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Joshua
9:1-27 And
it came to pass, when all the kings which were on this side Jordan, in the hills, and in the valleys, and in all the
coasts of the great sea over against Lebanon, the Hittite, and the Amorite, the
Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, heard thereof: 2
that they gathered themselves together,
to fight with Joshua and with Israel, with one accord. 3
And when the inhabitants of Gibeon heard
what Joshua had done to Jericho and to Ai, 4
they 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;
5 and
old shoes and clouted upon their feet, and old garments upon them; and all the
bread of their provision was dry and mouldy. 6
And 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. 7 And
the men of Israel said unto the Hivites, Peradventure ye dwell among us; and how shall we make a
league with you? 8 And
they said unto Joshua, We are thy servants. And Joshua said unto them, Who are ye?
and from whence come ye? 9 And
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, 10
and 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. 11
Wherefore 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. 12 This
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: 13
and 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. 14
And the men took of their victuals, and
asked not counsel at the mouth of the LORD.
15 And
Joshua made peace with them, and made a league with them, to let them
live: and the princes of the
congregation sware unto them. 16 And
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 neighbours, and that
they dwelt among them. 17 And
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. 18
And 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. 19 But
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. 20 This
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. 21
And 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. 22
And 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? 23
Now 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. 24
And 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. 25
And now, behold, we are in thine
hand: as it seemeth good and right unto
thee to do unto us, do. 26 And
so did he unto them, and delivered them out of the hand of the children of
Israel, that they slew them not. 27
And 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.” Map
of cities of Canaan during Joshua’s conquest: https://www.thebiblejourney.org/biblejourney2/27-the-israelites-move-into-canaan/the-israelites-cross-the-river-jordan/
Introduction [audio
version: https://resources.ccphilly.org/detail.asp?TopicID=&Teaching=WED620] “Joshua
chapter 9, brings us to an interesting chapter, and it is really a picture in
many ways of compromise. As we have been
going through the Book of Joshua it has given us a picture of many of the
struggles and the victories in our Christian experience, certainly the third
and the fourth chapters, the battles there were pictures of devotion--are we
really willing to follow the LORD’s
presence? They have to follow the ark
into the Jordan River, they had no inclination of what would happen, just God’s
Word, they had never done that before, the priests had to walk in until their
ankles were wet, just a picture of some of the struggles we might have of
devotion. Chapter 5, certainly a picture
of consecration and communion and the fact that those are necessary for us to
walk the way that we should [for us, baptism, spiritual circumcision, receiving
of the Holy Spirit, staying close to the Lord through daily prayer and Bible
study]. And sometimes we feel like we
don’t have the time to slow down and to do those things. Or that it’s very difficult to do those
things right in the presence of the enemy, I’m sure Israel felt very vulnerable
as they circumcised themselves and as they stayed there and had the Passover
and celebrated it as it were. There are
struggles then of faith and obedience, going around the walls of Jericho. It said the men had their swords drawn, but
they weren’t allowed to use any human energy for that victory, they had to
simply in faith and obedience do things God asked them to do. And so often in our lives God will ask us to
do something, and it doesn’t seem to make any logical sense, it doesn’t seem
like if we were to do it this way things are ever going to work out, ‘but ok
LORD,
that’s why you’re the LORD
and I’m not.’
Then of course we come to Ai, and there is there the sin of Achan, and
just self-confidence and carelessness, they go up to Ai without seeking God,
being self-confident, ascribing the victory of Jericho to themselves, having to
learn that all along the way they’re dependent, seeing the effect that sin can
have in the camp. And then as we come to
chapter 8, certainly there is then the challenge of obedience after failure,
faith after failure. Sometimes when we
fail we feel like we can never get back again, God’s never gonna let us take a
shot at it again, and yet in their obedience they get up and they exercise
faith, and he gives them a great victory.
As we come to the ninth chapter, this is a picture of compromise [on the
part of Israel, not the Gibeonites], and it is one of the battles that all of
us as God’s children, every single one of us in this room, don’t point the
finger at your husband or your wife, every one of us struggle with to some
degree or another, and certainly relative to the amount of light that we walk
in. But, Adam and Eve compromised, just
they had the clear Word of God given to them by the God of the Word, and they
were created in his image and likeness, and there was compromise there, there
was the setting aside of the Word of God as Satan made a suggestion. Abraham, compromised, and God is not afraid
to put that before us, Jacob certainly compromised, Samson, so much of his
life, incredible potential, a judge in Israel for forty years, and yet what
pitiful failure he had because of compromise.
