The Trouble with Common Sense: Gibeon's Deception

Beware of Trusting Common Sense

Common sense is the basic ability to perceive, understand, and judge in a manner that is shared by nearly all people. Now you may have heard…maybe you even subscribe to the theory…that the problem with common sense is that it’s not so common anymore! But, this morning we study a passage of Scripture that, solely relying on common sense, makes all the sense in the world. However, as Jesus followers, we’re not called to common sense, but to diligently follow. To that we say: beware of trusting common sense.

Failure To Seek God’s Wisdom (vv.1-15): trusting crusty bread.

Definite beginning of a new section…opens the same way as Josh.5:1 opened — statement about Canaanite kings.

Attention turns from a summary of Canaanite kings to a particular group: Gibeon.

We know information that Israel does not. The Gibeonite ruse would fool even the best common sense among us.

Well thought-out: all appearances of being on the road for quite some time.

Possible familiarity even with Mosaic law — make a treaty with us, we’re not from around here

Deuteronomy 20:10–15 CSB

“When you approach a city to fight against it, make an offer of peace. If it accepts your offer of peace and opens its gates to you, all the people found in it will become forced laborers for you and serve you. However, if it does not make peace with you but wages war against you, lay siege to it. When the Lord your God hands it over to you, strike down all its males with the sword. But you may take the women, dependents, animals, and whatever else is in the city—all its spoil—as plunder. You may enjoy the spoil of your enemies that the Lord your God has given you. This is how you are to treat all the cities that are far away from you and are not among the cities of these nations.

Exodus 23:32 CSB

You must not make a covenant with them or their gods.

Exodus 34:12 CSB

Be careful not to make a treaty with the inhabitants of the land that you are going to enter; otherwise, they will become a snare among you.

Deuteronomy 7:1–2 CSB

“When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess, and he drives out many nations before you—the Hethites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, seven nations more numerous and powerful than you—and when the Lord your God delivers them over to you and you defeat them, you must completely destroy them. Make no treaty with them and show them no mercy.

They refuse to answer Israel’s skepticism, instead submitting to Israel. When Joshua asks who are you and where do you come from? they still skirt the question. They don’t answer the issue of ethnic identity, and they only state that they’re from a far away land.

Even note how Gibeon deals with their report — even though geographically they would’ve been one of the first to hear about Jericho and Ai’s fall, they are silent about that. Instead, we have heard of…all that He did in Egypt, and…to the two Amorite kings beyond the Jordan.

Their plan is thorough and they stick to the script: look at our tattered clothes, cracked and repaired wine-skins, and our dry and crumbly bread.

So what does Israel do?

Joshua 9:14a (CSB)

Then the men of Israel took some of their provisions...

On purpose I want to leave out v.14b and come back to it. Israel trusts crusty bread.

Joshua 9:15 CSB

So Joshua established peace with them and made a treaty to let them live, and the leaders of the community swore an oath to them.

They make a covenant, which is a solemn agreement or promise, typically confirmed by a sacrifice or sharing a meal together (they took some of their provisions) binding two parties together as they commit themselves to the rights and responsibilities demanded by the relationship. And, here’s the thing about covenants — according to Nu.30:2 and 1 Sam.20:8, they must be honored:

Numbers 30:2 CSB

When a man makes a vow to the Lord or swears an oath to put himself under an obligation, he must not break his word; he must do whatever he has promised.

1 Samuel 20:8 CSB

Deal kindly with your servant, for you have brought me into a covenant with you before the Lord. If I have done anything wrong, then kill me yourself; why take me to your father?”

And, the obligations to the covenant are watched over by God:

1 Samuel 20:42 CSB

Jonathan then said to David, “Go in the assurance the two of us pledged in the name of the Lord when we said, ‘The Lord will be a witness between you and me and between my offspring and your offspring forever.’ ” Then David left, and Jonathan went into the city.

Now, let’s pause and step back for a moment. Who can blame Israel for entering into this agreement? It was an honest duping, fool me once, shame on you. Israel’s been had. Who could’ve known that the entire thing was a ruse and that Israel was entering into a covenant with Canaanite inhabitants, breaking the law that God had commanded them?

Well, Israel could have known. That’s who. And, YHWH knew. And, the Lord had put provisions in His word for such a day as this:

Numbers 27:21 CSB

He will stand before the priest Eleazar who will consult the Lord for him with the decision of the Urim. He and all the Israelites with him, even the entire community, will go out and come back in at his command.”

This brings us back to the latter part of Josh.9:14 — Israel did not seek the LORD’s decision. The tragedy of chapter 9 is right here. The enemy knows it cannot batter down the front gates, so it slips in the side door, sneakily, deceptively, almost unnoticed.

I want us to see how this relates to everyday life for us. Football coaches don’t run the ball into the teeth of a defense. Basketball coaches don’t match up their smallest player on the other teams tallest man. You don’t trot your distance runners out to take on the 200m sprinters, and your marksmen aren’t competing in fencing or shot put. Armies don’t attack the enemy stronghold, and spiritual warfare, Satan and his minions, it’s not often they hit where we’re most fortified. Instead, he tends to hit our weaknesses with temptation and he slips in the side door of indifference when we neglect prayer and God’s Word.

