Joshua 9:1-27

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Joshua

Brian Rowlands

Maps to help you to study this book are on the Internet at www.easyenglish.info.

Chapter 9

The *Israelites become friends with their enemies from Gibeon – Joshua 9:1-27

v1 The kings who lived west of the Jordan heard about these things. They lived in the hills and everywhere near the Great Sea, as far as Lebanon. (They were the kings of the Hittites, Amorites, *Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites.) When they heard about these things, they joined together. v2 They joined together to fight Joshua and *Israel.

v3 The people from Gibeon were called Gibeonites. They heard about what Joshua had done to Jericho and Ai. v4 So they had a clever idea. Some Gibeonites put old bags of food on their donkeys (small horses). They took old *wineskins, which they mended. v5 They wore old shoes (which they had mended) on their feet. And they wore old clothes. The bread that they took for food was stale. In fact, the bread was going bad. v6 Then they went to Joshua, who was camping at Gilgal. They spoke to him and to the men of *Israel. ‘We have come from a country that is a long way away’, they said. ‘Please let us make a promise with you not to fight each other.’

v7 But the men of *Israel answered the Gibeonites (who were Hivites), ‘Perhaps you live close to us. In that case we cannot make a promise not to kill you.’

v8 ‘We want to serve you’, they said to Joshua.

‘Who are you? Where do you come from?’ Joshua asked.

v9 They answered, ‘Your servants have come from a country a very long way away. We heard about your great God. We heard all about the things that he did in Egypt. v10 And we heard what he did to the two kings of the Amorites. Those kings ruled cities east of the Jordan. They were Sihon, king of Heshbon, and Og, king of Bashan. They ruled in Ashtaroth. v11 Our leaders and the people in our land told us that we should come to see you. Our leaders said, "Take food and wine for your journey. Go to meet the *Israelites, and speak to them. Say that we want to serve them. Ask them not to kill us". v12 Our bread was warm when we put it in our bags. We packed this bread on the day that we left home to come to you. But you can see how bad and stale it has become. v13 And these *wineskins were new. You can see how old they are now. And our clothes and shoes wore out on our long journey.’

v14 The men of *Israel looked at the food and other things, but they did not ask the *Lord for help. v15 Then Joshua agreed that they would not kill the people from Gibeon. The leaders of *Israel also said that they would keep Joshua’s promise.

Verses 1-4 Here we have two different attitudes to the *Israelites.

• The kings who lived west of Jordan were afraid. They planned to fight *Israel. We read about this in chapter 10.

• The people from Gibeon were afraid. But they planned to make friends with the *Israelites.

Verses 3-13 The people from Gibeon had a very clever plan. They pretended that they had come from a long distance away. They had come only about 25 miles (40 kilometres)! The Gibeonites told several lies.

• They had come from a land that was a long way away (verse 6).

• The bread was warm when they left home (verse 12).

• The *wineskins were new when they left home.

The *Israelites believed them.

God had told the *Israelites not to make agreements with the inhabitants of *Canaan (Deuteronomy 7). If the people from Gibeon had come from another country, then the *Israelites could make a peace agreement with them. But they had come only 25 miles (40 kilometres). The *Israelites believed the story that the Gibeonites told them. The story was not true.

If the group of Gibeonites were genuine

• they would bring enough supplies for the return journey

• they would have brought gifts for the *Israelites

• they would throw away any stale bread

• their servants would make them new bread

• they would bring good clothes for their meeting with the *Israelites.

Verse 14 Joshua believed the Gibeonites. He did not think about any problems. He did not ask the *Lord if their story was true. Joshua made a big mistake. This was a very big decision. The *Israelites agreed with Joshua’s decision.

We must be careful. We must always pray to God about important decisions. We should not make important decisions unless we ask God first.

James 1:5 says, ‘If you do not have wisdom, you should ask God for it.’ Proverbs 4:11 says that God will guide us to make wise decisions.

v16 So Joshua and the *Israelites made a promise to the Gibeonites. Three days later, the *Israelites learned that the Gibeonites lived near to them. v17 The *Israelites left their camp to go to the cities of Gibeon. Three days later, they came to their cities: Gibeon, Kephirah, Beeroth and Kiriath Jearim. v18 The *Israelites did not attack them, because of the promise that their leaders had made. They had said to the *Lord God of *Israel that they would not kill the Gibeonites.

All the *Israelites were angry with their leaders. v19 The leaders said to them, ‘We have promised the *Lord, the God of *Israel, and now we cannot hurt them. v20 But this is what we will do. We will let them live. Then God will not punish us because we did not keep our promise. v21 Let them live. They will cut wood and carry water for us’, they said. This is how the leaders kept their promise to the Gibeonites.

v22 Joshua told the Gibeonites to come to him. ‘Why did you tell me those lies? You said that you lived a long way from us. But you really live near to us’, he said. v23 ‘Now we will punish you. You will always be our servants. You will cut wood and carry water for our God’s people.’

v24 They answered Joshua, ‘The *Lord your God had told Moses to give you the whole land. We had heard that clearly. He told you to kill all the people who lived there in front of you. So, we were afraid that you would kill us. That is why we did as we did. v25 You must decide what to do with us. Do what you think is right and good.’

v26 So Joshua did not let the *Israelites kill the Gibeonites, and the *Israelites let them live. v27 They made the Gibeonites cut wood and fetch water for them. And they would do this for the *altar of the *Lord, at the place that the *Lord would tell them. They are doing this still.

