A: INTRODUCTION
This week's study will focus on one portion of a rather large text. All are encouraged to read
chapters 9-12 of Joshua this week. Before turning our attention to the specific text verses this
morning, let us consider briefly the historic content of these chapters.
1. Chapter 9 opens with an account of the formation of a confederation of Canaanite kings.
a. Remember, Canaan was not a "nation," as we know it. It was a land dotted with
"kingdoms," each of which comprised little more than a city and surrounding lands.
Some of these city-states were relatively large and powerful, like Jericho; others were
quite small. Each was ruled by a "king" who provided protection for his surrounding
"subjects" who, in turn, provided the economic base for the region. In this way the land
of Canaan was much like Europe in the Middle Ages.
b. News of Israel's great victories at Jericho and Ai had encouraged these independent kings
to join forces in an attempt to present a united defense front before the invading Israelis.
The great "pause" at the twin peaks of Mt. Ebal and Mt. Gerizim ( Joshua 8:30-35 ) had
given these kings the opportunity to accomplish this union.
2. Chapter 10 recounts some details of Israel's "southern campaign" in Canaan.
a. The confederation kings are listed in v.1-5
(1) Adoni-Zedek, king of J __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __
(2) Hoham, king of H __ __ __ __ __
(3) Piram, king of J __ __ __ __ __ __
(4) Japhia, king of L __ __ __ __ __ __
(5) Debir, king of E __ __ __ __
b. Joshua and the army of Israel meets these kings in a great battle joined near the city of
G __ __ __ __ __ (which had not joined the confederation), for reasons we will consider in
this morning's study.
c. v.7-15 contains the account of Israel's great victory, provided by God through two miracles:
(1) a killing h __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __, and
(2) the extension of d __ __ __ __ __ __ __ ("The Day the Sun 'Stood Still'")
d. v.21 declares that, in the battle, Israel did not suffer a single casualty!
e. v.26 notes that Joshua personally executed each of the five kings.
f. v.28-41 contains the record of Israel's victorious "southern" campaign.
3. Chapter 11 opens with the formation of a second coalition of Canaanite kings, this one made up
of northern leaders.
a. The fighting force created by this coalition was a most impressive one!
Joshua 11:4 [ TLB ]
All these kings responded by mobilizing their armies, and uniting to crush Israel.
Their combined troops, along with a vast array of horses and chariots, covered the
landscape around the Springs of Merom as far as one could see.
b. But v.6 recounts God's promise of victory to His people.
Joshua 11:6 [ TLB ]
But the Lord said to Joshua, "Don't be afraid of them, for by this time tomorrow
they will all be dead!"
c. V.7-23 includes a brief account of Israel's victorious over many of the kingdoms of Canaan.
(1) V.18 notes that the campaign lasted s __ __ __ __ years.
(2) V.15 reminds us that Joshua carefully o __ __ __ __ __ all of the Lord's instructions
to Moses.
4. Chapter 12 lists the thirty-one kings who, along with their cities, were destroyed by the army
of Israel.
B. NARRATIVE
Joshua 11:19 states that none of the Canaanite cities was offered a peace treaty, except the
Hivites of G __ __ __ __ __. The curious matter of the Gibeonites is recorded in Joshua 9:3-26,
and will be the focal point of this morning's study.
1. One has to be impressed with the ingenuity of the Gibeonites' plan to deceive Joshua.
a. Their elaborate charade involving pretending to be ambassadors from a far-away land was
thorough and carefully-planned.
b. Somehow the Gibeonites had become aware that their only hope for survival was to pass
themselves off as a contingent of citizens from a city outside Canaan.
Deuteronomy 7:1-2 [ TLB ]
When the Lord brings you into the Promised Land, as he soon will, he will destroy the
following seven nations, all greater and mightier than you are:
the Hittites,
the Girgashites,
the Amorites,
the Canaanites,
the Perizzites, the Hivites, the Jebusites.
When the Lord your God delivers them over to you to be destroyed, do a complete job
of it -- don't make any treaties or show them mercy; utterly wipe them out.
Deuteronomy 20:10-16 [ TLB ]
As you approach a city to fight against it, first offer it a truce. If it accepts the truce and
opens its gates to you, then all its people shall become your servants. But if it refuses and
won't make peace with you, you must besiege it.
When the Lord your God has given it to you, kill every male in the city; but you may keep
for yourselves all the women, children, cattle and booty. These instructions apply only to
distant cities, not to those in the Promised Land itself.
For in the cities within the boundaries of the Promised Land you are to save no one;
destroy every living thing.
c. Their testimony to Joshua included knowledge of Israel's conquests east of the Jordan River,
but cleverly omitted any reference to the recent victories at Jericho and Ai.
