Wait Three Days

But when the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and to Ai, they on their part acted with cunning and went and made ready provisions and took worn-out sacks for their donkeys, and wineskins, worn-out and torn and mended, with worn-out, patched sandals on their feet, and worn-out clothes. And all their provisions were dry and crumbly. And they went to Joshua in the camp at Gilgal and said to him and to the men of Israel, “We have come from a distant country, so now make a covenant with us.” Joshua 9:3–6

Of course, the Gibeonites are not from a faraway country; they are living within the confines of the Land God promised Abraham for Israel.

The natural question to ask—and indeed the point most commentaries and sermons make—is contained in verse 14: “So the men took some of their provisions, but did not ask counsel from the LORD.”

Perhaps Joshua didn’t trust God enough to ask. Perhaps he trusted in his understanding rather than God’s? We should note, however, that God does not condemn Israel for their actions toward the Gibeonites, and it can be dangerous to read condemnation or moral failure into a simple description of events.

Instead of focusing on Joshua’s moral failings, let’s focus on the time value of information and its relationship to truth.

Imagine, if you will, Joshua’s situation. He was busy handling logistics problems in the Jewish military, listening to legal cases, spending time with God, and all the other things he needed to do. The truth seemed obvious—the bread was stale, the wineskins old, and the sandals worn and patched. These visitors seemed harmless—they praised the name of the Lord in the surrounding nations, just the thing everyone wanted to hear.

And yet, in verse 16, we read: “At the end of three days after they had made a covenant with them, they heard that they were their neighbors and that they lived among them.”

Waiting three days would have revealed the visitors were lying.

Like Joshua in the desert, we live in a world always rushing to “truth.”

If a reporter or someone we trust reports an event, we trust them. If a pastor on the radio or in our church says something startling about the Scriptures, we trust them.

We have no time to test, consider, learn, or investigate. We are too busy to wait those precious three days before making—and acting on—what we have heard. We rush, especially when the words or images we see agree with what we want to believe.

Consider some recent events in the United States:

• Placing political figures on trial on questionable legal theories, timed so the initial verdict is issued just before an election, while the appeals play out for years after the election

• Creating emergency regulations to enforce particular behaviors with scant evidence, while more accurate studies showing these measures were ineffective play out years later

• Suppressing negative information about a political candidate during an election, then admitting the information was accurate years later

While political examples are easy to come by, there are examples in every area of life.

We constantly rush to judgment in the face of clickbait.

We constantly rush to judgment in the face of “too many experts.”

We constantly rush to judgment—just like Joshua in the desert.

Maybe this constant pressure to decide right now! is intentional. It certainly seems political and cultural leaders act like used car salesmen—if you put your money on the table right now you will lose this deal! Tomorrow will be too late to decide! Tomorrow will be too late to act!

On the other hand, maybe this constant pressure to decide right now! is just the product of living in an information-centric age.

Whatever the reason, though, we need to stop making Joshua’s mistake. We should be willing to wait three days to find out the truth. We should wait until accurate studies are done. We should seek evidence and test the words of everyone speaking on the public stage.

Truth has a time value. We might discover that what seems true today no longer seems true in just a few years—or even a few days.

We need to quiet our souls in the face of a manic world, learn to ask more questions, and learn to wait.