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Living Hope SDA Church

Chris Holland

Hearing From the Mouth of the Lord

Because if we're not walking with Jesus, we're walking by ourself.

And when walking by ourself, we are left to our own counsel, and when left to our own counsel, the way and the path is to destruction.

Heavenly Father, as we open your word, we know that we cannot understand your word without your spirit, and we believe, Lord, that your spirit has been here, and now we ask for a special portion of your spirit that it would give us minds and hearts of discernment, that it would give us minds and hearts of conviction, and that Lord, you would utilize me today to speak on your behalf.

And while December 25 often brings smiles to our face, because that of course is Christmas Day.

There wasn't much smiling going on in George Washington's group of soldiers.

The British armies had beaten back the Continental Army, and in specific it was the Hessian Army, German soldiers that were serving as auxiliaries to the British Empire that had beaten back the Continental Armies south of New York and were on really the move to defeat the Revolution.

George Washington devised a plan and that plan was that at a time that the Hessian army would be most relaxed on December the 25th he would gather his troops they would cross the Delaware River, and they would surprise Johann Rael and his Hessian army and score a victory for the Continental Army.

However, the weather did not play a friendly partner to George Washington and his troops because the Delaware River was icy.

However, in the crossing of the Delaware, it is important to note that Washington did not lose any of his troops by death, although he lost a significant number who simply could not cross.

And so, instead of an army of over 3, 000, he was now with an army of 2, 000.

They crossed the Delaware River on the night of December 25, 1776, and unbeknownst to them, a local farmer saw the Continental Army cross.

The farmer was a loyalist, and so he went to the Hessian army and informed them that Washington had crossed the Delaware.

The reason we know that is that the note was found after Johan Rahl and his troops were defeated and he himself was killed.

Johan Rahl in the days leading up to the Battle of Trenton had actually been informed by several warnings that Washington was gathering his troops for a great battle and he should be ready.

Over and over again he was warned until he was given the personal note for the farmer who was an eyewitness to the arrival of the troops of Washington, yet Johan Rahl ignored the warning.

Washington's defeat of the Hessian army at the Battle of Trenton proved to be a pivotal point in the Revolutionary War, and it is in fact, my dear friends, why all of us are sitting here today with the freedoms that we now enjoy.

And my question is for us to wrestle with this morning, could it be that we have simply relegated God to a note that we've placed in our pocket, close enough to us, but without any bearing on how we live.

Could it be, could it be, that there is a Bible story that would help us to understand the same key questions?

I would invite you to open your Bibles to Joshua, the ninth chapter.

Here in Joshua chapter 9, the Bible outlines for us a story that may help us as we navigate through the 21st century, while it may help us navigate through 2020, the year of the pandemic, the year of civil unrest, the year of political polarization.

Joshua 9, you will remember, the children of Israel have crossed the Jordan River.

God has called upon them to remove all nations.

Some people have a difficult time understanding how a God of love could have instructions for this to happen.

You must be aware that in Genesis 15, God had begun the work in the Canaanite peoples to try to transform their heart, and they had made the choice to not follow God's way.

And now, the children of Israel acting as an instrument of justice under the theocratic organization, served as that instrument and now would remove the peoples.

But something interesting happens in Joshua the ninth chapter.

The Bible says beginning in verse 1, and it came to pass when all the kings who were on this side of the Jordan in the hills and in the lowland and in all the coasts of the great sea toward Lebanon, The Hittite, the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, the Jebusite heard about it, that they gathered together to fight with Joshua and Israel with 1 accord.

But when the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and Ai, they worked craftily and went and pretended to be ambassadors.

And they took old sacks on their donkeys, and old wineskins torn and mended, old and patched sandals on their feet, and old garments on themselves, and all the bread of their provision was dry and moldy.

And they went to Joshua to the camp at Gilgal, and said to him and to the men of Israel, we have come from a far country, now therefore make a covenant with us.

They are fearful of the Israelites as they have come into the promised land and they say we cannot defeat them so let's deceive them.

And you see to what great lengths they go to deceive the Israelites.

Mocking up their clothes, bringing along with them moldy and dry food.

And I will tell you my dear friends I've read this story multitudes of times, but it wasn't until just this last time when reading it that I noticed a key passage.

Then the men of Israel said to the Hivites, "'Perhaps you dwell among us, "'so how can we make a covenant with you?

But they said to Joshua, We are your servants.

And Joshua said to them, Who are you, and where are you from?

So they said to him, from a very far country your servants have come because of the name of the Lord your God, for we have heard of his fame and all that he did in Egypt and all that he did to the 2 kings of the Emirates who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon king of Heshbon and to Og king of Bashan, who was at Ashteroth.

Therefore our elders and all the inhabitants of our country spoke to us saying, take provisions with you for the journey and go to meet them and say to them, we are your servants now therefore make a covenant with us.

Dry bread, moldy bread, worn out clothes.

This bread of ours we took hot for our provisions from our houses on the day we departed to come to you, but now look, it is dry and moldy and these wineskins which were filled with new, and see they are torn and these are garments and our sandals have become old because of the very long journey." And then the Bible says, then the men of Israel took some of their provisions, but they did not ask counsel of the Lord.

So Joshua made peace with them and made a covenant with them to let them live and the rulers of the congregation swore to them.

I've read this story a multitude of times and I just never noticed it until it was staring me in the eyes.

A very simple and short phrase, Easy to slide over.

But they did not ask counsel of the Lord.

When you look at the commentaries, many commentators will speculate on whether it was God's divine plan to make a covenant with the Gibeonites.

They spend great and inordinate amount of times speculating over whether or not had they inquired what God would have done, but they don't spend much time with the frank reality of what we see going on here.

And I will tell you when we look at this story, and I did when I was reading it at the last time, we may just simply say, well, why didn't they just trust in God?

These silly Israelites, they never trust in God.

But yet the Holy Spirit convicted me and made it much more personal.

How many times in our life, how many things do we do in our life without asking God for direction?

How many times do we know what the Word of God says and instructs, yet we choose to do our own thing.

How often is it when we actually know the principles of God's voice are plainly there before us, but we ignore them and make a conscientious decision to pursue the desires of our own hearts.

How often is it that we do not inquire of the Lord?

And the most troubling question that I have wrestled with as I share this message with you this morning, when all of this is in plain sight, When everything is in obvious and plain sight, and we still do not inquire of the Lord, what is it that we will do when the devil appears as an angel of light to enshroud the truth with error and deception?

How is it that then we will distinguish between truth and error?

You see, too often, my friends, we have become self-dependent and prideful.

Yet many of us find ourselves in the same circumstance as Israel with this phrase, we do not inquire of the Lord.

In the New King James Version, it says very plainly there in Joshua 9 and verse 14, they did not ask the counsel of the Lord.

A fascinating phrase in the original Hebrew.

The word ask is as straightforward as you can be.

But the word counsel is where it gets interesting.

The word there, counsel, in the original Hebrew is more often translated mouth.

Literally speaking, this passage would read, but they did not inquire of the mouth of the Lord.

They did not inquire of the voice of God.

And the reason I am emphasizing this, my dear friends, is this is what distinguishes the God of the Bible from every other major world religion, and that is this, God speaks and His voice has not been muted.

You see, throughout the Old Testament, this word is often used in the phrase according to the mouth of God.

In fact, it is sometimes translated edict, command, or declaration.

And the whole phrase mouth of God is not even used.

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Hearing From the Mouth of the Lord

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