Beguiled by the Enemy

Barry Metz 04/30/17

Beguiled by the Enemy

Joshua 9

As we come to Joshua 9 this morning, we come to one of the most stunning deception stories in the Bible. Now we’re all familiar with deception stories in the Bible right? We’re familiar with the mother of all stories—the story of Satan deceiving Eve in the garden in Genesis 3. We’re probably familiar with the story later in Genesis where Jacob deceives his brother Esau to stealhis birthright and blessing. And I could bet that if we put our heads together we could think of other deception stories. How about the story of Ananias and Sapphira in the book of Acts?[1]Or the stories out of I and II Samuel where Michal deceived her father Saul and helped David escape[2] and the story where Saul tried to deceive the medium of Endor into showing him the future.[3] Deception is present in the Bible from beginning to end.

And this really shouldn’t surprise us since God’s arch enemy, Satan, is the ‘Father of lies’. Satan is a frenetic[4] deceiver. And if we believe that earthly struggles have their origin in heavenly places, if we believe that Joshua’s conquest of the Promised Land for example is ultimately the “earthly outworking of a cosmic spiritual conflict”[5] between Satan and God, then we would accept, indeed we would expect that the enemies of God would use everything in their arsenal to defeat God’s purposes.

Now as we come to Joshua 9 this morning, where are we in our outline of the book? (This is that sign in the mall where we get the ‘You are Here’ perspective.)

You can see on the slide that Joshua 9 falls in the Roman numeral II section—“Taking the Land”

Now if you were with us last week at the end of Joshua 8, you remember that Joshuaput a hold on the military campaigns and led the people in aneeded covenant renewal ceremony. It was time for the people to be reminded of their covenant with God. It was time for them to be ‘reminded of who God is and what their relationship must be with him, if they were to keep their inheritance in the land.’ It was time for the people to be reminded of the blessings that God promised for obedience and the curses that would come from disobedience. And so the entire nation met at the foot of Mt Gerizim and Mt. Ebal and renewed the covenant. It was a spiritual highpoint for the people.

And if you’ve walked with the Lord long enough, you know that challenges often follow mountaintop experiences. Joshua 9 is one of those kind of challenges that follows a spiritual high.

Before we look at the text, let’s remind ourselves what God had commanded Israel to do to the people of the land.

It’s pretty clear. Wouldn’t you agree? Israel was to completely exterminate the people of the Promised Land so their sinful ways couldn’t spread. Sinful practices are contagious because sinful humans are curious. Put an idolater next door and before you know it we’re thinking that their god might be better. Bad company corrupts…what? I Cor15:33 Bad company corrupts good character. From other scriptures we know that God had a set time in his mind when[6]He would judge the people of the Promised Land for their sin and that time was now. And he had chosen the Israelites it seems to be the agent of His judgment on the people of the land.

Notice Deuteronomy 20:17on the screen mentions the Hivites. Make a mental note of that; the Gibeonites in our passage are Hivites. They are to be in the very crosshairs of God’s judgment.

But God expressly told the Israelites something else—they were not to make a covenant with the people of the land.

Why were the Israelites not to make a covenant with the people of the land? Verse 4 on the screen…. ‘for they wouldturn away your sons from following me, to serve other gods.’….they would lead the Israelites into idolatry. Now what’s interesting about the Gibeonites—and I don’t want to give the story away completely—but what’s interesting about the Gibeonites is that they had heard of Yahweh’s renown, they had heard of his power and they came to his people out of fear. They seemed to believe in the supremacy of the Lord’s power. Were they really seeking refuge in the all-powerful God? We’ll look at that in a moment. At a recent conference that I attended, Larry Crabb described how he became a Christian at summer camp. It was the last night of camp and the campers and counselors gathered around a huge, a huge campfire. Among a host of other topics, the speaker touched on the fires of hell and being there forever as an unbeliever. Crabb, an impressionable pre-teen was terrified, and he came forward that night to receive Jesus as savior. So we wonder out loud even before we look at the details of this story in Joshua 9 if the Gibeonites are experiencing a campfire conversion of sorts.

Let’s dig in. Follow along with me as I read Joshua 9:1-2

9As soon as all the kings who were beyond the Jordan in the hill country and in the lowland all along the coast of the Great Sea toward Lebanon, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, heard of this, 2they gathered together as one to fight against Joshua and Israel.

