Joshua 9b Commentary
How should humans use their brains? And if they use them, how does the process interact with the LORD God?
Chapter 9 exposes the frailties of human wisdom and asks how humans can use logic in their interactions with their environment and their loving God.
Of course, Israel’s Mossad failed. Failure in any intelligence operation isn’t criminal at all. Humans fail. We all fail.
At what point is human wisdom criminal? And what could Israel have done better? The answer is in the chapter. Israel should have consulted the LORD. Israel shouldn’t have trusted their intelligence!
What can the saint do today?
Pray, pray, pray. Live the prayer. “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.” This prayer subjects the saint to the rule and leadership of the Spirit. Then the machinations of the evil one fail!
Let the saint see beyond the physical evidence. Let not the saint walk by sight!
The conquest of Canaan is God’s assignment. Keep the Commander of the Armies of God fully informed.
No weapon fashioned against Israel prospers, but Gibeon’s deception worked spectacularly well! Of course, Gibeon’s deception was known long before humans hatched it. Equally, Israel’s naivety was known, and the red flag was raised long before the actual scandal.
But humans never want to see the flags!
“Make no treaty with them, and show them no mercy. Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons” Deuteronomy 7 verses 2b and 3.
Probably, Israel shouldn’t have stayed in the treaty that they shouldn’t have made in the first place!
Israel showed Gibeon mercy when the instruction was clear: “Show them no mercy.”
Consequently, Israel accommodated a problem. How were they going to avoid intermarrying with the Gibeonites when they allowed them space? Israel created for herself a huge spiritual problem.
The saint who decides to enslave sin instead of expelling it sits on a time bomb!
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