David, Israel’s greatest king, no doubt, a man in the not too distant
future will be back at his job, and we will get to see him, ah, compromise in
his life. And we are told much the same
in the New Testament, in regards to our own lives, it says “Be ye not
unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with
unrighteousness? what communion hath light with darkness? what concord hath
Christ with Belial? what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God
with idols? for you are the temple of
the Living God; as God has said, I will
dwell in them, I will walk in them, I will be their God, they shall be my
people. Wherefore come out from among
them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing, and
I will receive you, I will be a Father unto you and you shall be my sons and my
daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.” (2nd Corinthians 6:14-18) Paul writing to the Corinthians, where
compromise was a huge problem. We know
as we study the Corinthian church, they were using the gifts out of order, they
were divided, some saying ‘I am of Apollos, some I am of Paul,’ they
were suing one another in the civil courts, they were getting drunk at the
communion table, they were tolerating and famous for fornication in their
fellowship, sexual sin, and there was compromise, and Paul challenges
them. So it’s not a new problem amongst
God’s people. We are here in this
world. It’s interesting, my wife said to
me, it’s interesting to me what my wife said to me, not be to you, but last
week she said, her maiden name was Doherty, she said “You know I’ve been a
Focht now longer than I’ve been a Doherty,”
And I want to make the right response to that, so I…and what she was
saying is, ‘You know, we’ve been married longer than I’ve lived
single,” and you know, I’ve been a
Christian since 1972, I’ve been in-Christ longer than I was out of Christ. And we come to Christ, and look, we have a
different set of influences in our lives, we have different standards--in our
past standards, we don’t turn the other cheek, you punch the guy back, you
don’t go the extra mile, you tell ‘em to take a hike and do his own job, but
before you come to Christ you don’t do any of those things, and then as you
come to Christ, as we come to God, and come to his Word, you know, we find this
process of growth, it’s undeniable [where you do turn the other cheek, you do
go the extra mile]. We’re not perfect
right away, we’re in a process of sanctification, God is raising us, he’s begun
a good work in us, the Scripture says.
And you would think, ‘OK, I’ve been in the Lord longer than I was in
the world, so certainly my heavenly Father has more influence on me than the
world did,’ but the problem is this, the problem is that the world is more
tangible, the world that would have us compromise is specifically set up around
sensory experience, there’s so much out there that appeals to what we can feel
and taste and see and touch and smell, to our senses, whereas our heavenly
Father is actually more powerful than the world, it isn’t that he lacks power,
he asks us to walk with him in faith. If
I’ve been in his influence more than I’ve been in the world’s influence in my
experience before Christ, certainly then, that should be the major expression
of my life, no longer the way that I lived before I knew Christ. But that takes faith, because, we’ve all said
‘Lord, if you’d just appear in my bedroom and tell me what you want me to
do, I’d take notes and there’d be no problem.’
But it isn’t that way, he’s given us his Word, and sometimes his
Word doesn’t seem logical. Sometimes we
know what his Word is telling us, and we choose to do that other thing. Sometimes we look at the other thing and say ‘It’s
not a big sin,’ it’s like we have white lies and we have black lies, I
guess, you have big lies and small lies, no, today we talk about white witches,
those are the good ones, and the ones on the brooms and black hats are the bad
ones, we have this whole idea, you know, we get into, you know, it’s not sexual
sin now, in the Old Testament it’s viewed as a capitol crime, now it’s just an
“affair,” now it’s “I’m getting paid under the table.” Well Jesus sees through the table, I know
what that’s all about. You make 600
bucks, now you gotta pay the IRS, you’re stealing. Now look, we put everything in these
categories that make them kind of ok.
Paul, well, whoever wrote the Book of Hebrews, says “that we
should lay aside every sin that doth so easily beset us,” Camel Morgan
translates it ‘those are sins in good standing, the ones that so easily
beset us,’ they’re not as bad as the other ones, so we kind of put up
with them, and we let them get in our lives, and somehow not thinking they’ll
infect us. Remember the size of a
bacteria or a virus, how it can bring down a strong and healthy individual [and
from the spring of 2020 right up to now in 2021, the corona virus, COVID-19,
has brought down the world in a pandemic, killing millions around the world,
stopping the world’s economies for over a year now, and in the middle of 2021,
even now, things are not back to normal, even though we have a new vaccine or
two to fight it successfully]. And the
thing for you and I is, now we’re in Christ.
