Joshua 9:16-27

Have you noticed how clever and resourceful con artists can be?  I hate it when they’re good at it and succeed!  I’ll be honest, while I’m mad at them, I’m usually mad at myself too for believing it.  I’m a smart guy, at least I thought I was!  Why couldn’t I see through their charade?  Probably because I was busy believing the best about everybody.  If you can relate to that feeling, this is especially for you. Our passage is Joshua 9:16-27, the second half of the story about the Gibeonite deception, the part where Joshua and the other leaders realize they’ve been had.

What can we learn about leadership, listening to God, and making better decisions?

Transcript

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Have you noticed how clever and resourceful con artists are getting these days? It really bugs me when they're good at it, especially when they succeed. And I'll be honest with you, I am mad at them when I figure it out, but I'm also mad at myself. Like, why couldn't I see through their charade? I'm a smart guy, at least I thought I was. Oh yeah, that's right. I was busy walking around believing the best about everybody. If you can relate to that, this is especially for you. Welcome to Meet Me in the Word. I am genuinely glad that you have joined us today. Our passage is Joshua chapter 9, verses 16 through 27. It's the second half of the story about the Gibeonite deception, the part where Joshua and the rest of Israel's leaders realize that they have been had. Let's go ahead and jump into the scriptures. Again, Joshua chapter 9, verse 16 through to 20 uh 27. But before we do that, let's go ahead and pray. Jesus, thank you for this wonderful day that you've given us. God, thank you that even when we have these moments that just feel awful, God, you're there, you're faithful, you're just and you uh you lead us through even those difficult moments. Be with us now. We're here to meet with you. Amen. All right, let's move into this together, starting at verse sixteen, Joshua chapter nine. Three days after they made the treaty treaty with the Gibeonites, the Israelites heard that they were neighbors living near them. So the Israelites set out and on the third day came to their cities, Gibeon, Kephira, Beroth, and Kariath Jirim. But the Israelites did not attack them, because the leaders of the assembly had sworn an oath to them by the Lord, the God of Israel. The whole assembly grumbled against the leaders, but all the leaders answered, We have given them our oath by the Lord, the God of Israel, and we cannot touch them now. This is what we will do to them. We will let them live so that God's wrath will not fall on us for breaking the oath we swore to them. They continued, Let them live, but let them be woodcutters and water carriers in the service of the whole assembly. So the leader's promise to them was kept. Then Joshua summoned the Gibeonites and said, Why did you deceive us by saying we live a long way from you, while you actually live near us? You are now under a curse. You will never be released from service as woodcutters and water carriers for the house of my God. They answered Joshua, your servants were clearly told how the Lord your God had commanded his servant Moses to give you the whole land, and to wipe out all its inhabitants from before you. So we feared for our lives because of you, and that is why we did this. We are now in your hands. Do to us whatever seems good and right to you. So Joshua saved them from the Israelites, and they did not kill them. That day he made the Gibeonites woodcutters and water carriers for the assembly, to provide for the needs of the altar of the Lord at the place the Lord would choose, and that is what they are to this day. Let's go ahead and pause and just listen to what the Lord has for us. You can pause this podcast if you'd like, and then we'll continue. All right, let's uh make a few observations about this part of the story, and we're gonna focus our attention primarily on those first about five verses or so, because the the second half really just kind of lets the rest of the story play out, and uh you you heard what was there, but I think the the lessons for us uh happen mostly here at the beginning. So the first part here to me is like it's the discovery of deception, it's the aha moment that doesn't feel good. It's the it's the moment where you realize, uh, no, they really were scamming us. And by the way, if you missed last week's uh episode, it talks about the first part of the Gibeonite deception, and and uh yeah, you you can take that in or not, that's fine. But um, yeah, it'll help you understand this a little bit more. So they realize they have been, in fact, deceived. And if we just remind ourselves, the reason that Joshua and the people of Israel got into this pickle in the first place is they believed their own guts, right? They believed their own intuition and discernment rather than listening to God, right? They could have and they should have inquired of the Lord, is kind of how the text lays that out, but they didn't do that, they just kind of trusted their own wisdom. By the way, that is such a common experience for us, isn't it? Like that's kind of what that opening bit was about was about. And it's certainly happened to me so many times where I was just like, yeah, I I can figure this out. This isn't difficult, I'm perfectly capable. And then it turns out I wasn't. Uh, and I think we can all understand and relate to that. So that's what happened. That's what got them into this pickle, and here they are uh there in verse 16, and it lays it out for us. They they realize, whoops, uh yeah, just three days later, right? Which in in that time feels like 20 minutes to us, right? Like we we find out stuff so quickly now. But yeah, just three days later, after they had made this agreement and sworn that particular oath, and they're like, Oh, actually, you guys don't live a long ways off, like you told us, uh, you're right here, and now we can't do the thing that we wanted to do. So then uh there's the cost of the oath, and that's kind of the next major bit that that is kind of uh shining out here to me. Uh the cost of the oath was quite a bit, actually, for the people of Israel. Did you notice there were four cities that they now left alone? We can see them there in verse 17. And so it wasn't just like a small little group of people that you know were clever and smart and and fooled them. It was like a significant, uh, a significant group that was there. So four cities that they would now need to leave alone rather than uh than claiming. And what that means for them is they would now experience less than what God had intended for them. Remember God's promise way back to to Abraham, right? We can go all the way back to Genesis, and we've been learning about that on Wednesdays. We can go back and look at that, and like, yeah, he he actually had Abraham walk through the the length and the and the width of the land and to explore it and discover it. And that was the intention that God had for his people, but because of this, because they believed the lie, essentially, uh that would uh mean they were going to