Joshua was God’s choice to lead the children of Israel into the Promise Land, however, on at least two occasions Joshua acted impulsively, which resulted in bad decisions. In the battle plans for Ai and in the covenant with the Gibeonites he did not seek God’s counsel. On both occasions he and the leaders of Israel followed their own reasoning. They discussed it among themselves, examined the evidence before them, then made a decision–the wrong decision.

In both cases, had they sought God’s counsel they would have discovered a problem. They would have saved themselves a lot of grief.

We face the same challenge as Joshua. We may not be leading a nation into battle, but we still have to make decisions without having complete knowledge of all the details. Just as Joshua, we have God’s assurance that He will be with us, but we still need to seek His counsel when making decisions.

We may not have the Urim & Thummim to consult, but we can make our appeal to God and seek His wisdom and direction. We can ask Him to bring to light the information we need to make a good decision. We can pray that He will bring to our attention the things that need our attention. It is amazing how frequently this happens. It is a good practice when working with young people.

We also have another resource that Joshua did not have–we have the complete Word of God at our disposal. It is the authoritative counsel of God that is just as reliable as if He spoke from Heaven. We can seek the counsel of God through the Scriptures. Its commands and principles give us wise instruction. The examples of saints and sinners, both good and bad, show what to do and what not to do.

We have to make decisions every day. Some are more significant than others. The trouble is, we often don’t realize that a decision was significant until it is too late. Avoid Joshua’s mistake. Don’t make a decision on your reasoning alone. Seek the counsel of God through prayer and His word–then follow it.