Look, I hear people talk about how they were abused, and I feel
terrible, I had a good dad, I hear people talk about being abused sexually or
physically by an alcoholic father. Now
wait a minute, now we’ve been in Christ more years than we were under the
influence of that other father, we have a new Father who is more powerful than
that father, but that new Father is incorporated into our lives by faith,
because you don’t see him. He
doesn’t talk out loud to us. He is more
powerful, and if we will put our lives where he asks us to put them, if we will
let his Word be a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path, we find in fact
that he is more powerful. And all of a
sudden we find change in our life that we didn’t realize, and we realize he’s
doing something, he’s working, and he’s begun a good work, as it says, and he’s
going to complete it in each of us. So
when we look at this whole area, look, there is compromise that comes at us
full force. Sometimes we’re told by
Peter, like a roaring lion, Satan is prowling around like a roaring lion,
seeking whom he may devour. And
sometimes we’re told, in 2nd Corinthians chapter 11, that he’s the
old serpent, it’s much more subtle, in fact in chapter 11, in verse 14 it says
sometimes he even comes disguised as an angel of light. And this evening, this chapter as we go into
it, kind of gives us a picture, not of latent rebellion that we see in Achan’s
life, but of those things that come to us and it looks so much more innocent,
so that we’re willing to tolerate them without giving much thought or really
seeking the Lord, and sometimes that, than how they actually get into our lives
and take us down. And it’s a tremendous
lesson, I think there’s a great exhortation at the end, we’re not to be
defeated by these things, and it actually tells us then what we should do when
we’re taken in one of these things. The
Great Deception--Leading To A Great Compromise It
tells us this, it says “And it came to pass, when all the kings which were
on this side Jordan, in the hills, and in the valleys, and in all the coasts of
the great sea over against Lebanon, the Hittite, and the Amorite, the
Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, heard thereof:”
now what they heard, down in verse 3 it tells us the Gibeonites, “when
the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done unto Jericho and to Ai,” now
that’s what they heard, Joshua hadn’t done it, the LORD
had done it, but they had heard about the victory. So what the inhabitants of the land heard,
Joshua was come in, had the victory at Jericho, had the victory at Ai and
Bethel, and he’s working his way up to the ridge in the center part of the land. So now the tribes in the north and south that
are normally antagonistic towards each other, now because they have a common
enemy, they’re banding together, and they hear what’s happened. What they hear is there’s been victory, and
they hear Joshua’s built an altar in the middle of the land, and they’ve
worshipped “this God” that has destroyed Egypt and so forth, they’re
worshipping this God right in the middle of the land, and they’re realizing ‘we
can’t have victory.’ Now the
Gibeonites are going to realize they can’t defeat Israel because of this
God. The rest of them are thinking ‘Well
if we all band together, and we all, like the anti-christ will, if we put all
our forces together, we can actually have victory,’ which is insanity of
course. But all of these nations then,
when they hear what happened, they gather themselves together to fight with
Joshua, and with Israel, with one accord.
There’s no break here. You know,
sometimes, this is after a great victory at Ai, great things going on, they set
up the altar of the LORD,
and you think things are going great.
Look, you know when things are going great, God’s doing great things,
that there’s going to be an attack from some direction, that’s just the way it
is. But you know, we’re waiting for the
proverbial break. The break comes when
the Trumpet blows, that’s when the break comes.
‘Blessed are those who die in the Lord from henceforth, for they
shall rest from their labours,’ that’s when we really get the rest
we’re looking for. But he sustains us and he encourages us and he renews
us, I’m so thankful for that. Sometimes
that’s right in the midst of the battle he does that. So here we see this picture, all of the
nations gather themselves together now, “And when the inhabitants of Gibeon
heard what Joshua had done unto Jericho and to Ai,” (verse 3) Gibeon is
about 25 miles from Gilgal where the camp is, “when the inhabitants of
Gibeon heard what Joshua had done unto Jericho and to Ai, they did work wilily,”
I feel like I’m speaking in tongues when I say that, yours might say
“craftily,” they’re sneaky, that’s the whole idea here, they deliberately work
in a sneaky or a crafty manner, and it’s because when they heard what had taken
place, “they 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 them up; and old shoes and clouted upon their feet, and old
garments upon them; and all the bread of their provision was dry and mouldy.”
