The Deal Nobody Prayed About

Joshua

The Deal Nobody Prayed About

Joshua 9:1-27

As Delivered

BOTTOM LINE:  When you leave the Lord out, you let the enemy in.

INTRODUCTION

I want to thank Pastor Roy Wright for preaching last Sunday while I was in Fort Myers, Florida officiating a wedding. Didn't he do a great job in Joshua chapter 8? I never worry when I'm not here because I know you're in great hands. God has blessed our church with just amazing pastors and expositors of God's Word. And I'm privileged to count them as my friends.

But it is good to be back. It is good to be back with you and back in the Old Testament book of Joshua. And today we're going to be in Joshua chapter 9. I want to talk to you about the deal nobody prayed about.

You probably already know this, but this July 4th we'll be celebrating 250 years as a nation. It's amazing to think about how 250 years ago, 56 men representing 13 colonies declared their independence from Great Britain, the world's superpower of its day.

And yet, as I look at their founding documents, I recognize something that you don't often hear in the history class. They not only issued a Declaration of Independence -- they issued a declaration of dependence upon God. Whenever you read our founding documents, you'll discover that God appears four times. First of all, the document opens by appealing to the laws of nature and of nature's God. It roots all human rights not in government, but from God. It also appeals to the Supreme Judge of the world. Those signers of the Declaration of Independence said, may God judge the rectitude of our cause. And then you remember these words:

"...with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor."

They not only issued a declaration of independence from Great Britain, they issued a declaration of dependence upon the great God of heaven.

Eleven years later, the struggle was real. In the Continental Congress, it looked like things were falling apart. The debates among the representatives of 13 disparate colonies were tearing the fabric of any union they thought they could form. And one morning, 81-year-old Benjamin Franklin rose to his feet and addressed the Convention.

"I have lived, Sir, a long time. And the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth -- that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid? We have been assured, Sir, in the sacred writings that except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain who build it. I firmly believe this. And I also believe that without His concurring aid, we shall succeed in this political building no better than the builders of Babel. I therefore beg leave to move that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven be held in this Assembly every morning before we proceed to business."

And so it was decided. Because Benjamin Franklin and others recognized: we are absolutely dependent upon God. That is not only true of a nation, it's true of my life and it's true of your life. It's true of this church and the movement of God in the world.

We are desperately dependent upon God. We can have a preacher, we can have a choir, we can have programs and ministries. But unless the Spirit of the Holy One comes down, as the old hymn says, all is vain.

Now, I'll be honest with you. I'm better at declaring my independence than my dependence. I just get up in the mornings and I've got things figured out and I move on into my day. And if I'm not careful, I will forget that I desperately need God. I need His guidance. I need His power. I need His love. I need His courage. I need His discernment and direction for my life.

One of the ways I can tell I'm struggling with declaring my dependence upon God is my prayer life. That becomes the gauge of how dependent I feel on God. If I'm feeling a little independent, I'm not as likely to pray. I just go and do and make decisions and don't think about talking to God.

Now, I don't think I'm the only one in this room that struggles with that spirit of independence and prayerlessness. I think I've hung around some of you long enough to know that I'm in good company, that we all struggle at one time or another.

In fact, that's where we find ourselves today. In Joshua chapter 9, the ancient people of God were struggling in developing their faith and dependence upon God. Have you noticed something so far in this study? It's almost like their faith is strong and then they fail, and then it's strong and then they fail. You know what? That's your testimony too. In this world, God is sanctifying us and growing us and developing us. And there are going to be times we get it right and times we get it wrong. That's why I love this book. Because I can relate to these people in so many ways. The names are hard to pronounce and the places are hard to find on a map. But when I start looking at them as human beings, flesh and blood and bone, I recognize I have more in common with them than I first thought. And the same is true with you.

And they find themselves at a time where they can make a choice to be dependent on God or independent from God. And in chapter 9, we'll discover how they handle it.

I.  THE OVERCONFIDENCE OF THE PEOPLE (vv. 1-13)

Now, some of you are note takers. And so I'm going to give you the first point before we read the first verse. But I want you to notice in the first 13 verses of chapter 9 what I would title the overconfidence of the people.

Look at verse 1.

