The Gibeonite Conspiracy: What Was Israel’s 1 Big Mistake?

Added: 2026-05-09

[00:00:04]Shalom everyone. I'm Josiah Jeffrey.

[00:00:07]>> I'm Hosea Jeffrey.

[00:00:08]>> Welcome to Solid Scripture where the whole discussion is totally by the book.

[00:00:13]Today we're continuing our reading through the book of Joshua. The portion today is Joshua 9:1-103.

[00:00:22]We've already read the passage ahead of time, but if you'd like to read it as well, why don't you go ahead and pause the video and do that, and then we'll go ahead and get into discussing. In this portion, the people of the city of Gibian deceive the Israelites and make a covenant with them in order to avoid being destroyed in the Israelites conquest. After which, five Amorite kings make an alliance against Israel, bringing Joshua into the biggest battle his people have faced yet.

[00:00:49]>> And they win. [laughter] What? No, you're giving away the ending. So, this portion begins with the inhabitants of the city of Gibian deceiving the people of Israel into making a peace treaty.

[00:01:03]Basically, what's happened is that all the inhabitants of the land of Canaan, whether they're Canaanites or Amorites or Hittites or Hivites like the inhabitants of Gibian here, they've all heard how the people of Israel are decimating all of their enemies and they're afraid. And so they're preparing to make alliances with each other to basically team up against Israel. But the Hivites in the city of Gibian, they come up with a different tactic where they dress up as if they're far away travelers. They get all these worn out clothes and dried out bread and messed up sandals and torn wine skins and stuff and they just basically do everything they possibly can to make it look like they've been on a really long journey trying to get here. And then they show up at the camp of the Israelites and say, "We came from a far away land because we heard about all the great things that the God of Israel is doing and we wanted to make an alliance with you." So the people of Israel have been told already by Moses that anyone who's living in the land of Israel, they need to be totally wiped out. They aren't allowed to make any alliances with anyone in the land. They're supposed to completely purge the land of all of its current inhabitants. And so the people of Gibian, they're pretending they don't actually live here in Canaan. They came from far away. And so when the Gibeonites show up, the people of Israel are like, "How do we know that you're from a far away land and you don't actually live here?" And they're like, "Well, look, our clothes are all messed up. Of course, we're from far away." And so Joshua was like, "Good enough for me." And [laughter] and he makes a covenant. He makes a peace treaty with these Gionites. And it specifically says, "So the men of Israel took some of their provisions and did not ask for the council of Adonai.

[00:02:54]Joshua made peace with them and made a covenant with them to let them live."

[00:02:59]And so then 3 days later, Joshua and the people of Israel find out, "Oh, look, they actually are Canaanites. They actually do live here, but the people of Israel have already made an oath by God himself, and they can't go back on that." So Joshua is like, "All right, we won't kill you, but we'll make you slaves." And the Gibeonites are basically like beats dying. [laughter] And so Joshua subjugates the Gibeonites and they become slaves of Israel by making a covenant with these people.

[00:03:29]Joshua and the people of Israel were violating the Torah because Moses specifically told them, "Do not make a covenant with any of these people. Kill them all. Do not let any of them live."

[00:03:41]But because Israel did make a covenant with them, they had to let them live.

[00:03:45]>> And so one sin results in consequences which lead to more violations. And obviously the people of Israel didn't do this on purpose. But it's pretty clear where they went wrong because as it said, they did not seek counsel from Adonai. The people of Israel knew they weren't supposed to make a covenant with the Canaanites. And indeed, it says the thought occurred to them. And they were like, "How do we know you're not from Canaan?" But they were deceived because instead of going to God, they looked at the surface. The disguise of the Gibeonites was surface level. It was not very hard to see through. And of course, God obviously knew who they were, >> but the people of Israel didn't go to God. They instead were willing to look at what their eyes see and like Josiah said, say, "That's good enough for me."

[00:04:36][laughter] Joshua didn't stop to consider ulterior motives and to consider how easily he could be lied to. And when the people of Gibian came to Joshua, the motivations they gave were very flattering motivations like, "Oh, we heard about how you guys are so awesome and you have such a cool God and we heard about all the cool stuff we did and we just came here because you're so cool and we just wanted [laughter] to be friends."

[00:05:06]And so Joshua chose to believe that rather than continuing to question and see whether or not there might be a deeper motive, a motive which could lead the people of Israel astray. I'm reminded of Yeshua's words when he cautions the people, "Judge not according to appearance, rather, judge according to the righteous judgment."

[00:05:30]I'm also reminded of what the book of Hebrews says that the reckoning of God is living and active and sharp above every two-edged sword and piercing and a discerner of thoughts and intents of the heart.