(verses 4-5) sounds like an interesting group. “And 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.” (verse 6) evidently they are very aware of what it says in the
Book of Deuteronomy, and perhaps because they had heard Joshua reading the Law,
right before this, out loud, there in the Book of Deuteronomy it said “When
thou comest nigh unto a city to fight against it, then proclaim peace unto it,
and if it shall be that they make an answer of peace and open unto thee, then
it shall be that the people that is found therein shall be tributaries unto
thee, they shall serve thee. If they will
make no peace with thee, but will make war with thee, then thou shalt besiege
it, and when the LORD
thy God has delivered it into thy hand, thou shalt smite every male thereof
with the edge of the sword, but the women and little ones, and cattle and so
forth you may take to yourselves for a spoil and so forth, as the LORD
giveth thee. Thus shalt thou do’ listen,
‘to all the cities which are very far off from thee,’ the idea
is, once you’re in the land, ‘which are not of the cities these nations,
but of the cities of these people which the LORD
thy God doth give thee for an inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that
breatheth, but thou shalt utterly destroy them, namely the Hittites, the
Amorites,’ now we just had this list, these
are the ones gathering against Joshua, the Canaanites, the Perizzites,
the Hivites,’ and the Gibeonites are part of the Hivites, ‘and
the Jebusites, as the LORD
thy God hath commanded thee, that they teach you not to do after their
abominations, as they have done unto their gods, so that you might sin against
the LORD
your God.’ So
the commandment was, once you’re settled in the land, when you make war with
foreign nations, outside the land of Israel, if they say ‘We’re not going to
fight with you, we’re going to submit to you,’ they open the gates, and
they want to have peace, then you make peace with them, you don’t destroy them,
you make them tributaries, they’ll make tribute to you. But of all the nations that are in the land,
because God had waited 400 years for to judge them, and they were vile and
wicked, God said of those nations, you destroy every one, none of those are to
be spared. Now, the Gibeonites, part of
the tribe of the Hivites must have heard this, they understand, and now they’re
coming, pretending to be people from far away. When
Compromise Comes It Comes Looking Harmless, Like It’s No Big Deal Now
when compromise comes, it never comes, if it’s coming on the sly, it never
comes admitting it’s an enemy, compromise doesn’t say ‘Come with a black
cape, and Ya-ah-ah, listen to me and I’ll have your blood,’ you know,
compromise comes saying ‘Hey, that’s not so bad, you need to date or you’ll
be single the rest of your life, and all the guys in the church are weird, and
he’s not so bad, he’s almost a Christian, his dog would be a Christian dog if
dogs could be Christian, you need to date,’ we hear the most ridiculous
things, ‘I only drink this, and I don’t drink that, I only gamble because
they give them to you on the bus on the way down,’ and why are you on the
bus on the way down [to Atlantic City] is the other question. But, you hear all of these things about
compromise, because compromise comes, it looks worn out, it looks
non-threatening, it never pretends to be an enemy, it’s not gonna assault you,
it just looks like something from further away, like it’s not that big of a
deal. They come to Joshua, it looks so
harmless, and here come these Gibeonites all dressed up like this, like they’re
worn out, like they’re from a far and distant land, and they say ‘Make a
league with us,’ now that’s what compromise always says, ‘make a
league, we’re not gonna destroy you, we’re not gonna hurt you, we’re worn out,
we’re tired, our bread is mouldy, make a league with us.’ Compromise is always beseeching us,
that’s what it is to compromise. We have
some clear direction from the Lord, we have some word from our heavenly Father,
whose more powerful than all the influences in the world, he sent his Son to
die for us. He has no agenda but to
bless us and prosper us, and bring us home to glory, and reward us with rewards
that will be unimaginable to us, through the ages. You know, he has no agenda but to have us for
his own, he loves us. And yet some other
thing rises up, and it doesn’t look very threatening, and it doesn’t look like
an enemy, and in our minds we say ‘just for now, we should do this for now,
then I’ll get back to the church, then I’ll get back to the Bible, I’ll just do
it for now, it’s not threatening, it’s no big deal,’ and that’s the way
compromise comes in this scene. Look, “And
the men of Israel said unto the Hivites, Peradventure ye dwell among us; and
how shall we make a league with you?” (verse 7) now it’s telling us these Gibeonites are
Hivites. Now listen, the children of
Israel say ‘Wait a second, how do we know where you’re from?’ In their gut they know something’s
wrong. You know, God is gracious to us,
he allows us to have discerning spirits.
How many times do we get into something, and we know before we got into
it, we know in our gut ‘Now wait, this isn’t right, I shouldn’t be doing
this.’ Now don’t look at me like I
don’t know what I’m talking about [chuckles], I’ve done it, I know you’ve done
it. How many times do we say ‘I
shouldn’t do this, something’s not right’?
