Joshua 9.
THE first verse shows the enemy aroused; he will not yield without war. Satan well knows how to attack the people of God. Jericho gave way before faith, but Satan got at the people through their lusts, and the accursed thing is found in the camp of Israel; self-confidence, too, was a cause of weakness. We have seen how they were delivered in chapter 8. In chapter 9 Satan is a wily enemy; he does not attack openly, as at Ai; nor stand behind high walls as at Jericho. The apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 2:11 speaks of being not ignorant of Satan’s devices (thoughts), and in Ephesians 6:11, the believer is directed to put on the whole armor of God that he may be able to stand against the wiles (artifices) of the devil. There is no other defense provided, no other needed.
Satan appears now in the inhabitants of Gibeon who come with deceit; living nearby, they dressed as ambassadors from a distant land, carried old sacks and old wine bottles, wore old and patched sandals and old clothes, and took dry and mouldy bread with them. They found Joshua at the camp at Gilgal and announced that they had come from afar, desiring to make a covenant with Israel. The Israelites had some misgivings about them, but they listened to their lies, and “asked not counsel at the mouth of the Lord” (verse 14), and so failure is again recorded. The lesson of Ai was not enough. Quite possibly, news of the confederation of kings mentioned in verses 1 and 2 had reached Joshua and the people of Israel. Certainly, they were not prepared for this sort of an attack, but they should have asked counsel of God. Prayer and supplication should be the constant resource and habit of the believer.
A covenant is made, bat in three days they see they have been led into a trap carefully planned by Satan; —these men were neighbors in the land, and should have been put to death along with the ether wicked inhabitants, but their lives must now be spared. Again is man, even with the best intentions, the best thought of the time, as people say, found at cross-purposes with God (1 Corinthians 1:20). There should be no alliance between the world and the people of God, yet that is what is found in this day in which we live, and a few words in Revelation 2:13— “among you, where Satan dwelleth”— testify to this as of long standing, and many other passages of God’s Word likewise.
The grace of God is however with Israel, and though in this chapter the entrance of evil into the congregation is shown, we do not find its development. God delivers us from certain consequences of our sin, and allows others to remain. The Gibeonites were an accursed race, but to be borne with; and king Saul’s effort to exterminate them in zeal for the congregation, was in no wise after God’s mind (2 Samuel 21:1).
ML 07/26/1925