Do you know the most famous deception of all time? According to the survey, the Trojan Horse was the greatest deception of all time.
Let me explain.
The Trojan Horse is actually a tale from the Trojan War about the deception that the Greeks employed to enter the City of Troy and win the war.
It all started after a fruitless 10 year siege, the Greeks finally devised an ingenious plan by constructing a Trojan horse and hid a select force of men inside.
The Greeks pretended to sail away, and the Trojans pulled the horse into their city as a victory trophy.
But that night, the Greek force crept out of the horse and opened the gates for the rest of the Greek army, which had sailed back under the cover of the night.
The Greeks entered and destroyed the city f troy, decisively ending the war.
Because of that, the Trojan horse became a symbol of a trick or a form of deception that will cause a target to invite a foe into a securely protected place.
This was unquestionably one of the biggest and most successful tricks known to history.
The story has won a permanent place in the Western imagination as a warning to beware of enemies bearing gifts.
"You can fool some of the people all the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time."
A. Lincoln.
If a person knows that he is being fooled, he will be wise enough to correct it the second time around.
And if he is wise enough, he can turn deception into his own advantage.
But fooling people is a form of deception, isn't it?
What is deception?
The Wikipedia defines deception as an act of beguilement, deceit or bluff to propagate things that are not true.
Some forms of deception include:
Lies - when you make up information or give an information that is opposite or very different from the truth.
Equivocations - when you make an indirect, ambiguous or contradictory statement.
Concealments - when you omit information that is important or relevant to the given context
Exaggerations - when you stretch or overstate the truth to a degree.
Understatements - when you minimize or downplay aspects of the truth.
The Bible says that the truth will set us free.
John 8:32 (NIV) "Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."
Knowledge of the truth is powerful and can be liberating.
The Bible also says that the devil is the master of all lies, tricks and deceits.
He is good in lying, in concealing, in minimizing and downplaying aspects of truth because there is no truth in him.
All truth comes from God.
We are not of the devil but we are of God.
Therefore, we always speak the truth.
We do not resort to speaking lies and deceptions because these are not from God.
The goal therefore is to bed able to discern lies, to expose them, and to correct them so that we could be a good witness to others.
And that is what we are going to learn today.
The other week, we talked about failures and how to turn them into victories and stepping stones of success in life.
Today, we will talk about discerning deceptions and how to transform them into our favor.
Just like failures in life, we all encounter lies and deceptions every now and then from our friends, office mates, even our loved ones.
And sometimes, without knowing it, we too speak lies and deceptions to others without understanding the consequences.
And these deceptions, whether coming from others or from us if not checked or corrected can blind us from the truth that can ultimately paralyze us from fulfilling our life long dreams.
The more we speak those lies, the harder we can discern the real truth.
And so, as much as possible, we need to avoid and correct them by seeking the truth and learning godly wisdom.
To do this, we have to be taught and guided by the biblical principles for living.
We will discover all these biblical principles as we continue Joshua chapter 9.
In this chapter, we will learn about how the Gibeonites deceived Joshua and the leaders of Israel but ultimately, at the end, Joshua was able to turn this around in their favor.
So far, we have learned that Israel is on the mission to conquer the Promised Land.
Jericho has been easily overcome through the power of prayer and worship.
They marched around the city seven times and with the shout of victory, the seemingly impenetrable walls came tumbling down.
They rushed in and destroyed the city by fire.
It was a tremendous moment of victory but it was short-lived.
Why? On the next city to conquer, they were faced with an unexpected and humiliating defeat by the small people of Ai.
It took time for them to realize that there was sin in the camp and every one has been affected by the bad decision of one man - Achan.
But when the sin was dealt with and the people consecrated back to God, that failure was turned into another victory.
This time, they are faced with another enemy, the Gibeonites who were wise enough to trick or deceive them before they could even plan an attack.
It was a combination of lies and concealment of truth that the Gibeonites presented to Israel.
They tried to deceive Israel by telling them that they came from a very far place so that a treaty will be made not to touch them.
They were actually living very near them but because Joshua did not inquire of the Lord, the deception worked and the whole nation of Gibeonites were spared from annihilation.
But later, through spiritual insight, Joshua was able to turn this deception around and ultimately obligated the Gibeonites to be forever woodcutters and water carriers for Israel.