Maybe you’re the only one, maybe five of your friends are saying…but
somehow you know, and by the end of the night you’re saying, you’re sitting in
the middle of the police station saying ‘I know I shouldn’t have.’ Those are important lessons, write those
down. You don’t want to go back and
learn that one over again. And these men
are saying ‘How do we know you’re not from here, how do we know you’re
not one of the people,’ and something’s fishy about this. But they’re going to ignore their own sense
of fishiness. God’s giving you a sense
of fishiness, it’s a wonderful thing. When
you sense something’s fishy, pay attention to that. OK?
It’s discernment, fishy’s a word we understand. It says that the carnal man doesn’t discern,
doesn’t understand, the pseusicos, the soulish man, but the spiritual
man discerns, the spiritual man discerns.
Listen, the Bible says ‘Taste and see that the Lord is good.’ You don’t do that with your tongue,
it has something to do with your heart.
The Bible tells us to take hold, to lay hold of the promises of
God. We don’t do that with your hand,
you do that with your heart. The Bible
says ‘As we behold him, we’re being changed into his image.’ We don’t do that with our physical
eye, that’s something you see with your heart.
You know, there’s discernment, there’s a sixth sense, as it were. We learn everything in life through our five
senses, but there’s something beyond that, and that’s where we sense fishiness,
that’s where we just know something isn’t right. And you don’t even have to depend on your
sense of fishiness if you know the verse.
The more you know The Book, the more you’re going to know
immediately. But in this particular
instance, you see, the enemy, and he knows the Word, he quotes the Word to
Jesus in the temptation in the wilderness (cf. Matthew 4:1-11). Satan knows the Word. The enemy comes here realizing that if they
present themselves as a nation from far away, that Israel doesn’t have to
slaughter them, that Israel can make a league or a covenant with them. And that’s what they’re asking for. And the men of Israel say ‘Well, how do
we know, something doesn’t seem right about this,’ “And they said unto
Joshua, We are thy servants.” They’re
going to say that over and over again, compromise always does that, it’s never
our servant. Compromise
Often Uses God-Talk “And
Joshua said unto them, Who are ye? and from whence come ye? And 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, and 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.” (verses 8-9) Compromise knows how to flatter, and
compromise knows how to God-talk and God-speak.
Joshua’s not going to the Urim or Thummim, saying ‘Something’s not
right,’ he’s not going to Eleazar the priest, there are things he could
have exercised. Joshua’s listening, and
compromise, how often are we drawn into compromise when God-talk is right
around them, ‘Well the Lord knows, ya of course the Lord knows, he loves us,
he knows we’re in love, he knows this is natural, it grows on the vine, he made
it, there’s not problem.’ You know,
how many times has God-talk been the very thing that takes us into
compromise? And that’s what’s happening,
it’s all about the LORD
here, ‘We know about your God, we heard of his fame,’ verse 10, ‘and all
of the things that he did to the two kings of the Amorites,’ notice
this, ‘that were beyond Jordan, to Sihon king of Heshbon, and to Og king
of Bashan, which was at Ashtaroth.’ Now
what they’re doing is, they’re making mention of the victories on the other
side of Jordan, because they’re claiming to be a people that are from a great
distance, and if they were from a great distance, they wouldn’t have known
about the immediate victories that had just taken place in Jericho and Ai, so
they’re saying ‘we’ve heard about what happened, months and months ago,
on the other side of Jordan, we heard what happened there,’ very sly,
very disarming, ‘you know, we’ve heard about these things.’ “Wherefore 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 a league with us.” (verse
11) you know, it reminds you of the Beverly Hillbilies, disarming, take
vittels, how can that be bad? ‘Make
a league with us, our people sent us to do this.’ And look, “This 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: and these bottles of wine,” the skins, “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.” (verses 12-13) Now Joshua, if he had a brain in his
head, at this point, would be saying ‘Wait, you’re ambassadors,’ imagine
ambassadors coming to the U.N., with mouldy bread, holey shoes, and dirty
clothes, Yasir Arafat used to do that, I used to look at the guy and think ‘get
a shave or something, you have a tie?’
You know, these are ambassadors, they don’t have servants that would
have gotten out the new clothes as they’re about to come and present
themselves, they don’t have anybody bringing a cook with them to make fresh
bread, they come saying ‘We have come a long way, our bread, we’ve been
eating mouldy bread for months,’ you know, Joshua should have seen right
through this. But there’s this facade,
there’s this innocence that’s being presented.
