Joshua Chapter 9 Verses 1 – 2

• So Israel has their attention. A little late in my opinion. These kings to the west of the Jordan, they would have heard about the Nation of Israel wandering in the wilderness east of the Jordan. I mean come on man…40 years! Taking out kingdoms like Heshbon which was led (by the way) by a guy named Sihon who happened to be an Amorite!! And Israel stomped them then! Where did the Amorites flee to? West of the Jordan!
• No doubt these kings heard about the Nation of Israel crossing the Jordan. They certainly had heard about Jericho. Now they’ve heard about what happened at AI…and finally they move. I know you’re wondering what I’m getting to because we both know in this case it would not have made a difference because it was God who has given the Promised Land…all of it…to Israel. Listen, the point I’m making is that you and I, the Bible says in 2 Peter 1:3 that God has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness. All that we need to live a life pleasing to God and wonderfully powerful in the spirit…
• But we get all tangled up in sin. Why? Because we wait until we have real problems to do anything wise. I taught on this a few weeks back…that God, through His Word and through us activating His Word in our lives by our free will and deliberate circumspection…God would have us not to be reactive, not even proactive but down-right predictive when it comes to being made ineffective by the work of the flesh in our lives! These kings waited too long! And they will all fall…

Joshua Chapter 9 Verses 3 – 6

• So we see a second strategy by a second group of folks. The first, the six kings of the west were gearing up to take Israel head-on but not the Gibeonites. They’re strategy will be deception…and notice it will only work if mixed with Israel’s compromise…what does that mean?
• It’s Exodus 23:24. God tells Israel through Moses that they will come against the kings of the west and when they come out to you, the text reads, “You shall not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do according to their works; but you shall utterly overthrow them and completely break down their pillars.”   So…no deals! No treaties! No pacts! And so as the inhabitants of Gibeon craft their deceptive strategy, and it has no chance, unless Israel compromises and the SAME goes for us!
• The enemy will work in countless deceptive ways to get at us. To break us down. To break down your homes. To break down and divide this church…but none will work unless compromise of God’s Word is present.
• Why? Because no matter the offense, we will bless. No matter the circumstance we will hold to God’s Word. No matter the strategy, we will walk in accordance with God’s Word and when someone does not, we won’t bend! Certainly not the leadership! We will hold to what God has said! Even if that means folks turn away…so be it! We will not turn away from God!
• The deception of the enemy, the works of the flesh, strife, envy, contentions…they only only only ever work…if you are willing to compromise the Word of God. If you’re not willing to do that, then man it’s like water off of a duck’s back! And there will be peace and unity at home…at work…here in this house of God!
• But it works here…we’re about to see that…as Israel takes the bait and compromises God’s Word…

Joshua Chapter 9 Verses 7 – 13

• All the lies have been delivered…all of the proof has been displayed…And we’ll see that Israel takes the bait…this happens to us ya know. Your emotions are stricken by what he’s said to you, by how she has treated you…what they did or didn’t do that man you just feel so strongly that they should have done or should not have done…and then the flesh starts the mental picture show…replaying it over and over in your head while gently strumming the rhythm of that age old song, “How could he? How dare she? You don’t deserve that! You deserve better! They are mean! They mean to be mean! They don’t like you!”
• And then the strategy enters…”You better not forget that! What if he offends someone else? What if she does it again…but this time to someone else…better do something, better bottle this up…” You see the “proof” comes and instead of taking it to God, submitting the matter to God’s Word, getting into the Word, taking the matter to prayer, seeking wise, Godly, Biblical counsel, that “proof” causes you to slap out that email, type out that edited text (edited over and over and over again) – Hardly ever a phone call or a meeting (As we’re supposed to do via Matthew 18) just compromise upon compromise…
• Watch this terrible downfall…that I see of and hear of that frankly as a pastor I have to parachute into almost constantly…

Joshua Chapter 9 Verses 14 – 16

• Last time this happened, Israel acting without submitting to God…I mean they couldn’t…He wasn’t even alloweded into the negotiation room…last time this happened there was great loss, great defeat, great death, great division!!!! And here they go again! The bait, the deception, the false proof…it has all conquered the greatest of nations…and the greatest of people for that matter…

Joshua Chapter 9 Verses 17 – 21

• So some wisdom here in not piling sin upon sin. Man we do that so often. We make a mistake, we try to hide it, we sometimes have to even do something else foolish to continue to hide it…at least Israel doesn’t go there. They are open and honest and they honor their oath which even in this situation is a mark of godliness…holding to your oath is right but honorable to the Lord, (a sure mark of spiritual maturity), is holding to your oath, doing what you have committed to do, even when it is difficult. Psalm 15:4 says, “He honors those who fear the Lord; he who swears to his own hurt and does not change….”
• Interesting, later in 2 Samuel 21:1 when a famine was upon Israel for three years, David asked the Lord why and the Lord said it was because Saul broke this oath and killed the Gibeonites…

Joshua Chapter 9 Verses 22 – 27

• This is actually pretty cool because the implication here is that they, the Gibeonites, have come to believe in God…they have seen what God has done through Israel and they are good with simply becoming the servants…notice they don’t complain but they simply take their place in the nation of God…in Israel…So the pattern, passing over the offense of the deception because man in the plan of salvation, (in this case a whole nation being saved) that is God’s very heart, we see a people that hear of God, see Him work, fear Him and then come as servants to His people…

• And Gibeon is a major player later in the history of the Jews. They become servants in the tabernacle. Gibeon becomes a priestly city. The Ark of the Covenant stayed at Gibeon often in the days of David and Solomon (1 Chronicles 16, 21). God speaks to Solomon at Gibeon in 1 Kings. The Gibeonites teamed up with Nehemiah to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem in Nehemiah 3 and Nehemiah 7…major players…and man if we can ditch the compromise, identify the nonsense of what the enemy is trying to do to us in our lives…not only agree with the Word but live it out…then the same will be said of us…major players in the mighty plan and people of God…