God Who Sets Them to Work at the Tabernacle

22Joshua called for them, and he spoke to them, saying, “Why have you deceived us, saying, ‘We are very far from you,’ when you live among us? 23Now therefore you are cursed, and some of you will never fail to be slaves, both wood cutters and drawers of water for the house of my God.” 24They answered Joshua, and said, “Because your servants were certainly told how Yahweh your God commanded his servant Moses to give you all the land, and to destroy all the inhabitants of the land from before you. Therefore we were very afraid for our lives because of you, and have done this thing. 25Now, behold, we are in your hand. Do to us as it seems good and right to you to do.” 26He did so to them, and delivered them out of the hand of the children of Israel, so that they didn’t kill them. 27That day Joshua made them wood cutters and drawers of water for the congregation and for Yahweh’s altar to this day, in the place which he should choose.

We have seen the Gibeonites lie to save their lives. When they went to Joshua seeking peace and lied that they had come from a very far country, Joshua was taken in by their shabby appearance, and God, though he watched Joshua being deceived, spared the Gibeonites.

Joshua, who always prayed and sought God’s will, was fooled by the Gibeonites’ ragged look and their earnest pleading, and without even asking God’s will he promised to make peace with them. Because people cannot judge rightly on their own like this, we must form the habit of always asking God and obeying him, even in the smallest matters, since even the habit of constant fellowship with God, kept well, brings blessing.

Joshua 8:33

33All Israel, their elders and officers, and their judges, stood on both sides of the ark before the priests the Levites, who carried the ark of Yahweh’s covenant, the foreigner as well as the native; half of them in front of Mount Gerizim, and half of them in front of Mount Ebal, as Moses the servant of Yahweh had commanded at the first, that they should bless the people of Israel.

All Israel, foreigners included, stood around the ark of the covenant, divided between Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal. Joshua stood among the people ranged on either side and read aloud to the whole assembly all the words of blessing and curse written in the book of the law. From the adults to the little children, everyone heard the word Joshua read, so from then on they must have known what kind of life was right and what God’s will was. If they did not live by faith, it would not be because they had not heard the word, but because they had not lived by the word they heard.

Moses had commanded Joshua to make an altar of new, uncut stones on Mount Ebal and to offer burnt offerings and peace offerings on it. Joshua built the altar on Mount Ebal as commanded and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings.

The people standing before Gerizim and Ebal must each have thought a great deal from where they stood. Those in front of Mount Gerizim, looking at the altar on Mount Ebal, gave thanks to God who had forgiven their sins and resolved to live more humbly. And those in front of Mount Ebal, knowing they were sinners who deserved to die, would have turned in repentance to God, who had accepted a peace offering in place of their sin. Once again they may well have thanked him for the astonishing grace by which, through the forgiveness of their sin, he enabled them to stand in front of Mount Gerizim. Whether they stood before Gerizim or before Ebal, as they looked at the ark of the covenant in their midst, they saw the love of God who had kept them alive.

We too are sinners standing in front of Mount Ebal. Through the sacrifice of Jesus, who became the offering that made peace for such sinners, God has declared us righteous, and that is why we can stand in front of Mount Gerizim. The altar built on Mount Ebal and the peace offering that died in place of our sin are all God’s grace. The cross raised on the hill of Golgotha, and Jesus who hung on it and died, are all blessings God has given us. Without this grace, how could we ever presume to stand before God?

Now the Israelites need only live by the word. If they make their resolution in faith and simply live it out, God will hold back every threat, even as the Canaanites prepare for war and menace them. It is the same for us. If we only live as Jesus taught us, he will hold back every hardship of the world and every attack of Satan. He will do this because he holds long life and riches in both his hands, ready to bless the lives of those who live by his word.

Joshua 9:13

13These wine skins, which we filled, were new; and behold, they are torn. These our garments and our shoes have become old because of the very long journey.”

The Gibeonites had heard reports of Israel’s victories and of almighty God. Since they were bound to die unless they made peace with Israel, they decided to deceive Joshua by any means necessary. God knew their hearts, how they sought peace in order to live, and he spared the Gibeonites who had deceived Joshua.

This is not to say, of course, that they did well to deceive God’s people and lie to them. The point is how desperate they were. Whatever the reason, deceiving God’s people and winning them over with lies is the wrong way. Had the Gibeonites simply said honestly that they wanted to make peace with Israel, or that they wanted to live as God’s people, Joshua would have forgiven them too, because anyone who truly wants to become one of God’s good people and has received God can be saved.

Israel’s leader, Joshua, failed to pray at crucial moments, and in doing God’s work such an attitude is a serious problem. Had he prayed when the Gibeonites came seeking peace and asked God what to do with them, it is clear that God, who loves life, would have told him to spare them. But Joshua had already met with great failure by not praying before he attacked Ai, and now once again he did not pray in so important a matter, so he must also have felt, personally, the despair of having disobeyed God’s command. We who believe in God must always be honest, and the right posture of faith is to form the habit of praying to God about even the smallest things.