You know, the carnal mind decides all the time on the wrong basis, this
is the wrong basis, making this decision. Walking
In Faith And Not By Sight Protects Us From Compromise Again,
in 1st Corinthians 2:14-16 it says ‘But the
natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, they are foolishness
unto him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually
discerned. But he that is spiritual
judges all things, yet he himself is judged of no man, for who hath known the
mind of the Lord that he may instruct him, but we have the mind of Christ.’ So Joshua should have sensed by that. But look, here’s the key verse, this is the
dead giveaway, it says “And the men took of their victuals, and asked not counsel
at the mouth of the LORD.”
(verse 14) that’s the key here, they’re walking by
sight, and they’re not walking by faith.
(I’m assuming the men of Israel took them to examine them, not to eat
them, mouldy bread.) Certainly, look,
we’re to use our minds. You know,
sometimes people think Christians are mindless, that they’re just manipulated. Look, no, no, no, no, you want to know the
truth about Creation and evolution, we have way more evidence than they do, it
takes way more faith to believe in [blind] evolution than it does creation, all
the way down the line we can use our minds, we have tremendous evidence,
tremendous proof, and apologetics, extremely important to the Church [greater
Body of Christ], we can defend what we believe, all the way along [see https://unityinchrist.com/Does/Genesis%201%201-31.html
and https://unityinchrist.com/Does/Does%20God%20Exist.html]. But in a circumstance like this, you know, it
says “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not to your own
understanding, in all your ways acknowledge him and he will direct your paths” that’s
conditional. First three things are
yours and mine, trust in the Lord with all of your heart, we don’t like to do
that sometimes. We trust in the Lord
with part of our heart, and then trust in our own brilliance, but it’s “trust
in the Lord with all of your heart,” because the heart is where decisions
are really made, desire, way more powerful than intellect. Trust in the Lord with all of your heart, and
then, “lean not to your own understanding.” That’s offensive to us, isn’t it?
sometimes. “In all your ways
acknowledge him,” and I don’t do that all the time, but he says if
you do these things, heart, mind, will, ‘trust in the Lord with all of
your heart, lean not to your own understanding, in all your ways
acknowledge him, then, he always does his part, and he will direct your paths,’
not to throw our minds out the window, certainly. The
Problem With Compromise--We Make Peace With It But
in this scene here, it says ‘they sought not at the counsel at the mouth
of the LORD.’ And look, notice this, “And Joshua made
peace with them, and made a league with them, to let them live: and the princes of the congregation sware
unto them.” (verse 15) Here’s the
problem with compromise, look, for everyone in this room, this is the way it
goes. First we make peace with it, we
wrestle with it, wrestle with it, we don’t feel right about it, we know
something’s fishy about it, we do all this stuff, and then we look at it and
say ‘Ya, it’s mouldy bread, they got old shoes, what kind of threat can that
be,’ we make peace with it.
Somewhere along the line, some standard that we used to uphold, and we
used to think was important, for some reason we let down our guard, and we make
peace with something we should never make peace with. It says here, ‘and made a league with
it, to let it live’ that’s what we do, we let that compromise live in
our lives when we know there’s something wrong, we let it live there. I am speaking from experience, not today,
don’t worry, but just in my life. “and
the princes of the congregation sware unto them. And 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 neighbours, and that they dwelt among them.” (verse 16) Man, if they had just waited three days. What if they just said ‘Let us pray three
days, just give us a couple days to decide.’
It was only three days later they realized the mess they were in,
they had done something they shouldn’t have done, they had let something in
their life, and at that point you can’t say it was never there. But we can repent, and the Bible tells us to
do that. We can confess our sins, he’s
faithful and just to forgive us. There’s
nowhere in this that says we can’t be forgiven.