Verse 16 It was not long before the *Israelites learnt the truth. The Gibeonites lived so close that the *Israelites soon learnt the truth.

Verses 17-19 The *Israelites set out to talk to the Gibeonites. The *Israelites wanted to fight the Gibeonites because of what they had done. The leaders said that the *Israelites must keep their promise. They had made the promise to God.

We should keep the promises that we make to God. It is a very serious matter if we do not keep them.

Verses 20-27 Joshua had no choice. He let the Gibeonites live.

In Deuteronomy 20:17, God told the *Israelites not to make peace with the Hivites. The Gibeonites were Hivites. God wanted the *Israelites to kill the Hivites. This was because the Hivites were very evil. God was punishing the Hivites for their *sins. So, the Gibeonites deserved to die. But God allowed the *Israelites to make a peace agreement with them. God saved the Gibeonites.

God did not save the Gibeonites because they lied. Lies are wrong. But God knew that the Gibeonites really wanted to serve God. In fact, they were desperate to serve God. They did not want God to punish them. They would do anything if God would save them. God knew their true thoughts.

Other people in the *Old Testament also lied because they wanted to serve God:

• In Joshua 2:4, Rahab lied. Like the Gibeonites, she lied because she was desperate to serve God (Joshua 2:9-11). And, like the Gibeonites, God saved her.

• In Genesis 27:19, Jacob lied. Jacob lied because he wanted his father to bless him. If Jacob’s father blessed Jacob, then God would also bless Jacob. Jacob was wrong to lie. But God still met with Jacob, because God knew Jacob’s intentions. Really, Jacob wanted to serve God (Genesis 28:13-15).

These people lied because they did not know the right way to serve God. But God blessed them because they really wanted to serve God.

The Gibeonites became servants of the *Israelites. There is a group of people in the *Old Testament called *temple servants (1 Chronicles 9:2; Ezra 2:43; Ezra 2:58; Nehemiah 3:26). They were almost certainly Gibeonites. Much later, these *temple servants went into *exile to Babylon with the *Israelites. When the *Israelites returned, the *temple servants came with them. The Gibeonites stayed loyal to the *Israelites.

God used the mistake that Joshua made. The Gibeonites enjoyed all the good things that God gave to the *Israelites.

God can use our mistakes. It is never too late to ask God to help us.

Think about this. Joshua made an agreement with the wrong people. Paul, in 2 Corinthians 6:14 says, ‘Do not try to work with people who are not friends of God. You cannot do it. Right things and wrong things cannot work together. Light and darkness cannot work together.’

Israelites ~ people from Israel. They are also called Hebrews and Jews.

Israel ~ all the people born from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their children; the people that God chose; or, the land that the Israelites lived in.
Jew ~ a person who was born from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their children. It is also a name for one of the Israelites.
Canaanites ~ the people who used to live in Canaan, the promised land.

Canaan ~ another name for the promised land.

promised land ~ the land that God promised to give to Abraham and his family.
Israel ~ all the people born from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their children; the people that God chose; or, the land that the Israelites lived in.

Israelites ~ people from Israel. They are also called Hebrews and Jews.
Jew ~ a person who was born from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their children. It is also a name for one of the Israelites.
wineskins ~ a wineskin is like a bottle. People used to store wine in wineskins. People made wineskins from animal skins.
Lord ~ a name for God in the Bible. The original language of the Old Testament is called Hebrew. In the Hebrew language, there are two words that we translate as ‘Lord’. The Hebrew word ‘ADONAI’ means that God rules. God is our master. The Hebrew word ‘YHWH’ means that God never changes. God is always God.

Old Testament ~ the first part of the Bible, which the writers wrote before the life of Jesus.
Canaan ~ another name for the promised land.

promised land ~ the land that God promised to give to Abraham and his family.
altar ~ a table on which to burn animals or other gifts to God.
sin ~ when we do not obey the rule of God; when we do not do what God wants us to do.'Old Testament ~ the first part of the Bible, which the writers wrote before the life of Jesus.
temple ~ a special building where people worship God. The Israelites would later build their own temple in Jerusalem. At the time of the Book of Joshua, they used the Tent of Meeting instead.

worship ~ to love and to praise God more than anyone else. But some people worship false gods, instead of the real God.
Israelites ~ people from Israel. They are also called Hebrews and Jews.

Tent of Meeting ~ a special tent where God met with his people.
Israel ~ all the people born from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their children; the people that God chose; or, the land that the Israelites lived in.
Jew ~ a person who was born from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their children. It is also a name for one of the Israelites.
exile ~ away from your own country.