Don’t Judge by Appearances: Seek God’s Will 🔎🔭 | Joshua 9 Devotional (7-Step QT)
7-Step QT Notes
1. 🙏 Quiet Time
Pause.
Take a deep breath.
Ask God to help you see life through His perspective, not just what looks right in front of you.
2. 📅 November 27, 2025
Today’s passage reminds us:
Don’t judge by appearances—seek God’s will and trust His grace.
3. ✝️ Joshua 9:16-27
Three days after making peace with the Gibeonites, Israel discovers they were neighbors, not distant travelers. Though they had been deceived, Israel honors the covenant and makes the Gibeonites servants. The Gibeonites admit they acted out of fear because they knew God had commanded Israel to destroy the land’s inhabitants.
4. 📖 Key Verse
“Because it was told to your servants for a certainty that the LORD your God had commanded his servant Moses to give you all the land and to destroy all the inhabitants of the land from before you—so we feared greatly for our lives because of you and did this thing.” (v. 24)
5. 📝 Reflection
Israel judged by what they saw—moldy bread, worn-out clothes—and made a treaty without asking God. That was a serious mistake. Yet, in God’s mysterious grace, the Gibeonites were spared and brought into Israel’s community, much like Rahab earlier.
This reminds us: God’s grace often shows up in unexpected ways. But it also warns us—don’t make decisions based on appearances or emotions alone. Seek God’s will first. His perspective is life-giving and eternal.
In a world where opinions and trends constantly shift, let God’s Word be your standard. When you live by His truth, you walk in the path of life—both now and forever.
6. 💬 What does this passage speak to you today?
- Where am I tempted to judge by appearances instead of seeking God’s wisdom?
- How can I make God’s Word my standard in daily decisions?
- Do I trust that His grace can redeem even my mistakes?
7. 🙏 Prayer
Lord, help me not to rely on what I see but on Your Word and wisdom.
Thank You for Your grace that covers my failures.
Teach me to seek Your will in every decision.
Amen.
Scriptures
📖 16 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. 17 And the people of Israel set out and reached their cities on the third day. Now their cities were Gibeon, Chephirah, Beeroth, and Kiriath-jearim. 18 But the people of Israel did not attack them, because the leaders of the congregation had sworn to them by the LORD, the God of Israel. Then all the congregation murmured against the leaders. 19 But all the leaders said to all the congregation, “We have sworn to them by the LORD, the God of Israel, and now we may not touch them. 20 This we will do to them: let them live, lest wrath be upon us, because of the oath that we swore to them.” 21 And the leaders said to them, “Let them live.” So they became cutters of wood and drawers of water for all the congregation, just as the leaders had said of them.
22 Joshua summoned them, and he said to them, “Why did you deceive us, saying, ‘We are very far from you,’ when you dwell among us? 23 Now therefore you are cursed, and some of you shall never be anything but servants, cutters of wood and drawers of water for the house of my God.” 24 They answered Joshua, “Because it was told to your servants for a certainty that the LORD your God had commanded his servant Moses to give you all the land and to destroy all the inhabitants of the land from before you—so we feared greatly for our lives because of you and did this thing. 25 And now, behold, we are in your hand. Whatever seems good and right in your sight to do to us, do it.” 26 So he did this to them and delivered them out of the hand of the people of Israel, and they did not kill them. 27 But Joshua made them that day cutters of wood and drawers of water for the congregation and for the altar of the LORD, to this day, in the place that he should choose (Joshua 9:16-27, ESV).
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