The Gibeonites' Guile and God's Grace - Joshua 9

Have you ever found yourself maybe sitting at home, stomach starts rumbling a little bit, Josh, getting a little hungry. Maybe you're on that long road trip Dalton, and you're like, oh, I'm starting to get hungry, and it starts to build, and then you look out and you see that road sign. And on that road sign is something that looks a little bit like this. Maybe you're at home, that commercial comes on Josh, right? And you're like, "Oh, that looks so good." So you pick up the phone, you said, I don't want to drive, I don't to go, I'm going to call Uber Eats. They're gonna bring my food to me." Dal, he says, "'s time to exit his exit 211. We're going to pull over. We're going to get one of these amazing hamburgers. You go in the store, you order your food, they hand it to you, you unwrap it, and it looks something like this. Like appearances can be deceiving, right? It's like,Man, that it looks like gold up top, but down to the bottom. It's not glittering, as Shakespeare said, all this. that glitters is not gold. That appearances can be very deceiving. We're going to see in our story today, as we work through Joshua, read the narrative of what God was doing doing about a group of people called the Gibeonites, who their appearance is very deceiving to the nation of Israel. And we see the Israelites not listening to God, not consulting God, on what to do. And I think, as we look at our own lives, we think, what can we take from a story of the Israelites and the Gibeonites coming together in one deceiving the other and the other not listening to God, what can we pick up in our own lives? Maybe we're running through similar situations where things around us look really attractive. but the reality behind behind them is not so attractive. Or maybe you're here and you're thinking, I don't think God wants me. I'm not approaching him in a way that is really completely forthright and trustworthy, and you want if God even cares enough if he's just going to get rid of you. I think today you'll see, as we look at the Gibeonites and the Israelites, something for both of those people.. The idea I want you to take away from Joshua chapter 9, if you have your Bible, you can been turning there. is this idea God's mercy is available to those who come to him, regardless of that background, and his mercy can even redeem our bad decisions. God's mercy is available to those who come to him. We're going to see this in the Gibonites, regardless of the background. And His mercy can even redeem our bad decisions. We're going to see this in both the Israelites and the Gibeonites today. A little background is we open up in Joshua chapter 9 ver verses 1 and 2, it says this As 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 Canaaanites, the Phariasites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites heard of this. They gathered together as one to fight against Joshua and Israel. What was it they had heard about? That's important. Joshua chapter 8 last week Joshua and the Israelites had come into the land of Israel. They had crossed the Jordan, I remember the Jordan had dried up, they came across, they then defeated the city of Jericho, this mass massive city. And then they went to fight the city of AI, but Aikin had taken a thing that he shouldn't have from Jericho, and so God wasn't with him, so they got defeated there They eventually took care of the problem with Aikin and went back to AI and defeated that king and executed him. And that was what these other kings who were beyond the Jordan who were in this lowland, the whole area that Israel was going to continue to work through, they all formed a coalition together and said, "We are gonna fight against Joshua and Israel." Now, understand this when you're reading scripture, and we have this kind conflict going on in Joshua, between the Israelites and all the people of the land. For us, we just feel of this, like, it's like this a military conflict between two people groups. But in the ancient Near East,, these battles were not just between people groups, but it was between the gods of those people. And so when God brought the Israelites out of Egypt, his plagues were against the gods of Egypt, so they're not real gods. They're not powerful. When the Israelites are moving into the land of Israel, it is a direct confrontation between the gods of that land, Baal and Dagon and others who aren't real gods, but these people were worshipinging them, and the God of Israel, who's a true God. And so it's not just kind of a secular military conflict. These are a battle that's taking place, and these kings have aligned themselves against against Joshua and against Israel, and against God. But we see that there's one group that doesn't do that. And we look at Joshua 9 through 13, we're going to see the Gibeonites gu, their deception, and what they do, and the Israelites glaring omission and what they don't do. Read with me, as we unpack this story bit by bit. But when the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and Ai, they, on their part, acted with cunning and went and made provisions and took worn out sacks for their donkeys andkins 