There is only so much victory in a Christian’s life that Satan will accept without a fight. Know for certain that the stronger you get, the stronger the response from the enemy will be. We need to know this so we can be prepared for his onslaught. It will be both unexpected and sly.
For Joshua, victory over Jericho and Ai was only the beginning - it seems the enemy had a few tricks up his sleeve that Joshua wasn’t expecting.
For us as Christians as we seek to live a victorious life in Christ we see the enemy continually change his tactics. For you Star Trek fans it reminds me of the Borg. You know the "you will be assimilated" bunch who said "resistance in futile!" When you fired a phaser at a Borg you could get through only a couple of times because the Borg would adjust their something-or-other to compensate and the phaser won’t work anymore.
With our enemy who seeks to keep us from being effective and victorious for God will continually rotate his "devices" as the Bible calls them so that we need to constantly keep on our toes. At the end of the study today the Apostle Peter has three tips to keep our spiritual phasers from becoming useless against Lucifer.
In our journey through Joshua we’ve seen the enemy put up impossible looking walls representing the world and its attitudes-walls that God knocked down as we focused on our relationship with Him and worship. Then we saw the tactics change to temptation from within as sin entered the camp, along with arrogance and independence from God that turned victory into defeat.
After repentance and cleansing we saw imaginative tactics take the battle to a new level. Then we watched as Israel stopped the battle get perspective: surveying the possibilities they realized that they only would have victory in the grace of God and a relationship with Him.
Now they are ready to resume operations, but the enemy is far from finished. His tactics change from obstinacy (Jericho), to temptation (Akin), to pride (arrogance & independence), and now to subterfuge and lies. Satan, as you may know, is the father of lies. Jesus said that when Satan lies he speaks his native language (John 8:44).
Our job as Christians is to 1) Recognize the voice of Satan 2) Reveal the lie 3) Rely on the Lord’s wisdom to overcome the lies with truth.
Verses 1 - 2
The beginning of the conquest had fear going for it. The kings of Canaan had heard of what God had done, then saw it for themselves. But like a cornered animal, eventually they come out fighting no matter what the odds are against them. No longer would Joshua be able to go city to city. All the kings were now banding together so the fight would be much more difficult.
At a certain point our enemy will not care about the odds or the circumstances and will attack the Christian to keep them from being victorious in becoming like the Lord and then being used effectively to increase His kingdom, and thus reducing Satan’s.
This is why even the experienced Christian needs to be on guard. And it’s why we see too many Christian leaders brought down. It’s why we need to watch for both frontal and sideways attacks as we’ll see here in chapter 9.
Verses 3 - 15
Now God had strictly forbidden Israel from making any treaties with the nations in Canaan (Deut 7:1-3). You wonder if somehow the Gibeonites found out about that. Why else would they invent this ruse?
So the Gibeonites come up with this great story. It’s like a little play. They have the costumes and the props and the script about how they have journeyed far when they were only few miles away. I guess they went down to Goodwill and bought a bunch of junk to make it appear their clothes had worn out over months of journeying. For my taste they overplay it a little-going on and on about the bread being warm and the wineskins being new. I wouldn’t have been surprised if they said "we were only young boys when we set off low these many years ago."
In our struggle against the enemy often he will come dressed as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14). We need to be careful and as John tells us "test the spirits to see if they are from God" (1 John 4:1). Often times Satan comes to present temptation to us, and it looks and sounds reasonable. When we do not seek God for discernment but instead listen to the lie and don’t test it, we open ourselves up for trouble.
One of the problems that crops up after victory is that we think we are bullet-proof. And we think we sort of have the mind of God in all situations. What happens is that we don’t seek the wisdom of Lord and we don’t seek the discernment of the Spirit.
Notice what was happening here - flattery. "Oh, our fame has spread so far that even people from far away are coming to bow down to us." And so we turn our discernment antennas off. Flattery and fame are two of the slyest devices of the enemy. And doesn’t it sound just like Satan to put up the self? How many ministries has this happened to?
Notice another thing: the guys around Joshua didn’t buy the rap from the Hivites. As soon as the Hivites heard the objectives they went around those that surrounded Joshua and appealed directly to him - feigning allegiance. God often surrounds those in positions of power with others who can keep them accountable and honest. But when the power begins to go to our heads we cut those people off and the enemy knows it.
Proverbs 11:14 Where there is no guidance, a people falls, but in an abundance of counselors there is safety.
Look for those people who bring sanity to you; accept them, listen to them, heed their warnings.