[00:05:43]>> And there is not a created thing hidden from his sight. Rather, all things are naked and open to his eyes with whom is our reckoning.

[00:05:52]>> And what Hosea just read also reminds me of another Bible verse. Adonai says to Samuel, "Do not look at his appearance because I have rejected him. For God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but Adonai looks at the heart." Yeah, that that's exactly it. We need to not judge according to appearance, the way that a man sees. We need to judge with the righteous judgment, God's judgment. He looks at the heart and he discerns all of our intentions and thoughts. He sees it all.

[00:06:29]And so his judgment is always righteous.

[00:06:32]And so we need to not go by what our eyes see.

[00:06:35]>> We need to go by what his eyes see. And he's the only one who can tell us that.

[00:06:40]So we need to always be going to God, getting his judgment, knowing his word and his counsel so that he can guide us and tell us how we should be judging, how we should be acting, and how we should be looking at everything. So whenever we're faced with a big decision, we should always bring that straight to God and we should seek his spirit. Seek his word in the scriptures, but also seek his spirit for a specific application in a certain instance. God's spirit is able to give us wisdom and knowledge and discernment. And so we should always be seeking to walk in his spirit and not in our flesh. And we should seek the counsel of Adonai.

[00:07:21]Unlike what they did, they did not seek God's counsel. Instead, we should always turn straight to God and not try and make our own plans and go with them. We should try and figure out what is God's plan. What does God want me to do? not try and figure out for ourselves what we should do and then just assume that God will be okay with it. Submit everything to God. Put God first, seek his ways first and then that will lay out everything for us. And also once the people of Israel had made this decision and they'd made this covenant, there was no takeback seies. They caused irreparable damage and permanent consequences. And so we need to remember that all of our actions do have consequences and sometimes that is permanent. And then once we've made those bad decisions, we just have to do the best that we can to serve God in this messed up circumstance that we did ourselves. But ultimately the best thing to do is to not get into those situations in the first place. Seek God's will in the first place and follow God's plans and not ours. Now after all this Joshua has to fight a battle with an alliance of five Amorite kings. So far the people of Israel have conquered the city of Jericho with its king and then the city of I with its king. And then after that Gibian made a peace treaty with Israel. So it says that Adonited the king of Jerusalem heard about all this and he got afraid. He was like oh boy they've already conquered two cities. They got Gibian to surrender and Gibian's a really big city.

[00:08:56]>> These Israelites are becoming a major problem. And so he sends messages to his fellow kings of the surrounding citystates and he's like, "Hey, we got to do something about this Israel problem." But interestingly, rather than attack the people of Israel directly, he says that they need to attack the city of Gibian because they have chosen to ally with Israel and they're good warriors. And so they need to stop that alliance by destroying the Gibeonites right now. And so the five kings of the Amorites immediately attack Gibian and place it under siege. And so I find it interesting here that it's Gibian who gets attacked because basically the people of Gibian have thrown in their lot with the people of Israel. They chose to make a covenant with Israel.

[00:09:44]Even if they did deceitfully, >> they recognized God for who he was and they were afraid of his power. And they chose, "We'd rather be on Israel's side than be on the side of all the Canaanite kings." And so because they're now on Israel's side, they get the benefit of Israel not attacking them, but they also get the problem of everyone who hates Israel now hates them.

[00:10:10]>> And everyone who wants to destroy Israel now wants to destroy them. But since the people of Gibian have tied up their fate with that of Israel, they call on Israel to come to their defense. They send messengers to Joshua, saying, "Come up to us quickly and save us and help us, for all the kings of the Amorites who dwell in the hill country are gathered against us." And so Joshua immediately with the people of Israel, they rise up from their camp and they go out to rescue the people of Gibian. And God says to Joshua, "Don't worry. All these kings are going to be put in your hand."

[00:10:47]And so Joshua marches all night to meet this alliance. He's not just fighting one Canaanite king or one army, but he's now going to be fighting an alliance.

[00:10:58]And this is going to be the first real showdown between Israel and Canaan. And so it says that after Joshua had marched all night, he came upon them suddenly at Gibian. And the battle was on. And it says Adonai threw them into a panic before Israel, who struck them with a great blow at Gibian and chased them.

[00:11:16]And as they fled before Israel, Adonai threw down large stones from heaven on them, and they died. There were more who died because of the hailstones than the sons of Israel killed with the sword.

[00:11:30]>> And technically, this whole battle lasted a single day. Although in another sense it [laughter] kind of didn't because when the battle began Joshua prayed to Adai and he said son stand still at Gibian and moon in the valley of Aelon and the sun stood still and the moon stopped until the nation took vengeance on their enemies. And it says that the sun stood still in the sky for about a whole day. The day lasted a whole day. [laughter] >> The day lasted an extra day.

