Joshua 9-10, Acts 10
So the men took some of their provisions, but did not ask counsel from the Lord. – Joshua 9:14 ESV
If you don't know what God's will is, you will find it extremely difficult to follow it. And there is an obligation on the people of God to constantly seek out and listen to the will of God. In the case of the people of Israel, they should have known that God had a will concerning their conquest of the land. He had made it clear what He wanted them to do and how He intended them to go about doing it. Their defeat of Jericho had been quite specific and detailed. Their failure to defeat Ai the first time was directly related to their failure to obey His revealed will concerning the items devoted to destruction. There were times when God's will was extremely clear and undeniable. But there were also times when the Israelites found themselves needing some clarification from God. Such was the case when the Gibeonites pulled their elaborate ruse and tricked the Israelites into signing a covenant with them. Joshua and the people were completely deceived, even though they had some suspicions. They went ahead and signed a covenant with the Gibeonites, not realizing that these people were actually inhabitants of the land of Canaan and should have been on the list of those nations deemed for destruction. The passage makes it clear that Joshua and the people “did not ask counsel from the Lord.” They didn't turn to God and ask His advice. They simply acted on gut instinct. And their decision was binding because they had sworn an oath to the Gibeonites “by the Lord, the God of Israel” (Joshua 9:18 ESV). That oath guaranteed the safety of the Gibeonites and bound the Israelites to protect them at all costs. They ended up having to defend the Gibeonites when a five-nation federation came against them. Their failure to seek God's counsel left them vulnerable and in a compromised position.
What does this passage reveal about God?
God longs for His people to know His will. Sometimes He makes it perfectly clear and undeniable. Other times, God allows us to experience circumstances in which our next step is not always obvious. It is in those times that we must learn to ask God what He would have us do. Over in the book of Colossians, there is recorded a prayer that Paul prayed on behalf of the believers in the city of Colossae. He prayed, “We ask God to give you complete knowledge of his will and to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding. Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord, and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit. All the while, you will grow as you learn to know God better and better” (Colossians 1:9-10 ESV). Paul's desire was that God would give them a complete knowledge of His will, so that they could know beyond a shadow of a doubt what it was that He would have them to do. Knowing God's will was directly tied to living lives that honored and pleased God. When God reveals His will to men, they are given an opportunity to obey and live their lives according to His divine plan. Obedience pleases God. Living according to God's will always produces the right results. In the case of Peter, he received a vision from God that left him somewhat confused and uncertain. He had a dream in which he was offered a feast from God that contained a wide range of animals, reptiles and birds – all previously banned by God to the people of Israel. To have eaten any of these creatures would have made Peter unclean. Yet God said, “Rise, Peter, kill and eat” (Acts 10:13 ESV). Peter refuses. Like a good, faithful Jew, he turns down this seeming temptation to sin against God. But then God surprises Peter by saying, “What God has made clean, do not call common” (Acts 10:15 ESV). The word translated “common” is actually the same word that is often translated “unclean.” God is trying to tell Peter something, but it all leave him confused and perplexed. The arrival of Peter's three visitors would begin to illuminate the vision and clarify God's will.
What does this passage reveal about man?
The command by God to eat the banned creatures had to have caught Peter off guard. It went against everything he knew as a Jew. He would have been violating God's revealed will concerning the consumption of unclean animals. To do so would have been to make himself impure and resulted in his removal from the assembly of the people and banned from the presence of God. But these were different days. God was doing a new work among His people. With the death and resurrection of His Son, God had done a new work and was introducing a new means by which men might be made right with Him. No longer was righteousness to be attained through the keeping of laws, and only available to those who were Jews. Being right with God would not be based on human effort, but on the saving work of Jesus Christ on the cross. And it would be available to all. Peter was being made aware of God's new plan for man, and it was going to include the Gentiles who had long been considered unclean by the Jews. But as God revealed His will to Peter regarding the Gentiles, Peter was going to have to decide whether to obey it or not. Peter explained his dilemma quite clearly to Cornelius and his guests. “You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a Jew to associate with or to visit anyone of another nation, but God has shown me that I should not call any person common or unclean” (Acts 10:28 ESV). Peter knew God's will. Now he had to obey it. “Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him” (Acts 10:34 ESV). The rules of engagement with God had changed. His revealed will had made it clear that “everyone who believes in him [Jesus] receives forgiveness of sin through his name” (Acts 10:43 ESV). Peter had received the counsel of God. And he willingly embraced and obeyed it, even though it went against everything he had ever been taught before. The result was a powerful movement of God among the Gentiles. They believed, received the Holy Spirit and were baptized.
How would I apply what I’ve read to my own life?
Sometimes God makes His counsel known beforehand. It is revealed in His Word and is non-negotiable and undeniable. But then there are those times when we may find ourselves wondering what it is that God would have us do. We all face instances in which we aren't quite sure that the next step should be. It is at those times we must learn to seek God's counsel. And there are no matters to big or small for God. He cares. He wants to reveal His will to us. That is why Paul prayed that his brothers and sisters in Christ would have a complete knowledge of God's will, including spiritual wisdom and understanding. He wanted to them to know how to please and honor God with their lives by knowing exactly what God would have them to do in any given circumstance. Asking for God to reveal His will to us may sound strange. It may require waiting or postponing our decision until we hear from Him. In other words, we may find ourselves having to WAIT. Not something any of us particularly like doing. But living according to the counsel of God is always well worth the wait.
Father, Your counsel is always available to us. We just have to ask. We have to seek it. You have given us Your Word as a trustworthy source of Your will. Keep me hungry to know Your will and to live my life according to it – even when I don't quite understand it or like it. Your way is always best. Amen