[1] Now when all the kings west of the Jordan heard about these things -- the kings in the hill country, in the western foothills and along the entire coast of the Great Sea as far as Lebanon, the kings of the Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites -- [2] they came together to make war against Joshua and Israel.

Let's pause there for a moment. The news has gotten out into the land of Canaan that Israel has defeated Jericho and Ai. But previously in this book we hear that the people of Canaan and their kings had fear and trembling when they learned about what the God of Israel was up to. Remember Rahab in chapter 2 told the spies, "We've heard about the Lord your God and what He has done to the kings on the other side of the Jordan, and it's brought great fear." We saw that same fear in chapter 5. But something has changed now. These Canaanite kings and city-states, rather than being in fear and trembling, have decided to go on the offense and fight against Israel. What changed?

It was the defeat of the people of Israel at their first attempt to take Ai. That defeat said to the other kings: these people and their God can be defeated. Why are we afraid? Let's go on the offense. There were long-lasting consequences to Achan's hidden sin in disobeying God. And now we're seeing some of the fruit of it.

Continue to read verse 3.

[3] But when the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and to Ai, [4] they on their part acted with cunning and went and made ready provisions and took worn-out sacks for their donkeys, and wineskins, worn-out and torn and mended, [5] with worn-out, patched sandals on their feet, and worn-out clothes. And all their provisions were dry and crumbly.

You say, what in the world is going on here? Well, out of those Canaanite kings, Gibeon decides, the people of Gibeon decide, we're not going to go on the offense and fight Israel. We've heard about Jericho being defeated. We've heard about the defeat of Ai. So we need to get our props department working and come up with a scheme. The Bible says they were cunning, they were deceptive. So they decide to get these props together to fool the people of Israel into thinking they are not from Canaan but from a distant country.

[6] They went to Joshua in the camp at Gilgal and said to him and to the men of Israel, "We have come from a distant country, so now make a covenant with us."

[7] But the men of Israel said to the Hivites, "Perhaps you live among us; then how can we make a covenant with you?"

In other words, maybe you're one of the Canaanites.

[8] They said to Joshua, "We are your servants." And Joshua said to them, "Who are you? And where do you come from?" [9] They said to him, "From a very distant country your servants have come, because of the name of the LORD your God. For we have heard a report of him, and all that he did in Egypt, [10] and all that he did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, Sihon the king of Heshbon, and Og king of Bashan."

So they're lying to Joshua. We're not neighbors. We are from a distant country, and we've heard of the Lord your God. Notice they do not mention Jericho or Ai, because those are recent events. If they had really been traveling a long distance, they wouldn't have known about those recent battles. So their wardrobe and their words back up what they're saying.

[11] Our elders and all the inhabitants of our country said to us, "Take provisions in your hand for the journey and go to meet them and say to them, 'We are your servants. Come now, make a covenant with us.'" [12] Here is our bread. It was still warm when we took it from our houses as our food for the journey on the day we set out to come to you, but now, behold, it is dry and crumbly. [13] These wineskins were new when we filled them, and behold, they have burst. And these garments and sandals of ours are worn out from the very long journey."

They're approaching the people of Israel with this deception to get Israel to make a peace treaty with them. You see, the law of Moses said that all the inhabitants of Canaan must be destroyed -- but you can make peace treaties with people outside Canaan. And evidently the Gibeonites have done their homework. They knew the law of Moses. They knew that this was a possibility. And they said, if we can only convince them that we're not their close neighbors, they can make an agreement with us in the name of the Lord their God, and they're not likely to break that word.

And the reason I'm calling verses 1 through 13 the overconfidence of the people is because you don't hear Joshua belaboring the question. At first he's saying, who are you? Where are you really from? So I give him credit for that. But they don't persist. There's no mention of praying about this. No mention of talking to God. No mention of seeking discernment or the will of God. They are just operating on what their eyes can see, what their ears can hear, what their hands can handle, what their minds can comprehend.

By the way, there's a place for that. God gave us reason for a reason. But there also comes a time when you better not be overconfident, thinking you've got all the answers. Because there are things you cannot see. There are things you cannot hear. There are things going on you cannot always understand. And you're going to need God.

II.  THE ABSENCE OF PRAYER (vv. 14-15)

That leads me to the second observation. You'll notice this in verses 14 and 15. I would call this the absence of prayer. So we've seen the overconfidence of the people -- but notice the absence of prayer.

