But it seemed right at the time!

Joshua was basically a good leader.  But there were two times he got in trouble.  And both times it was for the same reason.  He relied on his own wisdom and understanding rather than God’s.

The first time came at Ai.

Fresh off of their great victory at Jericho, Joshua and the Israelites were so full of confidence, that they never consulted God on the battle plan for Ai.

Instead, they said, “Hey we handled Jericho.  Ai is much smaller.  We don’t need to even send our full army out there.”

And so they went out to battle without asking God what he thought.  As a result, they didn’t find out about the problem with Achan until it was too late.

The second time came in this chapter.  Men from Gibeon, one of the lands that God had told them to conquer, deceived the Israelites into making a treaty with them by pretending to be from a far off land.

The key verse in this chapter is verse 14.  “The men of Israel …did not inquire of the LORD.”  Had they done so, they would not have been deceived.

Both times, their actions seemed right at the time.  But both times they were wrong.

How often do we make the same kind of mistakes in our lives?

We live our lives by our own wisdom, and make decisions that seem right at the time, but we fail to ask God what he thinks.  Or we know what he says in his Word, but we willfully ignore it.

The Bible says, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.”  (Proverbs 14:12)

Let us not make the same mistake that Joshua did.  Rather, let us prayerfully make decisions in our lives, making sure to seek his guidance before we take action.