If you'll turn with me once again in your Bibles to Joshua, to the book of Joshua. You'll find it after the book of Deuteronomy and before Judges, Joshua chapter 9. I've been considering this summer a series through Joshua, and today we have gotten to chapter 9. We'll read the entire chapter. Let us pay close attention. This is the very Word of God. Now when all the kings west of the Jordan heard about these things, those in the hill country, in the western foothills, and along the entire coast of the Great Sea, as far as Lebanon, the kings of the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, they came together to make war against Joshua and Israel. However, when the people of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and Ai, They resorted to a ruse. They went as a delegation whose donkeys were loaded with worn-out sacks and old wineskins, cracked and mended. The men put worn and patched sandals on their feet and wore old clothes. All the bread of their food supply was dry and moldy. Then they went to Joshua in the camp at Gilgal and said to him and the men of Israel, We have come from a distant country. Make a treaty with us. The men of Israel said to the Hivites, But perhaps you live near us. How then can we make a treaty with you? We are your servants, they said to Joshua. But Joshua asked, Who are you and where do you come from? They answered, Your servants have come from a very distant country because of the fame of the Lord your God. For we have heard reports of him, all that he did in Egypt, and all that he did to the two kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan, Sihon, king of Heshbon, and Og, king of Bashan, who reigned in Ashtaroth. And our elders and all those living in our country said to us, take provisions for your journey, go and meet them and say to them, we are your servants, make a treaty with us. This bread of ours was warm when we packed it at home on the day we left to come to you. but now see how dry and moldy it is. And these wineskins that were filled were new, but see how cracked they are. And our clothes and sandals are worn out by the very long journey. The men of Israel sampled their provisions, but did not inquire of the Lord. Then Joshua made a treaty of peace with them to let them live, and the leaders of the assembly ratified it by oath. Three days after they had made the treaty with the Gibeonites, the Israelites heard that they were neighbors living near them. So the Israelites set out and on the third day came to their cities, Gibeon, Kephira, Beroth, and Kiriath-Jerim. But the Israelites did not attack them because the leaders of the assembly had sworn an oath to them by the Lord, the God of Israel. The whole assembly grumbled against the leaders. But all the leaders answered, We have given them our oath by the Lord, the God of Israel, and we cannot touch them now. This is what we will do to them. We will let them live so that the wrath will not fall on us for breaking the oath we swore to them. They continued, Let them live, but let them be woodcutters and water carriers for the entire community. So the leader's promise to them was kept. Then Joshua summoned the Gibeonites and said, Why did you deceive us by saying we live a long way from you while actually you live near us? You are now under a curse. You will never cease to serve as woodcutters and water carriers for the house of my God. They answered Joshua, Your servants were clearly told how the Lord your God had commanded his servant Moses to give you the whole land and to wipe out all its inhabitants from before you. So we feared for our lives because of you, and that is why we did this. We are now in your hands. Do to us whatever seems good and right to you. So Joshua saved them from the Israelites, and they did not kill them. That day he made the Gibeonites woodcutters and water carriers for the community and for the altar of the Lord at the place the Lord would choose. And that is what they are to this day. Thus far the reading of God's word. May he bless it to us. Well, today marks the end of the Olympic Games. I don't know how many of you have been watching the Olympics, watching a lot of it. I've been watching a lot of it, a lot more than I expected to watch. And so, in a sense, I'm sorry to see it go. It'll also keep me from watching badminton quarterfinals at 1 in the morning. So I have mixed feelings about that. But I've been finding this really interesting to see how the Olympics go, to see how the different competitions work, some of the sports that I'm less familiar with. But I think one of the most interesting things has been to see how people react to the competition. It's been interesting to see the gold medal favorites that deliver on exactly what they've been promised to do. We think of Michael Phelps and his amazing accomplishments at these Olympics. You think of the people that are favored to win something and somehow manage to fall short, and the disappointment you see in their faces as they come up short of their dream. You think of those stories where people defy the odds and come from nowhere to get some kind of piece of the prize. I saw footage of the Argentina team celebrating their bronze medal at basketball. You would have thought they won the gold medal the way they were celebrating. It was neat to see. Of course, the flip side of that picture is I think it was a wrestler who got the bronze medal and walked off the podium and just dropped his medal. Didn't want to have anything to do with it. He was so disappointed by the judging and by his finish. It's been interesting to me to see how these people react to what's going on. Now, why do I bring this up? What does this have to do with Joshua? Well, I think in a lot of ways this particular story that's in front of us is a story of reaction. It's a story of how the people in this particular passage react to the Word of