Revering the Word
Joshua 9 Seeking God’s Wisdom on big decisions.
Good morning, everyone. This morning, we are in Joshua chapter 9. Now, it came about when all the kings who were beyond the Jordan in the hill country and in the low land and on all the coasts of the great sea toward Lebanon, the Hittite and the Amorite and the Canaanite, the Purisite and the Hivite and the Jubizite heard of it, that they gathered themselves together with one accord to fight with Joshua and with Israel. So, the fame of Israel is beginning to get out the fact that God is with them and that they are taking over these various countries. This news travels, but when a different group of people, the inhabitants of Gibian heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and to AI, they acted craftily and set out as envoys and took worn-out sacks on their donkeys and wine skins worn out and torn and mended and worn out and patched sandals on their feet and worn out clothes on themselves and all the bread of their provision was dry and had become crumbled. So, what they are doing, not the nations that were mentioned earlier that came together with one accord against Israel, but this other group of people, the Gibianites, they pretend as though they are coming from a long ways away. So, they are making it look with all their worn-out clothes and wine skins and dried bread that they had come from a long journey and they are going to try to entice Israel to make a peace treaty with them as though they are a long ways away, like not in the promised land, not part of the land that Joshua is supposed to overtake. So, here is what happens. They went to Joshua to camp at Gilgal and said to him, "And to the men of Israel, we have come from a far country. Now therefore, make a covenant with us." The men of Israel said to the Hivites, "Perhaps you are living within our land. How then shall we make a covenant with you?" So, these people from Gibian can be called Hivites. In Israel's concern, "Hey, how do we know you are from far away?" But they said to Joshua, "We are your servants." Then Joshua said to them, "Who are you and where do you come from?" They said to him, "Your servants," so they are being real humble before Joshua, "have come from a very far country because of the fame of the Lord your God." And we have heard the report of him and all that he did in Egypt before into God and all that he did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihan, King of Hashban and to Ahd, King of Mashan, who was at Astra. Those are the victories Israel had in the desert. So are elders. So are elders and all the inhabitants of our country spoke to us saying, "Take provisions in your hand for the journey and go and meet them and say to them, 'We are your servants now, then make a covenant with us.'" This, our bread, was warm when we took it for our provision out of our houses on a day that we left to come to you and now behold that is dry and just become crumbled. These wineskins which we filled were new and behold they are torn and these are closed and our sandals are worn out because of the very long journey. So they're just lying about everything and trying to use the things that they brought that are worn out as a testimony that they really did come from a far away place. So the men of Israel took some of their provisions and did not ask for the counsel of the Lord. So they are not asking for help from God Israel that is and they're just, they're beginning to trust these people and Joshua made peace with them and made a covenant with them to let them live and the leaders of the congregation sworn out to them. Now that's really interesting. They don't ask for God's help and they go ahead and make this covenant thinking these people from a far away land but they're actually from the promised land. Joshua was not wise here and not seeking God's help. It came about at the end of three days after they had made a covenant with them that they heard that they were neighbors and that they were living within their land. Then the sons of Israel set out and came to their cities on the third day. Now their cities were Gibeon and Sheparah and Beeroth and Kiryath Jiram. The sons of Israel did not strike them because of the leaders of the congregation had sworn to them by the Lord the God of Israel and the whole congregation grumbled against the leaders. But all the leaders said to the whole congregation, we have sworn to them by the Lord the God of Israel and now we cannot touch them. This we will do to them even let them live so that wrath will not be upon us for the oath which we swore to them. The leaders said to them let them live so they became hewers of wood and drawers of water for the whole congregation just as the leaders had spoken to them. Then Joshua called for them and spoke to them saying why have you deceived us saying we are from a very far away from you when you are living within our land. Now therefore you are cursed and you shall never cease being slaves both hewers of wood and jars of water for the house of my God. So they answered Joshua and said because it was certainly told your servants 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 before you therefore we feared greatly for our lives because of you and we have done this thing. So they were afraid and they lied and deceived and Joshua agreed and made a covenant with them and you know actually their craftiness is going to work to save their lives but now they are going to end up being servants of Israel and of God in this way. Now behold we are in your hands do as it seems good and right in your sight to do to us. Thus he did to them and delivered them from the hands of the sons of Israel and they did not kill them but Joshua made them that day hewers of wood and jars of water for the congregation of the altar of the Lord to this day in the place which he would choose. One of the things I think you will see is that the people did not necessarily want to destroy all the people of the land. It is something that God had asked them to do because he did not want them to intermix. He did not want them to take on their gods but they found reasons not to do it and the people of the land ended up becoming snares to them and later in life they will end up taking on some of the gods other people that they do not destroy. So it was their kind of propensity at times not to do what God asked them to do. And in this case you know something that I find interesting is that like if someone were to ask you to enter a contract and they do it all by lies and deceit and then later on you are in this contract and they deceived you to enter it and Joshua here is you know he did not ask God to enter the contract. He also did not ask God what to do after the contract. Like after it was signed or agreed to but it was made in deceit I would have thought he would have said God what do you want us to do now because we agreed to this but we agreed to it on a false pretense God do you want us to honor that because I do not necessarily think a contract is honorable when someone completely lied to get you to agree to the contract and then you immediately find out everything they told me was a lie. So then the contract in my view would not be binding but Joshua did not ask God that either and instead honors the contract and again they didn't really want to have to take these people out. So you know it's kind of interesting to know what we should learn from this because do we learn from this if you enter into a contract you need to honor it even if the pretense of the contract is a lie. I'm not sure we really learned that it's what they did here but they didn't ask God that either. They didn't ask God to enter it and they didn't ask God to break it. So they're kind of relying on their wisdom on both sides of it and maybe it was God's plan for these people to live somehow he allowed it here for them to live. I read that these Gibeonites apparently helped Nehemiah many many many many years later to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem so maybe God had a purpose in in in saving in saving these folks but I think one thing we can learn is that instead of just acting on our own strength on our own wisdom before we get involved in contracts or make good decisions we really should seek God and in this case they didn't in the whole entire time they just didn't and they just did their own thing and they got themselves into a place that they probably shouldn't have but God seemed to allow it. So what what can we learn here I think we need to learn slow down sometimes need to slow down and seek the Lord and gain his wisdom you know sometimes these are big life's made up of decisions and some decisions will alter significantly the rest of your life and when we make them we should really slow down and and pause and seek God's wisdom so that we are found in his will. So consider that as you make a decision in the future take time to pray take time to hear from God and I believe that there'll be better greater blessing in that God bless you all.