Joshua 9:3–4: “But when the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and Ai, they worked craftily, and went and pretended to be ambassadors. And they took old sacks on their donkeys, old wineskins torn and mended . . .”

March 30th, 2023 by Pastor Ed in devotional

Word was getting out that Joshua and the children of Israel had defeated Jericho and Ai. In response, a group of kings united together to fight against Joshua and Israel. The Gibeonites, another group of people, decided to deceive the Israelites instead of battling them. The Gibeonites were also called Hivites, and are first mentioned in Genesis when “Shechem, the son of Hamor the Hivite” (Genesis 34:2), raped Dinah. In retaliation, her brothers Simon and Levi, the sons of the patriarch Jacob, deceived the whole city of Hivites into being circumcised and then killed them all. Now, in the book of Joshua, the Gibeonites are deceiving the children of Israel, convincing them they were not from the Promised Land but from a distant country. So the Israelites, without asking the counsel of the Lord, made a treaty that they would not attack the Gibeonites.

God had already warned His children in Deuteronomy 7:2 that when they came into the land they were to “make no covenant with [the people in the land] nor show mercy to them.” God clearly forbade Israel from making any pacts or alliances with the inhabitants of the Promised Land but were to completely drive them out. In the history of mankind, there were probably no people or practices darker than those of the indigenous Canaanites and their religious practices. Archeological evidence shows that the sacrificing of human children was very common, perhaps even a daily occurrence. There is also evidence of cannibalizing the victims, forced child prostitution, and licentious religious feasts celebrated by degrading and vile practices. In order to keep His people from this kind of corruption, God commanded that everything be destroyed, so that the memory of those polluting practices could be completely wiped out. God would later have other nations judge Israel in a similar way in order to destroy the Canaanite practices that had crept into His own people.

God hates false, religious ceremonies, particularly those involving innocent children. God had warned His people to avoid hasty decisions that led them to become unequal yoked with unbelievers. Decisions made without prayer usually lead to ungodly alliances. Just as Paul wrote and warned the Corinthians 14 centuries later: “Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness” (2 Corinthians 6:14)? God is still speaking through these examples to us today; we also must make no treaties with the flesh or with children of the flesh.

“LORD, help us to stay close to You this day.”