Commentary - Joshua 9:3-15

Bird's-eye view

In this passage, we come to one of the more curious episodes in the conquest of Canaan. The terror of the Lord has gone out before Israel, and the inhabitants of the land are responding in different ways. Some, like Jericho and Ai, harden their hearts and are summarily destroyed. Others, like the Gibeonites here, respond with a carnal, worldly wisdom. They are terrified of the God of Israel, as they should be, but their response is not one of repentance but of crafty self-preservation. They concoct an elaborate lie, a piece of theater complete with props, and succeed in deceiving the leadership of Israel.

The central failure of Israel is stark and instructive for the church in all ages: they failed to ask counsel of the Lord. They walked by sight, not by faith. They examined the physical evidence, the moldy bread and the cracked wineskins, and made a judgment based on their senses. Because they leaned on their own understanding, they were snookered. And yet, in the marvelous providence of God, even this sinful deception and this foolish failure are woven into His grand design. An oath is sworn, a covenant is cut, and God will hold His people to their word, demonstrating the sanctity of an oath and setting up a future test of Israel's integrity centuries later in the time of Saul.

Outline

Context In Joshua

Coming off the heels of the stunning victories at Jericho and Ai, the reputation of Israel and their God is spreading like wildfire. The kings of Canaan are beginning to confederate against Joshua (Josh 9:1-2). In this atmosphere of fear and hostility, the Gibeonites' actions stand out. They are a Hivite people, part of the Canaanite collective that God had commanded Israel to utterly destroy (Deut. 7:1-2). God's command was clear: "you shall not cut a covenant with them." This passage, therefore, presents a direct test of Israel's obedience to this specific command. Their failure to obey, and the consequences that follow, serve as a crucial lesson about the need for constant dependence upon God's direction, and the binding nature of a covenant oath, even one entered into foolishly.

Key Issues

Beginning: Deception in a Time of War

The Bible does not have a simplistic, flat prohibition against all forms of deception. The Hebrew midwives deceived Pharaoh (Ex. 1), and God blessed them. Rahab deceived the men of Jericho to save the spies (Josh. 2), and she is enrolled in the hall of faith (Heb. 11:31). All is fair in love and war, and the Gibeonites were certainly in a state of war. They were under a divine sentence of death, and so they used deception as a wartime tactic to save their lives. Their lie was a sin, flowing from a desire for self-preservation apart from true repentance, but it was also a tactic employed against an enemy army.

The greater sin in this story does not belong to the Gibeonites, who were acting like the pagans they were. The greater sin belongs to the people of God, who had the Urim and Thummim, the pillar of cloud and fire, and direct access to the Lord of hosts, and who chose instead to nibble on some stale bread and make a treaty. This is a story about the failure of God's people to use the glorious resources they have been given.

Clause-by-Clause Commentary

v. 3 Now the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and to Ai.

The gospel of God's wrath had reached them. News travels fast when God is tearing down strongholds. The Gibeonites heard, and unlike the other kings who prepared for battle, they prepared for a ruse. Hearing about the power of God always provokes a response. The question is what kind of response. For the Gibeonites, it was fear, but a fear that led to scheming, not to surrender and repentance.

v. 4 So they also acted craftily and went and traveled as envoys and took worn-out sacks on their donkeys, and wineskins worn-out and torn and mended,

They acted with cunning. This is worldly wisdom on full display. They understood the art of the con, of stagecraft. Every detail was designed to tell a story, to build a false narrative. The worn-out sacks, the patched wineskins, it was all part of the costume. Sin is rarely lazy; it is often very industrious in its attempts to deceive.

v. 5 and worn-out and patched sandals on their feet, and worn-out clothes on themselves; and all the bread of their provision was dry and was crumbled.

The props are all in place. They looked the part. They were banking on the fact that the Israelites would judge by appearances, which is precisely what happened. They presented a sensory experience, look at our clothes, feel our crusty bread. This is the essence of walking by sight. The world is constantly trying to sell us a bill of goods based on appearances, and we are far too ready to buy.

v. 6 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; so now, cut a covenant with us.”

Here is the proposal, laid out plainly. They state their lie first, "we have come from a far country", and then their request, "cut a covenant with us." A covenant, a berith, is a solemn, binding oath. It creates a federal relationship. They are asking to be brought into a state of peace and fellowship with the people of God, but on the basis of a falsehood.

v. 7 Then the men of Israel said to the Hivites, “Perhaps you are living within our land; how then shall we cut a covenant with you?”

To their credit, the men of Israel show an initial, godly suspicion. The alarm bells went off, as they should have. They remembered the command not to make treaties with the locals. This was their moment of testing. The Holy Spirit was prompting them, jogging their memory of the explicit command from Deuteronomy. But a little bit of pushback was all it took for them to abandon this initial flicker of faithfulness.

v. 8 But they said to Joshua, “We are your servants.” Then Joshua said to them, “Who are you and where do you come from?”

