Joshua 9 "The art of deception"

Joshua 9

“The art of deception”

Well, if you remember from last week, Joshua and the Israelites had suffered a humiliating loss at the city of Ai.

It wasn’t a huge loss in the grand scheme of things: 36 men died, as well as Achan and his family, but it was a loss that damaged Joshua’s reputation, it was a loss that actually made the Israelites hearts melt with fear.

It was a loss, remember, that was caused by the sin of Achan.

And as we read in chapter 8, after Joshua and the Israelites had dealt with Achan, they went to attack Ai again.

This time, Joshua and his men destroyed the city of Ai and all that was in it.

The king of Ai was hanged and his body was thrown at the entrance of the gate of the city.

You can read all gruesome details about it, in Joshua chapter 8.

Now, you can imagine, after that brutal victory at Ai, the fear that went through the veins of all those enemies of Joshua and Israelites, who were still left.

The Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites and Jebusites knew that they were next, and so what did they do?

They formed an alliance, joined forces and gathered together as one to fight against Joshua and Israel.

There is nothing like a common enemy to unite people together.

And so 6 of the tribes rallied together to try and fight Joshua and the Israelites, although there was another tribe who tried a different tactic, the Gibeonites.

Instead of the Gibeonites trying to fight against the Israelites, they decided to try to deceive them instead.

The Gibeonites had already conceded, that they were not going to win against Joshua and so they set things into motion which created a path for their survival.

Now, the Gibeonites were probably calculating this potential loss, based on the Israelites victories over the kings of Sihon and Og, and the great victory over Jericho, and  of course, the brutal victory at Ai, but perhaps more importantly the Gibeonites had knowledge of the war mandate that Joshua had been given from God.

The Gibeonites knew that Joshua’s war mandate was to destroy them all.

In verse 24 we read that the Gibeonites knew that God had commanded Moses that

1.        He was going to give the Israelites all the land (The promised Land)

2.        He was going to destroy all the inhabitants of the land that were there.

The Gibeonites knew that the Israelites were not interested in making a deal, they knew the Israelites were not even interested in keeping slaves, but they knew it was literally going to be a fight to the death.

It is like the Gibeonites had inside information on Israel’s war mandate.

This is what God commanded Moses while they were still in the desert.

Exodus 23:32, God said “You shall make no covenant with them and their gods”

Exodus 34:12, God said “Don’t make a covenant – it will become a snare”

Deuteronomy 7:2 God said “Devote them to complete destruction, show no mercy, make no covenant with them”

But perhaps even more impressive of the Gibeonites knowledge of the war mandate, is that they also knew the loop hole in this war mandate.

You see, In Deuteronomy 20:10-18, which lays out the rules of war, God allowed cities to survive and become slaves of the people, only if those cities were far away and they had accepted those peace terms (of becoming slaves). In other words only the cities far away could be spared total destruction, and yet those cities still became slave labourers.

It begs the question today doesn’t it……

If you knew the mandate of your enemy was to completely wipe you and your people off the face of this earth, what would you do?

For the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, they banded together and fought.

For the Gibeonites, they used the art of deception.

They knew their enemies plan and they worked through the loop hole in that plan.

The Gibeonites pretended they were from a faraway country (even thought they were only 6km from Jerusalem) and they made a covenant, a peace deal with them. They knew that Isreal would not make a peace deal with those cities near them, and so they pretended to be a country from far away.

And so, they met with Joshua and his leaders.

They took worn out sacks on their donkeys, they took worn out wine skins, they took worn out sandals, worn out clothes, they took dry and crumbly bread, and so when they met with Joshua they pretended that their clothes had worn out on the long journey from their far distant country, they pretended the bread had become dry on the long journey from their “far” distant country.

They deceived Joshua and his men by showing them their dry bread and worn out clothes.

They also deceived Joshua and the leaders with flattery.

They said that had heard of the name of the Lord their God, they had heard what he did for them in Egypt and against the great kings of Og and Sihon. They had heard about Joshua’s God and were so impressed that they came seeking their mercy to be their servants.

Now Joshua and his men were a bit sceptical of their story, but in the end, the Gibeonites used the loop hole in their rules of war, and they ended up making a covenant with the Israelites.

The Israelites they thought these Gibeonites were from a faraway country and swore that they would let them live.

Look at verses 14 and 15 with me:

So the men (Joshua’s men) took some of their provisions, but did not ask counsel of the Lord. And Joshua made peace with them and made a covenant with them to let them live, and the leaders of the congregation swore to them.

Now despite the Gibeonites deception, despite Joshua and his men being sceptical, looking at the evidence before them, and despite the leaders asking some good probing questions to the Gibeonites, their big failure was highlighted in verse 14

They did not ask counsel of the Lord

They did not ask counsel of the Lord, which in Joshua’s day meant that they didn’t ask the high priest to discern God’s will. The high priest would have sought the Lord’s advice by using the Urim and Thummim on their breastplate. No-one really knows what these Urim and Thummim were, but we do know they were used to determine the will of God.

Whatever, they were, Joshua and his leaders didn’t seek God’s will.