These first two verses in chapter 9 basically say that everyone and their brother west of the Jordan gathered together to fight Israel. Whoa! Now this is a new development. And it’s a bit threatening. As recently as Joshua 5:1, all the kings west of the Jordan, hearing about the LORD drying up the waters of the Jordan, were quaking in their cowboy boots. They lived west of the Jordan right? What happened? Why all of a sudden were the kings emboldened to fight Israel? Could it be, that Israel’s defeat at Ai—the first battle of Ai—could it be that Israel’s defeat in that first battle at Ai had encouraged the Canaanite kings that Israel could be defeated?[7]

Well the Gibeonites, thinking outside the Canaanite box[8], have a different idea completely…3But when the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and to Ai, 4they on their part --in contrast to all the other people in the land--acted with cunning… in other wordsthey decided to achieve their ends by deception….and went and made ready provisions and took worn-out sacks for their donkeys, and wineskins, worn-out and torn and mended, 5with worn-out, patched sandals on their feet, and worn-out clothes. And all their provisions were dry and crumbly.6And 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.”

Sothe Gibeonites acted with “cunning.” Now sometimes in the Old Testament scriptures this Hebrew word has a negative connotation; other times it has a positive connotation.[9] For example in 1 Samuel, Saul hears that David is cunning.[10] For Saul that’s a bad thing and for David that’s a good thing. What about our passage? Well for the Gibeonites their acting in cunning is a good thing; for the Israelites it’s a bad thing.

But what really is going on here? The Gibeonites are acting very clever. Why do we say that?Somehow they knew—how they knew we don’t know—but somehow they knew that the LORD had made a distinction between the cities in the land and the cities outside the land.[11] Now what do I mean? The Israelites were allowed to make covenants with peoples outside the land. Somehow the Gibeonites came to know that.

In the same passage we looked at—Deuteronomy 20—listen to this rule for cities outside the land… 10“When you draw near to a city to fight against it (and its understood from the context that these are cities outside the land), offer terms of peace to it. 11And if it responds to you peaceably and it opens to you, then all the people who are found in it shall do forced labor for you and shall serve you.

So the Gibeonites, acting with cunning, come to the Israelites attempting to convince them that they have come from a place outside the Promised land. Knowing the distinction in Deuteronomy 20that the LORD had made between cities in the land and cities outside the land, they came to Israel in effect saying, “We’re the kind of people you can make a covenant with—we live outside the land!” We’ve come from a distant country, so now make a covenant with us!

Look at verse 7….

7But the men of Israel said to the Hivites, “Perhaps you live among us; then how can we make a covenant with you?”

The Israelites are understandably wary and circumspect….Perhaps you’re our neighbors, how are we to know? But notice, also in verse 7, how the narrator uses the term Hivite. The narrator--and now you and I---know that these foreigners are Hivites—these are people that are on God’s extermination list. But the Israelites have no idea do they?

Verse 8 8They said to Joshua, “We are your servants.” Nowtheir answer is really no answer at all is it? But it sure is inviting! How often does someone walk up to you and say, “I’m your servant!” You can just imagine the Israelites thinking to themselves, “Wow this is the life! We walk around walled cities and blow our horns and the walls fall down! And people approach us at our base camp and say, ‘We’re your servants!’ It doesn’t get any better than this!”[12]

Continuing in verse 8 And Joshua said to them, “Who are you? And where do you come from?” 9They said to him, “From a very distant country your servants have come….notice how they repeat that magical sounding phrase ‘your servants’…talk about pouring it on thick… what’s not to like about these guys?....they’re kind of nice to have around aren’t they?…From a very distant country your servants have come because of the name of the Lord your God. For we have heard a report of him, and all that he did in Egypt, 10and all that he did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon the king of Heshbon, and to Og king of Bashan, who lived in Ashtaroth.

Why have these people come to the Israelites? Because of the renown of Yahweh! Yahweh’s “fame”, like a magnet has drawn them to visit the Israelites. Or so they say. They’ve heard a report ofHim. They’ve heard all that he did in Egypt and all that he did to the Amorite kings east of the Jordan.

Their words are almost a direct echo of Rahab’s back in Joshua 2:10. But we don’t know what’s really in their heart. Faith was in Rahab’s heart. What’s in the Gibeonite’s hearts? Faith or flattery? It’s hard to know when they sound so spiritual and pious.[13]

But notice their information is old. Notice they don’t say anything about the miraculous way Israel crossed the Jordan or about Jericho or about Ai…you see they’ve thought of everything….eventheirnewsisoldandnotuptodate. They’ve been traveling for so long—or so they want the Israelites to believe—that they haven’t been able to keep up with the nightly news on CNN—Canaanite News Network.Their ignorance of the latest local news reinforces their claim of being foreigners.[14] ‘We’re not from around here; we aren’t a threat to you!’

