Deceived by the Enemy, Part 2

Take your Bible, Joshua chapter 9. Joshua chapter 9 is where we're at. And we began last week looking at what it means to be deceived by the enemy. Deceived by the enemy, Joshua chapter 9, verse number 16. And it came about at the end of three days after they had made a covenant with them that they heard. That they were neighbors, and that they were living within their land. Then the sons of Israel set out and came to their cities on the third day.

Now their cities were Gibeon, and Kep, and Be, and Kir Yere. And the sons of Israel did not strike them, because the leaders of the congregation had sworn to them by the Lord God of Israel. And the whole congregation grumbled against the leaders. But all the leaders said to the whole congregation, We have sworn to them by the LORD, and the God of Israel, and now we cannot touch them. This we will do to them, even let them live, lest wrath be upon us for the oath which we swore to them. And the leaders said to them, Let them live.

So they became hewers of wood and drawers of water for the whole congregation, just as the leaders had spoken to them. Then Joshua called for them and spoke to them, saying, Why have you deceived us, saying, We are very far from you when you are living within our land? Now, therefore, you are cursed, and you shall never cease being slaves, both hewers of wood and drawers of water of the house of my God. So they answered Joshua and said, Because it was certainly told. your servants 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 before you.

Therefore we feared greatly for our lives because of you, and have done this thing. And now, behold, we are in your hands. Do as it seems good and right in your sight to do to us. Thus he did to them, and delivered them from the hands of the sons of Israel, and they did not kill them. But Joshua made them that day hewers of wood and drawers of water for the congregation and for the altar of the Lord to this day in the place which he would choose. Our second point centers around the detection of their deception, and then we'll look at the denunciation of their deception.

Point number three. But first of all, the detection of their deception. And I want to look at you first of all with the moment of that discovery.

The Bible says it was three days later that they heard that these people, the Gibeonites, We were a part of that land, that they lived in that land, and that they had been deceived.

You know, deception will always be found out, it's a question of when. But now you understand the urgency behind the Gibe when they got there, that they wanted to hurry into a contract with them, hurry into an oath with them, a treaty, so they wouldn't die, because they knew that they would probably soon be found out. You see, you always got to be careful. Listen, you need to be careful about somebody who wants to pressure you into a decision. Be careful about that because they could have an ulterior motive.

It could be pressuring you into buying a car. It could be pressuring you into buying a specific product. It could be pressuring you into marriage. Be careful about that. You know, I've known many people who were pressured into marriage, that they had to do it, and they had to do it soon. And so they quickly got married, only to find out that the one they married was not what they thought they were. Folks, let me tell you something.

That happens all the time. And it's a tragedy. It really is. Because that young lady or that young man gets sucked into the deceptive measures. Let's say you're dating someone and they come to saving faith in Christ. You're thinking, oh man, they're Christians. I can marry him now.

There's always a good word of caution. Don't do that. Wait a while so that that person can prove the genuineness of their faith. And so, what you have is these people hurrying Israel into making a decision. They fell prey to that because of the condition of the appearance of the Gibe when they saw them. And he fell prey to that deception, only to find out three days later they had been duped. Israel felt pretty bad about that. But you move from the moment of the discovery to the mandate in the discovery.

And that is, you can't kill them. Once they found out that they had been duped and deceived, they realized that they couldn't kill them. Why? Because they had made an oath to God. They had made a covenant through the name of the Lord God of Israel. And so, for them to kill now the Gibeonites, which they should have done from the very beginning, would mean that they would have to break another command of God, that is Exodus chapter 20, the third commandment, not to take the name of the Lord your God in vain, to treat God's name as If it means nothing to make an oath in the name of God and then reneg on that oath.

And they knew they couldn't do that because Joshua tells them, verse number 20: This we will do to them, even let them live, lest wrath be upon us. for the oath which we swore to them. So Joshua knew that the consequences would be great. And we told you on Sunday that it's never right to do wrong to make a wrong right. Can't do that. And praise be to God that Joshua understood that. He grasped that. He understood that. He knew that they had made an oath to these people. They had vowed to these people before the Lord God of Israel that they would make a treaty with them.