They were also the ones who provided help for the needs of the altar of the Lord.
At the end, Israel and the future generation benefited much from the Gibeonite deception.
There are three things we will study in this chapter.
Three things to know about deception.
The CONFLICT of deception, the CAUSE of deception and the CONSEQUENCES of deception.
Our goal in this study is that we will all learn that there is a spiritual battle going on around us that we need to face and overcome through godly wisdom.
Lies are being perpetuated all around us, in the news, in our government, in our society and even in the church.
Holding on to the truth is important, but somehow, deceptions can still penetrate that must be corrected and transformed to our advantage.
THE CONFLICT OF DECEPTION
Joshua 9:1-6 (NIV) " Now when all the kings west of the Jordan heard about these things—the kings in the hill country, in the western foothills, and along the entire coast of the Mediterranean Sea as far as Lebanon (the kings of the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites)— 2 they came together to wage war against Joshua and Israel.
3 However, when the people of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and Ai, 4 they resorted to a ruse: They went as a delegation whose donkeys were loaded[a] with worn-out sacks and old wineskins, cracked and mended.5 They put worn and patched sandals on their feet and wore old clothes. All the bread of their food supply was dry and moldy. 6 Then they went to Joshua in the camp at Gilgal and said to him and the Israelites, “We have come from a distant country; make a treaty with us.”
The first thing we can learn from these verses is that there is a conflict happening around Israel that they were not aware of.
There was a confederation of Kings who secretly united themselves together to wage war against Joshua.
Joshua was not aware of this, but an alliance has been made among their enemies to stand against Israel and confront them head on through armed warfare.
Joshua was in for a big surprise.
However, there is an enemy nation called Gibeonites who decided they can do warfare with Israel through inward deceptions disguising themselves as friends.
They will hide their true self in order to win the sympathy of Israel.
This second group of enemies that are hidden but secretly come in as friends are more dangerous than those who are open and unmasked.
Here is the scheme of the Gibeonites.
They sent a delegation whose donkeys were loaded with worn out sacks and old wineskin, cracked and mended.
Then, they put on worn and patched sandals on their feet and wore old clothes on their backs.
They made sure that their bread was dry and moldy.
The goal is to deceive Israel by making it appear that they were from far away place.
With this in mind, they can make a peace treaty and avoid being annihilated.
That is the worldly wisdom of deception that we need to be aware of.
You see, there is always a conflict happening in the spiritual realm that many of us are not familiar with.
The Bible says that we fight against evil forces or rulers, against unseen principalities of this world system.
Ephesians 6:12 (NIV) " 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. "
Just because we cannot see them does not mean they are not real.
They are as real as the wind that you cannot see but because of the devastation it can bring to the community after a severe storm, you believe without a shadow of doubt that the wind is real.
In the same manner, the spiritual forces that are out to destroy us cannot be seen by the naked eyes but the attack upon Christians are real.
For instance, when you recognize all the negative assault, the aggression, the intrusion and the the various criticisms hurled against God and the Christians from the past and up to the present time in our society, you will know that the conflict of deception is real.
They will do everything possible to hurl insults at us because we are Christians.
Just consider for instance praying in school and you will be attacked.
Tell them that according to the Bible, homosexuality is sin and you have opened yourself to a lot of enemies.
Tell them that abortion is murder and you will be criticized and ostracized.
My brothers and sisters spiritual warfare in this world is evident and undeniable.
The enemy is fighting a battle of lies and deceptions against the Christians to prevent us from fulfilling God's will in our lives.
And many people are believing those lies.
There are many ways that the enemy wants to fight a warfare against us.
The first way is to confront us publicly forging an alliance with all the worldly powers of the air in order to discredit our godly testimony.
We will be persecuted for our faith, we will be ridiculed for our beliefs, we will be insulted for our conduct.
Billy Graham warned several days ago that the persecution of Christians in the near future here in the United States will be so intense that there are those who will fall away from their faith especially those who are weak.
The conflict is ongoing 24/7 and the enemy of Christ is at work double time because their time is short.
But not only that, beware of the deceptions of the enemy through covert, unseen and hidden operation against the Christians.
They can work secretly from within our ranks in order to confuse us, to make us fight against each other in order to divide and destroy us.
