Joshua 9-10

Introduction

Okay, part of it may have been they didn’t consult a guy and didn’t realize that there was a problem, and what problem was there? Sherry? The sin of Achan, he had taken some of the accursed pagans from Jericho, and they were took to go to the Lord’s treasure. They were specifically told everything was to be slaughtered, everybody was to be wiped out, there were certain, and then there were certain things that would go into the treasury, and Achan violated that. And nobody knew about it. But who? But God. God was aware of it. A great lesson for all of us that number one, the seriousness of sin, but number two, that God is aware of what we do. Um, and expects us to follow him and do the things that he wishes.

1. Don’t Violate What God Says

So we’re gonna pick it up in verse 20 of uh chapter 7. Remember, they went through this process of tribe and family and all that, and got narrowed down to who the um was that violated the command, so that everyone was aware. God knew what was going on, and this is the guilty party, made aware by everyone. And they finally reach Achan, and we’re gonna pick up in verse 20. And it reads, and Achan answered Joshua, truly I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel. Achan offered this on his own? No. Once it was, you are that man, uh, well, yeah, I sinned. Now he could have denied it. He could have said, Well, I didn’t do anything wrong, but I think he he was aware that he was caught.

When I saw among the spoil a beautiful cloak of Shinnar, and 200 shekels of silver and a bar of gold weighing 50 shekels. Then I coveted them, covet coveted them, and took them. And see, they are hidden on the earth inside my tent with the silver underneath.

And this wasn’t a big deal, right? They just said, okay, don’t do that again, and we’ll move on. Down to verse 24. And Joshua and all Israel with him took Achan, the son of Zara, and the silver and the cloak and the bar of gold, and his sons and daughters, and his oxen and donkeys and sheep, and his tent, and all that he had. And they brought them up to the valley of Achar. And Joshua said, Why did you bring trouble on us? The Lord brings trouble on you today. And all Israel stoned him with stones. They burned them with fire and stone them with stones. And they raised over him a great heap of stones that remains to this day. Then the Lord turned from his burning anger.

Therefore, to this day the name of that place is called the Valley of Acre. Is this harsh?

Why I would say it’s pretty harsh. I mean, they not only did they stone him, they burned him and burned everything that they had. So I mean, that’s that’s a strong punishment. But is it deserved? He directly violated what God told him not to do. He gave them essentially one instruction. Go in, get rid of everything. They didn’t do that. And he violated that, and therefore, who was guilty? Achan? All of Israel was guilty because of what he did. Did an example need to be made? Did the entire camp, the million plus people, need to be aware? Don’t violate what God says.

Bring it to today. It’s a lesson for us tonight. Don’t violate what God says. Does God look at violations of his intent seriously? Yes. We want to sugarcoat it, we want to gloss over it and make things not a big deal and accept sin and accept what the world wants us to accept. And go about our lives and play church. But transgression against God is a serious thing, and he takes it serious. And we’ve got we’ve got to remember that always.

2. Slaughter the Evil in Our Lives

And how does the process happen this time?

Joshua sends out spies again, and they land them and how they’re going to. With whose consultation? With the Lord’s consultation. The Lord gave them instruction as to what they were to do. Is this a comparable battle to Jericho? It’s not the fortified city that Jericho was. It’s something that when they spied out, what did they say about it?

It’s easy. Not a problem. Okay, sir. But that was the people saying that, not God. So when God tells them to go, he said saying everybody. Right. Right? Maybe maybe they’re a little cocky, maybe they’re a little overconfident. Oh, we we took care of them before. Who knows what God’s gonna ask us to do this time? Well no, we’ll just take a few people. Why march everybody around, or whatever it is that God’s gonna have us do? God tells them to take everybody, and then what’s the plan? To just march into the to the city gates and destroy it.

Some strategy here, some real battle strategy. What do they do? They’re gonna lay an ambush for them.

Right. They go charging like they did before. Okay, we’re gonna do it again. And then the soldiers come out of the town to repel them, and what do they do? They run. Ah! They do what they did before. Oh no, they’re actually gonna fight. And so who leaves the city? All of them. Everybody goes chasing after them. Can you imagine this is like a free-for-all? Hey, this is the these are the people that we’ve been so afraid of. Let’s just all go get rid of all of them. It’s gonna be easy. Evidently, maybe their God isn’t with them anymore, or something like that. So they go chasing everybody, and then what happens? The city empties out. And then what happens? The ambush comes in and takes the city and burns it.