And let them live. Now they can't go back and now break another aspect of God's law. See, this is so important. Folks, let me tell you something about your word.

It should be your bond. When you say something, it should last. It should be as good as gold. That's why Christ says in Matthew 5: let your yea be yea and your nay be nay.

Make your word your bond. Well, the good thing about this story in Joshua 9 is that they understood that they had made a treaty with these people in the name of the Lord their God. For them to break that treaty would mean that they would go against their vow to the Lord God of Israel and they could not do a wrong to make another wrong right. And they understood that. And so we understand that the mandate in the discovery was you can't kill them. Which leads point number three, the murmuring of the discovery.

The congregation began to murmur. They weren't happy. Can you blame them? This is the congregation. It says very clearly in verse number 18, and the whole congregation grumbled against the leaders. Now that's about three million people. That's a lot of people. I don't know about you. When I got a couple of kids in my house, I got eight of them. So when a couple of them grumble, that really irritates me. That's my two kids. But think if 3 million people began to grumble because you made a bad decision.

Boy, the repercussions of that are great. And you can't blame them, can you? I can't blame them. I mean, their leaders had made a bad choice. Their leaders had really made a major blunder here. And I would pray. That Christ Community Church, the congregation of Christ Community Church, would murmur greatly if the leaders of this church dis the law of God. But you know what? Most congregations don't know the law of God good enough to demurmur the leaders make the blunders, right? But think about this.

Israel in Joshua 8 had just been on Mount Ebal and Mount Geriz. And remember, Mount Ebal, they gave all the curses, and all the people said amen after all the curses were read. And on Mount Geriz, they read all the blessings, and they said amen after all the blessings were read. That was just in Joshua chapter 8. But listen to what one of the curses was. Deuteronomy 27, verse number 26 says this: Cursed is he. This was the last one they read on Mount Ebal. Cursed is he who does not confirm the words of this law.

By doing them, and all the people said, Amen, so be it, praise be to God, that's the way it should be. Cursed is the one who does not abide by the law of the land, who doesn't confirm the law by living the law out. So here is the congregation. They come to grips with the fact that we made a treaty with the enemy, the Gibe, and they're thinking to themselves, wait a minute, we just said a few days ago that cursed be the one Who doesn't abide by the law of God? We didn't do that. In other words, you leaders, you didn't do that.

And you made that commitment. So they began to murmur because they were upset. And you know what? They had every right to be upset. Because, you know, Israel, you know, for all the wrong Israel did. You know, and not obeying the law of God and disobeying the law of God and murmuring in the wilderness way back in Numbers 12, 13, 14, and all throughout the time they left Egypt. We've studied that in our study of the life of Moses. This is one time they murmured for the right reason. This is the one time they grumbled for the right reason.

They weren't happy. That was land that was theirs. That was land promised to them. The Gibeonites occupied a parcel of the land that was theirs. And that they were given an order by God to destroy so that they could obtain that parcel of land. And now they can't do that. Because our leaders made a covenant with the enemy. And we can't break that covenant because that would mean we take the name of the Lord our God in vain and we can't break the law of God. Which leads us to point number four, and that is the mercy in the discovery.

As I read this story. I'll let you know that as I put myself into the story, I was a little upset with what Joshua and the leaders had done. But I began to see the mercy in the discovery. Now, you think about this. Think about this. Look at the mercy.

The Gibe deserved to die. And what did they get? Life. Life. They violated the law of God. They were wicked, vile people. They were idolaters, worship. And these people. Deserved to die. God had decreed that they should die. God made a decision to kill all the inhabitants of the land. And these people didn't die because of the mercy of God. Boy, let me tell you something.

When I begin to understand that, I begin to thank God that the wages of sin is what? Death. We all deserve to die. And it's the mercy of God that allows us to live. And so I see the mercy in the fact that these people, the Gibe, received life and did not die. And they received a life they did not deserve. And is it not true that the eternal life we receive is an undeserved life? It's the free gift of God that allows us to have communion with Him and live with Him forever. And I also began to realize that their salvation came through a name, the name of the Lord God of Israel.