[00:12:08]>> Oh yeah. [laughter] >> And so to sum up all these things, the stones from the sky, the sun stopping in its place and Israel's spectacular victory, it says there has been no day like it before or since when Adonai heeded the voice of a man. For Adonai fought for Israel. So these five Amorite kings had gathered together to attack Israel's allies to defeat the Israelite threat because they thought their combined forces would be able to stop them. But God put that to rest.

[00:12:44]>> God immediately showed you can bring all your force, all your armies, every king in Canaan could assemble before me and I will just wipe them out. Israel is going to receive their promises. God is here.

[00:12:59]The God who swore Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, he brought them out of Egypt. He led them through the desert all to bring them to this point. And no king of Canaan is going to stop his promises.

[00:13:12]And it's worth noting that it specifically says that Adonai fought for Israel. This wasn't actually Israel's victory. This was God's victory. He made that clear by killing more of the Amorites himself with the hailstones than the people of Israel themselves killed. And so God is just showing what should be completely evident to the people of Israel by now, which is that they are not claiming these victories themselves. They can only have these victories because God is fighting for them. Because they are his people.

[00:13:43]They're following in his ways and so God is fighting for them. I'm reminded of what scripture says in Proverbs 21.

[00:13:52]There is no wisdom and no understanding and no counsel against Adonai. The horse is prepared for the day of battle, but victory belongs to Adonai. There is no way to stand against God and his power.

[00:14:09]And whenever God gives victory into our hands and he gives us what we want and what we need, that's all on him. He did that. That's not our own strength and our own power. Whatever strength God gives us, that's his strength and we need to give all the glory to him.

[00:14:25]>> And another thing is again Joshua commanded the sun to stand still and it stopped >> and it says that that's because Adonai heeded the voice of a man. Joshua's prayer >> was heard by God and God responded to it. M so this shows the same thing that's affirmed in other biblical passages which is that God hears the prayers of righteous people and that their prayers are effective and powerful.

[00:14:53]>> Joshua was marching into battle as the commander of the people of Israel, a position which God placed him in with some of his own authority. And so when God was fighting for the people of Israel and the people of Israel were under Joshua's command, Joshua was able to command the son and God was like, "You got it." [laughter] That is the power when God is fighting on our side or rather when we are fighting on God's side. If we are in the position that God tells us to be in, doing what he tells us to do, then he will hear us and he will give us what we need to accomplish his plans. And so then this portion finally finishes up by talking about how Joshua executes the five kings and then he takes more cities in the land of Canaan. Basically during the course of the battle, the five kings had essentially abandoned their armies and fled to a cave. And so Joshua sealed up the cave, finished the battle, and then he came back to the cave and brought them out. And he had them all on the ground. And he told the leaders of Israel, "Put your feet on the necks of these kings." And so this is just a position of extreme humiliation of these Amorite kings and elevation of the people of Israel. And Joshua says, "Thus will Adonai do to all your enemies throughout the land of Canaan."

[00:16:19]And so after Joshua executes these kings, he then proceeds to go on and capture a bunch of different cities, some of which are the cities of these kings that he just executed. And he continues on through his conquest of the land of Canaan. So the main takeaway from this portion is don't forsake God's instructions and he will fight for you.

[00:16:42]The people of Israel faced an alliance of five different kingdoms and they clobbered them all, destroyed them all, left no survivors. But it wasn't them that did most of the fighting. It was God. God brought down stones from heaven and worked miracles and proved that he was the only true God and he's the God of Israel.

[00:17:06]>> And they were able to do this because God was with them. Because they were with God. they were being faithful to his Torah. On the other hand, where it comes to the Gibeonites, they weren't able to fight the Gibeonites because they put themselves in a position where they couldn't because they didn't seek God's instruction.

[00:17:25]>> Instead, they went by outward appearance. They went with what their own eyes saw. And that led them into a position where God couldn't fight for them because they couldn't fight. So this just shows how infinitely important it is that we are following God's instructions and that we are letting him fight for us and show us which battles we should be fighting. As Paul says, if God is for us, who is against us?

[00:17:55]>> He who did not spare his own son but handed him over for us all, how will he not also give to us all the things?

[00:18:03]>> There is no one that can oppose us. No one can be against us if God is fighting for us.

[00:18:10]>> So that's why it's important for us to be for God >> and for us to be his chosen ones and to walk in accordance with all of his [music] instructions so that he will be with us. He will fight for us and we will have victory over every enemy.

[00:18:25][music] That wraps up this episode of Solid Scripture. We hope you enjoyed it. And if you have any questions for us to answer or ideas for future videos, why don't you let us know down in the comments? We'd love to hear from you.

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[00:18:55][music] God bless.