Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
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Analytical
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Now the fame of Joshua’s army, God’s army is spreading all throughout the land.
People know that this army has been pretty much unstoppable.
They have defeated Jericho, they have defeated AI and Bethel and some of the kings of the land decided that they are going to get together and they are going to join forces.
v1-2 The kings were afraid.. they saw the writing on the wall.
The reputation of Israel and their God proceeded them.
This is how serious their problem was.
Countries that would normally war with each other were creating alliances against this powerful God and His army.
So they form united fronts against Israel.
v 6 The Gibeonites saw what was happening and they knew they couldn’t defeat God’s army.
They chose a different strategy than the other kings.
Instead of fighting against an army they couldn’t win against, they figured they would join them.
They figured, “maybe we can make them feel sorry for us, maybe we can tug on their heart strings and preserve our lives.
But it wasn’t just preserving their lives.
In these ancient times, cultures took pride in who they were.
They took pride in their heritage.
They wanted to make sure that their culture, their livelihood, their gods, their worship would remain intact.
You see, when Joshua took out Jericho, he wiped them out.
Took all the people off of the map.
Wiped them and the memory of them off of the face of the earth.
Along with the people who were wiped out of Jericho, so was the worship of their pagan gods.
No longer would those fake gods be worshiped.
This was part of God’s plan.
Destroy these places that are wicked along with their wicked practices so that His people would not be influenced by them.
When the worshipers were destroyed, so was the influence of their gods.
These Gibeonites want to desperately find a way to preserve who they are and so they come up with a plan that will hopefully assure their future as a people.
They put on worn out clothes, worn out shoes to make it seem like they were traveling a far distance.
They even brought some stale bread to try and convince Israel that they were from a distant land hoping to make a covenant with them.
Josh n9 7-13
Joshua 7
Essentially they are saying, “we aren’t from around here, we aren’t part of these lands that you are conquering, figuring that they would be exempt from the war.
And they lied and deceived Israel asking if they could make a covenant, an agreement with Israel.
Essentially they are saying, “we aren’t from around here, we aren’t part of these lands that you are conquering, figuring that they would be exempt from the war.
And they lied and deceived Israel asking if they could make a covenant, an agreement with Israel.
(PrComm) A lying tongue can buy a bit of reprieve, but deception never works permanently.
(PrComm) Deception only pays temporarily, never ultimately.
Some men from Israel questioned them (the right thing to do) “Maybe you guys are local and trying to get one over on us”
They tell their sob story and get to tell Joshua.
“The bread was warm when we left… the wine skins were new...
They check the bread, they look at the wine skins and They made peace with them.
verse 14 But they did NOT ask council from the LORD.
This is the problem.
They did not ask council from the Lord.
Many people, myself included fail to ask council of the Lord.
That sounds so formal but it shouldn’t.
We have a God who loves us like a father and wants, wants us to come to Him.
Why wouldn’t you go to your father if you have a question?
Or need advice?
Or are looking for answers?
Let’s talk for a couple of minutes about how your heavenly father wants to hear from His children.
We don’t realize everything that is going on in the world the way God does.
We don’t have the understanding that God has.
First, understand that we don’t know what is going on.
Accept that.
Embrace that.
Bring your thoughts, your concerns, your desires to the Lord.
Do not act on your own.
I know it seems to make sense, I know common sense tells you to do this or that but I am telling you that your Heavenly Father desires to have you come to Him.
He wants his children to approach him.
Not to act on your own.
I like to think the best of people, sometimes to a fault.
I think, “oh, we can trust this person to do what they say”.
And then we get burned.
But ultimately, God knows the hearts of people, God knows the situations.
We, like Joshua need to learn to bring to the Lord everything that we are faced with.
Yes, make it a habit.
Make God part of every single decision you make.
Even in the little things.
you might think that goes too far but what area in your life do you want God to leave alone?
I don’t think I want God to leave any area of my life up to me cause I will just screw it up.
Don’t think that the routine, small, seemingly unimportant parts of life don’t matter to God, they do.
Even if I don’t get what I think is an answer, I still give it to God.
I pray, Lord, your will be done.
Your will be done.
I don’t hear anything God, but I trust in the outcome of this situation to be your will because I am giving you my part in this.
I can’t control others, I can only control my releasing to you.
So bring every little thing to the Lord and trust that He is involved.
Then you learn to trust God even more.
Trusting Him even more.
If Joshua had brought this to the Lord, God might have told him what was going on and protected him.
Now the Gibeonites, from their perspective, they deceive to that they can preserve their lives.
They think they are getting one over on Joshua.
They are being sly here.
But there will always be consequences to deception.
You will always be found out when you deceive, eventually.
It never goes away.
16-18 They travelled and got to their cities
Turns out they found out that this group of people were actually their neighbors.
Their lies found them out.
They actually were part of the Joshua’s campaign!
What is Joshua supposed to do now?
We know what Joshua’s people want.
They feel justified to destroy them because that is what they were supposed to do, originally.
But Joshua doesn’t attack because they made an oath, a covenant with the Gibeonites in the name of the Lord.
When they make that oath to the Lord they are bound by it.
Even though it was done deceptively.
The people were upset with Joshua and wondered why he wouldn’t just kill them all.
It is because of the covenant they made.
The agreement was sacred because it had been ratified by an oath in the name of the LORD, the God of Israel (cf.
v. 15).
To break it would bring down the wrath of God on Israel,
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