The Gibeonites are slick. They don't answer the question directly. Instead, they offer a posture of submission: "We are your servants." This is designed to be disarming. Joshua, still suspicious, presses them for details. He asks the right questions, but he will ultimately accept the wrong answers.

v. 9 They said to him, “Your servants have come from a very far country because of the fame of Yahweh your God; for we have heard the report of Him and all that He did in Egypt,

This is a masterful deception. They ground their story in the truth. They have heard of Yahweh. They know of His power. They even use covenantal language, "Yahweh your God." They are essentially saying, "We believe the report, and that is why we are here." Notice what they mention: Egypt. That was a long time ago. News of that would have traveled far.

v. 10 and all that He did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon king of Heshbon and to Og king of Bashan who was at Ashtaroth.

They continue with their curated history lesson. They mention the victories on the other side of the Jordan. This is also plausible news for a distant nation to have heard. But notice the glaring omission. They say nothing of Jericho or Ai. Mentioning those recent victories, which happened right there in Canaan, would have given the game away. Theirs is a testimony of half-truths, which is the most effective kind of lie.

v. 11 So our elders and all the inhabitants of our country spoke to us, saying, ‘Take provisions in your hand for the journey, and go to meet them and say to them, “We are your servants; now then, cut a covenant with us.” ’

They attribute their mission to their entire nation, their elders and inhabitants. They are presenting themselves as official ambassadors, making their proposal seem legitimate and weighty. Everything is calculated to overwhelm Israel's discernment.

v. 12 This bread of ours was warm when we took it for our provisions out of our houses on the day that we left to come to you; but now behold, it is dry and has become crumbled.

Now they bring out the evidence. Exhibit A: the bread. "Taste and see," they might have said, but in a completely different sense than the Psalmist. They are inviting Israel to use their physical senses to verify a spiritual lie.

v. 13 And these wineskins which we filled were new, and behold, they are torn; and these clothes of ours and our sandals are worn out because of the very long journey.”

Exhibits B and C: the wineskins and the clothes. The case seems overwhelming. The evidence is tangible. You can see it, you can touch it. How could it be a lie? This is the logic of empiricism, which always fails when it is not submitted to divine revelation.

v. 14 So the men of Israel took some of their provisions, but they did not ask for the command of Yahweh.

Here is the verse upon which the entire narrative pivots. This is the heart of the failure. They took the evidence. They participated in the lie by eating the bread. They communed with the deception. And in doing so, they neglected the one thing necessary. They did not ask God. They had the means. They had the priesthood. They had the command to inquire of the Lord. But they were confident in their own judgment. This is the primal sin, the desire to be as God, knowing good and evil for oneself, based on one's own assessment of the data. It is a catastrophic failure of leadership.

v. 15 And Joshua made peace with them and cut a covenant with them, to let them live; and the leaders of the congregation swore an oath to them.

The deal is done. The covenant is cut. An oath is sworn. And an oath sworn in the name of Yahweh is binding. They were deceived into it, yes. They were foolish, yes. But the oath stands. God takes vows with the utmost seriousness. They have bound themselves, and God will hold them to it. This foolish act, born of disobedience, now becomes the ground of a future act of faithfulness: keeping their word to the Gibeonites even after the lie is exposed. God, in His sovereignty, will use this to preserve a people and to teach His church about the weight of her words.

Application

The central lesson of this story is as relevant as this morning's headlines. We are surrounded by Gibeonites, by plausible deceptions, by curated narratives that appeal to our senses and our prideful self-reliance. The world is constantly presenting us with its moldy bread and demanding that we make a covenant with it. And the temptation is always to do what Israel did: to look, to touch, to taste, to analyze the data, and to lean on our own understanding.

The great sin here is the sin of prayerlessness. "They did not ask for the command of Yahweh." How often could that be written over our own foolish decisions, our own disastrous treaties with the world? We have something far greater than the Urim and Thummim. We have the completed Word of God and the indwelling Holy Spirit. We have the throne of grace, which we are invited to approach with boldness. To neglect these resources is to invite deception and defeat.

And yet, there is gospel here. Even in our failure, God is sovereign. He took Israel's foolish oath and made it an occasion for demonstrating covenant faithfulness. Our God is a master at taking the tangled messes we make and weaving them into His glorious tapestry of redemption. Our failures are never the final word. The final word belongs to the greater Joshua, Jesus, who never failed to inquire of His Father, and who cut a covenant with us, not based on our deception, but on His blood. He swore an oath to save us, and because He is faithful, that oath can never be broken.