But then there’s this on our resume’, there’s this thing. Sometimes we think ‘If I had just waited
three days, if I could have one day back, I’d give my right arm, if I could
turn back the clock one day, if I could turn back the clock an hour, if I could
turn back the clock three days.’ And
it says in three days they know. “And
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 neighbours, and that
they dwelt among them.” (verse 16) Look,
just a key, just a thing, should be a teacher, wait until you know. Don’t make a decision that you’re not sure
about, and then afterwards say ‘Lord, was this the right decision?’ or don’t make a decision you’re not sure
of, and then when your whole world is falling apart, saying ‘Lord, was that
the right decision?’ Wait until you
know. Because there’s gonna be warfare
anyhow, there’s all kinds of things brewing here, there’s all kinds of stuff,
there’s gonna be warfare. So the key is,
wait until you know, do what the Lord wants you to do, then when things get
hard you can at least say ‘Lord, you told me to do this, at least I’m on
ground I should be on here, I’m on where I should be.’ That’s much different than saying, ‘Am
I somewhere I should be?’ That’s
vastly different. And sometimes it’s a
matter of a day or three days, in three days they find out they were neighbours
with them, “And 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. And 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.” (verses 17-18) they
had made a sacred oath, “and all the congregation murmured against the
princes.” Now that goes without
saying, just a part of the camp and always will be. They murmur against the leaders, why, because
they couldn’t kill the Gibeonites and take the spoil, that’s why they’re
murmuring, they’re there, and at this point they had enjoyed the spoil of Ai,
they get to take the spoil from all these cities, so they’re not mad about that
they’ve made this covenant because they shouldn’t have made a covenant with
them, they’re angry because they don’t get the spoils of the city. What
Becomes Of The Hivites, Gibeonites? But
because this is a sacred oath, we’re going to follow this down, God then expects
them to uphold it, because they had sworn in his name. In fact, in 2nd Samuel, chapter
21, verses 1 to 6, it tells us there that God dealt with Saul, because Saul
killed the Gibeonites, king Saul, and God says to David, I dealt with him
because Joshua had made a covenant with the Gibeonites, they weren’t to be
destroyed, and Saul broke a covenant that was made hundreds of years
before. We’re going to find something
very interesting, look, God will take this compromise. The Gibeonites, you’re going to find them in
2nd Chronicles, you’re going to find them in Ezra, you’re going to
find them in Nehemiah, they become the Nethinim’s, that’s their name, Nethinims
means “the given ones,” because Joshua is going to say to them ‘I can’t
kill ya, you deceived us, so what you’re going to do, is you’re going to be
slaves, you’re going to serve from now on.
And you’re going to serve at the Tabernacle.’ And they become servants to the
priests, Gibeon, Gibea becomes one of the cities of the priests. We’re going to find that one of David’s
mighty men is a Gibeonite. We’re going
to find that there’s five thousand Nethinim that come back from Persia, in the
Book of Ezra, who care more about Jerusalem than all of their wealth there in
the East. We’re going to find that God
takes them, and he works in their lives, it’s very interesting, their
assignment to the Tabernacle, and the True and Living God will win their
hearts, and in time they’re listed among the children of Israel. God even takes this, and he redeems it, he
does something remarkable with it, so that the Gibeonites become part of the
people, and they become honoured in decades and centuries to come. [Comment:
“9 And
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, 10
and 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…. 22
And 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?...
24 And 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.” Pastor Joe didn’t mention this, but he
alludes to it, but in a very real sense the Gibeonites and those Hivites of the
other three cities were demonstrating a real faith in the LORD
God of Israel and the Word of God, even quoting Moses. This faith, in my opinion, was similar to
that of Rahab (albeit with deception).
Their reaction to what they saw and heard about Israel and their God was
to try to make peace, whereas the rest of the inhabitants of Canaan only wanted
to make war. God obviously honoured
their faith and intentions.] But we have
this interesting picture here, it tells us that they made an oath, and it was
by the LORD
God of Israel, so it’s a sacred oath that can’t be broken. So the whole congregation, they’re murmuring
now. ‘You mean we walked all the way
up here, we can’t kill ‘em, what are you guys thinkin’? “But 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.” (verse 19) Listen, the Gibeonites were protected, and
they had assurance, because they were under an oath that was made through
deceit. How safe are we, under a better
covenant? What assurance we should have
with the blood of Jesus Christ, if the Gibeonites are safe because they came
and deceived Joshua, and a covenant was made in the name of the LORD? How much more should you and I tonight have
assurance in the covenant we’re under in the blood of Jesus Christ? I like that as I look at it, that even in a
failed covenant, they’re safe because the word of the LORD
is involved and the name of the LORD
is involved. “we may not touch
them. This 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. And the princes said unto
them, Let them live; but let them be hewers of wood” for fire, “and
drawers of water” for cleansing in the camp, “unto all the congregation;
as the princes have promised them. And
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?”
