Craftiness and Covenants

Welcome to God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in Morning Sun, Iowa. Check us out online at www.sharonrpc.org. We pray that this message will be a blessing to you and that the Lord will use it to transform your faith and your life. We open up in your Bibles with me to Joshua Chapter 9. Joshua Chapter 9. If you're using your Pew Bibles, you'll be able to find Joshua chapter 9 on page 201. Joshua chapter 9. Hear now the reading of God's holy and perfect word. Brothers and sisters, this is not just a story. This is divine history. inspired by God. Let's not get comfortable with it, but pay close attention to it.

And it came to pass when all the Kings who were on this side of the Jordan in the hills and in the low land and all the coast of the great sea toward Lebanon, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hittite and the Jebusite heard about it.

They gathered together to fight with Joshua and Israel in one accord. But When the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and I, they worked craftfully and went and pretended to be ambassadors. And they took old sacks on their donkeys, old wineskins, torn and minted, 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. Then the men of Israel said to the Hivites, perhaps you dwell among us. So how can we make a covenant with you? But they said to Joshua, we are your servants. And Joshua said to them, who are you and where do you come from? So they said to him, from a very far country, your servants have come because the name of the Lord of the Lord, your God, for we have heard of his fame and all that he did in Egypt and all that he did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan to Cyhon, king of Heshbon and Og, king of Bashan, who was at Asheroth Therefore, our elders and all the inhabitants of our country spoke to us saying, take provisions with you for the journey and go to meet them and say to them, we are your servants.

Now, therefore, make a covenant with us. This bread of ours, we took hot from our provision, from our houses on the day we departed to come to you. But now, look, it is dry and moldy. And these wineskins, which we filled were new and see. They are torn. And these are garments and our sandals have become old because of our very long journey. Then the men of Israel took some of their provisions.

But they did not ask counsel of the Lord. So Joshua made peace with them and made a covenant with them to let them live. And the rulers of the congregation swore to them. And it happened at the end of three days after they had made a covenant with them. that they heard that they were their neighbors who dwelt near them. Then the children of Israel journeyed and came back to their cities on the third day. Now their cities were Gibeon, Sephara, Baroth, and Kirjath Zerim.

But the children of Israel did not attack them because the rulers of the congregation had sworn to them by the Lord God of Israel and all the congregation complained against the rulers. Then the ruler said to all the congregation, we have sworn to them by the Lord God of Israel.

Now, therefore, we may not touch them. This we will do to them. We will let them live. Let wrath be upon us because of the oath which we swore to them. And the ruler said to them, let them live, but let them be woodcutters and water carriers for all the congregation, as the rulers had promised them. Then Joshua called for them and he spoke to them, saying, Why have you deceived us, saying we are very far from you when you dwell near us? Now, therefore, you are cursed and none of you shall be freed from being slaves, woodcutters and water carriers for the house of my God. So they answered Joshua and said, because your servants were clearly told that the Lord your God commanded his servant Moses to give you all the land and to destroy all the inhabitants of the land from before you.

Therefore, we were very much afraid for our lives because of you and have done this thing. And now here we are in your hands. Do with us as it seems right. and good to do to us. So he did to them and delivered them out of the hand of the children of Israel so that they did not kill them. And that day, Joshua made them woodcutters and water carriers for the congregation for the altar of the Lord in the place which he would choose even to this day.

Prayer for Illumination

Let's pray. Oh, Father, we thank you for your perfect word. We pray now that Your Holy Spirit would attend to it. We pray that You would teach us this morning to walk in faithfulness. We pray that Your Holy Spirit would be doing His work in us, that we would follow in Your ways. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Sermon

Two people, two scenarios. Person number one, goes to a crusade. Well, that's kind of an old-fashioned name. Maybe they go to a revival. They go to a tent meeting, or maybe a stadium, something like that, some big religious experience, and they hear all about the fires of hell, and they hear about the damnation that could come, and they feel all the emotional manipulation, and all the crowd pressure upon them, and there's an altar call given that you needed to give your life to Jesus Christ today, and the person, out of absolute fear, not faith, just walks down to the altar, says a little ditty prayer that somebody gave them on a card, and they think that they've got fire insurance. not because they love God, they just want to get out of hell. Person number two.

