Hoodwinked (Part C)

Rookie, rookie, rookie mistake for us to act without the Lord. Don't believe everything you think. You have to learn that, do we not? Because we can't come to a place where if we think it, it must be right. We must be correct. Sometimes that's right.

Sometimes it's not. We cannot be trusted to know the truth without the Holy Spirit and His Word in the context of events that we're facing here in this story. This is Cross Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of Joshua.

Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. But for now let's join Pastor Rick in the book of Joshua chapter 7. And now here's Pastor Rick with his study called Hoodwinked as he teaches through Joshua chapter 9. In these two verses we get a little bit more information about the Gibeonites, that they had a lot of information about the Jews. They knew about their conquests on the other side, the east side of the Jordan, and the Jews were loving hearing this. They were being reminded of just how God was with them. I don't know that that was the intention of the Gibeonites. They were certainly trying to win the Jews and tell them they were familiar with them, but I don't know.

It doesn't matter, but at the same time I know that the Jews were liking this. I would like this. If a scam artist came up to the church door and I didn't know he was one, he says, I heard about Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. I love this place.

The people here are great. Yes, so you like it now. Oh, you missed the connection. All right. That's all right. It's late. But you would like, you say, yeah, that's right. The people are here. Great.

I love this church too. You would be good to be very careful when that was happening. If I were speaking to a New York City congregation, I could say, I know there's a bunch of you that have been scammed. Well, maybe there are some of you here that have been scammed. You learned that one time.

That's all you have to do. Verse 12, this bread of ours we took hot for 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, our garments and our sandals have become old because of the very long journey. I'm sorry.

I mean, Joshua should have said, wait a minute here. How far did you come from Mars? I mean, how long does it take to wear them? We just got 40 years in the wilderness and didn't wear our sandal.

Where do you buy your shoes? Well, I mean, you read that and you just say, yeah, that's a bit much. I mean, I think the bread would have been long run out by the time. I don't know how long it takes to wear a wineskin, but I wouldn't think it would take.

I think it would take a few years. I don't know. But I know that they're pouring it on and Joshua looks and he says, yep, that's moldy bread, all right. That proves it. Well, no, it doesn't Joshua.

The sting has got to be convincing and it is convincing. And again, we Christians are not to be like little children who will not learn from their parents. We are to learn from the scripture and pay attention to these things, painful or not. It was life or death, death for them. And verse 14, then the men of Israel took some of their provisions, but they did not ask counsel of Yahweh. There it is. It's the whole story right there. You can lean on your own understanding at times when you, you know, again, what's for dinner?

What color socks to wear with an outfit? Lean on your own understanding. But when it comes to serious spiritual matters, serious matters of life, we are not to do it that way. Sight without spirit.

Of course there is a way that seems right to man, but it's end is a way of death. Proverbs 14, 12. It says here, but they did not ask the counsel of Yahweh. Again, we're not judging them.

We're learning from them. David wrote it this way. He says, keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins. Let them not have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless and I shall be innocent of great transgression. So he says, God, I don't want to presume. I don't want to act without the authority of truth, being correct.

I do not want to get ahead of you or myself. The Lord's response at this point is simply Joshua, you should have come to me and he doesn't. Maybe you have had someone in your life that you have been able to say that to and for you should have come to me. You should have told me this. Rookie, rookie, rookie mistake for us to act without the Lord. Don't believe everything you think. You have to learn that, do we not? Because we can come to a place where if we think it, it must be right. We must be correct. That's sometimes that's right. Sometimes it's not.

We cannot be trusted to know the truth without the Holy Spirit and his word and the, and the context of events that we're facing here in this story. Now again, some resent being told this because they like flying by their feelings and they don't want to do the work and they certainly don't want, they don't like the feeling of having to say to someone, no, I'm not going to do that. No, I don't care if it's the last one. I'm not going to buy it. No, I don't care if the sale ends tomorrow.

Maybe I'll take it. No. Well, I'm trying to relate to these people Lord and it just is a wall up. They're resisting me. Anyway, Jude talks about those who just worked by their feelings. He says, these are sensuous persons. Now Jesus is being, he's, he's dealing not with just Christians who just go with their feelings and not with facts.