2. At the same time, one has to be disappointed in the great blunder in this matter of Joshua and
the other leaders of Israel.
a. They "sampled the provisions of the impostors (dry and moldy bread? Mmmmm-good!)
b. Yet they did not "I __ __ __ __ __ __ of the Lord."
3. Joshua 9:15 [ NIV ]
Then Joshua made a treaty of peace with them to let them live, and the leaders of the
assembly ratified it by oath.
a. The first phrase here is composed of two separate clauses in Hebrew.
(1) "He made an alliance with them and made peace with them."
(2) "He concluded a treaty to protect their lives."
b. The treaty is sealed with an o __ __ __ by the leaders.
"The heads of government in Israel always ruled with the consent of the people. Hence,
the treaty Joshua made was not valid until "the leaders of the assembly ratified it."
( Donald H. Madvig: "Joshua," in Volume 3 of The Expositor's Bible Commentary )
4. The clever ruse is discovered within t __ __ __ __ days, but Israel spares the cities of the
Gibeonites "because the leaders of the assembly had sworn an oath to them by the Lord, the
God of Israel." Two important truths are revealed in v.16-25.
a. The binding nature of an o __ __ __ taken in the n __ __ __ of G __ __.
b. The declaration of f __ __ __ __ uttered by the Gibeonites in v.24.
(1) When Joshua demanded to know why they had deceived him (a fairly silly question,
eh? ), they answered him without blinking an eye:
Your servants were clearly told how the Lord your God had commaned his
servant Moses to give you the whole land and to wipe out all its inhabitants
from before you. ( Joshua 9:24, NIV )
(2) From the perspective of Joshua, the Gibeonites were saved from God's wrath by virtue
of a rash, yet binding, o __ __ __.
(3) From the perspective of the whole canon of Scripture, the Gibeonites were saved from
God's wrath by the g __ __ __ __ of God through their f __ __ __ __ in the word of
God.
In v.9 the Gibeonites had told Joshua that they had become aware of the "fame of the
Lord your God." The Hebrew word rendered here as "fame" is often translated as
"name."
"It includes the idea of fame but is a much richer concept. The name stands
for the character of the person. The theology of the entire Old Testament can
be summarized in one sentence from the prophet Joel: And everyone who calls
on the name of the Lord will be saved (Joel 2:32a)."
( Donald Madvig: Ibid )
5. So the Gibeonites are spared. Reduced to the permanent status of "woodcutters and water
carriers," they are nonetheless brought within the veil by the grace of God. Their history in
Israel is a long one.
a. The city of Gibeon itself was assigned to the priestly family of Aaron (Joshua 21:17), so it
became a center for training in God's Word and worship. Later, during the reign of
Solomon, the tabernacle was at Gibeon (2 Chronicles 1:3, 5)
b. "When David was King in Israel, he learned that the cause of a three-year famine was that
Saul had killed many Gibeonites in his misplaced zeal for the Lord. The famine was the
Lord's punishment for breaking the oath made centuries before by Israel's leaders
( 2 Samuel 21:1-9 )."
( NavPress "Life Change" Series: Joshua )
c. "When the Jews returned from exile in Babylon, the list of those who could prove Jewish
heritage included the Gibeonites (Nehemiah 7:25). Gibeonites helped rebuild the walls
of Jerusalem (Nehemiah 3:7). Thus, it seems that the Gibeonites were eventually absorbed
into the covenant people because, like Rahab, they transferred their allegiance to the Lord."
( NavPress "Life Change" Series, Ibid)
C. APPLICATION
What can we learn from this most curious incident? What did God plan to reveal through the
record of these events which would strengthen His people of today?
1. Certainly there is much for us to learn about the taking of an o __ __ __.
a. "What was done in the book of Joshua fits into the whole structure of Scripture: An
oath made in the name of the God of holiness is to be kept with holy hands."
( Francis A. Schaeffer: Joshua and the Flow of Biblical History )
b. Psalm 15:1, 4 [ NKJV ]
Lord, who may abide in Your tabernacle?
Who may dwell in Your holy hill?
He who swears to his own hurt and does not change.
c. Matthew 5:33-37 [ NKJV ]
(Jesus said:)
"Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not swear falsely, but
shall perform your oaths to the Lord.' But I say to you, do not swear at all: neither by
heaven, for it is God's throne; nor by the earth, for it is His footstool; nor by Jerusalem,
for it is the city of the great King. Nor shall you swear by your head, because you cannot
make one hair white or black. But let your 'Yes' be 'Yes,' and your 'No,' 'No.' For
whatever is more than these is from the evil one."
d. Still, we make public promises, don't we? And sometimes these are "sealed" with some
sort of token -- even if it is only a reminder of what was pledged.