God. And who are the players here? Well, essentially we have God's enemies, we have God's people, and we have God Himself. And the question is, how will they react to God's Word? How will this passage play out before us? And I think we see that the different characters react to God's word in three different ways. God's enemies fear his word. God's enemies fear his word. God's people forget his word. God's people forget his word. And God himself fulfills his word. God fulfills his word. Well, how does this play out? How do we see these reactions to the Word of God? Well, our passage starts with a description of the people in the land, a description of what they've heard and what they're experiencing. We have this story right here at verse 1, all the kings west of the Jordan. And then we have this long description of land. Maybe it doesn't mean a lot to us, but it's basically every king west of the Jordan, North and south, on the coast, wherever they are, they've come together because of their concern over what's been happening in their land. And we're told when they heard about these things. So we have to question, what are these things? What have they heard? What's been done? And as Joshua's been moving along, we've been getting a very clear description of what Canaan has heard about the Lord and his people and what's been done. we're brought to see a number of different occasions that are brought to mind in this deception. The first being what was done in Egypt. What was done in Egypt? The Lord brought out His people with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, took them from a national power, brought them on dry land over the Red Sea, brought them out and brought them across a desert wasteland, a huge host, and brought them right to the brink of the Jordan. And as they moved east of the Jordan, there were two Amorite kings living there. And when Israel arrived, those two kings were destroyed, and so were their people. And so those across the Jordan and Canaan had heard this story of movement from out of Egypt, out to the east of the Jordan, and they destroyed two kingdoms outside the Jordan. What else had they heard? We heard in chapter 5, verse 1, that they heard about how the Lord dried up the Jordan and how they crossed on dry ground and how the people who heard about this were terrified. They melted in fear. Who is this God that can dry the Jordan River in its flood stage and bring his people across? And now they've heard what was done to Jericho in the land, how it was utterly destroyed, how its walls were torn down, how its king was killed along with all of his people. now they've heard about ai how the same thing happened there the king killed his people destroyed his city made a heap of ruins and so they get together and they say we're going to need to band together to do something about this this for these foreign invaders who've come into our land and now threaten our very existence i guess if you want to provoke kings to start moving You start by killing kings. We have two kings east of the Jordan that are killed, two kings in the Jordan area that are killed. And now the remaining kings don't want to be killed, so they want to band together and say, let's go and make war against Israel. We're given a list of who these people are in verse 1. The Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, the very people that they've been told over and over again to drive from the land. But what does this story focus on? It focuses on some people in Gibeon, the Gibeonites. We're told that they're Hivites. That's how they're identified. They're one of these people that is to be driven from the land. And as we move into chapter 10, Lord willing, we'll see a little bit more about them, but it's important to bring in now. Those were important cities. they controlled four cities that were right around a very important roadway. So think of a rectangle and a road running right through these four cities. They're important. We're told in chapter 10 that they were larger than Ai, and even though they're not royal cities with kings living there, they're large and important cities. And interesting, really, we're also told that the men of Gibeon are good fighters. Maybe that's part of their reason for not wanting to fight with the Israelites. A couple weeks ago, I used an illustration from Gettysburg, and people seem to like that, so I'll go back to that well. There was a famous battle at Gettysburg, a famous battle at Little Round Top. It was the Union flank, and there was a southern plan to attack the flank and to try to turn the army against itself. And the person who was in charge of leading that attack was going to be General Hood. And when he looked at the land and when he looked at what he was being asked to do, he said, it's an impossible task. I'm going to get butchered if I go this way. Let me swing around. They're preparing for me to come. And he was told, no, this is the battle plan. You've just got to go straight ahead. And again, he said, I don't want to do it. I'm not going to be able to make it. You're asking the impossible. And they said, well, that's General Lee's command. That's where you need to go. He said, well, I'll go, but I'm going under protest because I don't think this is going to be successful. And he was right. The Union line held at Little Round Top, and his forces were decimated. He was himself wounded. But he was a good commander. He saw the ground. He saw what was ahead of him. And he said, this battle plan is not workable. We can't go this route. It's not going to work. Because he was a good fighter. He was an experienced soldier. He could take a look at it and say, this is not the way to go. So I think it's interesting that these men of Gibeon are good fighters. And they're saying to themselves, if Egypt could not contend with this people, if the kings east of the Jordan could not