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,Ando the men of Israel, we have come from a distant country, so now make a covenant with us. Let's unpack a few things that are going on here. First is, where is Gibeon located? If you are reading this after the fact, you know that they're really close. As a map I want to show you. Over here is Gilgal, that's where they were camped. There's Jericho in red, then AI, that's the second city, and then there's Gibeon. Gibbeon is a part of all this land that God has said, this is the land you're going to take. These are the people you need to push out. And Giibbeon was right there, but they put on all these worn out clothes, and their bread is crumbly and dried, and everything about them looks like they've come from a long way away. And it says that they acted with cunning. I'm reading out of the English Standard version. That word cunning and other translationsations is they acted craftily. Are they committed to ruse? They were acting with deception or deceptively. That same word is used in proverbs, and it's translated off with the word prudent. And so what's happening here is it's a word in Hebrew that kind of skirts the line between cleverness in a good way, like someone who's paying attention, but also it can have a negative connotation, depending on what you're doing with it. And so this idea of they acted craftily or with cunning. They're trying to deceive the Israelites, and so they show up with all of their things worn out, like they've come from this distant country, and we're going to see why they do that in a little bit. And what they ask is, they say, wee've come from a a distant country, and we want to make a covenant with you. So what's a covenant? You'll hear often hear at North of us talk about covenants, like God made a covenant with Abraham and with Moses and with David and through Jesus, we just celebrated the Lord's Supper, which is the new covenant. A covenant is a binding agreement. We would use the word like a treaty or a contract, and in the ancient Near East nations, Tes would make covenants with each other. The Israelites had made a covenant with God, and God says, I'm going to keep my covenant with you. Regardless, God says, I will be faithful to my covenant. And so when the Israelites enter into covenants on God's behalf, he tells them, "You have to keep the covenants you make." He had told them, "Don't make covenants with the people of this land., that they're going to be pushed out of this land. They have been 400 plus years waiting for God to judge them. God had said, when Abraham's family had gone to Egypt, that the sins of these people in this land weren't fully complete yet. And it was 400 years later, when the Israelites were showing up, and God says, "It's now time to judge them for their sins and for their transgression.. And so he says, "Don't make a treaty with any of them, 'cause if you do, they're going to lead you away. They're going to lead you astray. And yet here the Gibeonites come from a distant country, they say, but not at all. They're just right over the hill. And so now make a treaty make a covenant with us. That's what they're asking So the Gibeonites are definitely trying to deceive the Israelites. Look what the Israelites do, though. They show up, and they said, "But the men of Israel said to the Hevites,We'll talk about that in a second. What is that? Perhaps you live among us? Then how can we make a covenant with you?" They said to Joshua, "We are your servants. And Joshua said to them, "Who are you? And where do you come from?" He's asking the right questions, right? These men show up all worn out clothes, worn out shoes wineskins that are cracked, and they're asking, "Where are you from? Maybe you live among us. Maybe you're in this area and we can't make a covenant with you. If you're looking on these two verses, I'll put on the screen, Deutonomy 21, 17, 2017, in Joshua 310, Moses had told the nation of Israel, "When you go into the land don't make a covenant with any of these people, that they are to be pushed out of the land. And Joshua reiterated, if you look at the lists, one of the groups is the Hevites. So the Hevites is kind of the name of a people group. The Gibeonites would be people who live in a city within that people group. So Gibeon was a city in the area, and the Hivites would have been the people group. So it's kind of like saying, you're an American citizen, but then you would also be a Kansas can. And so the Gibeonites were the smaller group of the Hevites, but they weren't to make any treaties with the Hevites. God had told them that you're not to make any treaties with them. Joshua is asking, "Who are you, and where do you come from? We're not allowed to make treaties with people in this area And so he's suspicious and rightly so. But keep reading and look what happens. And they said to him,From a very distant country your servants have come, long way away, because of the name of your God. For we have heard a report of him, all that he did in Egypt, and all that he did to the two kings of the Amorites who are beyond the Jor and to Sihon, the king of Heshbon, and A, the king of Bashan, who lived in Ashtaroth. So we see two things