Tossing the Apron Over Your Head

I remember reading an account of Sarah Edwards, the wife of the evangelist Jonathan Edwards (whose most famous sermon was entitled Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God) -- specifically about how she would get time to meet with the Lord when she was raising eleven children. 

I have three children, and I often get overwhelmed with the amount of noise produced by those three; I have a hard time imaging how much noise might emanate from eleven. 

Anyway, Sarah would sit down in her rocking chair, throw her apron that she wore over her head, and pray. While her children may have been right next to her, or playing on the floor at her feet, it was her way of isolating herself, shutting out the distractions around her, and finding her place to meet with the Lord.

I have an apron -- I don't wear it most of the time -- but today's a new day; you never know what to expect.

Anyway, in Joshua 9, we get the account of the Gibeonite deception. Here's what goes down: After the defeat at Ai, a whole slew of cities -- "those in the hill country, in the western foothills, and along the entire coast of the Great Sea (the Mediterranean) as far as Lebanon... came together to make war against Joshua and Israel" (Joshua 9:1-2).

No biggie, though, because Joshua and the Israelites have learned an expensive lesson at Ai. If they are submitted to the Lord their God, the Lord will fight their battles for them. They are promised this land; He is going before them. They've rooted out their sin, they can continue on.

In this sense of confidence, they see some dusty travelers arriving at their camp. Their clothes are patched and dirty, their wineskins are cracked and mended, their sandals are hanging in shreds from their feet, and their food is so old and moldy, every fly in the land is likely buzzing around it.

I can just picture it -- shoulders rounded with weariness, dusty, wheezy coughs as they wearily approach Joshua and the leaders of Israel... "We have come from a distant country; make a treaty with us," they plead.

You know, I love melodrama, because it's just so overdone, it's clearly fake, and it makes me laugh. So here, I'm watching the scene with a chuckle, waiting for Joshua and the Israelites to laugh and say: Nice try, y'all, but... as it turns out, they're taken in, completely deceived.

The Israelites do a little testing of the waters, some precautionary measures. They sample the bread, they try out the wineskins... and they're convinced. Joshua 9:14-15 says: "The men of Israel sampled their provisions, but did not inquire of the Lord. Then Joshua made a treaty of peace with them to let them live, and the leaders of the assembly ratified the oath."

And the uncontested promise of the Lord -- the land that the Lord had planned to give the Israelites -- is mitigated by this simple deception. A fly in their ointment. No longer pure.

Joshua should have known better. Flip back to Exodus 33:7-11: "Now Moses used to take a tent and pitch it outside the camp some distance away, calling it the 'tent of meeting.' Anyone inquiring of the Lord would go to the tent of meeting outside the camp. And whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people rose and stood at the entrances to their tents, watching Moses until he entered the tent. As Moses went into the tent, the pillar of cloud would come down and stay at the entrance, while the Lord spoke with Moses. Whenever the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance to the tent, they all stood and worshiped, each at the entrance to his tent. The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend. Then Moses would return to the camp, but his young aide Joshua son of Nun did not leave the tent."

I can hear my class in elementary school, any time someone did something wrong, and the teacher would get a little mad -- the whole class would go: Oooooooooooo! Like making that sound was going to make anyone feel better, but boy, did it make you cringe in your seat as you felt the gazes of your peers pricking the back of your head.

I hear that sound now as Joshua and the leaders of Israel "sampled their provisions, but did not inquire of the Lord," because Joshua -- Joshua son of Nun did not leave [the tent of meeting]. He guarded that tent. He had a front-row seat to the place where the Lord met with Moses when Moses went to "inquire of the Lord."

Joshua. knew. of a better way. All of Israel knew of a better way, because they would rise and stand at the entrances to their tents as they watched Moses enter the tent of meeting. They'd see the glory of the Lord descend on that tent, and because any time the Lord moves, His people are compelled to worship, they would stand at the entrances to their own tents and worship.

My husband teases me sometimes, because I've been known to speak without tact, leaping into conversations without looking to make sure my words are fine for the situation first. He'll lean over and stage-whisper: "Check with me before you talk." 

It's a joke, y'all. Don't get offended. We laugh about it, and I love that I can laugh with my husband about our mutual foibles. Anyway -- Joshua didn't check with the Lord before he talked. He didn't use the better way. Proverbs 3:5-6 says: "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and don't lean on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight." 

Joshua didn't acknowledge the Lord, and as a result -- the Gibeonites hollowed out a permanent place among the Israelite nation. Naturally, the Israelites were angry when they found out they'd been deceived, and they were all prepared to kill the Gibeonites anyway, to continue on their march through their Promised Land, but Joshua realized what that would have done -- even though they had made a mistake, even though they hadn't checked with the Lord to find out what He would have them do -- the Israelites had made a solemn treaty with the Gibeonites not to kill them, and breaking their word would have brought no end of trouble on them.

So, Joshua 9:26-27 gives us the Gibeonites' fate: "So Joshua saved [the Gibeonites] from the Israelites, and they did not kill them. That day he made the Gibeonites woodcutters and water carriers for the community and for the altar of the Lord at the place the Lord would choose. And that is what they are to this day."

So Gibeon, in payment for their deception, enters the service of the Israelites. It's not God's original plan, but the Lord moves the Israelites forward -- making use of this new path the Israelites have chosen without acknowledging the Lord.

This speaks to me, because I can get pretty fatalistic. I realize that I made a wrong choice, and rather than trying to make the best of a mistaken situation, I tend to throw in the towel. Oh well, I may as well give up altogether.

Joshua and the Israelites continue on. They're still conquering the land. They're still marching into their promise. Yes, they have to make adjustments as they learn a hard lesson, but the Lord doesn't pull His hand of blessing away from them.

I wonder how often Joshua thought back to that tent of meeting that he had guarded so faithfully in the days of Moses. I wonder how much he kicked himself as he remembered how faithfully Moses "went to inquire of the Lord," and how he -- as the leader of the Israelites after Moses -- should have inquired of the Lord?

Think of Jesus, in His ministry in this same land where Joshua is marching through, and how often He makes time to "go to a quiet place and pray." So often, the disciples plan to meet with Jesus later, because He needs time with His Father. That time alone cannot be overstated.

Jesus' life was busy. He was often swarmed by people demanding that He touch them and heal them. Joshua's life was busy; he was the leader of a nation and a military tactician. Moses' life was busy; he was the leader of a nation, too, and while less of a military tactician... he "pitched a tent outside the camp..." and he met there with the Lord.

Sarah Edwards' "tent of meeting" was beneath her apron. My "tent of meeting" is on my living room couch early in the morning before anyone else is up. Sometimes, it's difficult to find that tent or to pitch it with all the demands on our time, but boy, is it necessary.