And everybody says, hey, wait a minute. They go running back, and then everyone is slaughtered. And they do it the way the Lord has commanded. And they are given victory because they’re great strategists, they’re great warriors. Because God was with them. Because God gave them this plan. And if you consider this just spreads continually throughout the area, the might of these people and of their God. Another battle won, another victory. It says starting in verse 24, when Israel had finished killing all the inhabitants of Ai in the open wilderness, where they pursued them. And all of them to the very last had fallen by the edge of the sword. All returned to Ai and struck it down with the edge of the sword. And all who fell that day, both men and women, were twelve thousand.

All the people of Ai. That Joshua did not draw back his hand, with which he stretched out the javelin until he had devoted all the inhabitants of Ai to destruction. Only the livestock and the spoil of that city, Israel took as their plunder, according to the word of the Lord that he commanded Joshua. Again, we’re talking about men, women, children, everything being slaughtered. And why is everyone being slaughtered?

Beyond God’s instruction of that’s the way to do it. Why was that God’s instruction? He said they’re evil those. Because of the complete wickedness, the complete evil that had overtaken these people. We don’t go out and slaughter evil people. Okay, that’s not the role God has given us. But we need to slaughter the evil in our lives. Because he wanted all those people wiped out. Why? Because of the influence it would have on his people, because they would be contaminated, and when they didn’t wipe out all of the people, what happened? They contaminated them. If there’s evil in your life, if you’re close to evil, if you surround yourself with either evil, if you tease with evil, it’s going to contaminate you. And you’ve got to take this example to slaughter it, to get rid of it.

Because you won’t be the people, the person that God wants you to be with evil in your life. You can’t be.

3. Joshua Renews the Covenant

Joshua, you might have a heading in your Bible that says, Joshua renews the covenant. We see these examples because the people have to be continually reminded. Who is guiding them, who is leading them, and where this power comes from? Joshua was told to do this by Moses in Deuteronomy 27, and he was just doing, doing as he was instructed. At that time, Joshua built an altar to the Lord, the God of Israel on Mount Evil, just as Moses, the servant of the Lord had commanded the people of Israel, as it is written in the book of the law of Moses, an altar of uncut stones upon which no man has wielded an iron tool, and they offered it burnt offerings to the Lord and sacrificed peace offerings.

And there in the presence of the people of Israel, he wrote on the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which he had written. And all Israel, sojourner as well as native born, with their elders and officers and their judges, stood on opposite sides of the ark before the Levitical priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord. Half of them in front of Mount Gerizim and half in front of Mount Evil, just as Moses, the servant of the Lord had commanded at the first to bless the people of Israel. And afterward he read all the words of the law, the blessings and the curse according to all that is written in the book of the law. There was not a word of all that Moses commanded that Joshua did not read before all the assembly of Israel, and the women and the little ones and the sojourners who lived among them.

So was it just the men? No, maybe one of them. It’s the men, the whim, everybody. And what’s the purpose?

Is the law serious? Is God’s will serious? Does he want them to follow it? Does he expect them to follow it? Is he reminding them? This is what you’ve been given. Are there going to be more temptations put before them like there was for Achan? To maybe transgress the law? Sure. There’s still people, they’re still susceptible to temptation to falling, to stray. And God is reminding them. And I think through his wisdom of what his instructions are. What his instructions are, the lesson for us, we need to continually keep on our hearts God’s will for us, what he wants us to do, what he wants us to avoid. Although the Bible says Joshua renewed the covenant, it was supposed to be the people renew a covenant because they were directed.

The Levites would stand and pronounce the curses. And the people were supposed to say, Amen. And essentially buy in and say, I agree, so be it. I will abide by this. But really, you’re looking for the whole nation to review this covenant. Exactly. Exactly right. And so everyone is without excuse, right? It’s yes, I agree, like David said, to what the commandments are, and you agree and commit to follow. All of the all of the people needed to do that. Because as we’ve seen, and we’ll see time and time again, it doesn’t always take the majority to lead you astray. One person, you can have five friends that are all working hard to do what’s right, and one person can come in and lead the entire group astray.

4. Treaties With the World: Not Seeking Counsel From God

Alright, continuing on to Joshua chapter 9. As soon as all the kings who were beyond the Jordan in the hill country and in the lowland, all along the coast of the Great Sea toward Lebanon, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites heard of this, they gathered together as one to fight against Joshua and Israel. So confederacies begin to form.

