When the Angel of the Lord spoke these words to all the Israelites, the people lifted up their voice and wept. – Judges 2:4, Amplified Bible (AMP)

God never fails to keep His promises, but we often do. When we do, our bad choices can lead to lifetimes of consequences.

In the latter part of Joshua and in the early chapters of Judges, we read passages like, “and the Israelites were not able to put the Canaanites out of the land.” At first glance, one might interpret such phrases to mean that God, who fought for Israel, was not capable of keeping His promise to give all of the land to His people. But Judges 2 makes it clear that it wasn’t God’s failings that hindered Israel; it was Israel’s. As Judges 2:1-5 states:

1 Now the Angel of the Lord went up from Gilgal to Bochim. And He said, I brought you up from Egypt and have brought you to the land which I swore to give to your fathers, and I said, I will never break My covenant with you;

2 And you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land; but you shall break down their altars. But you have not obeyed My voice. Why have you done this?

3 So now I say, I will not drive them out from before you; but they shall be as thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare to you.

4 When the Angel of the Lord spoke these words to all the Israelites, the people lifted up their voice and wept.

5 They named that place Bochim [weepers], and they sacrificed there to the Lord.

It was the people’s failure to consult God about the Gibeonites in Joshua 9 that led to an unholy alliance in contradiction to God’s commands. As a result of Israel’s unfortunate choice, God decided to limit Israel’s conquest of the Canaanites so as to prove in whom they would place their trust. Once the elders who succeeded Joshua passed, the idol worship began, and cycles of punishment followed by repentance plagued Israel thereafter.

I wonder how much better off Israel would have been had Joshua and the elders simply asked God what to do concerning the Gibeonites? Had they done so, the Israelites would have had total victory over the Canaanites (as long as they continued to be obedient to God), and the idolatrous influences the Canaanites exercised over God’s people would have never taken root. The cycles of punishment followed by repentance that plagued Israel may have never occurred, and generations of people may have been spared the various horrors of plague, slavery, and famine.

Likewise, I wonder how much better off both we and our posterity (future generations) would be if we would just keep our promise to trust God for our decisions. We tell God that we will seek out His wisdom, but then we take our next steps without consulting Him at all. Problem after problem plagues us from that point forward, not because God is untrustworthy, but because we are.

Form the habit of consulting The Lord before making your decisions, even the ones that seem totally insignificant. If you do, you’ll form the habit of constant communion with your Savior, and when you do face a decision that could affect both you and your posterity, you won’t fail to ask Him for His wisdom when you need it the most.

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