A young Christian adult knows God's Word, has been raised in a family of faith. They find themselves romantically inclined towards someone who's not a Christian. They know God's Word, but they just feel like this person is their soulmate. And so they get into a relationship with this person, they decide to get married, they go against all counsel from the Lord, and they get into the marriage.

Who's walking by faith? That's what we find here in this passage. Two groups walking in faithlessness, not faithfulness. And the charge for you specifically today, as we look at this interaction between the Gibeonites and the Israelites, is to walk by faith, to love God and to continue to walk in faith. I normally give the titles for these sermons months in advance, and as I was working through the sermon for this, I thought, well, I'm not sure I like the title I gave to Rosalie and everyone a couple months ago, so I'm going to say the title is going to be Two Acts of Faithlessness. And then, as I was working on the sermon more, I crossed that title out, and I said, Walk in Faithfulness.

That is our call this morning, to walk in faithfulness. So, first, we need to look at the Gibeonites' faithlessness. Look at the Gibeonites' faithlessness. Who are the Gibeonites? Well, we remember the context of the passage that we're going through.

You have the tribe, or the people of Israel, and they've just conquered Gilgal, they've conquered Jericho, they've now conquered Ai, and just to the south, only about five or six miles or so, are the Gibeonites. They're not that far, five miles. You can walk there easily. I mean, it's hills, so you'll have to take some switchbacks, but you can do it. But the Israelites are new to the land.

They don't know everyone. But the Gibeonites have heard the rumors. They have some inside knowledge. They know that somehow God has told Moses and the people are living out his command now to annihilate everyone. to take the land of Canaan. They're not allowed to make covenants. They're not allowed to come into agreements with people in the land of Canaan. But somehow they know a little bit more than that.

See, if we went to just a couple books back with me at Exodus chapter 39, Exodus chapter 39 verse 11, and we'll see where God specifically says they're not allowed to do this. Exodus 39, verse 11 and 12. Exodus 39, verse 11 and 12, the Lord says this.

No, that is not the right passage. They're not allowed to make covenants with people in the land of Canaan. I'm weary about going to this next passage, so let's see if it's the right one. Deuteronomy chapter 10. Deuteronomy chapter 10, they're not allowed to make covenants with the people in the land. What was I thinking? I'm so sorry, both of those references are wrong, but they are allowed to make covenants. Now I feel like a fool. I'm so sorry.

They are allowed to make covenants with people outside of the land. outside the land of Canaan, they're allowed to make covenants. So somehow these Gibeonites know that they're not allowed to make covenants with people in Canaan, but maybe if we can trick them. We want to keep our houses, we want to keep our land, we want to keep our vineyards, we want to keep our fields, we want to keep our family, we want to keep our necks. So, out of fear, not out of faith, they deceive them.

It's quite a ruse, isn't it? It's taken a few days to concoct this plan. Who's got some stale bread? Who's got some moldy bread? We need to take that. Hey, go rifle amongst everybody's shoes and find the most worn out shoes you can. We need to take those. You know, the ones that are in the way back in the garage? Go find those ones that, for some reason, aren't in the trash. Right? Let's find the old wineskins. You know, the ones that, again, I don't know why we even...

They're good, Midwestern people. They save their stuff. And they went to the back of the garage, and they found the old wineskins. And they bring them all out, and they take this journey, and they come as ambassadors, and what do they do? They lie. They trick the people.

They go to them, and they say, look, our bread was hot, right out of the oven. It was oven-fresh when we left on our trip, and now it's all moldy and dry. Look at our sandals. They were brand new. Now they got holes in them. Look at our wineskins. They were great. We just poured new wine in them when we left our home. And now they had to be patched up and they're dried out. They're not very any good. We're telling you, we're from a long way away. So, what do the Israelites do? A hot dog. Let's make a covenant. Right? Because what does this mean? What does it mean to make a covenant with them?

It means that this other nation is coming and they're saying, you are greater than us. You're greater than us, and so we will become your vassals. You will be the ones who protect us, and we will be the ones who serve you. That's what these covenants in the ancient Near East did.

