Pray Before You Act

Joshua 9 - Episode 123

Why don’t we ask God before we act? We have the smartest, best advisor at our disposal all the time, yet we carry on as if we must do it all alone. For some reason, because we can’t see Him here right beside us, it is easy to forget He is with us. But if we would practice talking to Him regularly, about everything, then we would remember to ask Him before we got ourselves into trouble. Instead, we usually go to Him after we have already made a mess of things. How different would our lives be if we could learn to go to Him first.

Tricked By Gideon - Joshua 9:1-27 (Deuteronomy 7:1-5, 20:10-18)

When everyone else in the land heard how the Israelites had just defeated their second city, they decided to band together against them. Maybe they would have better luck fighting together instead of individually, like Ai and Jericho. But the Hivites, who lived in Gibeon, thought it would be better to join with the Israelites instead of fighting against them.

The only problem was that they had heard the God of Israel had given His people the land and told them to kill everyone that lived in it. They knew the Israelites wouldn’t make a treaty with them if they knew they lived just a few miles northwest of Jerusalem. So, instead of just approaching them and asking for peace, they made themselves look as if they had come from very far away. They put on old clothes and shoes and carried worn out wineskins and sacks with dry and crumbly bread inside. Then they told the Israelites they were from a faraway country and had come to make a peace treaty with them.

Initially the Israelites were skeptical about who the people were and where they came from. But then the Hivites showed them how worn out all their things were and told them that their bread had been fresh when they left, but it was now dry and crumbly because they had traveled so far. That is all it took to convince the Israelites that these people were telling the truth and they agreed to a peace treaty.

But only three days after they had sworn an oath of peace to the Hivites, they realized they had been lied to. The men of Gibeon, Chephirah, Beeroth, and Kiriath-jearim had tricked them. The people were angry with their leaders for falling for the strangers’ lies, but there wasn’t much that could be done about it now. The Israelites could not attack because they had sworn peace to them in the name of the Lord. Since they had made the promise in God’s name, they would also be breaking it in God’s name. That would have made God sound like a liar, in addition to His people, which was not something the Israelites intended to do. They were the ones who messed up, so they were the ones who should pay the price. God’s name must remain clean for it to mean anything at all.

So, the only idea the elders could come up with is to put the Hivites under their control. It was not what God had told them to do, but because they could no longer do what the Lord had commanded, it was better than letting their deceivers live freely within the land that God had given to them. So, they confronted the Hivites, and the men confessed that they lied out of fear for their lives. They believed that Israel’s God was powerful enough to bring them victory in all their battles and knew they had no chance against them from the beginning. So, they willingly submitted to the Israelites and were allowed to keep their lives but became their servants instead.

Later, when the land was being divided, Gibeon was made into a Levitical city within the territory of Benjamin. The people served the Levites there, cutting wood for the sacrifices and providing water for cleansing. It was important that the Israelites themselves did not benefit from their servitude because that might would have encouraged them to overtake more cities instead of obeying the Lord in destroying them totally.

It was fitting instead, that the Lord’s house was the beneficiary of the sin the Hivites committed against Him. They lied and tricked the people, and their consequence was servitude. But the Israelites also sinned by making a peace treaty with people they were supposed to defeat in battle. So, it would not have been right for them to then profit from their sin. Instead, as the only innocent party, God benefited from the sins of all the people by having the Hivites serve His representatives at His house.

Binding Covenants (Genesis 15)

Covenants and treaties made between two parties are a little different than a promise made by an individual. It is important to keep both so that our word means something, and we can be trusted. But when two parties swear to uphold their end of the bargain, and then one fails to do so, it is a serious offense. Maybe we can explain away a rash statement and make up for not fulfilling it in some way. But when we enter a covenant with someone else, it should be well thought out.

In ancient times, they took these covenants so seriously that they would often hold a ceremony where each person would proclaim their promise aloud as they passed between the parts of an animal that had been sacrificed for the occasion. The presumption was that if either party dared to break the terms of their agreement, they deserved to end up just like the dead animal.

Today, we usually have both parties sign the agreement and there are normally penalties imposed for anyone that fails to live up to their commitment. Whether it be a business contract, a loan agreement, or a marriage, covenants like this are supposed to be binding.

Then, personally if we ever take an oath in God’s name, we must remember that if we break it, then we break it in His name too. That is why the Bible says not to swear by anything. Instead, we are to let our yes be yes and our no be no (James 5:12). Matthew 5:33-37

We should not have to use God’s name to add weight to our words. They should be trustworthy all on their own. That is how we make our name mean something. Proverbs 22:1

Also, His name is too precious and important to risk tainting it with our human failures. Leviticus 19:12

So, are you truthful and trustworthy? Do your words and your name carry weight? Do you follow through on your commitments and take your covenants seriously? Do you give God’s name the respect and honor it deserves? Do you do your best to represent Him well and not do anything to taint His name? Leviticus 22:31-32