here. The Gion I start with, we came from a long way away, because they knew that there was no treaties to be made in the area. So they said, we' a long way away, because we heard of the name of your gods.. I think when I read this, the Gibeonites understand the reality of what's happening, like Rahab, if you remember her story, she was in Jericho, and she said, "We know." She says, "I know that your God's a true God, and that we're not going to survive. I'm going to join your side." The Gibeonites are saying the same thing. We've heard a report of the God who brought you out of Egypt, the God who defeated these other kings. We've heard of his name. And so they are coming recognizing the reality of who God is. but unsure, I think of his character, of what he's really like like. And so they are trying to deceive Joshua into making this covenant of peace with them. Verse 11. So our eldest 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. That's what they're asking for. And they says,Here's 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. These wine skins were new when we filled them, and behold, they have burst in these gurnarments and sandals of ours are worn out from the very long journey. I mean, you just picture the scene, right? There's this delegation, and everything about them looks like they came from very far away when they've just come from a few days. Nowhere near long enough for sandals to wear out and wineskins to get dry and cracked, nowhere near as long, and they show up and say make a covenant with us. They are desperate for this covenant to be made even though they are coming in this deceptive manner. Look at verse 14. So the men, the Israelites, took some of their provisions. They checked the bread out. Yep, it's crumbly." And they looked at their clothes and said, "Tey're worn out." They looked at their wine skins and said, "Yep, they're cracked, just like you said. But look what they didn't do." It says, they looked at their provisions, but did not ask counsel from 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. It's an interesting point. If you just stopped here, we go, I don't know what's going to happen next. These Gibeonites have come in deceptively. I think recognizing who God is, but not fully understanding who he is and what he's like. They said, "We need to make a treaty, a covenant of peace with his people, and they've achieved that. The Israelites paid some attention. They said, "Yep, your bread's crumbly. It looks like you came from a long way away. But they didn't ask God. They didn't consult with Him on this matter. And so they make this covenant. And having made the covenant, they are now bound by it, even when we see, in verses 16 to 21 that the Gibeonites guile is exposed. And it doesn't take long at all, if Joshua to realize what's happened. Look what it says. At the end of three days after they had made a covenant with them, they heard that they were their neighbors, and then they had lived among them. And the people of Israel set out and reached their cities on the third day. Now, their cities were Gibeon and Chipara and Bath, and Kiriath Jiram, 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. 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. This we will do to them. Let them live.L wrath be upon us, because of the oath that we swore to them." And the leader said to them, "Let them live So they became cutters of wood and drawers of water for all the congregationation, just as the leaders had said of them. So what's happening here? They realize these people live really close to us. It took three days to expose what had happened. And then Israel took off, and when it says, the Israel went out there to meet them, like to the city of Gibeon. It's talking about the warriors. The warriors went out and said, "Hey, we've got this peace treat, but we don't think we're gonna do that off they go to Gibeon." Now, Gibeon, we're going to learn next week, if you look in chapter 10 verse 2, as a royal city, and that meant that it was a big enough city and influential enough that it had kind of smaller cities that were near it, that kind of worked not the same city, but lived off of that city and were under the authority of that city, that's where you get the other names. And so they had to Gibeon. And when they get there, Joshua and the leaders say, you can't attack them. We've made a covenant with them, and so we can't attack them. And if we do attack them, God's wrath is going to be on us, because we've promised them in God's name that we wouldn't attack them. And then the people murmur,Joshua takes a kind of a political hit a little bit when he does this, because he didn't consult God, and now he he's made a covenant with a group of people that God said, "Don't make a covenant with." Rehab was the same type of person, though, that she was part of Jericho, and God said, don't make a covenant with Jericho." But Rahab was one individual who said, "I'm going to trust that God. And he makes the covenant." The Gionites have made a covenant. As I was studying this passage, everything in me was like, Gosh, why would they keep this covenant? Why would the Israelites keep this covenant once it's