It established authority and dominion. We find this when the Babylonians conquer Israel, do we not? Before they actually exile all the people, they capture Jerusalem, and they make the king a vassal. And Israel has to pay Babylon money for protection. It's kind of like the mafia. But this is the way that the ancient Near East operated. So you can imagine the sense of pride that the that the Israelites might have. And here's these ambassadors are coming from a long way away. They want to come under our protection. This is a good deal.

But what did they not do? Look at me at verse 14. Then the men of Israel took some of their provisions, but they did not ask counsel of the Lord. A prayerless Christian is a pretty poor Christian. I don't know if that hurts you, but it hurts me to say it. But it's true. The Israelites showed their faithlessness in not inquiring of God. And this is something that made me scratch my head. They had just found out what it was like to try to go to war without finding the Lord's counsel.

Do you remember what happened at Ai? They sent two spies up to Ai to go see what they needed to do. And one of the spies of Ai said, hey, you don't need to do any of this. You don't need to send the whole army. Just send a couple thousand. We'll be able to handle it. And they didn't inquire of the Lord then either. And defeat came. And now that God has given them this amazing victory over I. And right after the hills of that victory, when they're filled with all sorts of confidence. They don't do it again.

See, prayerlessness can set in in our lives, both at religious highs as well as in religious lows. Sometimes you know what it's like to be at the lowest point in your spiritual walk with the Lord where you have to fight to pray. Or it's just hard. You try to muster all the strength you can and you can barely get a couple words out. Or you're so busy, just absolutely swamped with life and with work and with everything going on that some of us just forget to pray.

But on the converse side of that. Opposite side of the same coin is sometimes you might have experienced in your life, maybe some of you have been in this place where you have been such a spiritual high, where you've been on the it seems like you've been on the mountaintops before the angels of God, where you've had this amazing experience of where you have been full of prayer and full of devotion to the Lord. And it's been this experiential high. And it's like the next day, you're like, where'd all that go? And you find yourself like, where did my prayer life go? How did this happen? How did my heart become so dull? This is where the Israelites are finding themselves.

Walking by sight and not by faith. I'd like for you to turn in your Bibles with me to Second Corinthians, Chapter 10. Second Corinthians, Chapter 10. And we're going to get some instruction from the Lord here. from two different passages in the New Testament. Second Corinthians, chapter 10. Hopefully my reference is right. Second Corinthians, chapter 10, verses three and four, for though we walk in the flesh, We do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds.

Why were the people of Israel able to tear down the walls of Jericho? Was it because they were smart enough? Was it because they had enough military strategy? By the way, there's a History Channel documentary that talks about how they conquered the walls of Jericho and pulled them down and probably sent in spies with, like, espionage tactics and stuff like that. That's absolute garbage. It goes completely against what Hebrews chapter 11 says. By faith, they tore down the walls of Jericho. How did they defeat the people of Ai? Because they followed after their commander. They followed after the Lord.

And so, in our lives, though we walk in the flesh, we do not wage war according to the flesh. Maybe you don't feel like you're in warfare. Satan would love nothing more than for you to think everything is smooth water. The second we as Christians put life on autopilot, just keep going on spiritual cruise control, I promise you, you're not going forward, you're stagnant or going back.

We fight for faith. We fight with the full armor of God placed upon us. The Israelites were not to walk by sight, but they were to walk by faith. Same with us. We must fight with our eyes fixed on Jesus. We must walk every day of our lives with our eyes fixed on Jesus.

For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. Do you see the warfare that you must fight today? The faithfulness that you must fight today is not one of conquering Gibeon, but it's the one that happens in your mind every day.

Charles Hodge, when he was going to go study, he was a theologian in Princeton. He was going to do a study in Germany for a while, and his mentor, his professor, his friend, Archibald Alexandria, he wrote him when he was there, and he said, be careful, young friend.

