Sermon Tone Analysis

I. The Confederation Against Israel, 1-2

Conspiracies tend to come apart.

Up to this point, the Israelites have attacked and taken individual cities.

Now, they encounter coalitions of cities and people groups.

The Canaanities realise the severity of their situation, that it comes down to, as they see it, as “united we stand; divided we fall.”

Six kings come against the Israelites (vv.

1–2).

It reminds us of :

Up to this point, the Israelites have attacked and taken individual cities.

Now, they encounter coalitions of cities and people groups.

Six kings come against the Israelites (vv.

1–2).

The Gibeonites choose not to fight in this coalition, instead opting to trick Joshua into a treaty (vv.

3–15).

Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? 2 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against his Anointed, (ESV)

and the peoples plot in vain?

2 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against his Anointed, (ESV)

and the rulers take counsel together,

against the LORD and against his Anointed,

The Gibeonites, though, choose not to fight in this coalition, instead opting to trick Joshua and the leaders of Israel into a covenant (vv.

3–15).

The Confederation Against Israel, 1-2

II.

The Gibeonite Gambit, 3-15

Trick and Treaty; or, The Hivites Hustle the Israelites

Gullibility over the Gibeonites’ Story

The Hivites Hustle the Israelites

A Self-Preservation Plan

The four towns of the Gibeonites were about 11 kilometers northwest of Jerusalem.

They are naturally concerned regarding the invasion of the Israelites and the destruction of Jericho, Ai, and Bethel.

Instead of aligning with the six kings in a military alliance, they opt for a more subtle approach.

They somehow have come into the knowledge that Israel was not to make peace with any of the inhabitants of Canaan; they they were all to be put to the sword.

It was the will of God, as we read in .

reveals the divine rationale for such extermination:

When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you many nations-the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you-and when the Lord your God has delivered them over to you and you have defeated them, then you must destroy them totally.

Make no treaty with them, and show them no mercy.

Do not intermarry with them.

Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons, for they will turn your sons away from following me to serve other gods, and the Lord’s anger will burn against you and will quickly destroy you.

This is what you are to do to them: Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones, cut down their Asherah poles and burn their idols in the fire.

For you are a people holy to the Lord your God.

The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession.

Israel, however, could make covenants with non-Canaanite peoples.

gives instructions regarding cities far from Canaan: “When you march up to attack a city, make its people an offer of peace.

If they accept and open their gates, all the people in it shall be subject to forced labor and shall work for you” (vv.

10-11).

In other words, their lives would be spared.

This, of course, was what the Gibeonites wanted.

So they connive to con Israel into thinking that they were from far, far away, and then play the covenant card for their protection.

As far as it goes, it seems very plausible: they donn worn-out clothing, equip themselves with played-out, busted equipment, and supplies that were going bad.

They present themselves to Joshua and the leaders of Israel.

Some were cautious and said “perhaps you live among us; then how can we make a covenant with you?”

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, to Sihon the king of Heshbon, and to Og king of Bashan, who lived in Ashtaroth.

11 So 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.”

The provenance of their provisions

Trick and Treaty; or, The Hivites Hustle the Israelites

A Plausible

Trick and Treaty; or, The Hivites Hustle the Israelites

Trick and Treaty; or, The Hivites Hustle the Israelites

A realistic report of God’s Actions

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, to Sihon the king of Heshbon, and to Og king of Bashan, who lived in Ashtaroth.

11 So 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.”

What they say is true and accurate, as far as they go.

They conveniently leave-out the events on that side of the Jordan, with the crossing of the river, and the defeat of Jericho and Ai.

A Profession of Faith?

A Profession of Faith?

We Evangelicals get all swoony when we hear religious language that sounds good to our ears, and especially in our particular Australian context where there is increasing opposition to the Gospel and Biblical truth, and we hear “God talk” from someone and we tend in our hopeful.

wishful thinking, to interpret things people say with a positive spin if they push the right buttons.

Satan comes as an angel of light, and certainly can string together words and phrases that sound right, but come right from an unsound heart.

Satan can hide a pint of poison in a lake of truth.

The statements the Gibeonites made about God were spot-on.

And Israel ate it up.

We’ve all most likely known folks who made great professions of their faith but who later turned out to be false.

The saying from Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice, “truth will out,” is true.

Now all things will be brought to light at Christ’s return, but some things will come to light much quicker.

Sometimes, though, we find out AFTER we make a decision, rather than when it would be most needful at the time.

Is What You See Really What You Get?

[The Israelites} trusted in their own natural understanding, based on observation, and our natural reaction is to say, “But what’s wrong with that?

Is it really possible to operate any other way?

Our world is a world of sense impressions.

They are all we have to go on.

We have to decide on the basis of what we see and hear and touch, and if in operating that way we make mistakes, we can hardly be blamed for them.

There is nothing else to be done.”

The great error here—I am sure you can see it—is assuming that reality is nothing more than the material.

It is true that much of reality is material.

That is why judgments based on sense impressions are proper and reliable under many circumstances.

When you pull a piece of meat out of the refrigerator and find that it is discolored and has a bad smell, it is wrong to eat it.

Your senses are given to you by God to tell you that the meat is bad and that you will probably get sick if you eat it.

That way of making a decision works for us every day in scores of situations.

But the difficulty with operating that way all the time is that reality does not consist only of the material.

There is a spiritual world too, and in that spiritual world there is a powerful, crafty, and malicious being who is bent on our destruction.

We cannot see the devil.

We cannot handle, taste, or smell his stratagems.

Therefore, in all spiritual (and all moral) areas, we need wisdom that goes beyond any we can derive from sense impressions.

This is what that often-quoted advice from Proverbs is all about.

“Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight” ().