exposed, that they had entered into it under false pretenses, right? In our legal system if someone says, "I'm going to sign a contract with you, but if everything in this contract's kind of on a false premise, we would just go to the contracts and I'll void moving on. We don't have to keep our word." But a covenant made in God's name is different, because God's trying to teach his people something says when when you make a covenant in my name, you have to keep it because it's reflective of God's character, and God keeps his covenants. It's so critically important throughout the whole scripture that when we think of God,, when he says, "This is my word, this is my promise." We can go, "Yes, it is." His yes is his yes, his no is his no. And he says, "Here's the promise He's made to us, and he keeps them. And then he looks at his people. The Israel says, "You must keep the covenant that you made with the Gionites. You can't attack them. Even though they had done something deceptive, you should have concernedulted with me. You should have reached out to me, and what we see in the rest of the chapter is God's grace towards both the Gibeonites and the Israelites Look what happens. They found out about this, though they're right there at the city of Gibeon. It says,Joshua summoned them that's the leaders. And he said to them, "Why did you deceive us saying, "We are from very far from you. We're very far away. When you dwell among us, Now therefore you are are cursed, and some of you shall never be anything but servants, cutters of wood in drawers of water for the house of my God. Pay attention to that phrase, we'll come back to it in a second. And they answer,Joshua, why did we do this? 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. And now behold, we are in your hand. Whatever seems good and right in your sight, do to us Do it. So we did this to them and delive them out of the hand of the people of Israel, and they did not kill them. 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 and the place that he should choose. We see God's mercy as evident to the Israelites because he doesn't wipe them out. He doesn't say, "Joshua, you didn't listen to me. You did the thing I told you not to do. I'm done with you." You told Joshu was gonna be with him. Now, Joshua doesn't get off scot free, the people are murmuring against him. There's already dissent but God is gracious to Israel, but he's gracious to the Gibeonites also. And he says, "We're not going to wipe you out. God's going to honor the covenant that he has made with them through Joshua." Now, we don't know, if we were to speculate and go, what would have happened if the Gibeonites would have come to Joshua, not in worn out clothes but in normal clothes and said, "Hey, we live, like, right over this hill, but we know who your God is and we want to be with him." That didn't happen, so we can't say what would have happened happened? My guess, though, based on how God treats the Gonites and how he treated Rahab, is that God would have said, "If you're making peace with me, if you're repenting, then you can stay here. Because what we'll see later in Joshua, it says that no other city made peace with the Israelites, except Gibeon. Next week, we're going to see that Gibeon is attacked by this coalition of kings that we're trying to attack Israelel. So as soon as they joined with Israel, they get attacked, and they're going to call on Israel to come help them And next week, we're going to see Israel and Joshua coming to the defense of the Gibeonites because of the treaty that they've made. We see God's mercy poured out on a group of people who came to him without the purest of motives. The Gibonites weren't coming to God with everything figured out, kind of like us, right? I imagine if you look back on when you came to God, when you said to Christ, " I want to follow you. If you like me, it probably wasn't from just 100% pure motives. It could have been that your life was such a wreck, and you just said, "kay, God, I need you to fix my life. So I'm going to make a step towards you." But as a selfish step in some ways Cause our motivation for serving God and worshiping him isn't just to fix my life. It's that you are worthy of all of my worship, of all of my praise, regardless of whether my life is going well or not. But often when we're in the foxhole and life's shattered and broken, and all of the other things we count on are gone, we may say, God, how about you? I'll try you now. And we turn towards him. Our motives may not be the purest in that time, but we do make a move towards him, in our brokenness and in our misunderstanding, because none of us fully understands God, right? Even as believers who've studied for years, but when you're first coming to God we have all sorts of wrongs ideas about Him, that we have created in our mind, that the human heart loves making up ideas about what God's like, that often seem to please us. And so we create this image of God that we then come to, and God saying, "That's not really what I'm fully like, but come on, I'll walk with you. I'll show you that mercy. That's what he does for the Gibonites. And they said, "Hey, we're in your your hand. Do