You breathe in noxious air. The theology of liberalism was all around him. All the all the bad theology he went there to go study with the best theologians who were the best in their language But they were unbelieving theologians men who did not believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ men who did not believe in the virgin birth of Christ people who did not believe in the second coming of Jesus Christ and so his Mentor was writing him saying there's a war that you're in right now, and you must be you must be concerned You're breathing in gaseous air it's toxic to your soul and I am telling you right now, the air you breathe, the culture you live in, you are not safe.

You are not safe. There are plenty of people who will come to you and try to make it like they're friends with you. There are many philosophies of this world who will even try to buddy buddy up right next to Christianity and say, Hey, look, we're not that different. This is compatible with you. And they're enemies of the cross. Be on your toes.

The battle in which you wage is one for your mind and for your heart. Flip over with me just a couple of pages to Ephesians chapter six. Ephesians chapter six, verses 12 and 13. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

Therefore, take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, having done all to stand." It was an evil day in the first century when Paul wrote those words, and it is an evil day today. You must, Christian, have an urgency about you. Make no doubt about it. We are in a time of war. Always have been. And until our Prince of Peace comes back again and makes peace, when he rides again on his white steed with his sword strapped to his side, when we see the name written upon his thigh, Lord of Lord and King of Kings, then we can stop fighting. But until that day, we must be on guard.

Again, your adversary wants to find just some type of hole in your armor where his fiery darts can penetrate. But you must hold your shield of faith. You must put on your breastplate of righteousness. You must don your helmet of salvation. Your loins must be girded with the belt of truth. But most of all, look with me at verses 17 and 18, and this is the point that applies both to the Israelites then and to now, and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints.

Praying for one another is not just a nice thing we do, it is a command by God. I know we don't like commands, right? Because we're Americans. We don't like rules, we like freedom. But the Lord is telling you here, we need one another. I desperately need you to pray for me and my marriage. You desperately need prayer from other saints around you. This is why the book of Hebrews says, do not forsake the assembling of yourselves together as is the manner of son, but encouraging one another.

Because when you are open about, hey, I'm struggling with this in my life, this is what's going on. I know how to pray for you in your life. This is why we have fellowship meals downstairs. This is why we try to get together and talk with each other. This is why I'm sure you get those annoying text messages from me that you're like, well, I see asking to pray about me again, because God commands us to love each other this way.

When we pray for one another, we show each other that we are arm in arm. That there is a phalanx, that there is a row of Christians going to assaulting against the gates of hell. that we love one another, that we care for one another, that we are praying for one another. Pray always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit. Brothers and sisters, if the church isn't praying, we've got no steam in the engine. We can do all the things we think are good and wonderful and great to do, but if we are not praying, good luck. And luck's about all you're going to have. And you know what I think about luck? I don't think it exists.

We must be prayerful Christians. Our enemy is duplicitous, and we need wisdom from God. This is specifically why the Lord tells his disciples in Matthew, chapter six, that we need to pray. Do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. Jesus is telling us, as his disciples, that if we want to be safe from Satan, the evil one, what ought we to do? To pray.

See, the Gibeonites were faithless in their actions. They feared the repercussions of the invasion, but they didn't actually reverence the Lord. The Israelites were faithless in their works. as they depended on their own strength and their own wisdom. But Christ was always faithful.

If you ever read through the Gospels before, you'll be surprised. I'd encourage you sometime, pick your favorite color highlighter, maybe it's green or blue or something, and every time in the Gospels it says, Jesus prayed, or there's an example of Jesus' prayer, go ahead and highlight that.

You're going to find that there's entire chapters of some books of the Bible that are nothing but Jesus praying. Jesus prayed early in the morning while it was still dark, he departed to a desolate place and there he prayed. Jesus went and prayed so much that is, and so much in his disciples hearing that they even came to him and they said, teach us how to pray. And he gave us his model, the Lord's prayer.

There's an entire chapter, John chapter 17, nothing but Jesus's high priestly prayer and praying for his people. Jesus at the Last Supper, this just becomes formalistic, right? Jesus took the bread and he broke it and he blessed it. What does that blessed mean?

He prayed. He prayed. Jesus spent the night in prayer on the Mount of Olives the night he was going to be betrayed. Jesus was dying breast. or a prayer pleading with God to forgive them for they did not know what they did. A prayer that God would honor and answer at Pentecost as many Jews came to know him. Our Savior leads us in prayer.