There are some verses in Scripture you don't need to know the Hebrew to understand what they mean. Look at verse 14.

[14] So the men took some of their provisions, but did not ask counsel from the LORD.

Pretty blatant, the problem here. They decide to take some of the provisions, look at it, examine it. Well, you know, these are wineskins -- they have burst. They have been patched back up. Man, those sandals, pretty worn out. Look at their shabby clothing. They tell us they're from a distant country. I guess they're right. Every bit of evidence says they're telling the truth. But they did not ask counsel from the Lord. They did not seek the will of God.

[15] And Joshua made peace with them and made a covenant with them, to let them live, and the leaders of the congregation swore to them.

Have you ever been so confident in a decision that you went right ahead and made it, only to look back later and say, what was I thinking? Have you ever made a financial decision, it sounded good, you signed the bottom line, and then later you're going, what was I thinking? That was a dumb decision. Have you ever gone into a relationship and it looked great -- it could even be an answer to your prayers, you thought -- but you never talked to God about it. You were just so confident, you rushed headlong and never consulted God.

I remember as a kid growing up in Valdosta, Georgia, on Brookwood Drive. We had a little portico next to our house. And I would come home from school and watch the reruns of the Adventures of Superman; you know, the 1950s version. And I decided somewhere as a little boy that if I had a cape, I could fly. So I went into the linen closet and I got out a towel, and I tucked it around my back and into my shirt collar, and I shimmied up that portico and got on that sloped roof. And I decided I was Superman.

And I jumped.

Have you ever had the breath knocked out of you? Have you ever hit the ground so hard that you thought you had died? In that very moment you cannot even catch your breath. I remember stumbling into our living room and my mother asking, what's wrong? And I could not even speak.

If I had simply taken advantage of someone to whom I had access, someone who knew better, who had more experience, who had a better vantage point, I might have heard the words: that's dumb. You can't do that. But I didn't take advantage of the access I had to someone who was a little farther down the road, who understood things better than a little kid could. And I suffered the consequences of it.

I'm going to tell you something. When it comes to the things of our life, we've got a God who is higher and holier, and He knows all and He knows best. He sees things you don't see. He understands things you cannot understand. He's got a plan that doesn't always make sense to you, but if you will seek Him, He will give you wisdom. The brother of Jesus said, if you lack wisdom, ask God and He will give it to you willingly and liberally. God's not holding His wisdom back.

The problem in my life, maybe in your life, is I am often less inclined to ask for God's wisdom. My problem is I don't always pray about things. Because if I would just stop and say, Lord, before I make this decision, what do you think? I might not make the dumb decisions I've made in my life.

Now, does this mean I need to get up in the morning and ask God what color of socks to wear? No, that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about those decisions that affect my relationship with God or with other people. Those are the things I better be talking to God about. Because the supreme command of Scripture is to love God with all of your heart, mind, soul and strength. The second great commandment, love your neighbor as yourself. Deuteronomy 6:5. Leviticus 19:18. That's what Jesus taught us. And so before I make decisions that are going to impact my relationship for good or bad with God or with other people, I better talk to God about those things.

Now, here's the reason why some of us don't talk to God about these things: we don't want to know what He's going to say. We've already made up our mind. We want to do what we want to do, and we don't want to talk to God about it. This is why some people don't come to church. This is why some people don't read the Bible. They say, well, you know, I just don't understand the Bible. No, sir, the problem is you understand it full well and you don't want to humble yourself before God.

Other times we don't pray, not because we've already made up our mind, but because we don't have a bad heart, we don't have a bad intention. We just think we've got it figured out. And I don't really need any more information. So we fail to talk to God. We become overconfident. And that leads to prayerlessness.

In the Bible Knowledge Commentary, Donald Campbell writes: "Did Joshua think the evidence to be so beyond question that they needed no advice from Yahweh? Did he think the matter too routine or unimportant to bother God with it? Whatever the cause, it was a mistake to trust their own judgment and make their own plans."

Their problem was prayerlessness. They did not see what only God could see.

It reminds me of that time in Matthew's Gospel, chapter 17. Jesus has given us that amazing glimpse of his glory up on the Mount of Transfiguration, where He took Peter, James, and John. They caught a glimpse of His deity on that mountain. But then they come back down and join the remaining disciples below. And the disciples come to Jesus with a boy whose father said, he's demon-possessed, I brought him to your disciples to set him free. But they could not. They have failed.