He's dealing with troublesome people too. And he says, these are sensuous persons who caused visions, not having the spirit. So we look at that verse and we say, well, I'm not going to be a sensuous person. I have the spirit and I will not cause these divisions and I will seek the Lord. Experience and instincts are not trustworthy enough for us to go forward without the Lord Jesus Christ and his word together.

Because if you just say, well, I'm going with the Lord, but, but what if, what if you start applying yourself in a way that the scripture has forbidden and said, well, scriptures don't do that. And so that's why we need the two. God doesn't need the two. He's got it all together. What did Joshua have? What could he have done? Well, he had the priest, he had the lights and the perfection.

This was a serious issue. He should have gone to them. Again, not picking on Joshua. He's one of my heroes in the Bible and Numbers 27 verse 21. This is Moses getting Joshua ready to be the leader. He shall stand before Eliezer the priest who shall inquire before Yahweh for him by the judgment of the Urim. At his word, they shall go out and at his word, they shall come in. He and all the children of Israel with him, all the congregation. So Moses is saying, Joshua, you, I'm not leaving you alone here. You've got the resources.

I'm, you're going to have the resources. And in this case, he, he, he did not do it. I guess, you know, as humans go, if I put myself in his spot, I would say, well, this is a no brainer.

There's the bread, there's the shoes and all. It feels right. So they beat Jericho by discipline, marching according to their orders and time. It's patience and that's from maturity. They beat Ai through self-examination and battle. If you're going to beat the devil, you're going to have to do it through dependence on the Lord in the spirit. In verse 15, 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. We go back up to verse 15 and there again we read, but they did not ask counsel of the Lord. So Joshua made peace. He made peace with the wrong people. And the, the only reason why they did not become a big problem is because they will be, they will be drawn into the house of God.

And we'll get to that at the end. But in verse 15, where Joshua made peace with them, another mistake we make is we tend to project. If I don't lie, then I'm not being, then he's probably not lying to me. If I don't steal, I'm probably not being stolen from. I think most of us tend to do that and we have to learn not to do that.

There's something to, it takes one to know one. Now if you are someone who's frequently lying to other people, when you're being lied to, you probably pick up on it and resent it. But, you know, imagine the look on the face of Joshua when he learns that he has been duped. Verse 16 now. 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. Well, again, Joshua had made his decision based on, on visible things and he bypassed the spiritual things. He just allowed his, his, his eyeballs to make the decision and now his ears are condemning him. What he heard, word on the street, Joshua, is that they're just right up the road from Ai.

You know, the look on his face, it's just the rage and the shame and all these things happening at the same time to him. Verse 17, then the children of Israel journeyed and came to their cities on the third day. Now their cities were Gibeon, Kephira, Berath, and Kirajathjirim. They came and they confirmed the report. They heard and they, now they're investigating.

Close the barn door, the horse is gone. Verse 18, but the children of Israel did not attack them because the rulers of the congregation had sworn to them by Yahweh God of Israel and all the congregation complained against the rulers. So the people said, let's kill them anyway. They lied to us. It's invalid, this covenant. Well, under certain, you know, business contracts and stuff like that, yeah, maybe so, but under this, it's a little bit more, it's, it's deeper than that.

Let's see if the story will yield us to us. Verse 18, but the, back to verse 18, Jesus said, let your yes be yes and your no be no. And I think we get, we get into trouble when we say yes too quickly or no too quickly and then we have to reverse it because it was the wrong decision and it would be just even worse to continue to enforce our no and parenting is loaded with this stuff. No, you can't do it. No. Well, okay. And so we try to slow it down and make the first yes or no that we make so we don't have to walk it back. It's not easy. Matthew 537 again, Jesus said, but let your yes be yes and your no no for whatever is more than these is from the evil one.

You're being set up. That's what he's saying. And it's pretty strong language.

You hear it, you should never forget, we should never forget this. Not when the consequences are so high for whatever is more than these is of Satan. It says in verse 18 and all the congregation complained against the rulers. Again, quick to withdraw from godly rulers. They should have said, Joshua, remember we said we got your, we got your back on these things back in our chapter one.

