Joshua, Chapter 9 - They Didn’t Ask | Prophets of Israel

[music] >> Shalom everybody and welcome to the Prophets of Israel daily. This is Joshua chapter 9 brought to you by the Land of Israel network at the landofisrael.com. Let me ask you something. What's more dangerous to a nation at the beginning of its destiny? A raging enemy army or a smiling delegation carrying moldy bread? Because Joshua chapter 9 isn't about a battle. It's about a trick. And honestly, it may be one of the most relevant leadership chapters in the entire Tanakh for our generation. You know, Ari, it strikes me about this chapter that it's the first time Israel faces something more dangerous than armies, diplomacy. And honestly, that's a test that follows the Jewish people throughout history. But really, what I love about this unfolding story is the power of Israel's word and their integrity and their commitment to truth. Even when they're tricked, they give their word and they stand by it. And I really, really love that just dedication to the truth. Right. Yeah, you know, you know, after the dramatic victories that they had at Jericho and Ai, you know, think about what's going on around them. The nations of Canaan are terrified. Most of them are preparing for war for war, but but one group, the Gibeonites, choose a completely different strategy. Verse 4 tells us, "They acted with cunning. They set out in disguise. They took worn-out sacks for their donkeys and worn-out waterskins that were cracked and patched." They disguised themselves as travelers from a distant land. They arrived wearing worn-out clothes, carrying cracked wineskins and just having stale moldy bread. They arrive and claim, "We have come from a distant land. Now make a covenant with We have come from a distant land. Now make a covenant with us." Right? Joshua and the leaders, they're examining the provisions. They inspect the bread. They study the worn sacks, the cracked wineskins. The evidence looks real. The story checks out. It seems to at least. And you can almost feel how tempting this moment must have been for them. Right? Here they are, a young nation just entering the land and suddenly an opportunity appears to strengthen their foothold, to build regional stability, to form wise alliances with distant non-Canaanite nations. It must have felt strategic and responsible and even exciting. You know, they're being like recognized. So so it's so logical that perhaps it dulled their spiritual instinct. It's so convincing that it distracted them from their first and deepest truth. And then comes one of the most quietly devastating sentences in the entire book of Joshua, a verse that really deserves to be written in flashing red lights across all of Jewish history. But they did not ask the mouth of Hashem. Joshua makes the treaty. Three days later, they discover the truth. The Gibeonites the Gibeonites live right nearby. They're Canaanites. Israel has just sworn an oath an oath in God's name not to destroy them. The nation is furious, but Joshua refuses to break the oath because a foolish oath is still an oath. Instead, the Gibeonites the Gibeonites are assigned to become woodcutters and water carriers for the sanctuary for the nation of Israel, permanently attached to Israel's national religious life. You know, here's the wild part. If you follow the story forward in Tanakh, Gibeon later becomes a major priestly city and for a time even hosts the central sacrificial site of Israel. Right? Some of Israel's greatest national religious moments happen in that place or around that place, meaning that what began as deception gets woven into the sacred infrastructure of Israel. Now, I'll tell you, my friends, I don't think it's a coincidence that all this story unfolds immediately after the victory of Ai. We've spoken about it before because we all know something about victory. Victory is powerful and exhilarating, but victory also carries this hidden danger. It can quietly seduce you into believing that you've got this now. Right? It can it can lull a person or even an entire nation into a subtle sense of self-assurance, of confidence, of stability, and sometimes even a touch of arrogance. Or even more than a touch sometimes. Right? At Ai, Israel finally tasted a clean strategic disciplined victory. You know, after the trauma caused by Achan taking the spoils of Jericho, they regrouped, followed the plan, executed brilliantly, and succeeded. The nation is now inside the land and the momentum is real. The the leadership feels steady. The systems seem to be working. And that's exactly when the real spiritual test arrives or a real spiritual test. Right? It wasn't another army. It wasn't even another miracle. It was just a group of travelers with worn bread and dusty clothes asking for a treaty because sometimes the situations that look the most harmless are exactly the ones where we stop praying. Nobody forgets to ask God when the river is raging. We forget to ask when the bread looks just a little bit stale. Right? Because the greatest danger isn't failure. Failure makes you pray. Failure makes you humble. Failure keeps you close to God. Their greatest danger is success. When everything seems to be working so well that you start trusting your eyes and your strategy and your judgment instead of remembering that the entire conquest of the land was never meant to run on human logic alone. And maybe that's the deeper warning of this chapter. The moment you start thinking, "We understand how this works now. We figured it out. We cracked the code." is often the very moment you stop asking the one who actually runs the story. You know, Ari, it's just so crazy. This is might be the only chapter in Tanakh where Israel defeats a fortified city, defeats a professional army, and then we lose to some stale pita. It's like terrifying. It's like we always fall into the trap of diplomacy. It shows the Jewish people we were never defeated by just strength or power. Sometimes we're defeated by something that just sounded reasonable. Let's give them some land for peace. We all lived through Oslo. It sounded reasonable. And if you don't consult, then you're end up losing. And I think that's the key here. Joshua doesn't consult with God and it's seemingly a reasonable treaty. But it's like when Joshua just calls his own shots, good luck. And the message is clear for us today. Every time personally you need to make a big decision, we have to do our best to try to be guided, to try to pray and ask for assistance. You like turn up, turn inside. Don't just shoot from the hip. And when Joshua makes decisions in haste without asking God, when it seems reasonable, it doesn't really turn out well. You know, and honestly, my friends, this chapter, you can feel it in modern-day Israel today. It's hard not to see it because Israel has faced enemies with missiles, but we've also faced enemies with agreements and peace treaties and security guarantees and diplomatic promises that seemed perfectly logical to to some and obviously ridiculous to others. But we don't need to get into that right now. The point is that Joshua chapter 9 reminds us that the Jewish story was never protected by strategy alone. It survives through covenant. It thrives when we are in an ongoing real relationship with God. And Joshua, you know, his mistake, it didn't destroy Israel because the covenant with God was bigger than any single leadership error. And we need to remember that today. And it should give us hope because redemption was never built on perfect decisions, perfect people, perfect nations. It's built on faithful covenant. So here's the question for all of us today. Where in your life are you relying only on what makes sense instead of actually asking God? Where are you inspecting the bread but forgetting to seek the divine voice? I'm telling you, I've had moments like this myself, moments where something looked perfectly logical, perfectly practical, and only later did I realize that I never actually stopped to ask Hashem if it was right. And usually, the mistakes don't come when life is chaotic. They come when everything seems calm and okay. You know, and maybe that's exactly the warning Joshua chapter 9 leaves us with. Wisdom isn't just seeing clearly. Wisdom is remembering. It's remembering what our task is, which is to turn to God with our hearts. It's to ask Hashem for his guidance before we sign the treaty. Anyways, lots of my friends. If you are enjoying this series, you're invited to join our fellowship. It's really hard to put into words what it is, but if I had to, it's a global community united by a shared love of God and of Israel and of Torah. We broadcast weekly from the hills of Judea and people from all around the world are coming together and we pray for each other, we learn together, and we experience Torah through the lens of redemption, you know, one portion at a time. So you're invited. We'd love to have you join us. And B'ezrat Hashem, we will see you all tomorrow as we dive into chapter 10 with Jeremy.