Working in the medical field for ten years, I often heard the term “consul.” Short for consultation, it simply meant that a person needed to see a doctor for an examination to make any further care decisions, many times from a specialist. Now in Joshua 9, the people were visited by the Gibeonites who were very deceptive. Gibeon had heard what the Lord had done for the Israelites and decided to make it appear as if they traveled from a far off land.
Their deception worked. The Israelites looked at what the Gibeonites had—old looking wine skins and moldy stale bread. It appeared that they did travel from a great distance. “They examined… but they DID NOT CONSULT THE LORD.” That was a big problem. We should examine. We should use the minds that God has given us. But first, ALWAYS FIRST, we need to consult God. Consulting Him will always be more important than anything we can come to understand on our own.
Don’t neglect your consul. Consult the Lord. Examining things alone is not enough. In a day when we have a world full of Gibeonites trying to deceive us, to make up their own truth, it is vital that we contact the One who can point us to the God’s Truth – the Absolute Truth.
“So the Israelites examined their food, but they did not consult the LORD.”– Joshua 9:14 [NLT]
Tania Gutekunst 