Year 1, Day 194: Joshua 9

Rebellion

In Joshua 9 we find two types of rebellion against God.  First, we see the fierce end of rebellion.  We initially hear of several great nations who are banding together to fight against the Hebrew people.  This is the first kind of rebellion – we’ll call it overt rebellion.  What is important to notice about overt rebellion is how easily people join up with it.

You see, the people of Canaan were not a united people.  They spent much of their time and strength fighting petty squabbles amongst each other.  However, when a common enemy came along and presented itself, these Canaanite enemies would band together and fight together just long enough to drive away the enemy and save their necks.    

With respect to the Christian walk, we should see this as a clear correlation to sin in our life and especially the world.  Sinners will fight against other sinners all day long.  But when someone righteous comes along, those former enemies dwelling within their sinfulness will often band together to work against the righteous person until they are defeated.  This is just human nature.*

If we think about it, this is exactly what happened with Jesus.  The Pharisees, Sadducees, Herodians, and a few other groups bickered with each other until Jesus came onto the scene.  They fought with each other about who was right theologically.  The vied for power.  They insulted each other and picked at the weak aspects of each other.  But when Jesus showed up, they saw Him as the common enemy.  They suddenly banded together – setting their differences aside temporarily until such a time as they could safely fight amongst themselves again – and fought against Jesus.  If the world does that to our Lord, why should we expect any different?

Gibeonite Rebellion

Putting those initial nations aside, let’s now turn to the brunt of the passage and look at the other type of rebellion.  Instead of overt rebellion, the Gibeonites reveal to us a covert rebellion.  If you look at the motivation of the Gibeonites, they present a very manipulative agenda.  They speak words that make it seem like they are interested in following God, but their true motivation is to save their own skin.  Sure, they heard about God and His power.  They heard that the God of the Hebrew people is strong enough to conquer Canaan.  But they never say that they want to follow Him.  They just want to stay alive.

Ouch.

How many people in the world – and even in the Christian church – treat God the same way?  There are tons of people in this world who have no real interest in serving God or living according to God’s ways.  They merely want to appease God and continue living according to their own agenda.  They want to acknowledge that the God of the Hebrew people is alive, but not actually change anything about their own life.  There are millions of people out in the world today that say they know about God – and even believe that God exists - but those millions of people have not committed their lives to serving Him. 

Without commitment, are they any better than the Gibeonites?  Without becoming a true servant of the most high God, they are continuing in their own life only to set themselves up to completely miss out on the promise of eternal life.  How sad it is to come so close to God – to acknowledge His reality – without actually devoting yourself to Him, repenting, changing your life, and having the promise of the Holy Spirit and eternal life in Him!

I mourn this day for the many people in the world who are like the Gibeonites.  They know they are powerless against God.  But they also aren’t interested in following Him.  They acknowledge Him and settle for a temporary “appeasement” in which their current existence can continue until death.  They put greater importance upon their current lifestyle than following God into eternal life.

Hebrew Perspectives

Lastly, I’d like to speak about the Hebrew leaders.  Notice that again the Bible clearly says that they did not consult God.  Again we see rash human behavior at work.  Again we see human beings who understand the “war plan” without taking the time to check with God about each individual “battle plan.”  We as human beings – me included! – like to think we know God’s plan.  We like to point to Matthew 28:18-20 and think that’s all we need to know.  We’ve got our marching orders, right?  But we miss the boat because while we generally understand the overall plan we don’t take time to understand the minutia of how God wants it carried out.  We get in a hurry and we make mistakes.  We force God to deal with our human failings.

Thanks be to God that we have a forgiving God.  Thanks be to God that we have just learned the lessons of Ai a few days ago so we need not wallow in how our mistakes mess up God.  We can simply repent truly, make reparations, and move forward while this time taking the proper time to pause and wait for God to hand out His orders!

<>< 

* Regarding the Canaanite pattern for bickering among themselves until a greater foe comes along – are we all that different in the church?  How often do we let our differences separate us as Christians?  We bicker over baptism.  We bicker over finances.  We bicker over speaking in tongues.  We bicker over whether spiritual leaders can be married.  We bicker over whether spiritual leaders can be female.

Sure, these discussions are important.  They are absolutely worth talking about.  But they are not worth dividing ourselves over.  In no way are they even close to the importance of sharing our common bond through Christ as family.  We let these penultimate topics override the ultimate calling that God has for us in the world and in our communities.

Let’s not be like the Canaanites.  It’s okay to talk about these things.  It’s even okay to take different sides and agree that we disagree.  But our differences over that which is not sinful should never separate us as God’s people.  Yes, we should always stand up against sinful behavior.  But that which is not sinful should not divide.  “Wine vs. Grape Juice” should not be divisive.  “Immersion vs. Sprinkling” should not be divisive.  “ESV vs. NIV vs. KJV vs. NRSV vs. ____” should not be divisive.  Marriage should not be divisive.  Other examples may be inserted here.  We should stand united in our relationship to Jesus Christ.