Does it make you think of anything today? What this made me think of is the confederacies that form against God. We’ve got so many people in the world. We can look to Hollywood, we can look to politics, we can look to a number of other places that are all uniting against Christians, right? Christians of all faiths. Basically demanding rights that would be against what God would want, basically demanding us to alter our behavior to make it suitable to what they believe.

Right? We’ve got to battle the world really without the allies that the world has. But who do we have on our side? We have God on our side. That’s who the battle is for. It’s being fought in a different way today than it was at this time. It’s not a military campaign. It’s a spiritual campaign.

It’s on a level in so many cases that we can’t see. But we’ve got to remember that we’re continuing to fight for God. And we don’t want to make allegiance with those that are fighting against God. When we do that, when we make treaties with the world, we follow the pattern of what happened here with the Gibeonites, continuing on in verse 3. But when the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and to Ai, they on their part acted with cunning and went and made ready provisions and took worn out sacks for their donkeys and wineskins, worn out and torn and mended, with worn out patched sandals on their feet and worn out clothes, and all their provisions were dry and crumbly. And they went to Joshua in the camp of Yogal and said to him, and to the men of Israel, We have come from a distant country.

So now make a covenant with us.

Then how can we make a covenant with you? Then they said to Joshua, We are your servants. And Joshua said to them, Who are you? Where do you come from? They said to them from a very distant country, your servants have come, because of the name of the Lord your God, for we have heard a report of him, and all that he did in Egypt, and all that he did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon, the king of Heshbon, and to Ag the king of Bajon, who lived in Ashgraf. So our elders and all the inhabitants of our country said to us, Take provisions in your hand for the journey, and go meet them and say to them, We are your servants.

Come now, make a covenant with us. Here is our bread. It is still it was still warm when we took it from our houses as our food for the journey on the day we set out to come to you. But now, behold, it is dry and crumbly. These wineskins were new when we filled them, and behold, they have burst. And these garments and sandals of ours are worn out from being on a very long journey. Did they ever give him the answer he was looking for? Where did you come from? Kind of evading, you know, maybe these were teens, evading the answer, the question, and not giving the right answer. Convincing story? It sounds look at them. They look like they’ve been in the desert for a long time.

They look like they’re starved and they have no food and look at their clothes. Did they think logically? Well, why would they come from a country far away to make an allegiance with us when we’re not even in that country? So the men took some of their provisions, but did not ask counsel from the Lord. And Joshua made peace with them and made a covenant with them to let them live. And the leaders of the congregation swore to them. Is this what they were told to do? No. No. First of all, where did they go wrong in the first place? What did they not do to begin with?

They didn’t ask God, God, is this something that we should do? And back at Exodus and they told them not to use the kingdoms and Deuteronomy 7, when the Lord your God brings you into the land that you are entering, take possession of it, and clears away the many nations before you, the Hibites, the Gergeshites, the Amorites, Canaanites, Pharizzites, the Hibit, and the Jebusites, seven nations more numerous and mightier than yourselves. And when the Lord your God gives them over to you in defeat, and you defeat them, then you must devote them to complete destruction. You shall make no covenant with them and show no mercy to them. But that’s not what they did.

But did he violate what God wanted him to do? Obviously. And the real mistake was not seeking counsel from God. Is he a mind reader? Is he supposed to know where they’re from? Did they have their Gibeonite shirts on? No, he didn’t know who they were. But he didn’t ask God who they were either.

Actually, let me let me let’s continue and read this verse.

Joshua summoned them. And he said to them, this happens after they figure out who they are, and it says in verse 18 that the congregation murmured against the leaders. They weren’t happy. Maybe they were concerned about what’s God politically going to be to us. How many more are we going to lose? Why’d you guys do this? It wasn’t very bright. Joshua summoned them and he said to them, Why did you deceive us, saying we are from very far away from you? When you dwell among us. Now therefore you are cursed, and some of you shall never be anything but servants, cutters of wood, and drawers of water for the house of my God. They answered Joshua because it was told to your servants for a certainty that the Lord your God had commanded his servant Moses to give you all the land and to destroy all the inhabitants of the land from before you.

So we feared greatly for our lives because of you and did this thing. And now behold, we are in your hand. First of all, they were not only not only aware of the power that God had, but the specific instruction that God had given them to kill them all. That word had gotten out. And not only were they leary of going to battle with them, they knew that we could go to battle and surrender, but they’re still gonna kill us.