Israel neglects God’s command in Num.27:21 and breaks the law again, making a covenant with a Canaanite nation, because of it.

This leads to our second point. Israel finds itself in...

A Moral Conundrum (vv.16-27): should they stay or should they go?

Israel discovers three days later that the Gibeonites weren’t just Canaanites…the were their neighbors!

Alright, so moral dilemma time: kill them or let them stay? The Canaanites were devoted to destruction, and while yes, there was an affirmation about the nature of YHWH from the Gibeonites, their confession falls noticeably short of Rahab’s. Even they way the Gibeonites speak of YHWH seems to indicate a distance from Him, and they cast themselves not on YHWH’s mercy, but on Joshua’s.

The leaders of the community refuse to attack because of the oath that they’d sworn. Why? I think two reasons:

An oath is binding, and Israel knows that the Decalogue requires them to not swear deceitfully. So, it’s likely that they fear divine retribution at this point. Which is still quite the moral conundrum, because they’ve already transgressed God’s law, so what’s holding back divine judgment now? Here’s a good lesson I think for us: live as faithfully from the point you’re at moving forward, no matter where you find yourself. In others, don’t make two wrongs out of one…or in this case, three wrongs out of two.

But, even more telling I think is the fact that Israel had sworn an oath to them by the LORD. This is significant because it means that God’s name is on the line…however Israel acts, it will reflect directly on God’s character.

Gibeon reveals indeed they did have information about God’s law and what had been commanded YHWH’s servant Moses.

So, Israel must deal and live with the consequences of its hasty and unwise decision.

Gibeon will be cursed and serve Israel as woodcutters and water carriers.

It is a reminder that even when we deal with our guilt before a holy God, we are often not absolved from the consequences. God’s people are called to live as faithfully as possible in spite of their folly. Our preferences, conveniences, and justifications do not dissolve difficult situations, and we must always be moving forward not in our own ways and wisdoms, but constantly striving from this point forward to honor God. This is what Israel and Joshua does, and the end is result is quite fascinating.

A Redemptive Sovereignty (vv.23, 27): hey y’all, watch this!

There are two verses I want to point out specifically, and then hopefully we can see God’s sovereignty and heart in all of this. First:

Joshua 9:23 CSB

Therefore you are cursed and will always be slaves—woodcutters and water carriers for the house of my God.”

And then,

Joshua 9:27 CSB

On that day he made them woodcutters and water carriers—as they are today—for the community and for the Lord’s altar at the place he would choose.

Two things in these verses that stand out…two phrases I want to draw your attention to:

In verse 23, for the house of my God.

In verse 27, for the community and for the LORD’s altar.

Why are these two verses significant?

First, it underscores God’s sovereignty in all matters, reminding us that in every situation, God works to bring Himself glory. There is a redemptive purpose that is active in the world around us. Divine sovereignty is a central theme that runs throughout Scripture, and it refers to God’s all-encompassing rule. It’s displayed in His kingship over His people, but it stretches beyond the borders of just Israel and the church as He orchestrates the events of human history as a whole. We are even reminded that no one can thwart this will:

Isaiah 14:27 CSB

The Lord of Armies himself has planned it; therefore, who can stand in its way? It is his hand that is outstretched, so who can turn it back?

Or, consider Genesis 4 and the story of Cain and Abel.

There is a second significance though, a redemptive purpose that I believe exists in this passage. In the curse of servitude, notice where the Gibeonites will serve: right next to where YHWH worship takes place. In the curse, there’s actually a blessing. Listen to the words of the psalmist:

Psalm 84:10 CSB

Better a day in your courts than a thousand anywhere else. I would rather stand at the threshold of the house of my God than live in the tents of wicked people.

God sovereignly ordains the deception of the Gibeonites to place them in the place where their knowledge and understanding of who YHWH is will have the best chance of expanding and bringing God glory.

Call to Action:

The moral conundrum really never seems to be resolved. It leaves us with this challenge: don’t mess up in the first place…lol! In all seriousness, Israel mess could’ve been avoided had it sought YHWH.

Second, if we’re ever going to rightly understand difficult situations, we must learn to interpret them in light of Scripture. No, Joshua 9 does not provide us with a nice, neat answer. We need the rest of the counsel of Scripture to rightly understand this passage. So, be diligent students of God’s Word.

Any time the LORD is not taken into account, there will be varying opinions about what is right. There is only one opinion that matters…one opinion that is right. It doesn’t matter how popular one opinion may be if it fails to line up with God’s word. One person siding with the Word of God is right, even if the other 99% doesn’t agree.

Often God beckons us to seek His will and direction. Meanwhile, we “snatch our lives into our own control. We sample moldy bread, and we act foolishly because we have been deceived by what we see and what people say.”

Rest in God’s redemptive purposes. We need the reminder that God’s grace is sufficient for all of our failures.