Joshua 9:16

16At the end of three days after they had made a covenant with them, they heard that they were their neighbors, and that they lived among them.

The Gibeonites lived only three days’ journey from Gilgal, where Israel was camped. Courtesy required a visit to a nation with which one had made peace, so Joshua and the Israelites went to Gibeon. Only then did they learn they had been deceived, but because they had sworn in God’s name, they had no choice but to spare them. Joshua had looked only at their shabby appearance and made the alliance without prayer. When he learned the truth, his heart must have been heavy.

Those who know the word only in their heads and do not live it out can slip into this kind of sin in a moment. God did a great work, it is true, in the saving of the Gibeonites, but as for Joshua’s own faith, it showed the same mistake made twice. Since it amounted to Israel’s leader going against God’s will on his own judgment, this sin may well have weighed on him all his life.

When he was forgiven for his mistake at Ai and given another chance to attack, he resolved never to make such a mistake again. Being deceived this time by the Gibeonites touched his faith directly, so it would not have been easy to shake off. Leaders, then, must always be careful, honest, and humble. Only so do they avoid committing the same sin before God and become an example to the people. The very thought ‘I can judge this much for myself’ is pride, so we must always lay down our own thinking and act according to God’s will.

Exodus 23:28,32

28I will send the hornet before you, which will drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before you. 32You shall make no covenant with them, nor with their gods.

God had said that they must never make a covenant with the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites. Joshua had been taken in by the lies of the Gibeonites, who were Hivites, and he must have been heavy-hearted, angry with himself for having committed a great sin against God. For a leader who trusts God, looks to him, and leads his people, to commit the same sin twice in a row is a heavy burden to carry.

If you keep committing the same sin and feel no remorse, your conscience is already seared. When a believer knows God’s will and still repeats the same sin, they are sinning on purpose, which makes forgiveness hard to receive. Whenever you make a choice or a judgment, I hope you will think deeply about whether it is what God wants or what you want, for a moment’s poor judgment, laziness, pride, or disobedience can cloud your judgment and lead you to go against God’s will.

Jacob deceived his father Isaac, took the blessing of the firstborn that belonged to his brother Esau, and fled to the house of his uncle Laban. On the way to Laban’s house he had a dream at Bethel: he saw a ladder set up that reached to heaven, and the angels of God going up and down on it.

Then Yahweh spoke to him. He was Yahweh, the God of Abraham his grandfather and the God of Isaac, and he would give the land on which Jacob lay to him and to his offspring. And he promised that he would be with Jacob and keep him wherever he went, that he would bring him back to this land, and that he would not leave him until he had done all he had promised.

When Jacob woke from his sleep, he made a vow, on condition that God would keep him and bring him back to his father’s house in peace. Of his own accord he vowed that Yahweh would be his God, that this stone he had set up as a pillar would be God’s house, and that of all God gave him he would surely give a tenth. We too make vows far too easily when trouble comes, and far too easily fail to keep them.

But God does not forget the vows we make. He accepted Jacob’s vow and granted his wish. He worked to bring him home safely, and he caused Esau to forgive him.

Genesis 34:2,13

2Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, the prince of the land, saw her. He took her, lay with her, and humbled her. 13The sons of Jacob answered Shechem and Hamor his father with deceit, and spoke, because he had defiled Dinah their sister,

After Esau forgave him, Jacob came with his wives, his children, and his flocks to Shechem, where he pitched his tent, bought a field, and settled. Though he had received so astonishing an answer, Jacob forgot all he had vowed, and instead of going to Bethel, he settled at the city of Shechem in the land of Canaan. God had blessed him, yet when Jacob forgot his promise, great suffering came upon him. Because the one we make our vows to so easily is God himself, we must always keep our vows and all that we are bound to keep.

Jacob had a daughter, Dinah, whom Leah had borne. Curious to see how the Hivites of Shechem lived, Dinah went out to look around, and the chieftain there, Shechem, violated her. Jacob’s sons were furious, but because the man was a chieftain they bided their time, watching for a chance to take revenge. Seeing that Shechem was in love with Dinah, they seized on it as their opportunity and resolved to deceive him and avenge her. They told Shechem, falsely, that if all the men of his city were circumcised the marriage could take place, but that without circumcision there could be no marriage. In other words, it was Israel that deceived the Hivites first. The men of Shechem, thinking it would profit them to trade and intermarry with each other, were all circumcised. Their greed kept them from seeing that they were being deceived.

Genesis 34:25

25On the third day, when they were sore, two of Jacob’s sons, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brothers, each took his sword, came upon the unsuspecting city, and killed all the males.

