Moldy Bread

Reading Through the Bible in 2010 (Joshua 9-11)

“This bread of ours we took hot for our provision from our houses on the day we departed to come to you. But now look, it is dry and moldy.” Josh. 9:12

“Then the men of Israel took some of their provisions, but they did not ask counsel of the Lord.” Josh. 9:14

“Everything looks great here!” I said to Charlie.

We had just finished unloading after arriving at our lake house. The sun was shining in the windows, the snow was melting in the woods, and the thermometer was looking happy - registering a warm 61 degrees.

Charlie paused by the calendar and reflected, “The last time we were here was February sixth. That’s over five weeks ago.”

Several hours later, after a light supper of toast and cocoa, I opened the drawer to put the bread away. “Aghhhhhh!” I didn’t mean to shriek but my agitated outburst caused Charlie to come rapidly into the kitchen. He saw me holding up an English muffin package full of the moldiest grossest-looking bread either of us had ever seen.

Returning from carrying it out to the garbage, he shook his head and said, “We sure missed that one when we were packing up!”

In today’s reading about the Gibeonites, Joshua and the Israelites sure missed something too.

We read that when the people of Gibeon heard how Israel had totally destroyed Jericho and Ai, they craftily decided to take another approach to save their skins. Their deceptive plan involved asking Israel to make a covenant of protection with them. They dressed up in old clothes and well- worn sandals and pretended that they came from a far country. To emphasize the length of their travels, they even brought moldy bread and showed it to the skeptical Israelites saying, “This bread of ours we took hot for our provision from our houses on the day we departed to come to you. But, now look, it is dry and moldy.”

We are told that the Israelites looked at their provisions; “but they did not ask counsel of the Lord.” Three days later, after a protective covenant had been made, guess what? The children of Israel found out that these so-called travelers were not from a far country but were really their neighbors. Now, instead of attacking their cities, they had to protect this tricky group of deceivers. They were stuck with the Gibeonites literally forever.

If they only would have asked counsel of the Lord! Even the great Joshua, successor to Moses himself, did not seek out God on this decision. It caused them a lot of trouble immediately and later on down the road.

I don’t know about you, but I get myself in a lot of bad situations when I don’t pray before making a decision. It seems to be taking me a long time to learn that God will give me direction if I will just ask. His promise, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.” is as true today as when the Bible was written. (Luke 11:9&10) Why do I persist in plunging into things without seeking the counsel of the Lord?

When we arrived at the lake, everything appeared to be in great shape. But, we had missed something. In our own wisdom we often miss important things. Chris, my daughter-in-love, always says, "God's will unfolds." She's right, it does, if we'll just take the time to ask Him what His will is before we pack up and hurry off.

Isn’t it amazing how relevant to our lives the Bible stays? As I was reading about the Gibeonites, I could vividly picture their moldy bread. The English muffins were a graphic reminder that when I make decisions without praying, things get stale very quickly!