(1) w __ __ __ __ __ __ v __ __ __
(2) public water b __ __ __ __ __ __
God takes any promise made to Him extremely seriously. He is our role model, so to speak,
in this matter of promises -- particularly covenant promises. Hebrews 6:13-20, which was
read as part of our worship service this morning, teaches that God bound Himself with an
oath that He would keep His promise to Abraham and Abraham's seed. The writer of that
books calls this unchanging promise of God "an a __ __ __ __ __ of the soul, both sure
and steadfast."
2. But, even more importantly, the story of the Gibeonites points us to the wonderful
g __ __ __ __ of God. The vehicle for entry into the sanctuary of God has always been
f __ __ __ __. The Gibeonites didn't "re-write" God's rule book -- their faith saved them.
a. God chose a people of His own and established them in the world as the "passage" for the
"entry" of the "vehicle of faith" into the presence of God within the veil. Under the Old
Covenant, no one could be called a child of God unless he or she became part of Israel.
b. Of couse we know that the Old Covenant was never intended by God to be permanent. It
was established to point the way to the Promised One, the Messiah, whom God promised
to His fallen creation in the Garden of Eden. The book of Hebrews goes to great lengths to
explain how Jesus Christ fulfilled the Old Covenant and ushered in the New Covenant.
Under the terms of the New Covenant, faith remains the vehicle for one's being ushered
within the veil -- faith in Jesus Christ as the mediator of the New Covenant; faith that His
blood paid the wages of sin for all who will believe on the name of Jesus Christ.
c. Hebrews 6:19 declares:
This hope we have as an anchor or the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which
enters the Presence behind the veil, where the forerunner has entered for us...
(1) Who is this "forerunner?" Our great High Priest, Jesus Christ, made both the
sacrifice and the one who offers the sacrifice by God on our behalf.
(2) "Here is described the establishment of the Abrahamic covenant, both its natural
and spiritual sides. When men make an oath, they swear by God. When God made
his promise to Abraham, he swore by himself. There is no one else by whom God
can swear because there is no one greater. He 'confirmed it by an oath' the Authorized
Version translates, but the Greek is much strong, 'He interposed himself by an oath.'
His oath was himself. It rested upon his existence and character. Therefore, to the
heirs of the promise he brought two things to bear: the unchangeableness of the act
of his will (his counsel), and the fact that he interposed himself by an oath in his own
name. And God will not lie. Why? Because God is a holy God. Men may draw back
from the idea of judgment, but if God is going to be worth anything he must be holy.
Therefore, the very justice of God should reassure us. He will never break his oath
and word. Never!
Notice the word we: "we might have the strong consolation, who have fled for refuge
to lay hold upon the hope set before us." The book of Hebrews is not just taking about
the Jews. It is talking about believers of all ages, going back to the time of Abel and
flowing on to all who will come under the promises of God. I love this picture 'we who
have fled,' for it carries us back to the Gibeonites and Rahab. Rahab fled from her place
in the kingdom of Jericho to the name of God. The Gibeonites fled from their race, the
Hivites, and they fled from the confederacy. And we who have come to Christ have
done the same thing: We have fled from Satan and the world to lay hold of the hope
that is set before us.
Like a boat with an anchor wedged in a rock, we have an anchor who already stands in
the presence of God within the veil. Who is this anchor? Jesus himself. He is the
forerunner. We will follow him because we have believed in him. He is within the veil
so we will be within the veil."
( Francis A. Schaeffer: Joshua and the Flow of Biblical History )
4. God divides the world into two camps: those within the veil and those without. The future of
each member of each of these two groups is sealed under the covenant of God. Where do you
find yourself this morning?
ref: John 3:1-17
D I S C U S S I O N G U I D E
1. One of the focal points of this morning's sermon was the oath taken by the elders of Israel to ratify
the treaty Joshua had made with the Gibeonites.
a. Read Psalm 15:1-5. List the characteristics of one who "may abide in God's tabernacle."
b. Read 2 Samuel 21:1-9 for an account of how God remembers "oaths." In this case an oath made
centuries before is violated, yet God does not "punish" Israel for that sin until years afterward.
Can you come up with a reason why God might operate in this fashion?
c. Read Matthew 5:33-37. List at least two reasons why Christ teaches against the taking of any
oath.
2. This morning's New Testament lesson was taken from Hebrews 6:13-20, and makes a great deal of
an oath taken by God Himself. Read Genesis 15 -- one of the most profound chapters in all of the
Bible.
a. V.6 is nothing less than the essential expression of the doctrine of justification by faith. Read
Galatians 3:5-14 for Paul's treatment of this doctrine. Just what did Abraham "believe in"
about the Lord?
b. Yet v.8 seems to imply that Abraham really didn't yet believe. What do you make of this?
c. The smoking oven and burning torch in v.17 are theophanies -- visible manifestations of the
invisible God. Whatever is the "lesson" taught by this strange theophany?
