Bible Talks

From: Messages of God's Love: 1953

Joshua 9:4-27⁴They did work wilily, and went and made as if they had been ambassadors, and took old sacks upon their asses, and wine bottles, old, and rent, and bound up; ⁵And old shoes and clouted upon their feet, and old garments upon them; and all the bread of their provision was dry and mouldy. ⁶And they went to Joshua unto the camp at Gilgal, and said unto him, and to the men of Israel, We be come from a far country: now therefore make ye a league with us. ⁷And the men of Israel said unto the Hivites, Peradventure ye dwell among us; and how shall we make a league with you? ⁸And they said unto Joshua, We are thy servants. And Joshua said unto them, Who are ye? and from whence come ye? ⁹And they said unto him, From a very far country thy servants are come because of the name of the Lord thy God: for we have heard the fame of him, and all that he did in Egypt, ¹⁰And all that he did to the two kings of the Amorites, that were beyond Jordan, to Sihon king of Heshbon, and to Og king of Bashan, which was at Ashtaroth. ¹¹Wherefore our elders and all the inhabitants of our country spake to us, saying, Take victuals with you for the journey, and go to meet them, and say unto them, We are your servants: therefore now make ye a league with us. ¹²This our bread we took hot for our provision out of our houses on the day we came forth to go unto you; but now, behold, it is dry, and it is mouldy: ¹³And these bottles of wine, which we filled, were new; and, behold, they be rent: and these our garments and our shoes are become old by reason of the very long journey. ¹⁴And the men took of their victuals, and asked not counsel at the mouth of the Lord. ¹⁵And Joshua made peace with them, and made a league with them, to let them live: and the princes of the congregation sware unto them. ¹⁶And it came to pass at the end of three days after they had made a league with them, that they heard that they were their neighbors, and that they dwelt among them. ¹⁷And the children of Israel journeyed, and came unto their cities on the third day. Now their cities were Gibeon, and Chephirah, and Beeroth, and Kirjath-jearim. ¹⁸And the children of Israel smote them not, because the princes of the congregation had sworn unto them by the Lord God of Israel. And all the congregation murmured against the princes. ¹⁹But all the princes said unto all the congregation, We have sworn unto them by the Lord God of Israel: now therefore we may not touch them. ²⁰This we will do to them; we will even let them live, lest wrath be upon us, because of the oath which we sware unto them. ²¹And the princes said unto them, Let them live; but let them be hewers of wood and drawers of water unto all the congregation; as the princes had promised them. ²²And Joshua called for them, and he spake unto them, saying, Wherefore have ye beguiled us, saying, We are very far from you; when ye dwell among us? ²³Now therefore ye are cursed, and there shall none of you be freed from being bondmen, and hewers of wood and drawers of water for the house of my God. ²⁴And they answered Joshua, and said, Because it was certainly told thy servants, how that the Lord thy God commanded his servant Moses to give you all the land, and to destroy all the inhabitants of the land from before you, therefore we were sore afraid of our lives because of you, and have done this thing. ²⁵And now, behold, we are in thine hand: as it seemeth good and right unto thee to do unto us, do. ²⁶And so did he unto them, and delivered them out of the hand of the children of Israel, that they slew them not. ²⁷And Joshua made them that day hewers of wood and drawers of water for the congregation, and for the altar of the Lord, even unto this day, in the place which he should choose. (Joshua 9:4‑27)

The man of Gibeon a wily nine. They took old sacks, old wine bullies, old garments, nod old mended shoes, along with dry and moldy bread, and came to the camp of Israel. They told Joshua and the elders of Israel that they had come from a far country because they had heard of the fame of the Lord. They said they knew what the Lord had done to the two kings of the Amorites on the other side of Jordan, and of His wonders in the land of Egypt, and now they wanted to make a league with Israel. They acknowledged that the Israelites were the people of God and said they were willing to become their servants. All this pleased the elders of the congregation, and Joshua too, and they were fully persuaded that what these men said was rue. They looked at their old clothes and their moldy bread and decided that it would be a wise plan to make this agreement; so they did. They entered into a solemn covenant with them.

But they forgot one thing, and it was the most important thing of all. They forgot to ask the Lord about it. It all looked so good and so true, that they never thought it was necessary to inquire of Him. Surely they could trust their own eyes —they had seen the old clothes and the moldy bread—it must be true.

Alas, they were deceived. The men were from among the people of the land, with whom the Lord had told them they were not to make any agreements. But we might ask, How could they tell? They could not, but the Lord knew, and His Word says, “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.” Proverbs 3:5⁵Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. (Proverbs 3:5). It would have been so much better to have just told the men to wait until they had inquired of the Lord, but they thought they knew. They were impatient, as we often are. We often do not wait on the Lord but, instead act according to our own wisdom, only to find out how foolish we really are apart from Lord’s guidance. Let us not forget His Word, “Without Me ye can do nothing.”

It did not take long for the children of Israel to find out their mistake. Within three days they discovered that they had been deceived, and that these men were Gibeonites who dwelt in the land, right near to them. When they came to the part of the land where they lived, the people of Israel wanted to attack them and possess their land, but the princes of the congregation told them they could not, because of the oath they had made at this time. The mistake had been made, the harm was done! The people murmured against their leaders, but all they could do was to make the Gibeonites hewers of wood and drawers of water—they could not possess their land. The sad results of this mistake continued for centuries (2 Samuel 21:1-9¹Then there was a famine in the days of David three years, year after year; and David inquired of the Lord. And the Lord answered, It is for Saul, and for his bloody house, because he slew the Gibeonites. ²And the king called the Gibeonites, and said unto them; (now the Gibeonites were not of the children of Israel, but of the remnant of the Amorites; and the children of Israel had sworn unto them: and Saul sought to slay them in his zeal to the children of Israel and Judah.) ³Wherefore David said unto the Gibeonites, What shall I do for you? and wherewith shall I make the atonement, that ye may bless the inheritance of the Lord? ⁴And the Gibeonites said unto him, We will have no silver nor gold of Saul, nor of his house; neither for us shalt thou kill any man in Israel. And he said, What ye shall say, that will I do for you. ⁵And they answered the king, The man that consumed us, and that devised against us that we should be destroyed from remaining in any of the coasts of Israel, ⁶Let seven men of his sons be delivered unto us, and we will hang them up unto the Lord in Gibeah of Saul, whom the Lord did choose. And the king said, I will give them. ⁷But the king spared Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan the son of Saul, because of the Lord's oath that was between them, between David and Jonathan the son of Saul. ⁸But the king took the two sons of Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, whom she bare unto Saul, Armoni and Mephibosheth; and the five sons of Michal the daughter of Saul, whom she brought up for Adriel the son of Barzillai the Meholathite: ⁹And he delivered them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they hanged them in the hill before the Lord: and they fell all seven together, and were put to death in the days of harvest, in the first days, in the beginning of barley harvest. (2 Samuel 21:1‑9)), but yet when the people turned to the Lord, even in their mistake (which could not be undone), He undertook for them. Even in the conflict which followed later on in this book of Joshua, caused by this mistaken agreement, we find the Lord manifesting His power on behalf of His people a n d giving them victory.

Surely many of us can look back upon a mistake in our lives which has brought some sorrow with it which we feel even to this day. Do we need to be discouraged and give up? Oh no! God’s grace is greater than all our failure, and while owning it, let us not “fail of the grace of God.”

ML 04/19/1953

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