Good morning, Pastor John,
What is the lesson for us in Joshua honoring an agreement with someone that is deceptive? And that story in Judges is not the first time that happened. Isaac’s blessing on Jacob stood, even though Jacob lied in order to get it.
How does this apply today? If I make an agreement with someone who deals deceptively with me, am I supposed to honor those agreements? Or is it a different lesson? It mentions in Judges that Joshua and the other leaders “did not inquire of God.” Is that the lesson? In Genesis, with Isaac, I don’t remember inquiry with God being mentioned, either.
I know there’s something here for me, and I want to get the correct message, not something I imagine. I know that in Genesis, Jacob’s blessings from Isaac was to fulfill prophecy. And in Judges, it made it easier to conquer the land and it fulfilled God’s curse on Ham’s grandson, Canaan. Are they both to fulfill prophecies only, or is there something else for me today?
Mark
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Hi Mark.
Someone in Joshua’s position is held to a very high standard. He should never have bound the nation to a pact with those foreigners without consulting God first. Moses would not have. The situation with Isaac and the blessing is similar. God used Isaac’s weakness for tasty food, and Jacob’s craftiness, to get the blessing to Isaac, but had they not had those weaknesses, God would have gotten the blessing to Jacob some other way, for that was His promise. Both men, Isaac and Jacob, were in a hurry to get what they wanted.
In Proverbs 19:2, Solomon warned his son that the man who is in a hurry will sin. We will all profit if we will just slow down and wait on the Lord in times when we have to make decisions.
Pastor John