And it says, Heard. They were that pronounced.

That’s where they heard what was going to happen. Because Joshua, when he read what he read, he read that God was going to give them the people. Maybe they had spies listening to what was going on. I don’t know. They were aware and they knew that it was going to happen. They had full confidence that this was going to happen. Now, do you blame the Gibeonites? Maybe some clever strategy, clever military strategy. Did Joshua have to keep the covenant? After all, they deceived them. If we entered into a covenant now and signed a legal document, but I deceived you before we signed that legal document, would that hold up in court? Possibly. Well, possibly, but generally if there’s deceit. But if you don’t do your due diligence, if you’re fine.

5. Enemies of God Brought Into the Fold

Well, he didn’t do his due diligence. He didn’t do his due diligence, and to maybe to that degree he felt accountability. What this reminds me of, though, it says they were committed to being servants, covers of wood and drawers of water for the house of my God, which meant they served where, probably. Within the tabernacle, within the sacrificial areas, cutting wood for the fire, being the guys that cleaned up all the blood, maybe, which meant they would have to become part of the nation, right? They would have to be brought in, they would have to be cleansed, they would have to be sanctified. Remember when Rahab was first rescued from Jericho, they kept her outside of the camp. Why do they keep her outside of the camp?

She wasn’t accepted, she wasn’t cleansed, she wasn’t part of their nation. So in essence, they’re proselytized. The thing that this brings to my resemblance, my remembrance is Romans chapter 5. In a way, the enemies of God were brought into the fold. Now, they were brought into the fold through deception, and not in a way that we would compare it to today. But it still made me think of this, and starting in verse 6. For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love towards us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Much more than much more than having now been justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his son, much more having been reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, He now received the reconciliation. They were brought into the fold and committed to being servants of God, cutters of wood, carriers of water, hard labor, working for God. We were enemies of God and were brought into the fold, and now what are we committed, dedicated to? To his service.

And what is your responsibility? You made a treaty with God, you made peace with God, you made a covenant with God. It’s now your responsibility, your main focus goal to serve Him. Live in the child of God. You committed yourself, you’ve dedicated that. If these men of Gibeon had ever decided, we don’t want to do this anymore. We demand our rights, we shouldn’t have to do this. What would the result be? They didn’t keep the bond, they didn’t keep the pact, therefore they would be punished. They maybe would be executed or kicked out of the number. We’ve got to look at our responsibility. When we bring ourselves into this relationship with God, we’ve got to look at our responsibility seriously. That we’re committing our lives to his service.

When we’re out here away from God, who are we serving? God. We’re serving us. We’re serving ourselves. These Gibeonites were wicked people. Who were they serving? They were serving their own pleasures, their own lusts, their own desires. They were so wicked they deserved to be wiped off the map. But they were brought into the fold. Same as us. If you look at the sin you have in your life, if you look at the wickedness that you left, sometimes when we’re raised in the church, I think we become jaded to this and don’t recognize it as much as when we’ve come out of the world, out of that wickedness, and into the blessings of Christ, we realize it, I think, so much more profoundly. But our life has changed.

The Gibeonites recognized this. Joshua made the requirement of them for this. And we need to recognize that as well. Any comments?

Yes. And he’s still taking them in as though they’re okay. Have you ever promised to do something because someone lied to you and you feel responsibility, accountability to your word? Well, he didn’t know these people. I mean, it’s he felt accountability to what he promised. Whether through deceit or not, he felt the responsibility to adhere to what he said. Whether it’s not bearing fault with the false witness.

So God was example of Google Gibeonites like agreement with his main remote. We don’t read where there might have been a discussion between Joshua and God about that. But he expected them, you’re right. He expected them to keep that. It wasn’t just Joshua, it’s the princes also. Well, Joshua as the leader. He he could have said no, never mind, and given them the instruction. But the other leaders, the princes, whatever you want to call them, they were in agreement with uh about this. Maybe following Joshua’s example. I don’t know, but they were they were guilty. Why God chose them to not to punish them? I don’t know. But but they adhered, they adhered to what they said they were going to do. Okay. Joshua chapter 10.

6. The Lord Fought for Israel

What does this result in in the nations around? Canaan, this agreement between the Gibeonites and the Israelites. They became angry with the Gibeonites. They wanted to destroy the Gibeonites because they had made that difficult. Wait a minute. These people are coming into our land? They’re invading our territory, and you’re going to make an agreement with them? And these five kings said, no. That stinks.