Privately they asked Jesus, why did we fail? You've given us authority. We've done this before. But something went wrong and we couldn't do it this time. It was almost like they were going through the motions. It's kind of like abracadabra, you just say the right words and boom, everything happens. They weren't depending on God. They were just going through the motions. And Jesus replied to them in Matthew 17, "This kind does not come out except by prayer." That was their problem. They had failed to pray.

I wonder how many times God looks at us and says, this problem you're trying to tackle is not going to be solved except by prayer. God will either change the circumstances or He's going to change you as you go through these circumstances. But often we have not because we ask not.

The answer is Philippians 4:6, where the apostle Paul wrote:

[6] Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

Worry about nothing. Pray about everything.

And my problem, and I think most of our problems, is not that we pray too much. We pray too little. And I want you as a church to hold me accountable to this as your pastor.

It is possible for me as your pastor to get so comfortable after 40 or 41 years of ministry. I know I don't look that old. I was 17 when I became an associate pastor at a little church in Lake Park, Georgia. So it's easy for me to say, oh, I've done this before. I've done that meeting. I've done a wedding like that. I've done a funeral like that. I've done counseling like that. I've sat in finance meetings, in long-range planning committee meetings, missions meetings, and get so comfortable with what God's done in my life in the past that I forget to depend on Him in the present.

It is also possible for me to get so busy in the things of ministry that I forget to pray. You remember in Acts chapter 6, the church has exploded with growth -- 3,000 people on the day of Pentecost get saved and baptized, and the church keeps multiplying and growing. And then there came a complaint among some of the widows that they were being neglected in the food ministry of the church. And the apostles called the congregation together and said, this is an important ministry, but if we keep doing this, we will have to neglect prayer and the Word. It is more needful for you that we remain in prayer and the Word. So put some people over this ministry to make sure these widows are taken care of.

It is possible for me as your pastor to get pulled in a million different directions. And my heart wants to say yes to everyone. But if I'm neglecting prayer and the Word of God, it will impact us in a negative way. You want to make sure your pastor's prayed up and in the Word. And if you ever find me leading our church where I'm not doing those two things, please help me. Call me out on it. Say, pastor, don't you think it might be more needful for the whole health of our congregation for you to spend time in prayer and in the Word?

BOTTOM LINE:  When you leave the Lord out, you let the enemy in.

III.  THE SERIOUSNESS OF THEIR PROMISE (vv. 16-27)

Let me give you a third thought. We've seen the overconfidence of the people. We've seen the absence of prayer. But notice, thirdly, the seriousness of their promise.

So they've made this covenant. And then three days later...

[16] At the end of three days after they had made a covenant with them, they heard that they were their neighbors and that they lived among them. [17] And the people of Israel set out and reached their cities on the third day. Now their cities were Gibeon, Chephirah, Beeroth, and Kiriath-jearim.

In other words, these aren't people from a distant country. They're about 25 miles away. This is like saying, you're not from San Francisco, California. You're from Blue Ridge, Georgia, telling us you're from a far-distant country.

So now the people of Israel are mad.

[18] But the people of Israel did not attack them, because the leaders of the congregation had sworn to them by the LORD, the God of Israel. Then all the congregation murmured against the leaders.

And all the pastors said, amen. You know, we have to forgive everybody in the church about their sin, but you make one mistake, and there’s roast preacher for lunch. So they're murmuring: how did they get us into this mess? So anyway.

[19] But all the leaders said to all the congregation, "We have sworn to them by the LORD, the God of Israel, and now we may not touch them. [20] This we will do to them: let them live, lest wrath be upon us because of the oath that we swore to them." [21] And the leaders said to them, "Let them live." So they became cutters of wood and drawers of water for all the congregation, just as the leaders had said of them.

[22] Joshua summoned them, and he said to them, "Why did you deceive us, saying, 'We are very far from you,' when you dwell among us? [23] Now therefore you are cursed, and some of you shall never be anything but servants, cutters of wood and drawers of water for the house of my God."