experience less than the fullness of that promise. And and then the the next thing, uh kind of the last thing of this part is just they made their own people mad, right? And I can kind of hear that. It's it's there in in verse uh 18. It's just a short little line. Uh it says the whole assembly grumbled against the leaders, and I can I can hear it in my head, right? I can hear, you know, this soldier over here or that guy over there just saying, ah, we shouldn't, you know, honor that oath. We just go take care of them. Why would our leaders do this? Uh we trust them to lead us well, and and just I can hear all of the talking points, right? It's just rough. Uh and so all again, all because they didn't slow their role enough to listen to God. So what do you do next? Right? And for them, they actually did find a pretty decent way forward. And we read about that in verses 19 through 21. Um, and there's a few pieces of it that I think are helpful for us. And that's always my hope, by the way, is that we'll we'll look into the text and and hopefully do our best to understand it, you know, kind of for what it meant in its time, but also really do that work of making sure that we're grappling with the ideas and principles that are there for us as well. So the first thing that I notice uh about what happens is they figure out the more important thing. And there are kind of competing values here. The one value is uh, you know, they should conquer the land. That was the mission that they were on, that's what God had tasked them with. They should have kept going to do that. So that they could do that, but to do that would mean they would be breaking their own word. And you can hear uh kind of the the conflict being resolved in their response. Um, in verse 19, it says, uh, we have given them our oath by the Lord, the God of Israel, we cannot touch them now. Uh and then in verse 20 it says, This is what we'll do to them, we'll let them live, so that God's wrath will not fall on us for breaking the or the oath we swore to them. So even though the leaders recognized the frustration and the grumbling, right, of the rest of the people, the people that were gathered there, and they knew that this probably wasn't going to go over well with them, that that their job wasn't to please their own people. Their job was to listen to the Lord and to honor the word that they had given. They had made an oath, and and that meant something. It was not convenient for them to keep that oath now that they had this new information, that they had discovered the deception, but they had they had given their word and they were now going to keep their word. Uh and so they they figure out the more important thing. The more important thing was not pleasing the people and just you know, forgetting what they had said. The important thing was honoring their word, and in so doing, honoring the Lord in that. And then it's finding a solution. So, what's the solution? You know, for them, you heard the story. But uh, okay, well, we're gonna let you guys live, but you're gonna do this busy work for us, right? You're gonna do this labor for us, and and in doing that, you're gonna facilitate um a better life for us as a group of people. I wanted to just take a moment, sort of as we're in this space, and just acknowledge that leadership is hard, right? When you're trying to move forward after that bad choice was made, it's just it's difficult. And I I know, right? And and I'm sure that a lot of you also know that you can make the best decision and still have people feel some kind of way about it, right? People get upset about this, or maybe they feel like their values or their voice wasn't heard in the way that they would have liked. And it's just a part of life, and and that's that's okay. But when you make like a bad decision or a wrong decision, it actually takes quite a bit of time and energy to rebuild that trust. And it just is just a part of life, and it's it's just kind of a challenge. So I'd like to leave uh all of us with just a couple of points of reflection. Uh, the first one is a request, and then the second one is just kind of breaking down how we make wise decisions. So the first one that I wanted to leave you with is pray for your leaders, especially the leaders in in churches. Uh the your pastor, your elders, your board, whatever, excuse me, whatever structure you have at your church, just pray for those people. Um, and and there can be a whole host of reasons for that, but just leadership is challenging. So just lift them up and um, yeah, treat them with that kind of honor. They will appreciate the fact that you are lifting them up to the Lord on a regular basis. And then I wanted to talk about making wise decisions, uh, because this is what this story I think is is really about. And and so just hopefully I can do this in a succinct and helpful way. The first thing is always ask God. Always ask him. It doesn't matter. I mean, I don't ask the Lord about what clothes I should put on today. Like, I'm not talking about that, but just you you know, you know those moments where you're like, oh, I've got a choice to make here. Then seek God in that in that moment. And then here's the thing though, he doesn't always write the answer on the wall, right? Sometimes we ask him and he doesn't come back with, you know, like a a PowerPoint presentation about what you should do and why. Like it's not, it doesn't always work that way. Now, sometimes the Lord speaks to us in a very clear manner, and that those are great moments, but he doesn't always do that. So, so then what do we do, right? Well, I ask the question, does it line up with the scriptures? Now, there are a bunch of things that the scripture is super clear about, and it makes that decision easy, right? But there are also a whole bunch of things where scripture doesn't address the particular thing that we're going through, either because uh, you know, of societal reasons or technology reasons or whatever the other thing might be. It just doesn't specifically address our uh our situation. But I can still ask the question, does this thing line up with scriptural values? And that takes a little more effort and work, but we can work through that, and we can do that in that attitude and in that posture of prayer. Thirdly, use the gifts God has given you. Sometimes the Lord is just like, yeah, you you can kind of make your own choice on this, and and so then then we just do, and we do that with confidence and and we go for it. And that's the last bit. Just do the thing when you when you're ready, and you've worked through this, you've asked the Lord, you've prayed about it, you've consulted the scriptures, and maybe a few wise friends along the way, but yeah, do the thing and uh and then rest easy about all of that. I hope that this has been encouraging to you and helpful for you. Let me pray for us. Jesus, thank you for this good day. God, would you would you just continue to be constantly present with us? And God, for for those of us who are in the midst of of needing that wisdom from you, Lord, would you show yourself to us? Would you lead us? Help us to pay attention that we love you. Amen.