Joshua 9

Israel had enemies. There were people in the land already, and they were afraid. Most of the people groups formed an alliance to stop Joshua and Israel. One group had a different plan.

The Gibeonites were counting on three things that led to their successful covenant with Israel. First, they believed that the alliance of their other neighbors against the Lord's people would fail. Second, they understood that the peoples who were far away would live, but that those who were in the land of Canaan would be destroyed. Third, they hoped that Joshua would honor a covenant, even if it had been achieved through deception.

The Gibeonites also judged that it was better to live as servants to the people of God than to die at their hands in the conquest. They testified the truth about Name of the God of Israel. They had heard about what had happened to the Egyptians and to the nations on the other side of the Jordan. Their only deception was the pretense that they had come from a very far land.

Joshua and the leaders of Israel did not ask counsel from the Lord before they made this covenant. The result was life for the Gibeonites, and incorporation into Israel in the midst of the death all around them. Joshua kept his word, and the Lord honored that commitment. See 2 Samuel 21:1-2. The leaders had sworn to the Lord, the God of Israel, assuring the safety of the Gibeonites. Despite the dishonesty of their new partners, the word that they had promised before God would stand. The Gibeonites would live. They would serve Israel.

When Joshua found out the truth and confronted the Gibeonites about their deception, they testified to their fear of God. They understood that the conquest of the land was not a possibility, but a certainty. That's why they had lied about where they were from. They believed in the power of the Lord, and they saw this as the only way to live.

The Gibeonite surrender involved a serious deception. But if they had told the truth, they would have been slaughtered. The Judgment Day ethics of the conquest did not allow for mercy for the nations in the land of Canaan. Yet Rahab deceived her own people at Jericho and lived. And now the Gibeonites deceived Joshua and the leaders of Israel. They too won their lives.

We live in a day when we can surrender to the Lord and tell the whole truth. Judgment Day ethics have come upon the Son of God for us. We have a fear of God, but the perfect love of the cross has cast out all our fear. We do not have to pretend to be anything. We can come to God as those who were far away from the covenants with Israel, but who have now been drawn near to God through the blood of His Son. We surrender as servants, but we are adopted as sons of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Though He died, He now lives, and through Him we have eternal life. All of this is entirely above board. There is no need for hypocrisy.

There is an enemy that would try to catch us in an unnecessary web of lies. He comes to steal, to kill, and to destroy. Our King is stronger than that enemy. We should turn to Christ in prayer in every situation we face, seeking His counsel, and trusting that He will lead us in paths of righteousness for His Name's sake.