Check It Out First

When we fail to test what we see and hear with God and the truth of His word, then in the end we’ll settle for less than the fullness God has promised, or worse, we’ll be in for a boatload of hurt.

This is what happened to Joshua and the children of Israel when they entered into the Promised Land. The Gibeonites were a people group that inhabited the land God had told the Israelites to remove. But they couldn’t because they failed to bring the matter to God.

“Then the men of Israel took some of their provisions; but they did not ask counsel of the Lord.” (Joshua 9:14)

When the Gibeonites heard what had been done to Jericho and Ai they proceeded with a plan to deceive Joshua and Israel into making a peace pact with them. So they staged themselves along with their provisions as if they had come from a far country.

But instead of seeking the Lord, Joshua and the elders believed what they saw and made a covenant with them, which prevented them from fully taking the land and entering into the promises of God.

On the opposite side of the scale, the Lord commended the Bereans because they did consult God’s word in order to find out whether or not the things spoken to them by the Apostle Paul were from the Lord.

“Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.” (Acts 17:11)

The lesson is simple. We need to check out the things we’re told and those things we witness with God and His word, the Bible, before believing what we hear and see.

The Apostle John said, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.” (1 John 4:1)