(verses 19b-22) Now Joshua, part of
it is your fault, but he’s asking them about theirs. “You 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.” (verse 23) Notice
this, first it’s for the congregation, then for it’s for the house of God, and
we’re going to find ultimately it’s for the altar. “And 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 inhabitants of the land
from before you, 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.” (verse 24) The Gibeonites are saying ‘We take the
Word of God seriously, we heard every little bit of it, especially the part
that concerned us, that’s why we did what we did.’ Joshua should be thinking ‘That’s
what I should have done, because I took it as seriously as you did.’ Remarkably, ‘We knew what the Word of
God said, and how the LORD
God commanded Moses to give all of the land, to destroy all of the inhabitants
of the land from before you, therefore we were sore afraid for our lives,
because of you we’ve done this thing.’ “And
now, behold, we are in thine hand:
as it seemeth good and right unto thee to do unto us, do. And so did he unto them, and delivered them
out of the hand of the children of Israel, that they slew them not. And 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.” (verses 25-27) Listen, what do we do with compromise? What do you do when it’s on your
resume’? What do you do when you’ve made
a mistake, and as a Christian? Some of
us never seem to get out from under condemnation. You know, I got saved in ’72, by the end of
’73 I had backslidden, and I was living in a way that I knew [was wrong], I got
all kinds of excuses, I didn’t have a strong fellowship, I didn’t have a Bible
teacher, I didn’t…but I knew something was fishy, and I crossed lines I
shouldn’t have crossed, and I got involved in things I shouldn’t have gotten
involved in, and it was really hard, because I was saved, I did love the Lord,
and I knew I was sinning against Light.
It wasn’t like before I was saved, it was much different. And there was at one point I thought ‘Should
I take my life? My earthly father would
be ashamed of me, my heavenly Father must be ashamed of me,’ I hadn’t
apprehended much of God’s grace, I just knew I’d crossed lines I shouldn’t have
crossed. And I kind of got back on my
feet, you know, ’74, ’75, ’76 I was in fellowship, I was doing what I should be
doing, but I was still plagued by condemnation.
I read in the Bible that he had forgiven me, but I couldn’t forgive
myself, the Word was still gaining its power in my life. And I happened to go to this church in San
Diego, it was about 2,000 people there that night. And afterwards they had coffee and cake and
stuff down in the basement, I knew fellowship was important so I went down and
enjoyed some of that. And the guy who
spoke, he kind of, he saw me through the crowd, it was an Assembly of God
church, and this guy sees me, and makes eye contact with me, and I’m thinking ‘I’m
not in the mood for that, I don’t know what that’s about,’ I kind of
slithered away, I’m somewhere else, I’m happy.
And all of a sudden here comes the guy who spoke in the church, and he
comes and he finds me. And he says “I
have a word from the Lord for you.” And
I’m thinking ‘Oh great, here I’m in an Assembly of God church, a guy’s got a
word from the Lord, that’s all I need.’ And
he says “God has forgiven you, but you haven’t forgiven yourself.” This guy never saw me before. And he says “This is the word of the Lord
for you, you are accepted in the beloved, you are accepted in the
beloved.” And it lit a fire again in
my heart. And those days of compromise
now, they were the hewers of wood in my life, they bring fire to the altar in
my life, because I realize the power of his grace and his love, and it burns,
it burns more my brightly in my heart than it ever would have if I hadn’t
failed. Whom he forgives the most he
loves the most. I can’t prescribe that,
I would say Do it the right way. But I
have failed, and look what he lets me do.
And his grace is immeasurable to me, and those Gibeonites still serve
me, ya, that was compromise. I got
involved in things I shouldn’t have, but they still bring the fuel for the fire,
in my love with him. And they’re still
the drawers of water, they still make the water of the Word rich in my life,
and the power of the Holy Spirit effective in my life. Let your failures serve you, demand they
do. If you’ve come back to Christ in
genuineness, if you have confessed your sin to him, you need not live the rest
of your life condemned about some failure, major or otherwise. We tend to put them in categories, I don’t
think those categories are good for us, and you feel like you’ve sinned against
Light, you knew better, God can never use you or do anything with your life,
that you can’t enter fully into his love and grace, you’re in error, you are
mistaken. Because there isn’t anything
he delights in more, than to take those broken pieces of your life that you
destroyed, through rebellion or compromise, and to let them turn around and
serve you for the rest of your life, to let them be the hewers of wood and
drawers of water in your life…[transcript of a connective expository sermon on
Joshua 9:1-27 given by Pastor Joe Focht, Calvary Chapel of Philadelphia, 13500
Philmont Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19116] related
links: With
the subjects of Creation and evolution we have more evidence than the people in
the world do. see, https://unityinchrist.com/Does/Genesis%201%201-31.html
and https://unityinchrist.com/Does/Does%20God%20Exist.html
Audio
version: https://resources.ccphilly.org/detail.asp?TopicID=&Teaching=WED620
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