They didn’t seek the counsel of the Lord, they made a decision based on their own expertise.

Friends, I am not advocating that we seek God’s will for every decision we make today, we don’t need to seek God’s will as whether we go to the shops today, or brush our teeth and so on………but, I do think we have, particularly in our world of data at our finger tips, become more prone to making big decisions based on our own understanding, our own research, our own intellect, rather than making decisions by seeking the Lord’s will.

We have perhaps neglected taking things to God in prayer, asking for his guidance.

Perhaps some of us don’t know what God wants us to do in certain situations because we simply have not asked him.

As James chapter 4 verse 2 tells us, some of us simply don’t have, because we do not ask

We have become so dependent on the “wisdom” of this world, that we trust more in our favourite pod caster than the word of God, we trust more in the news, than the word of God, we trust more in the predicted data, more than the word of God, we trust more in what we see with our own eyes ,than the word of God. 

In a day when it is hard to tell what is real or not, with AI generated images, we must seek God and trust in his word first and foremost.

Joshua and his men, saw the worn out clothes,

They saw the crumbly and dry bread

They heard the testimony of the Gibeonites

They heard their flattery

They did there research, they asked questions, they came up with their conclusion, however, they failed to do the most vital thing- they did not ask counsel of the Lord.

Friends, when we are facing some tough decisions, we need to pray and ask God to show us his will. We need to read his word, and most importantly, and this is what I can be particularly bad at, we need to wait for Him to answer us, as we may keep having to ask Him, again and again.

Let us never think we don’t need to hear from God…we do.

Now, because Joshua and his leaders, did not ask counsel of the Lord, they put themselves and the Israelites at risk. They didn’t destroy the Gibeonites and so the Gibeonites, as God warned, could have become a potential snare for them.

They could have started worshipping their false gods.

Instead Joshua and the leaders, allowed these Gibeonites to live amongst them, as water carriers and wood cutters.

And because Joshua and his leaders didn’t seek God’s counsel and hence, they made a covenant with a bunch of deceivers, the people of Isreal murmured against Joshua and the leaders.  The people didn’t like the fact Joshua had let these people lived and so they grumbled against him.

But I think, Joshua, at this point showed great leadership.

He kept his word, even when there were potential deadly consequences.

He kept his word

There is possibly a case that Joshua, did not have to even keep his covenant with the Gibeonites. After all, the covenant was based on a deception. Joshua only allowed the Gibeonites to live, because he thought they were from a faraway country.

There was a thought, that once he knew he had been deceived and he knew they were really from a very nearby city, only 6 miles from Jerusalem, he could have broken his promise to spare them and just destroyed them all.

This would have been a popular decision amongst the Israelites.

The Israelites were unhappy that he promised to save them and so they would have been willing to destroy them, at Joshua’s command.

But Joshua, didn’t break his promise to the Gibeonites- He kept his word.

He showed leadership that perhaps this country lacks, he kept his word.

We live in a sad world today, where breaking your word and lying is seen as acceptable.

Everyone does it, it is like you have to lie and break your promises to live in this world.

And yet Joshua, refused to break his word.

Even though the Gibeonites had lied to him and deceived him, Joshua kept his word.

He kept his word, even when it cost him and there were consequences,

Why?

Because it reflected the character of  His God:  A God who never breaks his word: A God who lets his yes be yes and a no be no.

I don’t know about you, but I have made some stupid promises to my kids in the past which I had to keep to show my kids that you can trust dad at his word.

I made some promises which I regretted.

We were up in Brisbane one year, as a family.

We were down at South Bank and there is an outdoor swimming area.

It was night and it was cold.

I dipped my toe in the water- it was freezing.

My kids wanted to swim, but no way, it was freezing…..

No-one else was in the water.

Most people we saw were rugged up in coats. (although they are a bit soft in Queensalnd)

Anyway, I was pretty confident that if my kids went in the water, they wouldn’t last 2 minutes, before they got out freezing.

Although my kids are just a stubborn as me, and so for some stupid reason I said if anyone can go in that water and stay under (up to their neck) for 10 minutes, I would give them $20.

I thought my $20 was safe.

Abi, got her swimmers on, got in the water and I started timing.

1 minute went, 2 mins, 5 mins, 7 mins, Abi was turning blue….She did 10 mins and I to the disappointment of my other kids, I kept my word and give her the $20.

My child nearly died for $20- parenting 101.

Friends I pray that we will be a people who will reflect God’s character, a people who can be trusted, a people whom their yes is yes and there no is no.

The world may verbally think we are weak for keeping our word, when it may cost us, but actually keeping our word, when it costs us, shows real strength.

If we have made promises to our spouse, till death to do us part….let us keep those promises, even when it may be tough.

If we have promised we will do something, let us do it- even when it is hard to do.

Thank God, that God keeps his promises to us, even when we don’t deserve it.

God the father, son and spirit, made a plan before creation to save us by sending Jesus to the cross to die for our sins, and as painful as that was, Jesus followed through on his plan.

Even though we were still sinners and enemies of God, God still sent his son to save us.

God kept his promise to us, at great cost to himself.

Let us pray.