Jos 9:15-21 | KingComments | STEP | The Israelites take their bread. By testing the ‘proofs’ themselves they come to the conclusion that the story of the Gibeonites is true. Their senses are the norm. That is the error. By taking their bread, they express their fellowship with them spiritually. Now they can’t go back. Where human senses and perceptions become the norm of assessment, the enemy has gained access. Then the LORD will not be consulted. He remains out of sight. The remark of the Holy Spirit “and did not ask for the counsel of the LORD” speaks volumes. Not asking for the counsel of the LORD, for a statement of Him, brings the people to a covenant and thus to something that is forbidden by an earlier statement of Him. If we take steps without having asked for the Lord’s will and thus without having received a clear answer from Him, the consequences of those steps will always haunt us. Joshua and the heads make this covenant. The most responsible take the lead in the error. Satan has succeeded in his stratagem. Jericho is taken by faith. After an initial defeat with Ai, that city is also taken when the people have removed the ban from their midst. Both cities fall into the hands of the people because obedience to what the LORD has said has been acted upon. The third city, Gibeon, is not conquered because the people did not ask for the will of the LORD.

‏ Joshua 9:15-21

Peace With the Gibeonites

The Israelites take their bread. By testing the ‘proofs’ themselves they come to the conclusion that the story of the Gibeonites is true. Their senses are the norm. That is the error. By taking their bread, they express their fellowship with them spiritually. Now they can’t go back. Where human senses and perceptions become the norm of assessment, the enemy has gained access. Then the LORD will not be consulted. He remains out of sight. The remark of the Holy Spirit “and did not ask for the counsel of the LORD” speaks volumes.

Not asking for the counsel of the LORD, for a statement of Him, brings the people to a covenant and thus to something that is forbidden by an earlier statement of Him. If we take steps without having asked for the Lord’s will and thus without having received a clear answer from Him, the consequences of those steps will always haunt us. Joshua and the heads make this covenant. The most responsible take the lead in the error. Satan has succeeded in his stratagem.

Jericho is taken by faith. After an initial defeat with Ai, that city is also taken when the people have removed the ban from their midst. Both cities fall into the hands of the people because obedience to what the LORD has said has been acted upon. The third city, Gibeon, is not conquered because the people did not ask for the will of the LORD.

The Trick Discovered

The deceit becomes public if the people want to destroy Gibeon and other cities. Now they have to face the consequences. They have to spare these men. They have sworn this to their loss: “He swears to his own hurt and does not change” (Psa 15:4c). A wrong deed must not be made worse by not wanting to bear the consequences. Later Saul’s house must be punished because Saul wanted to kill the Gibeonites (2Sam 21:1-9).

We can apply this as follows. Someone may have been wrongly admitted to the Lord's Table because of our carelessness. As long as such a person doesn’t do anything that Scripture identifies as sin, we should tolerate him and bow under the Lord’s discipline because of our unfaithfulness. Similarly, even if a believer is married to an unbeliever, this marriage cannot be undone by divorce. That the consequences of sin are not always taken away, we see in the life of the ex-drug addict who has destroyed his health by his drug use. The consequences remain. Yet the Lord will give the power to bear those consequences if there is sincere acknowledgment and confession of the sin. Sin is acting in self-will, acting without consulting Him first.

Hewers of Wood and Drawers of Water

The Gibeonites are as slaves in the house of God, not as sons. Joshua curses them and condemns them to do the humblest work (cf. Deu 29:11). They fetch wood for the altar, but are not offerors themselves. They fetch water, but not to become clean by it themselves. They are a plague to the people of God because the people have given them access to the service to God without asking God. They serve, however, not out of love, but out of fear.

The Israelites want to kill them, but Joshua saves them (Jos 9:26). It is better to bow before the Lord than to eradicate the evil that has come in through our fault against God’s will. Sometimes He wants it to exist, to constantly remind us that we can only prevent evil if we consult Him before we do anything.

Later in the history of the Gibeonites in the midst of Israel, God’s grace also becomes visible. Ishmaiah, one of the heroes of David, is a Gibeonite (1Chr 12:4). There is also a Gibeonite, Melatiah, and other men of Gibeon, who have returned with the people of God from captivity in Babylon and help to rebuild the wall around Jerusalem (Neh 3:7).