contend with these people, if the people in Jericho could not contend with Israel despite their high walls, If AI could not contend with these people because of their good ground, what hope do we have to contend with these people? How are we going to oppose them if no one else has been successful? This is a stupid plan, and we're not going to be a part of it. So they don't follow the king of the Hivites. They enact their own plan, don't they? They decide rather than try to go and take them out and make peace with them by force, we'll make peace with them by deception. And so they hatch this plan. They're going to go and pretend to be people from a distant country. And they bring good props to show what they've done. I read one commentator that says their props are kind of like those laundry detergent commercials, you see. They take two brightly colored shirts and they put them both in washers and they wash and they bring them out. One detergent preserves the color nicely. The other one really fades the shirt. They say, see, this is why you need to buy our detergent. Well, what has that really proved? Nothing. It hasn't really proved anything. It's proved that they've showed something to you, but it doesn't prove anything. But they bring these props hoping they'll be convincing. And they think about the story they'll tell too. It's interesting, when you look at the story, they tell the Israelites of why they're there, because of the fame of the Lord your God. They don't include Jericho and Ai as the things that God has done. Why don't they do that? They're trying to lend credence to the fact they were sent before this stuff happened, a long time ago from a long ways away. So they're crafty. They've thought this out well. And as we see, as we go through the story, it's apparent that they know what God has commanded. They've done their intelligence. They've been clearly told about what Israel is supposed to do. They clearly know they're supposed to wipe out the inhabitants of the land. That's why they seem to pretend to be from outside the land. Maybe because they know that, they know the other thing that Israel has been commanded to do in regards to people within the land, which is not to make treaties with them. The Lord gives him very clear instructions. Three times in the Old Testament, in the Pentateuch, we see Moses giving commands about not making treaties with the people you'll find in the land. In Exodus 23, 32 and 33, Moses writes, Do not make a covenant with them or with their gods. Do not let them live in your land. In Exodus 34, 11 and 12, Moses says, Obey what I command you today. this is what the Lord says, Obey what I command you today. I will drive out before you the Amorites, Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. Be careful not to make a treaty with those who live in the land where you are going. In Deuteronomy 7, 1 and 2, when the Lord your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you many nations, the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, Seven nations larger and stronger than you, when the Lord your God has delivered them over to you and you have defeated them, then you must destroy them totally. Make no treaty with them and show them no mercy. Three times, make no treaty with them and show them no mercy. And what do these people come to the people of God and ask? Make a treaty with us. The same language that's repeated three times in prohibition, by Moses and by the Lord. They ask that very thing. Make a treaty with us. And why do they do that? Ultimately they do that because they're afraid. Because they're afraid of what God's word means for them. It means their destruction. It means they are to be driven from the land. And that's why they act this way, ultimately, because they're afraid of God and of His word. that's how God's enemies react to God's Word. They're afraid. How do God's people react? That's our second point. How do God's people react to His Word? Well, I think we have to say that God's people forget His Word. They forget the Word of the Lord that was commanded them. Now, maybe that seems a bit harsh. Maybe it seems a bit harsh to convict them of forgetting God's Word. Because after all, they express a certain amount of suspicion. don't they? When these Gibeonites first come, what's the first thing the Israelites say? Well, how can we make a treaty with you? We don't know where you're from. If you're from here, we're going to have to wipe you out. If you're from someplace else, we're allowed to make treaties with you. So they clearly don't forget God's word in that respect. They acknowledge that it's important to know where they're from. So they say, well, you know, how do we know you're not near us? How do you know you're not neighbors? How do we know you're not living in the midst of this land? And their answer is, we are your servants. Well, that's not really an answer. Back in my lawyering days, you'd have objected to that as a non-responsive answer to a question. Well, maybe you live nearby us, but we're your servants. Well, that doesn't answer the question, does it? That's why Joshua puts it to them pointedly. Who are you and where are you from? But the answer doesn't really get much better. We're from really far away. I mean, look at our stuff. Look how old it is. You know, this bread was, you know, freshly baked. It smelled so good when I put it in my bag. And now look, it's all dry, crumbly. These wineskins, these leather wineskins were fresh and new when I filled them. and now they're old and cracked. This was a good suit when I put it on, and now it's just faded and rags. Can't you see that we've come from a long way away? They don't just take them at the word. They examine it, right? They sample their provisions. They take a look. They do a good faith investigation, don't they? Well, do they? Is it really a quality investigation? Have