{Where are they from really? We’ll look at a map later but Gibeon is about 7-10 miles southwest of Ai[15]…they’re from the heartland of the Promised Land….so they had to know about the defeat of Jericho and Ai.}

Verse 1111So our elders and all the inhabitants of our country said to us, ‘Take provisions in your hand for the journey and go to meet them and say to them, “We are your servants. Come now, make a covenant with us.”’….again what’s to not like about these guys? … How could Israel ever deny a treaty to a people who honor Yahweh like they do and want peace?[16]

12Here is our bread. It was still warm when we took it from our houses as our food for the journey on the day we set out to come to you, but now, behold, it is dry and crumbly. 13These wineskins were new when we filled them, and behold, they have burst. And these garments and sandals of ours are worn out from the very long journey.”

Look at the first half of verse 1414So the men took some of their provisions….if you have the NIV it says they sampled some of their provisions…

Exhibit A—the bread…it really was dry and crumbly… “That is really old bread.”

Exhibit B—the wineskins…every one of them had burst….”Those wineskins are really old too”

Exhibit C—their clothes….hadthey ever seen such worn out clothes?!

One author has made a very interesting observation. “The reference to worn out sandals and patched clothing (seems) to twist back to the days of the Sinai wandering”. When Israel was in the desert, their sandals and clothing didn’t wear out. And there was plenty of manna bread to keep them from going hungry—Israel really didn’t lack for anything.[17] So in an odd sort of way, therefore, the Gibeonites appear like an Israel in need of Yahweh (a God who will take care of them). Maybe the Gibeonites are more like Israel than we would first recognize—they too need God’s grace to survive.[18]

Look at the second half of verse 14….

butthey did not ask counsel from the Lord. …literally ‘but the mouth of Yahweh they did not ask’.

We shouldn’t forget that Joshua and his men could have inquired of Yahweh through Eleazar the priest.

Numbers 27:21 was very specific in the instructions directly to Joshua about what he was to do when the Book of the Law didn’t cover the details of a particular circumstance. “He [Joshua] shall stand before Eleazar the priest, who shall inquire for him by the judgment of the Urim before the Lord.” So Yahweh’s direction was available but was ignored.[19]

But let’s try to put ourselves in their sandals. Just considering the evidence….Touching the crusty bread, seeing the worn out clothes….it all seemed to be so cut and dry (no pun intended)….why pray about this? Common sense seemed to make the decision easy. “It’s obvious what we should do, isn’t it?” Do you ever feel that way about issues in your life—they’re so minor and unimportant, what we need to do is so clear, why pray about it?

“What an open door this is….this is a bird nest on the ground…..who can lose with this deal?”

It would be easy to rely on their senses and what logic seemed to tell them. It would be easy to walk by sight at this moment. “(But) do we need the guidance of God only when we are in doubt? Do we not need to be careful when we begin to think, “There is no need to consult the Lord on this matter—it’s quite clear”[20]?

Proverbs 3:5–6 (ESV)

5Trust in the Lord with all your heart,

and do not lean on your own understanding.

6In all your ways acknowledge him,

and he will make straight your paths.

“The applications to our own faithlessness and folly are many and obvious. A challenging statement in James 4:17 says, “So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.” The context (here in Joshua 9) is a false self-confidence about (the) future rather than a daily submission of every partof our lives to the will of God.

How often the Lord is waiting for us to seek him, to pray that he will direct our steps and govern our decision-making through the light of his Word and the grace of his providence. Yet how often we snatch our lives back into our own control. We sample the moldy bread, and we act foolishly because we have been deceived by what we see and what people say, by flattery and pride.”[21]

One author says ‘Not that (we) need to ask the Lord whether (we) should get a haircut at 4:00 pm. The scriptures don’t require wilting in the everlasting arms, only leaning on them. But we must beware of the subtle unbelief that says, ‘I have this under control’…(I can handle this’)….We need not only the power of God to overwhelm our obvious enemies but also the wisdom of God to detect our subtle enemies.[22]

15And Joshua made peace with them and made a covenant with them, to let them live, and the leaders of the congregation swore to them.