence and the ability to make their own choices. If they could only realize and appreciate that a simple question about even the most obvious issues would help them avert a disappointment or fall, there might be much more interaction with ‘out-of-it’ parents.
Really quite incredible is that a reality transformation has actually been made by God, that we as the actors in our own little life dramas can lift our heads to the One who sees behind every door and inquire of His wisdom with regard to every aspect of life. Though people and things may appear to be legitimate enough, we don’t have to rely upon our own limited perspective. There is, rather, this powerful ability we have in Christ for the One who knows the end from the beginning to help us avoid the relationships and commitments that would define and inhibit who we’ve really been made to be in Him. A simple call to the ultimate Tech Support will help us avoid some significant corruption in our operating system.
It would seem that God must have indeed been ‘yelling at the screen’ at different junctures in life, that He would have loved to help divert a destructive course and liberate the conquering potential in us. Rather than blundering into what lies ahead now, with an errant assumption of the obvious, it would be most sensible to let every choice, every commitment be one that is affected by the counsel of Jehovah. Much better than an insistence on independence will be a requirement of God’s wisdom at every juncture, no matter how apparent the evidence. He’ll bring protection and provision only as He is asked and included in the decisions. The commitment to relationship with Him will disallow any others with uncertain and possibly destructive and divergent ends.
Isa 46:10 MSG
(10) From the very beginning telling you what the ending will be, All along letting you in on what is going to happen, Assuring you, ‘I’m in this for the long haul, I’ll do exactly what I set out to do,’
Jer 33:3 MSG
(3) ‘Call to me and I will answer you. I’ll tell you marvelous and wondrous things that you could never figure out on your own.’