[24] They answered Joshua, "Because it was told to your servants for a certainty that the LORD your God had commanded his servant Moses to give you all the land and to destroy all the inhabitants of the land from before you -- so we feared greatly for our lives because of you and did this thing. [25] And now, behold, we are in your hand. Whatever seems good and right in your sight to do to us, do it."

[26] So he did this to them and delivered them out of the hand of the people of Israel, and they did not kill them. [27] But Joshua made them that day cutters of wood and drawers of water for the congregation and for the altar of the LORD, to this day, in the place that he should choose.

The Gibeonites came clean. The reason we deceived you is we heard about the Lord your God. Does that phrase sound familiar? It's almost identical to what Rahab confessed all the way back in chapter 2. And what did God do in response to Rahab's confession that the God of Israel is the Lord? God saved her and her family. She worked shrewdly to make sure that she and her family were spared. And the Gibeonites have acted shrewdly. And God saves them from the condemnation of His judgment.

Their curse is they were going to be servants in Israel, and that's what they said anyway. We're your servants. We want to be vassals to you. Okay, you'll be servants. You're going to have to cut wood for all these 2 million-plus people. And you're going to have to draw water. And some of you Gibeonites are going to serve in the house of the Lord at the altar. Every day you see that sacrificial system and the blood of innocent lambs flowing, you will be reminded that the Lord our God, Yahweh, is a holy God. He judges sin. But He's also a righteous, forgiving God. He gives a substitute in place of sinners.

Isn't that just like our God? God was saying to all of Canaan: you can all be saved if you'll repent and turn to Me. But if you persist in fighting Me, you will be judged.

Centuries later, when Israel returns from exile in Babylon and begins to rebuild the walls around the holy city of Jerusalem -- some of you are reading and studying Nehemiah right now -- in the report, when you're given a list of who all is helping to rebuild the walls, guess who's there? The Gibeonites are helping to rebuild the city of God. God brings sinners into His family when they repent of their sin and believe in Him.

CONCLUSION

So what does this have to do with us?

First of all, if you're a follower of Jesus Christ, here's the bottom line that God placed on my heart as a burden. When you leave the Lord out, you let the enemy in. When you leave Me out, you let the enemy in. You're vulnerable.

Well, God, I don't want to do that. How can I declare my dependence upon You?

Pray and seek His face in the Word of God, and He'll direct your steps.

"Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths." -- Proverbs 3:5-6

Is there a decision you're about to make that you haven't talked to the Lord about? Have you laid that relationship at His feet? Lord, give me Your will here. Give me wisdom here. Husband, are you laying your relationship to your wife and your children before the Lord? Lord, I'll stand before You one day and give an account of my life and how I've lived and how I've loved. What do you want me to do here? I'm commanded by You to love my wife as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for her. Lord, help me. I can't do this on my own. I'm dependent on You.

Wife, have you laid that marriage before the Lord? Is it a financial decision? You're about to go to the car dealership, have you talked to God about it? You're about to sign for the mortgage, have you talked to the Lord about it? I don't know what He'll tell you. But you can't go wrong talking to the Lord about it. No one has ever said, I'm so sorry I prayed and sought God's face. We've all had to confess, I'm so sorry, when we didn't.

Is God calling you to service? Ministry? Missions? Have you laid your vocation before the Lord? Have you laid your future before the Lord and said, what would You have me to do, Lord? Are you facing a temptation that feels too good to be true? Have you talked to the Lord about it? Because when you leave the Lord out, you let the enemy in. Don't do that.

Gospel Invitation

But if you're not a follower of Jesus, I hope you see yourself in the Gibeonites. Even when you've sinned, even when you've messed up, even when you're under the rightful condemnation of God, He is still a God of mercy and love. And as Pastor Roy preached last Sunday, the God of a second chance.

Take it today. By turning from your sin and just coming to Him, You are the Lord God Almighty, forgive me, save me. The Bible says in Romans 10:13, whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Closing Prayer

Heavenly Father, thank you for this time we've had in Your Word. I pray, Father, that You would help each one of us to examine our hearts. To look this week, are there decisions I'm about to make that I haven't talked to You about? Lord, forgive us for our spirit of independence, our spirit of prayerlessness. And help us to be a people who are desperately dependent upon You. In Jesus' name, amen.

BOTTOM LINE:  When you leave the Lord out, you let the enemy in.