Joshua 9:14: “And the men took of their victuals, and asked not counsel at the mouth of God.”
If you read Joshua 9 you will see a story that takes one whole chapter in the Book of Joshua which has only 24 chapters to tell this story of Gibeon. Now there must be something important in this chapter. Take a look at what this story is telling us. The people of Israel battled against Jericho and God caused the walls of Jericho to fall and no one survived, women, children, dogs, parakeets, – the destruction was total, yet Israel suffered not one casualty. They then move onto Ai and again total destruction, after a slight problem of not consulting God and ending up with an initial defeat. The people of Gibeon were watching all of this on the sidelines and they are thinking: “Hoo, boy, these people have themselves one powerful God and were next, we have to do something.” And something they did. They got some of their representatives and dressed them up in old worn and tattered clothes, they gave them dry and moldy bread for provisions and made it appear as if they have traveled from a faraway country to meet with Joshua when in fact they were just around the corner. They told Joshua and the leaders of Israel that they were from a country so far away that they were of no concern to Israel and asked that they swear an oath not to destroy them in the process of their destruction. Joshua and the leaders took the bait and made a treaty with the people of Gibeon and sure enough, three days later found out that they were neighbors and on God’s hit list.
Many pastors live in fear that someone in their congregation may approach them and say: “Pastor I have a question about Joshua 9.” It is hard enough to explain the charam principle (complete, total, absolute destruction) to someone. But now we have a group of people who are frighten and desperate for their lives and the lives of their family that they concoct a lie to get a treaty with Joshua and when it is found that the treaty was based upon a fraudulent act, they are still bound by the treaty. In fact we learn that many years later God sends a plague on Israel because King Saul violated that treaty and vow to God and David had to appease the Gibeonites by turning over seven sons of Saul to be hanged. Then, of course, you need to consider that God does not seem to show any mercy to these fearful and desperate people.
Of course the usual answers, which I don’t dispute, are that these people had not repented, turned to God and embraced the Hebrew religion. Rahab and her family did this and they were spared. The Gibeonites still retained their own pagan religion and way of life which proved to be a snare to Israel years later and resulted in Israel turning to paganism. There are, of course, many other answers, but I am more interested in verse 9:14.
In 9:14, we learn the men took their victuals. The word took is lakach with is in a simple Qal form. This is followed by the word rendered as victuals which in the Hebrew is the word anash which is a word for a widow, someone that is helpless and this is followed by the word sod which is not even translated in the KJV. Sod has the idea of something hidden, kept secret. You see the use of the word lakach in a Qal form indicates that they did not closely examine the evidence. The use of anash suggests a sense of arrogance. They felt they were dealing at a point of strength and they looked upon these people as helpless people that they could take advantage of. Then the use of the word sod suggests some hidden agenda or motive.
The leaders of Israel had a taste of power and here were a group of people pleading for mercy. They did not make a treaty with them out of mercy. They saw an opportunity to be wealthy plantation owners using Gibeonites slaves to do their work while they sat on their porch drinking lemonade. Why kill these people if they can be put to better use, like making themselves prosperous.
The next verse is curious, but in this context it is not. They did not seek the counsel of God. You think they would have learned their lesson, especially just coming off a disaster like Ai because they had not consulted God. I believe they did not consult God because this turn of events made sense to them and it just seemed so Godly, to show mercy. Why not show mercy, these people are not in the territory they were to conqueror and then, who knows, they could later have these people at their mercy to do their bidding.
Perhaps I am reading too much into this, but I believe the words used here clearly indicate that there was a sense of arrogance and the smelling of opportunity, not mercy. That is an important lesson. If God ever grants us to be in a position of power and influence it is very easy to slip into arrogance and opportunity without even realizing it. We begin to think, “Oh yeah, God has really blessed and here is an opportunity that is so of God, a chance to show mercy, God is all for mercy is He not? Yes, and of course it will help to line our pockets, but after all, we are in God’s business, we deserve something.” It looks so good and so right that we fail to consult God. Or, is it even possible that it looks so good and so right we may fail to consult God for fear He may say: “No, it is not right.”
So often when God puts someone into a position of power and influence, it becomes very hard to be a pure Robin Hood. You know, rob from the rich and give to the poor. Only if Robin Hood lived in our society today it would: “Rob from the rich, give to the poor and hold back 90% for overhead and expenses.”
Perhaps the lesson from Joshua 9 is to warn us that pride, arrogance and opportunity can come in through the back door of the best intentions.
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