Because Israel had made a vow to God in the name of the Lord God of Israel, they could not now kill the Gibeonites. And is it not true that you and I are saved because of the Lord God of Israel? That name, there is no other name under heaven given among men, whereby you must be saved. And after they were allowed to live, they became what? Slaves of Israel. When you and I are allowed to live in the kingdom of God, we become slaves. God, right? We were once slaves of Satan. We were once under his domain.

But now that God saves us, we now are enslaved to him. We are no longer slaves of sin. We are slaves to righteousness. And I began to think, you know, this is the mercy of God. And even in the deceptive measures. Of the Gibe and their deserving of death because God decreed it, and because of their evil deeds, they received mercy and they lived. And because they lived, they became the servants of Israel. And I thought to myself, you know, that's just like us. We are deceptive, lustful, wretched people, and we deserve to die.

And God, in his mercy, because of his great name, saves us from our sin. Which leads us to our third main point, and that is this, the denunciation of their Deception.

The denunciation of their deception. It says in verse number 22, these words, then Joshua called for them and spoke to them, saying, Why have you deceived us? Saying we are very far from you when you are living within our land. Now, Joshua does the right thing here. He goes and confronts them. He did the right thing with Achan when he confronted Achan on the sin. So now Joshua, knowing that he's already done the wrong thing, in humility, he owns up to the fact that he has been wrong. They've got to do the right thing now.

And what he does is goes and he confronts the Gibe and says. What? You deceived us. He could have said, you know, you really weren kind of, you kind of fudged on the truth a little bit. You weren't very kind to us. He could have minced words. He could have said it in a nicer way. But he said, you know what? You guys are dece. He called sin what sin truly is. And so Joshua sets an example for us, especially for those of you who are leaders of families, leaders of churches, leaders of whatever it is you are doing.

Listen, when you deal with sin, Deal with it abruptly, deal with it quickly, and deal with it harshly. And that helps us understand the curse of the Gibeonites because Joshua tells them, Now therefore, you are cursed, and you shall never cease being sl. Your sin is going to cost you. It's going to cost you as long as you exist. It's going to cost you a long, long time. And so Joshua still comes and says, You know what? Here's the denunciation. You guys are cursed. You guys will be cursed to the day you die.

You'll be cursed. You will be slaves. For as long as you exist. Now, granted, their lives were spared, but there were consequences because of their sin. Folks, that's a lesson very few people learn. We think that forgiveness negates consequences. It does not. It does not. If you go and you're a drunk driver and you hit someone and you kill them, There are consequences for that. You can repent, you can forgive yourself, ask for forgiveness, and you can receive forgiveness from the parents of the child you killed.

And you'll receive forgiveness from God if you repent of your sin and go to God and ask forgiveness. You'll receive forgiveness from God. But there are still consequences to pay because you killed someone else with your vehicle while you were drunk, right? Forgiveness does not negate the consequences of sin. Ask King David. Did King David receive forgiveness because of his sin with Bathsheba? Yeah. But did the sword ever leave his household? No. God told him, they'll never leave your house. See, there are consequences for our sin that we have to deal with.

And Joshua says, you know, you deceived us. You are wrong, and you will be slaves for as long as you live because you are cursed. Here was their contention, verse 24. So they answered Joshua and said, Because it was certainly told your servants 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 before you, therefore we fear greatly for our lives because of you. And had done this thing. Here was their contention. And instead of around the Word of God, they heard the Word of God.

They said, look, we know what God's word says. Isn't that amazing? Don't ever think the unbeliever doesn't know what God's word says. They had heard. They had come to grips with it. Rahab heard. Remember Rahab? Joshua chapter 2. She had heard. And she repented. She knew that the God of Israel was the true God of the universe. And she repented and she was saved. And she's in the hall of faith in Hebrews 11. And these Gibe, they had heard, they knew about the Lord God of Israel. So they were saying, you know, we have heard about your God.

And this was their excuse. And we knew, and not only did they hear the word of God, listen to this, they believed what God's word said. They believed. Because God's word was being fulfilled before their very eyes. Jericho, A, they knew. And they knew that if they didn't do something deceptive, if they didn't do anything that would cause Israel to come into a treaty with them, they too would die. And isn't it amazing that this un, believing pagan nation committed to the worship of idols, listen.