The treaty was enacted under the Lord’s name. And they couldn’t not be revolted.

And these leaders, these kings didn’t like that. So they set on their hearts to do what?

They’re going to invade Gibeon and pay them back for what they had done. Destroy, do to them what Israel really was supposed to have done in the first place. We’ll pick it up in verse 6. The men of Gideon are you know, they’re making war against Gibeon, and the men of Gibeon said to Joshua at the camp in Gilgal, saying, Do not relax your hand from your servants. Come up to us quickly and save us and help us. For all the kings of the Amorites who dwell in the hill country are gathered against us. So Joshua went up from Gilgal, he and all the people that were with him, and the mighty men of Valor, and the Lord said to Joshua, go in and wipe everybody out, including the Gibeonites.

No? Do not fear them, for I have given them into your hands. Not a man of them shall stand before you. God is endorsing this plan to go to the defense of the Gibeonites. So Joshua came upon them suddenly, having marched up all night from Gilgal. And the Lord threw them into a panic before Israel, who struck them with a great blow at Gideon and chased them by way of the ascent of Beth Goran, and struck them as far as Azekah and Machia. And as they fled before Israel, while they were going down the ascent of Bethkoron, the Lord threw down large stones from heaven on them as far as Azekah, and they died. There were more who died because of the hailstones than the sons of Israel killed with the sword.

So was God involved in this battle? Why? Why kill them that way with these stones, which I think it’s a good chance maybe were hailstones, large things falling from the sky that would hit them in the world. Why would he choose to do battle this way?

I think you’re exactly right. This is God achieving this victory. This is God killing more of the people than you are killing by the sword. But something beyond that happens, which is pretty amazing.

And at that time Joshua spoke to the Lord, continuing in verse 12. And the day when the Lord gave the Amorites over to the sons of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel, Son, stand still at Gibeon, and moon in the valley of Ajilon. And the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, until the nation took vengeance on their enemies. Is this not written in the book of Jasha? The sun stopped in the midst of heaven and did not hurry to set for about a whole day.

I would think the whole world would have been looking around, going, what’s going on?

But did Joshua What does it say?

Yeah, okay. Yeah, we’ll try it. So verse 14 says, There has never been no day like it before since when the Lord heeded the voice of a man, for the Lord fought for Israel. The Lord wanted them to know that this was his victory. That he was leading them, that this was a result of them being his people and him fighting for them. Reminding them this is not through the power of their hand. Continuing on verse 22. All the kings have fled. They’re hiding in a cave, these brave kings that were going to take battle against Gibeon and now they’re all basically cowering in a cave. Then Joshua said, Open the mouth of the cave and bring those five kings out to me from the cave.

And they did so, and brought those five kings out to him from the cave, the king of Jerusalem, the king of Hebron, the king of Jarmouth, King of Lakish, and the King of Bedalon. And when they brought those kings out to Joshua, Joshua summoned all the men of Israel and said to the chiefs of the men of war who had gone with him, come near. Put your feet on the necks of these kings, like a sign of conquering, a sign of submission for these kings. Then they came near and put their feet on their necks, and Joshua said to them, Do not be afraid or dismayed. Be strong and courageous. For thus the Lord will do to all your enemies against whom you fight. Have we heard that before?

What did Joshua open with? Repeating, be strong and courageous. This is what the Lord is going to do, and the Lord had done it, and this is evidence of him doing it. Joshua’s reminding them, remember when I told you to be strong and courageous? The Lord would fight these battles for us. Look. The exact thing is happening. Again, another battle that logistically, but militarily, they probably should not have won. And militarily they didn’t win it. Because stones fell from the sky and killed them. Because God caused the sun to not set. And afterwards Joshua struck them and put them to death, and he hanged them on five trees, and they hung on the trees until evening. But at the time of the going down of the sun, Joshua commanded that they pick them down from the trees.

And as for Maggeda, Joshua captured it on the day and struck it and its king with the edge of the sword. He devoted to destruction every person in it. He left none remaining. And he did to the king of Macca just as he had done to the king of Jericho. And then we see in the remaining 14 verses.

Conclusion

That the Lord gave each of these places into their hand. Would this be a mighty sign from God for them? Yes. Continue battle after battle, victory after victory that He puts into their hand. That should be remembered. But is unfortunately, they seem to have short memories there in Israel, and we can often have short memories as well. Okay, thank you very much.