However, they were probably afraid God was going to judge them for this. This is very, so on one hand you have this second generation from Egypt that is totally committed to Yahweh, but on the other hand, they're quick to, you know, turn on their leaders that David had to deal with this. How much did David do for the 600 men that were with him? They were bums and scoundrels and nobodies and he gave them a reason to live other than a next meal. And yet when David was off doing what David did and malachites came and stole, came to his camp and stole everybody and all their goodies, then David and his men come back. The men want to kill David.

It's like, you got, are you crazy? He's the only one who's going to get these people back. Anyway, where's the loyalty? People aren't much different today in churches.

They're not much different. Loyalty is painful. Loyalty is, I'm committed to this person because the Lord has put me here. And then when the Lord tests that and shows you a fault of that leader, which never happens here, but some fault rises up.

Now you got a question to answer. Am I going to be loyal to what God told me to do? Why he put me here? Or am I now going to say, you know what? I don't like you anymore. That's disillusionment and it happens. I'm, I've not always been too good at this. There've been times I seem to get it, but in my, I look back at my past, I'm not telling you the details. Why should I? Well, meet me out in the parking lot.

I could give you a whole nother spin on it. But anyway, first Samuel chapter 30, I didn't push the timer, so I'll start now. First Samuel chapter 30 verse six, and David was greatly distressed for the people spoke of stoning him because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and his daughters. But David strengthened himself and Yahweh is God. That's how David dealt with that painful moment in life.

He's got to deal with his family being stole, all of his stuff gone, his chainsaw, his leaf gone, everything special to him is gone except his truck. And, and now he's got to deal with people who want to stone him, who he's given life to. Moses, God sent Moses to the people and he failed in front of them. And Moses, if I was Moses, I would have said, well, what was that about? Joseph, holding up the highest principle, went to prison.

He got to be saying, where's God? I did the right thing. Why do I got to go to jail? Eat that stuff. So, yeah, we forget about it. We think of the bars.

What about the meals? That's the part that would kill me. Anyway, may we learn these lessons? So they're pretty down about all this, the people. Verse 19, then all the rulers said to all the congregation, we have sworn to them by Yahweh, God of Israel. Now, therefore, we may not touch them.

So the people wanted to do them in. And Joshua is saying disobedience is not the solution to disobedience. The two wrongs don't make a right, we would, we would say. Yes, that was a mistake, making the covenant with them. But we're not now going to go back on our yes, we made the covenant and we're going to stick to our end of this situation. This had to be a tough time.

I would not have wanted to be part of this. And Joshua is going to go for solutions. Verse 20, this we will do to them, we will let them live, lest wrath be upon us because of the oath which we swore to them. So Joshua says, my word is bond and I'm not having God judge me because I made a mistake and then I make another mistake and go back on it. Joshua was willing to live with the consequences of his mistake, but not the consequence of going against the Lord again and breaking his word. The emphasis is not upon the deception of the Gibeonites because they were doing this to save themselves. Who can fault them?

And again, it wasn't a scam to swindle something out of them and trying to survive. They and their little ones. The emphasis is upon God's people upholding faith and integrity. That's where the emphasis lies in the story. What are you going to do after you mess up? And that's a question that I work to not have to answer. I try not to mess up, but somebody, it's always somebody else, right?

Never me, it's always somebody else. The self-willed king, Saul, 400 years, he'll come along and he's going to violate this oath. And David's going to have to clean up the mess because God's going to confront David on the whole thing.

You can read it up in 2 Samuel chapter 21. And so again, God is not slighted by Gibeon's behavior, but there's also another positive thing here. God does not delight in the death of the wicked. God was not like, yeah, kill those Canaanites, those Jericho, kill them, I love it. That would maybe be Islam. Our God says he has no delight in the death of the wicked.

But if there's no alternative and that saves other lives, then that's the way it's going to be. And I don't believe for a moment God was, oh, I hate those Gibeonites, not at all. This is something he knew was going to happen and he let it happen.

And I find it also interesting that he let it happen with the people who appear to be not as bad as some of the other people in the land. So many lessons throughout this story. I'm sure you could pull a few out yourself. No, no, you can't.