Believed in the judgment of God. Listen, I know a lot of preachers today who don't believe in the judgment of God. I'm not sure they're real true preachers, but they say they don't believe in the judgment of God. They don't believe that there's a hell, or that that hell is literal, or that that hell is eternal. They don't believe that. They don't believe that a loving God would kill somebody and cause them to burn in hell forever. They just can't come to grips with that, even though the Bible says it.

They don't believe it. But here was this pagan nation who had heard the Word of God. And they believed it. They believed it so much so that they took whatever means they possibly could to make sure that they wouldn't die because they knew what the Lord God had said to Moses. How they heard it, we don't know. How did Israel hear that the Gibe were in the land? I don't know. I don't know, but your sin will always find you out. It always does. It might not be three days, it might be three years, it might be 30 years, but it'll come to light.

Sometime, somewhere, someplace, you'll be exposed. And these people believed the Word of God. And so what do they do? They misused the Word of God. Instead of falling on their knees in repentance, like Rah did, and believing in the Lord God of Israel. Because God is a merciful God. God is a saving God. If anybody knows that, the Jewish people know that, that God is a saving God. And he would show mercy upon people who would return from their sin and repent of their sin. They had come to grips with that.

The n of Israel did. They could have done that, like Rahab did, but instead they misused the word of God and said, You know, we heard that this is what was going to happen, and we. Truly believe that, and so the only way for us to get out of it was to somehow deceive you into thinking that we were from a far country and we were not your enemy, so we wouldn't die. Now, you think about that for a second.

And think about how many people you know misinterpret and misuse and misquote the Word of God. And they use it to their ends. We'll see on Sunday where this coming Sunday where Satan misquotes the word of God to tempt the Son of God to sin. And these people would misuse the word of God. And this was how they defended themselves. And yet, I want you to notice something.

This is so beautiful. Listen to what it says. This is their capitulation. It says this. Verse 25. And now, behold, we are in your hands. Do as it seems good and right in your sight to do to us. Isn't that good? You know, this is what we did. This is why we did it. It's probably not right, but we did do it. But you know, nevertheless, we are in your hands. You can do with us whatever you want to do. Talk about submission. Boy, that's submission, isn't it? It's an attitude that says, you know, we're yours.

Do whatever you want. You know, that's the same way it should be for us, right? When it comes to our relationship with the living God, no Lord, we are your servants, we are saved by your mercy and by your grace. And Lord, we're yours. Do with us what you want to do. We are in your ha. Folks, wouldn it be good if that was all of our attitude this evening? Joshua says these words at the end of the chapter. He says, verse 26. Thus he did to them, and delivered them from the hands of the sons of Israel, and they did not kill them.

But Joshua made them that day hewers of wood, and drawers of water, and the congregation, and for the altar of the Lord, to this day, in the place which he would Choose. Joshua made them sl for the people and at the altar of God. Joshua made a wise, wise choice. Because you see, the people would be recompensed because of Joshua's decision. They would reap the benefits. The Gibe would not become a burden. They would become a blessing because they would do the manual labor. They would draw the water.

They would do the hard tasks. So Israel would benefit because of the leader's huge error. And not only would the people be recompensed, but.

God would be respected. Because the word of God was not violated again to try to rectify the situation. God was honored. And we'll see that next week in Joshua chapter 10. But you also need to know that evil would be restrained. Because these people, the Gibe, as evil as they were, if you read on in the Old Testament, you realize that the Gi became servants of the Levites. in their priestly functions. And God would use them. And so evil would be restrained because all these people now, the Gibe, would be around the people of God in the place of worship And they would have to come to realize that their idol worship days were over and they could only see the true worship of the living God.

This story about mercy, when we make huge errors, huge sinful mistakes, and God in His grace and mercy spares us and shows us His wonderful love. God wants to forgive. He's a forgiving God. He's a saving God. And you need to remember that when you go to Him and you ask for forgiveness, He forgives. He always forgives the repentant soul. And God, through his wonderful forgiveness, will give you the grace as he gave Joshua the grace. To make a better decision the next time around. And may God give us the grace to do that.