they done what the Lord has required them to do? Because they've heard their tale. They've heard what they've said. They've seen the things that have been offered to them. But again, it's like that laundry detergent commercial, isn't it? What is the laundry company trying to do? It's trying to get you to buy its product. That's what the Gibeonites are doing. They're trying to get the Israelites to buy this product. And the question is, will they buy the product? Or will they remember what God has said, or will they forget? It's interesting how much of God's word they end up remembering. Because they remember the law about treaties. They know they're not supposed to make treaties with people in the land. They even remember the kind of oaths they're supposed to take. When we read from the law this morning in Deuteronomy 6, they're supposed to take their oaths in the Lord's name. They're not supposed to take oaths in the name of gods from foreign peoples. And it's apparent that they do that here. They take an oath in the Lord's name. Not in the name of any other god. And when the deception is found out, they even curse Gibeon in accordance with God's word. God had given them specific instructions about what they were to do to people who lived in the land. But he had also given a separate set of instructions to those living outside the land. If Israel made war on nations that were outside the land, they were supposed to offer them peace. And if the nation that you were attacking said, yes, we want to make peace with you, then you were to take them and enslave them, set them to work for the people of God. And so when they find out the Gibeonite deception, when they enslave them, what do they do? They do exactly what God has commanded them to do. They've acted like people outside the land, so Joshua's going to treat them as people outside the land. He's going to enslave them, put them to the Lord's service. So so much of this they do well. So much of God's word is followed. It seems like in a lot of ways the covenant renewal ceremony they've just come from has reminded them of what God has required. So why ultimately do we say they forgot who God was? They forgot his word. Because there's a crucial piece of information that's missing in this treaty. They hear the story, they sample the provisions, but what do they forget to do? They forget to seek God's will. in a way that Joshua had been told clearly how to go about doing that. When Joshua was elevated to be the person who would take Moses' place, this is what was said in Numbers 27, 18. So the Lord said to Moses, Take Joshua, son of Nun, a man in whom is the Spirit, and lay your hand on him. Have him stand before Eleazar the priest and the entire assembly and commission him in their presence. Give him some of your authority so the whole Israelite community will obey him. He is to stand before Eliezer the priest who will obtain decisions for him by inquiring of the Urim before the Lord. See, children, the priest wore a sort of breast piece and there was a pocket in that. And there was something that the Lord had given them to determine his will. So Joshua could go to the priest and say, what does the Lord want me to do in this situation? How does the Lord want me to react? What is the Lord's will? he could go and the priest would ask the Lord and the Lord would clearly speak and say, this is what you're to do. And in one sense, we could say, well, that's one little piece of information in a large law. Can't we forgive Joshua for forgetting this time? But I think if we look in the recent history of Joshua, we see this being done before and nearby. Because how is Achan separated from everybody else? The Lord separates them out. And how is his will sought? It's most likely it's sought through the priest by the use of the means that God has ordained for seeking after his will. And we said, when we considered Achan, consider how long that would take to divide up the whole nation, to be going back and asking the Lord, is this the tribe? Is this the clan? Is this the family? they've been using those means over and over again to try to determine God's will. And now when they have this important decision to make, do we make this treaty or not? They don't inquire of the Lord. And I think we see the condemnation in this text by the way the story is told. Joshua made a treaty of peace with them to let them live. Those are all the things they are not supposed to do with people living in the land. Don't covenant with them. Don't make peace with them. Don't let them live. What does he do? He covenants with them. He makes peace with them. And he lets them live. They forget his word. It should be a reminder to us that you can know a lot of God's word and still not know all of it well. That's why in our church order we want to be preaching through the Heidelberg Catechism because we don't want any particular doctrine of God to be ignored. We want the whole teaching of his whole scripture known. Because when you focus in on only a part of his word and neglect another, you see what serious consequences that can have. In a lot of ways, they knew a lot of it, but they didn't know the crucial piece. They forgot the most important part, which was asking the Lord's will. And I wonder how often we do that today. We proceed with confidence in our own ability to discern what we need to do. And we don't pause to take the time to ask of the Lord. I'm always struck by that when tragedy strikes or something horrible happens and you're watching the news and the news anchors say something like, well, you know, our thoughts and prayers are really with you. And I'm kind of cynical by nature, and I wonder, well, who do you pray to? Who are those prayers being offered to? And what good are your thoughts? I mean, it's nice in a certain sense to have people thinking about you, to know that there are people who