whatever you want to do with us." They have put themselves in God's hand into the mercy that he has. We find in 2nd Samuel chapter 24, David has a similar thing happen, where he has taken a census, and there's this punishment that's going to be given, and he's asked, hey, there's three options, one of them is to fall into the hands of God The other was into the hands of other nations. And David said, "Let me fall into God's hand, because maybe he'll be merciful." David at least understood, even in the judgment from God, there could be mercy. Is he that type of God? Yes, he is. And the Gibeonites become cutters of wood and drawers of water at the altar. This is what's interesting, if you read through the rest of scripture and see about the Gibeonites and what happens to them, that by being accepted, by even feebly and in a way that isn't honorable, stepping towards God, and this treaty that's made, this covenant that's made, they end up being incorporated into in some spectacular ways, God's people. If you keep reading next week, come back, Joshua 10, we're going to see how God's people saved the Gibeonites from attack. We'll see in Joshua 21 that the city of Gibeon becomes a levitical city. So when they divide the land up among all the tribes, the tribe of Levi are the priests, and the priests got cities throughout the land. And so Gibeon was one of these levitical cities, which means there would have been a high concentration of priests to God in that city. And so Gibeon gets honored to be a levitical city. In 2nd Samuel chapter 21, King Saul, the first king of the nation of Israel, attacks the Gibeonites, and is punished with three years of famine because he broke the treaty that Joshua had made. God is still saying, we're going to honor this, we're going to protect the Gonites from Saul in what he does.. In 1st Chronicles chapter 12, Ishmai of Gibeon was one of David, King David's mighty men. He was in the inner ranks of David's military command a Gibonite. 1 Chronicles 21, we see that the Tabernacle, where the Ark of the Covenant was, while the sacrifices took place, for a season, was at Gibeon. this city that was outsiders, that kind of deceptively worked that way in. The Tabernacle ends up at Gibeon for a while, before it gets moved to Jerusalem, and then becomes the temple. And then in Nehemiah chapter 37, after the nation of Israel has been exiled to Babylon after 70 years, they come back, and they're rebuilding Jerusalem, and we see that Gibeonites assist in the repairing of Jerusalem, that the Gibeonites are worked in to the life of God's people. that God's grace is so evident in what he's doing, that God had, in a sense, turned the Gibeonites' deception, the glitter that they were trying to give to the Jewish people with their worn out clothes. He had turned it into true gold In a sense, he had taken this sad looking hamburger, and God says, I can turn this into something that's way better. Your deceptiveness, God works through that, and over time, brings the Gibeonites into his community. Again, our main point, when we look at what this message, I think, for us today is, is that God's mercy is available to those who come to him, regardless of that background, and his mercy can even redeem our bad decisions. So what can we learn from Joshua and the Israelites and their bad decision? Their bad decisions really easy to point out, which is they didn't consult God when they made their decision. And so what we can learn is consult God in making your decisions. Don't just look at what looks good, what seems good, what appearsears to be a certain way, but consult God. How do we do that? Again, here at Northland, there's no kind of you're not going to hear us say something that's like, "Wow, I didn't know that's how you did that." I would imagine if we said something like, "How do we understand God's will and get to know him better? Hopefully, you would say something like read your Bible, that we all have ideas of God. that we create. I think God's like this, I think God's like that. I think God's this way. I want him to be that way. I sure hope he's this way. And we read scripture to say, tell me what you're like, God, so I can line up my thinking with what you're really like, not just with what I want you to be like. And the more we know what he's like, the more we can hear things and go, okay, that's not what he would want me to do." Now, Joshua knew what God wanted him to do. Don't make it a treaty with someone in the land. So he wasn't confused about that. He wasn't confused that he didn't know what God wanted. He just was confused that these people were actually near him when he thought they were far away. And he didn't consult God. That's the second thing. How do we consult God? We should be praying. On a regular basis, praying, just in your everyday life about all the normal things in life, praying and talking to God and listening to him, and explaining to him what's going on in your life and hearing him speak to you. And again, that's not an audible voice, but it's just recognizing that conversation is taking place, that you're including him in your everyday life. Imagine it this way. We probably all had this experience. There's