inquire

I don’t pray enough. I know I don’t; in fact, I’ve often thought that if I prayed about all the things I should pray about, it would take hours. How dumb is that! I recognize all kinds of things that require prayer, but just don’t take the time.

That makes me like the foolish Israelites I read about this morning in Joshua 9. They were fooled by the Gibeoniates, a tribe of Hivites that they were supposed to eliminate from the land. The crafty Gibeonites packed moldy bread and old wineskins for their short journey from a nearby town to treat with Israel, because they knew Joshua and his army could crush them like a bug.

Here’s how it played out, after Joshua questioned them, in Joshua 9:9-15 “They answered: ‘Your servants have come from a very distant country because of the fame of the Lord your God. For we have heard reports of him :all that he did in Egypt, and all that he did to the two kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan—Sihon king of Heshbon, and Og king of Bashan, who reigned in Ashtaroth. And our elders and all those living in our country said to us, “Take provisions for your journey; go and meet them and say to them, ‘We are your servants; make a treaty with us.’” This bread of ours was warm when we packed it at home on the day we left to come to you. But now see how dry and moldy it is. And these wineskins that we filled were new, but see how cracked they are. And our clothes and sandals are worn out by the very long journey.’
The Israelites 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 it by oath.”

See, Joshua and the Israelites made the same mistake I do. Even though they knew better, they didn’t ask God. They didn’t seek his guidance before making this treaty, so they wound up swearing an oath on the name of the Lord that would require them not to carry out God’s instructions. They actually swore to God they wouldn’t do what God wanted them to do!

That seems foolish, but it reminds me how easily people with good intentions and trust in other people can be taken in by this world. Things like tolerance sound so good that I can easily forget they actually want me to tolerate what God calls wickedness. Charities can tug at my heartstrings to get money that will actually be used for questionable things. People on all sides of the Syrian conflict use images of children to manipulate my opinions. Fake news is a thing now. How do I know what’s real? How do I know who I can trust?

That’s why I need to do what Joshua didn’t: I need to inquire of the Lord. Him I can trust completely. If I don’t turn to him, I’m going to get so much of this wrong, causing who knows how much harm?

This requires an urgency in prayer that I too often lack. I want to do better; will I?

sin of omission

There’s a sin I commit all the time that I don’t know if I’ve ever acknowledge to God, much less repented of. That’s because I don’t see it as a sin. But this morning, in 1 Samuel 12:23, I read these words of Samuel: “As for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by failing to pray for you.” 

Context is important here. Samuel was telling the people that God would give them the king they demanded, even though that was a slap in the face for Samuel, who had led them faithfully his whole life. Samuel explained to them “the evil they had done in wanting a king.” 

Even so, even though the people insulted and offended him and did evil against God, Samuel prayed for them. He did that because not to pray would have been a sin against the Lord. Not to pray for evil people who had wronged him would have been a sin against God.

When bad people do bad things to me, my first thought isn’t to pray for them. In fact, I don’t often pray for good people who make me mad. I never thought that was a sin, though. I’ve always been focused on my own righteous anger. In fact, I may occasionally have wished for something bad to happen to that person.

Why would it be a sin against God not to pray for people who wrong me? Maybe because by not praying I’m not turning to God for help. Maybe because I’m seeing the situation as me against the other person, not me and the other person against Satan. Maybe what I’m really doing is abandoning one of my own, an image-bearer of God, to our true enemy. Maybe because what my own soul needs, what obedience to God demands, is that I forgive no matter what.

This is going to be a hard one for me. I like to think I forgive easily, but the truth is I don’t forget very quickly. And the idea of praying for some of those people . . . well, I need to do it. 

When people gossip, I like to say, “I won’t talk about that person with you until you pray for that person with me.” Saying that doesn’t very often end in prayer; usually it just kills the conversation. But I mean it. I need to mean it for the people I don’t like, too.