J. O. Sanders offers this summary of the strategies of Satan:
Strategies of Satan with unbelievers:
1) blinding the minds of the unregenerate (2 Cor. 4:4).
2) snatching away the good seed of the word (Matthew 13:19).
3) lulling the unbeliever into a false sense of security (Luke 11:21).
4) laying snares for the unwary (2 Timothy 2:25-26).
5) masquerading as an angel of light (2 Cor 11:13-14).
6) deceiving those whose minds are not subject to the Word of truth (Rev 12:9).
7) mixing truth with error (Matthew 13:25-8).
Strategies of Satan with believers:
1) annihilate the church or neutralize its witness from within (Acts 5:1-6).
2) virulent persecution from without.
3) smother its witness by according it great popularity.
4) disturb the unity of the church by creating discord and division
5) subversion of the church through apostasy and heresy (2 Peter 2:1-2).
J.O. Sanders, Satan is No Myth, Moody, 1975, p. 72ff.
Brothers and sisters, we need to to be ware of his schemes, his deceptions and his strategies to be able to fight a winning battle.
Secondly, let us look at the cause of such deception.
THE CAUSE OF DECEPTION
Joshua 9:14-15 (NIV) "14 The Israelites sampled their provisions but did not inquire of the Lord. 15 Then Joshua made a treaty of peace with them to let them live, and the leaders of the assembly ratified it by oath."
Joshua 9:24 (NIV) 24 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."
The second thing we need to remember is that there is a cause or a reason why Christians are easily deceived by Satan.
Let us go back and understand clearly why Israel was deceived by the Gibeonites.
The text says that "Israel sampled their provisions but did not inquire of the Lord."
That means, they were convinced by the evidence presented but they did not make further inquiries and investigation as to the validity of such evidence.
They readily trusted the Gibenonites on the first encounter and were deceived by the manner of their speech and demeanor.
It was unfortunate that they did not even seek God's wisdom through prayer and wise counsel.
Many Christians are falling into the same trap of deception when they make speedy decisions regarding the world's ways without pausing and listening from the small voice of God.
We have the tendency towards self-sufficiency.
We can do it ourselves.
We don't need God.
That is spiritual pride.
That is the mistake that we often make.
We rush into things thinking this is good for us when in fact, God says no.
We had no time to inquire of the Lord because we are always in a hurry always running here and there.
God wants us to know His will, His leading and His direction.
How can we do that?
By reading, studying and meditating on God's Word.
By committing our lives under the power and influence of the Holy Spirit.
The Bible promises that God's Spirit will guide us into all things.
John 16:13 (NIV) "But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth. he will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come."
Brothers and sisters, we need to keep on studying God's Word so that we can prevent Satan from deceiving us any further.
The more we gain spiritual knowledge and understanding, the more we can learn how to resist and fight the unseen enemy of this dark world.
If we are sensitive to God's voice, we can protect ourselves from future traps and entanglements of the devil.
And so, we need to always inquire, seek more information from God before we even make a decision.
Ask yourself these questions:
Is it good for us?
Will it benefit our Christian testimony if we do this?
Will God be glorified in this situation?
The cause of deceptions can be avoided if we regularly pray and seek His counsel.
"Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and depart from evil." Prov. 3:7 KJV
Story:
An elderly man was desperately ill. Knowing the time for his departure was near, he called for his closest friends to come see him one last time. Attending him were his doctor, his pastor and his business manager.
The old man said, “I know you can’t take it with you, but who knows for sure? What if the experts are mistaken? I want to account for all possibilities. So I’m giving you each an envelope containing $100,000. When I die, I want you each to slip the envelope in my jacket pocket at the funeral service. Then, if I do need money in the life to come, I’ll be ready. And I’m giving the envelopes to you because you are my most trusted friends.”
Shortly thereafter, the man did die. Each of his three friends was seen slipping something into the deceased’s coat pocket as he walked up to the casket to pay his final respects.
Following the service, while these friends were visiting with each other, the doctor, with a sheepish look on his face, said, “Guys, I have a confession to make. You know with the cost of medicine today, I don’t make that much money. The hospital is desperate for funds. We can’t even replace the CAT scan machine that’s broken down. So, I took $20,000 for the new CAT scan and put the rest in the coffin.”