care about you in trouble, but their thoughts can't do anything for you. And sometimes we use prayer as that sort of, it's just a nice thing to say, a comforting thing to say, but it really doesn't have anything to do with God. And this is a reminder that we have a God who is powerful, who delights to hear the prayers of his people, who gives grace to those who ask for it. He's not someone we can just flippantly talk about praying to. He's a God who is powerful and inclined to hear his people for the sake of Jesus Christ. So we have to not neglect that. We have to not treat it as a light thing. Because it's really saying we depend on ourselves. That we don't need God. That we can handle this on our own. It's a reminder that we always have to be seeking God's pleasure. God's people can't be those who forget his word. Finally, we consider how God fulfills his word. God's enemies are afraid of it and deceive his people. God's people forget his word. What does God do as a result of this? In one sense, we're sort of prepared for another Achan situation, aren't we? Another Jericho situation where God's word has been ignored and some kind of punishment is coming. Look at how God responds in chapter 9. You can't, can you? It's a trick question. God doesn't say anything in chapter 9. He's silent. There's no response to this treaty. No immediate response to this huge error in judgment that the people have done in making a treaty that they're not supposed to make. So is God silent? Does he do nothing about his word? Or does he respond? I think he does respond by fulfilling his word. And how does he do this? He does this because in a lot of ways this treaty will be the catalyst that starts the war that will end in Israel's domination of the land. This will be what provokes the Canaanite kings to action. This is going to be what brings the battle to a point. Because as we move into chapter 10, we hear that these kings now who've banded together to fight Israel now say, okay, look, not only have they destroyed Jericho, not only have they destroyed Ai, now they've banded together with Gibeon. We need to put a stop to them. So let's go, first of all, attack Gibeon and destroy them. That's a means of bringing action to the Israelites. What does the Lord do? He turns this evil for the good of his people. He will bring the southern kingdoms to action with the people of God and will utterly destroy them. And when the southern kingdoms are destroyed, the northern kingdoms will say, you know, we better band together and do something about this because now they've destroyed Jericho, now they've destroyed Ai, now the southern kings have been killed. We need to bring this to action. And the northern kings will come and they'll be destroyed. In a lot of ways, this is the beginning point. of Israel's final destruction of all the kings living in the land. This is an example of how a faithful father will fulfill his word despite his people's unfaithfulness. Despite their best efforts, God will show himself to be their Lord. And he will use this piece of unfaithfulness, he will use this evil and turn it to the good of his people to bring them to an end of war in the land and to bring them into rest. That's the kind of God that we have who is faithful to his word, faithful to the promise he gave to Abraham that this land would be his descendants, that he would bring them in, that he would give them rest and put an end to their wandering and to their struggling. And even though they fail here, God doesn't fail. He's a God whose word will be fulfilled despite his people's unfaithfulness. And he will show himself to be a merciful God who does not leave his people because of this act of disobedience. And we'll also see throughout Scripture that God's word is fulfilled as it relates to Gibeon. Because 500 years from now, Saul will be dealing with the Gibeonites still. David will be dealing with the Gibeonites, the people who still live amongst them to that day. The word of the Lord is powerful, it's fulfilled. That's the kind of God we have who will bring us through our own unfaithfulness. Who will still hear his people when they turn to him. Who is still powerful to save. And when he makes his saving purpose known, it will not be thwarted. He will not allow his word to be derailed. He will see that his justice is done. The kingdoms of this world will not prevail against the Lord and against his anointed one. And he will show himself forth in strength, as hopefully we'll see next Lord's Day as we consider chapter 10. He will show forth his strength for his people because he is a faithful God. What a wonderful reminder to us that even though as we struggle in this life, as we fall into sin, as we forget the word of the Lord and disobey him, He is still faithful to save. He remembers his promise. He remembers his son. And he saves his people. Let's close in prayer. Father in heaven, we thank you for this wonderful reminder that your word needs to be on our hearts. That we need to be careful to obey all the word that you have commanded. And it's also convicting, Lord, because we know that so often we as your people forget your word. We forget to consider all it teaches. We forget to inquire after your will. We pray that you would forgive us of our sins. We thank you, Lord, that you are a faithful God. That you preserve your people. That you will not permit us to be snatched from your hand. despite our best efforts. That you hold us, that you sustain us. That even as we struggle in this life with the spiritual battles that come our way, you do not leave us or forsake us. We pray that we might thank you more and more, Lord, be comforted by your hand with us to save us and deliver us. We pray that we might more and more be mindful of your word. We might always seek you in prayer. Hear us always, Lord, for we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.