Did you know that when you pray, it is Jesus who hears your prayers and makes them perfect and brings them to the Father for you? Prayer is an inner Trinitarian thing. We can talk about the theology of that sometime, but the Holy Spirit takes the prayers from our lips or from our hearts, takes them to Christ. He makes them perfect and brings them to the Father who hears us.

You have a high priest in heaven who intercedes for you. That's why we say we have only one intercessor, only one mediator, only one go-between. And his name is Jesus Christ. He sings over you and he prays for you. Christ did His Father's will in praying. See, it's not just good enough that we know God's Word. We need to have His wisdom. Be careful, though. I'm just going to warn you.

Some people will treat prayer like it's a magic trick, like a little tool that they can, you know, just take out and, I need this, or I need wisdom about that, and they're just going, ding! You know, hit the prayer button and all of a sudden they're going to have the answer.

That's not how prayer works. Prayer and God's Word often go together. Sometimes prayer is so deep, you can't even form the words for it. It just comes out as groans. And the Holy Spirit hears that. Sometimes these prayers are short but powerful. Sometimes they're long. Sometimes I know some of you have prayed for years, pleading with the Lord to answer your cries. The Lord is hearing you. Sometimes we cry out like Paul to remove this thorn in our side, this pain in our lives, this burden in our souls. And the Lord says, it's all right. My grace is sufficient for you.

If we're to be faithful Christians, were to be prayerful Christians. Prayer is an offering up, Westminster Shorter Catechism, says prayer is an offering up of our desires unto God for things agreeable to his will in the name of Christ, with confessions of our sins and thankful acknowledgement of his mercies.

The Israelites had been duped out of part of their inheritance. Let's just face it, they had been duped That land was theirs, promised by God, given by royal decree. People are so mad about this that they complain to the elders. People are so mad about it that the rulers are worried that they're going to kill the Gibeonites anyways and Joshua has to step in and say, hold on guys, we made a covenant promise to them. We've got to keep our covenant promises because our God is a covenant promise keeper. We're going to get into that later in this book. They were not to be. Prayerless. Walking by sight. But they would be walking in faithfulness to their Lord.

When you ask you. Do you love God? Honest question. Do you love God? I'm sure if you ask the Israelites, they would say, yes, we love the Lord. OK, great. Are you listening to his word? Do you go to his scriptures to hear from him? They needed to do that, they needed to know who they could and couldn't make treaties with. But lastly, one of the things we haven't picked up on in this passage brings us to. Are you praying?

If you have a hard time with this, I'd love to talk to you one on one about ways in which you can promote your prayer life. On the website, go to the member portal. If you don't know how to get to the member portal, let me know and I'll tell you how to get on there. And there's a prayer matrix listed there where you can list out all the different types of things you could pray for. If you think I just need other people to pray with me and for me, women have just started a bi-monthly or every two week bi-weekly prayer meeting that you can join and you can pray with one another with and for others. You need more specific prayer? Answer my text message. I'd love to pray for you. Love to pray with you.

Closing Prayer

The Christian life is a life filled with prayer. Because our Savior taught us how to pray. Let's pray now. Father, we thank you. That you are a prayer hearing God. And Lord, we pray that we would be more prayerful. Lord, we do believe we pray that you would help us in our times of disbelief. Lord, we pray. That we would be faithful to your commandments. Praying at all times and without ceasing. We pray that you would forgive us for our prayerlessness, as our prayerlessness proves, God, that so often we're just practical atheists. Lord, we pray that we would truly believe, love, follow after you, and enjoy sweet times communing with you in prayer. In Jesus' name, amen.

Thanks for listening to this week's message from God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in rural southeast Iowa. We pray that the message would be used by God to transform your faith and your life this week. If you'd like to get more information about us, feel free to go to the website, SharonRPC.org. We'd love to invite you to worship with us. Our worship time is 10 a.m. every Sunday at 25204 160th Avenue, Morning Sun, Iowa 52640. May God richly bless you this week.