Having deceived the men of Shechem, Jacob’s sons killed every one of them while they were still in pain from their circumcision. They did it to avenge the violation of their sister, but even so, to commit murder for the sake of revenge was the wrong decision. When we consider that the whole thing arose because Jacob did not keep his vow, Jacob ought first to have repented of his broken vow rather than resent the Hivites of Shechem.

Because Jacob ignored his vow to build an altar at Bethel, Dinah was violated and his sons became murderers. Five hundred years after that event—when they deceived the Hivites into being circumcised and then slaughtered them—the tables turned, and Israel was deceived by the Gibeonites, who were Hivites.

Israel had deceived the Hivites and slaughtered them without mercy, but this time the Hivites deceived Israel and saved their lives. Where once a whole people had been wiped out because Israel deceived them, now God granted that Israel be deceived so that all might live, and in this way he comforted the Hivites for that earlier slaughter.

Galatians 6:7

7Don’t be deceived. God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.

The Hivites were once wiped out after being deceived by Israel, and this time they deceived Israel and all survived. Seeing this, I have wondered whether the word that whatever a man sows, that he will also reap, was not at work in this event. When the Gibeonites saw Israel enter Canaan, they probably remembered what had once been done to them. Yet, remarkably, they chose to become God’s people rather than take revenge on Israel.

To God a thousand years are as one day, so he would have remembered Israel’s sin in deceiving the Hivites. And now, by his grace, he spared the Hivites who had once been deceived and put to death. Jacob’s sin in breaking his vow brought despair to his daughter, made his sons murderers, and led to the disaster of wiping out a whole people. And Joshua’s sin, in making peace on his own without prayer, became the occasion for Israel to look back on the sins of their ancestors.

Joshua 9:27

27That day Joshua made them wood cutters and drawers of water for the congregation and for Yahweh’s altar to this day, in the place which he should choose.

The Gibeonites, who were Hivites, lived because of a lie. But deceiving God’s people was a great sin. Had they confessed honestly to Joshua, he would have prayed to God about what to do with them. God, who forgave them even while watching them prepare moldy bread and worn-out wine skins to deceive Joshua, would have spared them all the same, as people who meant to live by faith. Even if they had told no lie and shown themselves honest, God would have protected their lives. To keep his promise to them, Joshua made them servants who cut wood and drew water at the tabernacle.

Living in Canaan for the world, they had not known God. Now, splitting wood at the tabernacle for the fire that burned the offerings, they likely came to understand how foul human sin is and how great is the grace of God who forgives it. Filling the basin with water and watching the priests wash their hands and purify themselves for God’s holy service, they must have realized how great a sin it was to have deceived Israel.

And as they watched the Israelites bring their offerings, they would have seen how weak and lacking human beings are, who receive God’s wonderful love and still sin every day, and how hard it is to live a holy life. Then faith grew in them that God would have spared them even if they had simply asked him honestly for their lives, and they came to see that their choice had been wrong. Had they confessed honestly, the almighty God, the God of love, the God who loves life, would certainly have spared them. So they regretted having saved their lives by a lie, and they repented.

To live honestly before God matters greatly. If God spared them even when they begged for their lives with a lie, then had they confessed their faith honestly, they would have received the great blessing of living not as servants but as brothers.

Even so, the Gibeonites were richly blessed. They had come to God because they wanted to live, and they ended up laboring at the tabernacle. Yet that labor brought them blessing, because through it they came to know God’s almighty power and holiness and, together with an Israel that lived a sanctified life, gained eternal life. We, too, have received God’s great grace. Because Jesus bore our sins in our place and, through terrible suffering, overcame death, we have been blessed with peace and rest.

Friends, I hope you will thank the Lord from the depths of your heart, because the deep love of God has now come to you—the love that made the Gibeonites draw water for the basin to make them holy, and set them to splitting wood for the altar of burnt offering to spare them from judgment. The worship we offer now and our life of faith are no different at all from the work the Gibeonites gave themselves to so diligently at the tabernacle. You live a life of faith, worship God with a pure heart, examine yourselves, and strive to become holier. That heart of yours is the very heart of the Gibeonites.

Have you kept all the vows you made to God? We do not keep our vows in order to be blessed. We keep them because we made a promise to God of our own accord. When we acknowledge God as God and hold to the conviction that a vow must be kept, he will grant blessings beyond imagining, as he did when he spared the Gibeonites, since God never forgets the loyal hearts of those who are honest with him.

Israel and the Gibeonites wrote a history of deceiving and being deceived across five hundred years, but God, who sees everything—like the ark of the covenant standing between Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal—worked through both reward and judgment. If you live with a heart that gives thanks for the grace by which God called you out from among so many and made you his children, you will receive still more grace.

You who have received God’s love: may you carry that love to the whole world. I bless you in the name of Jesus Christ.