Verses 16 - 21
So the other shoe drops-Israel had been deceived. It makes sense that they were angry about it-that the Hivites actually lived a few days journey away.
What I like here is that they put more stock in the promise they made to God than in righting their own mistake. It’s an interesting moral dilemma. On the one hand they might say "we must obey God’s word and that word was to kill the Canaanites so let’s go!" And yet they had made a promise to these people. Breaking that promise would have been wrong:
Numbers 30:2 If a man vows a vow to the Lord, or swears an oath to bind himself by a pledge, he shall not break his word. He shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth.
And breaking their promise would also have ruined their witness for Jehovah to these people.
The Hivites don’t get off completely for their deception, and several times in the rest of the chapter it’s mentioned that they become wood cutters and drawers of water-in other words: put to hard labor.
The people (v 18) got pretty upset with Joshua, perhaps because they feared another judgment like at Ai.
But notice their defense when Joshua asks them why they put up such a ruse.
Verses 22 - 27
You’ve got to hand it to the Hivites. They knew their lives were in danger. At the beginning of the chapter we see that the rest of the kings put their back up, despite seeing God’s judgment against Jericho and Ai. They would rather fight God. But the Hivites were different. They basically deceived Israel but then threw themselves on their mercy. This is very similar to what Rahab did, but Gibeon was never welcomed into the people of Israel. They always were considered vassals.
Verse 25 says "And now, behold, we are in your hand." These are actually the words of a people who want God’s mercy and know they don’t deserve it. Sounds kind of like us too, huh? We are condemned to die for our sins and we too must come and beg God’s mercy through Jesus Christ.
There are differences of course. We don’t deceive God nor does He put us to forced labor, however, we do then belong to Him to do His will. And if sometimes you feel like you are just being sent to cut wood and draw water for the Lord, remember that it is only by His mercy that you still live and have the promise of eternal life.
But the lesson here is: don’t try to fix your mistakes by making more mistakes. In fact, Israel will be tested later to see if they keep the promise to the Hivites. It was an oath, which meant that they had really promised God that they would protect the Hivites. As soon as the other kings see that Gibeon has made peace with God’s people then Gibeon becomes their enemy and Israel finds themselves defending a Canaanite city and its inhabitants from other Canaanites!
Much later Israel did get in trouble for violating this treaty. King Saul did it in 2 Samuel 21:1-9).
Lessons
* Always ask God for direction no matter how confident you feel
Your environment may lie to you. Joshua asked "where are you from?" They lied and Joshua’s key mistake was not asking for God’s advice on what his environment was telling him.
* Don’t let flattery or fame fool you
* Two wrongs don’t make a right - make sure whatever you do brings glory to God
We might be tempted after considering this to not jab the enemy with a sharp stick by really giving our lives to God in His service. We think that by playing it safe-just filling a pew, saying a few prayers, raising our hands in worship-that we will avoid the stare of the enemy.
Think about it, though. Satan’s desire is to make you ineffective for God. If you voluntarily hold back just to avoid temptation or attack are you not playing into the enemy’s hands?
Listen, Satan is powerful, but he is nothing compared to the power that lives in you as a Christian. 1 John 4:4 "Greater is He in you than he who is in the world." Satan is a defeated foe that wants us to believe otherwise.
I guarantee you that it is worth some battle scars to serve our master and savior. Just have your radar on, your prayer life active, and your eyes open!
1 Peter 5:8-11 Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 9 Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. 10 And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. 11 To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.
1. Be sober minded ("refrain from wine")
To be drunk in your mind means that your senses are dulled and your inhibitions lowered. You are unaware of the true nature of your environment and you can’t react to what’s going on around you. We need to constantly realize that we are in a war. Don’t let anything distract you from that - not fear or sin or even discouragement or success. It’s a state of mind - like when you are on guard duty.
2. Be watchful
"Keep awake" from a Greek word that means to awaken from sleep. This is a state of awareness. Always search the perimeter of your life for the probing of the enemy. In World War II ordinary people were trained to recognize Japanese and German planes so they could see if the enemy was attacking. We are not to be ignorant of Satan’s devices - how he uses bluffing, temptation, distraction, pride, and lies to pull us away from our task. He is seeking whom he may devour - to seek there mean to "plot."
3. Resist
"To stand against solidly" Don’t take the devil’s schemes lightly. Stand squarely against them through prayer and also through the fellowship of knowing that others have also resisted these same temptations and attacks.
1) Recognize the voice of Satan
2) Reveal the lie
3) Rely on the Lord’s wisdom to overcome the lies with truth.
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