The minister cleared his throat and looked down at his shoes. He said, “I, too, have a confession to make. As you know, our church is seriously overburdened by the needs of the homeless.
I couldn’t just see burying that money. So, in hopes of helping the homeless, I took $50,000 out of the envelope and put the rest in his pocket.”
Looking sternly at the doctor and the minister, the businessman exclaimed, “I can’t believe what I’m hearing. I am astonished and deeply disappointed that you would treat a solemn trust so casually. He was our friend. I want you to know that I placed in his casket my personal check for the full $100,000.” (From Sins We Love, by Randy Rowland, p. 125-126)
Further on the chapter, we will also discover why the Gibeonites resorted to the scheme of deception.
It said that "they feared for their lives because of what they have heard about what happened to Jericho and Ai."
Because of fear, their ability to fight has been overtaken and so, they resort to deception.
There are people who are fearful that their sins will be exposed and so, they had to cover them with lies.
Sin, lies, concealment, exaggerations, deceit, deception and dishonesty are all correlated to a person who have no truth in him.
THE CONSEQUENCES OF DECEPTION
Joshua 9: 15 Then Joshua made a treaty of peace with them to let them live, and the leaders of the assembly ratified it by oath.
Joshua 9:22-23 (NIV) "22 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? 23 You are now under a curse: You will never be released from service as woodcutters and water carriers for the house of my God.”
There are a lot of negative consequences when we fall into the trap of deception.
One of that is that we will not be able to fulfill God's purpose completely.
We will be out of line with God's plan for our lives.
That is what happened to Israel.
They made a treaty of peace with the enemy - the Gibeonites.
It was then ratified by an oath.
They were supposed to defeat and conquer them, but now, they could not even fight them anymore.
They were being prevented from doing God's will by the oath that should not have been promulgated in the first place.
And so, the plan to conquer the entire land did not materialize.
The people grumbled against the leadership of Israel.
However, when Joshua discovered the deception, he corrected his mistake and confronted right away the Gibeonites.
Mistakes need not be permanent to ruin their lives.
Joshua realized the seriousness of what they had done and he immediately took the necessary steps to control the situation.
They can't kill them, because they have given them their word, but they can control them.
In the same manner, there will be times when we will step out of the Lord's will and will commit sin.
That is the truth of life!
We make mistakes in our decisions.
However, the mistakes we make in following the devil do not have to be permanent, neither do they have to destroy us completely.
Thank God, there is a promise of restoration if we will return to Him and repent from our sins.
And when we are restored, we have to learn from our failures and sin so that we do not fall into the same trap again.
Either we will control our sins or they will control us.
Whatever it is depends upon you and what you want from life.
At the same end, there was some good that happened to the Gibeonites after their deception had been confronted and corrected by Joshua.
They became woodcutters and water carriers in the temple of God for life.
They were under the covenant and protection of Israel.
Those five Canaanite kings who united themselves to fight Israel were all defeated as we learn in Joshua chapter 10.
But the Gibeonites became slaves for life as a cruse and as we move further in their story in the Bible, this curse eventually became a blessing to their descendants.
How?
In Joshua chapter 10:10-14, we will see that it was because of the Gibeonites that God worked a great miracle when the sun stood still.
Also, the Tabernacle of the Lord would later be pitched at Gibeon in 2 Chronicles 1:30.
And further on, we will also see the the Gibeonites (know as Nethinims) would replace the Levites in temple serve as written in Ezra 2:43.
Amazing thing that has happened to the Gibeonites when they come in contact with Israel.
They were given the opportunity to serve the Lord for the rest of their lives from generations to generations.
They had the privilege of being brought close tot eh Lord and do spiritual things on a regular basis.
It is also interesting that in the later years, when the Israelites would go into idolatry, the Gibeonites would still be standing at the altar where the true God ordained that sacrifices should be made for sins.
As a result of what they had seen God do for Israel, they became convinced that Israel's God was the true God.
And they became loyal believers.
That is the amazing way that the grace of God works.
He can turn a curse into a blessing.
They had first to suffer the consequences of their sins but after they have been forgiven and proved their usefulness, God overrules their mistakes and brings blessings out of sins.
He can do the same to you.
He will turn your curses into a blessing.
Commit your life to Jesus and he will transform your life.
END.....