someone we have to have a really serious conversation with, but we did we haven't had a whole lot of normal just regular conversations, and so it's hard to have that serious conversation because it's like out of nowhere here's this really difficult thing. We haven't had a bunch of small conversations about things that weren't that big, but we had to address. So we have some history, some rhythm, and then we have to deal with this big thing. In your life, if you're regularly talking with God about things, and then there's this big thing the more you've done that, the more it feels natural. So consult scripture, be in prayer, and third, be in community, that you need to be around other believers when you're saying saying, God, I got this thing going on in my life. I got to make a decision and is this thing good or not? Is it the thing I should be doing or not? I want to make sure I'm consulting you. So I'm reading the Bible while trying to see what it says. I'm praying, and I'm also talking to other believers and saying, "Tell me, what do you see? What am I missing? What am I not aware of? And you're consulting other mature believers." That means you need to be in community, connected with other believers in life group and small group, in a way that you have that relationship built, that you say I can talk to them, I can go talk to pastors at the church and ask them what they think, I can consult God in the decisions that I'm making. And what we can learn from the Gibeonites I think, is that God's grace and mercy is amazing. that when I read this chapter, for two weeks as I worked on it and everything in me was like, "Yeah, you should just reject that covenant, right? These Gonites came, and they decidedceived you, so we're done with that." And yet God says, "Nope, we're going to honor the covenant. You made it. Joshua, you made it in my name, so we're going to honor this covenant with the Gbonites, and they get brought in. God's mercy isn't just that, hey, these people are gonna get wiped out. Everyone's wiped out. Every time we see in Joshua, in this midst of a lot of people being pushed out of the land, anyone turn to God, they get accepted. Rahab was accepted. The Gibeonites, even in their deceptive turn, their misunderstanding of who God is and his grace, they end up being accepted, that God's grace is so amazing. These people who have been set apart for destruction find forgiveness, find incorporation into God'ss people, that God is merciful, and that's good to know because all of us are Gibbonites. Every one of us are Gibbonites. Paul says it this way, in Ephesians chapter 2. He says, "Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world, that That's Paul writing into Gentiles, which is what we are, what the Gibeonites were, but now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. And every one of us here who have accepted Christ, are Gibonites, who came in from the outside, and God said, "I will accept you. You are mine in Christ. And if you're here and you're going, "I don't understand God fully, I have ideas of him that probably aren't right. If you make a step towards him to say, "I want to know you God is clear in his word that he doesn't push away anyone that comes to him. He doesn't turn away anyone who is repenting and saying, "I want to come to you, and nobody comes to God with 100% knowledge of him in a way that's perfect. We all stumble our way towards Him, saying, "Hey, I'm going to mess up, I don't know everything but I want to know you. And I know who you are, and I know that you're the one I should follow as the Gibeonites did, and that salvation is open for you if you will come to him. If you're here today and you're wrestling with a decision in life and you've got your pro and con sheet out and you're working through everything and you have you think what seems to be the right answer, make sure you consult with God.. and say, "Is this the thing you want me to be doing? Is this the thing I should do? Or the thing I should stop doing?" And if you're here today and you're like, I don't think God can accept me. I think he just hates me. Know this, that the Gibeonites came in a faltering step. Take a step towards him and see what he's like. The Bible says, taste and see that the Lord is God. If you're here and you want to know more about Christ, you can fill out your connect card, and turnal in. As the band comes up to lead us in a time of worship, I'm going to be in the back corner right over here. If you want to talk, you can come back there and say,Hey, let's talk. I'll get your information. We'll set up a time to talk. I would love to do that but know that our God is gracious and merciful, and he's not going to turn you away if you come to Him, and he can even redeem the bad decisions that we make. Will you pray with me. Father, we thank you for your grace and mercy. Father, you are merciful to Israrael and Joshua, when they didn't consult you, that you were merciful to the Gibeonites even in their deception as they move towards you. Father, let us know your grace and that mercy for our own sins in your Son Jesus, that you would be glorified. Send the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen.