WELCOME
By Amy Brown
they worked craftily, and went and pretended to be ambassadors. And they took old sacks on their donkeys, old wineskins torn and mended, old and patched sandals on their feet, and old garments on themselves; and all the bread of their provision was dry and moldy. And they went to Joshua, to the camp at Gilgal, and said to him and to the men of Israel, “We have come from a far country; now therefore, make a covenant with us.” (Joshua 9:4-6)
In Joshua 1, following the death of Moses, the Lord promised to Israel all the land they would touch as they journeyed over the Jordan.
Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given you, as I said to Moses. From the wilderness and this Lebanon as far as the great river, the River Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and to the Great Sea toward the going down of the sun, shall be your territory. No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life; (Joshua 1:3-5)
In chapters 2-8 (Joshua 2 - Joshua 8), we see the utter defeat of Jericho and Ai at the hands of Joshua and the Israelites. The Gibeonites got wind of this and devised a plan to save their people. They were deceitful in clothing themselves as if they were coming from a far distance, using old clothing, torn and patched wineskins and sandals, and even moldy bread! Their intention was to look as though they were not from anywhere remotely nearby. Their deception worked. Joshua made a covenant not to harm them (Joshua 9:15). Three days later, the Israelites discovered the deception, but because the covenant had been made, they could not harm the inhabitants of the neighboring cities (Joshua 9:19-20).
This was not the first time this sort of thing was recorded in Scripture. There is another very similar story in Genesis 27. Jacob used Esau’s clothing to deceive Isaac and thereby steal his father’s blessing.
While these two examples are of a physically deceptive wardrobe, our spiritual wardrobe can certainly be deceptive as well. The Pharisees were a prime example of this: pious on the outside, rotting on the inside.
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. Even so, you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. (Matt 23:27-28)
In another instance, Jesus described them quoting Isaiah in Matthew 15:8:
These people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me.
There are those who might be at every gathering of the saints, visiting the sick, teaching the lost, ministering to those in need, etc, but if they are just “going through the motions”, it is all for nothing. The heart is what matters (Proverbs 4:23). We may be able to deceive the mortals around us, but let us never forget that there is One who will not be deceived.
And He said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God. (Luke 16:15)
…and all the churches shall know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts…(Revelation 2:23)
QUESTIONS
1. What nations did Israel defeat in Joshua 1-8?
2. What did the Gibeonites request of Joshua and the men of Israel?
3. Read verse 14 of chapter 9. What did the Israelites NOT do?
4. What did this result in?
5. Tell another instance from scripture where a person (or persons) did not seek the counsel of the Lord.
6. How long was it before the Israelites discovered what had happened?
7. What was their reaction to the deception?
8. Define the word “deceive.”
9. Make a list of some of the instances in scripture where people have tried to deceive the Lord.
10. In each one of the instances, tell the outcome
All Scripture is taken from the NKJ Version. Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson,Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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