Just kidding, I'm sure you can. I have no doubt the Holy Spirit would point it out to you. So they're not being rewarded for their deception. This is a case of God causing all things to work together for the good in verse 21. And the rulers said to them, let them live, but let them be woodcutters and water carriers for all the congregation as the rulers had promised them. So he says, okay, it's a mistake. Going forward, this is what we're going to do.

It's what a recovery. He says, we're going to put them to work. And many of them wanted blood. Joshua said, we're going to get work out of them. We're going to honor our covenant. We're not going to slaughter them, but we are going to force them to do the stuff we don't want to do so that we can worship, concentrate more on worship than labor. Verse 21, 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.

Duh, survival. Come on, Joshua. That's a question that I guess he had to ask it, but verse 23, now therefore you are cursed and none of you shall be freed from being slaves, woodcutters and water carriers for the house of God.

So it's this verse that when I pray for people sometimes and for myself, I say, may you learn how to make this chop wood and fetch water for you. It's okay. The problem's here.

It's a problem. Now how to make it work for God's glory and that's what it was. They were chopping wood and fetching water, or you could say chopping water and fetching, well anyway, you could have some fun with that.

Fetching wood is what a retriever does. So they were actually helping the Jews worship in the act of worship. And another thing, this was forcing them to be part of the temple experience. And when we get to the book of Nehemiah, hundreds of years later, they're still in the land and they're part of building the wall. And so this is one of those events that God causes all things to work together for the good, maybe not on the individual level, but overall.

Verse 24, so they answered Joshua and said, because your servants were clearly told that Yahweh, 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. A concise answer. This is spot on. The reply was, it's better to cut wood and haul water than push daisies up. That's their response. And we can therefore appreciate their craftiness.

What would you have done? But again, remember, being hoodwinked is being hoodwinked. This happened to be the Gibeonites. When Satan does it, he's looking to take us out. John's Gospel, chapter 10, verse 10, the thief does not come except to steal and to kill and to destroy. I have come that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly. And so that sharp contrast. Verse 25, and now here we are in your hands, do with us as it seems good to you.

Where's the ax? Right, seems good and right to do to us. It's good to be alive. That's right. When they went back home, we live. And you notice he doesn't say to them, you're going to have to also help us conquer these other countries, these other lands. That would have been foolish because you would have essentially stocked your army with people who weren't proven. And they'd be taking you out in the midst of the battle. And so they were just, I would like to have been an ax salesman in Israel at that time.

It would have been a fortune. Verse 27, and that day Joshua made them woodcutters and water carriers for the congregation and for the altar of Yahweh in the place which he would choose even to this day. And so there we see they're going to be part of the worship experience. How many opportunities came up? How come you guys don't offer pigs?

How come you don't, why do you do this? And there's a chance to begin evangelism. And so it's a stroke of genius.

So we were learning about not being hoodwinked, but what we also get is how to recover from something that didn't go right. And Joshua doesn't wring his fingers, he doesn't shake them out of this and go slaughter everybody. He holds to God's word and he comes up with servants. And I think we would be short-sighted to say, to miss that there were converts that came out of this. Converts would have come out of this just what Israel was supposed to be, a light to the world. And no indication in all scripture that they ever became a threat to the Jews. And as I mentioned, they show up in the book of Nehemiah, they were put in Levitical towns.

So that was again another plus, a win-win out of a bad decision. So may we learn how to take a calamity like this and do well if we miss it, but better to not find ourselves hoodwinked by anyone. Thanks for tuning in to Cross Reference Radio for this study in the book of Joshua. Cross Reference is the teaching ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel, Mechanicsville in Virginia. If you're interested in more information about this ministry, please visit our website, crossreferenceradio.com.

You'll find additional teachings from Pastor Rick available there. We also encourage you to subscribe to our podcast. By doing so, you'll be notified of each new edition of Cross Reference Radio. Just search for Cross Reference Radio in iTunes, Google Play Music, or your favorite podcast app. You can also follow the links at crossreferenceradio.com. We're glad we were able to spend time with you today. Tune in next time to continue learning from the book of Joshua right here on Cross Reference Radio.