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Joshua 9 is
a very interesting study in human behavior, sinfulness, deliverance, and God’s
passive will. There is much to discuss
here. I’ll start with humanity.
The
Gibeonites (or Hivites) comes to Joshua dressed as though they had been away
from their town on a long march in order to make peace with the Hebrew
people. They are intentionally
attempting to deceive Joshua and His men.
Joshua and the Hebrew people smell a trap, but they don’t consult with
God. As a result, they end up making
peace with these people. After the
deception is revealed, Joshua is honor bound to have his men honor the terms of
the peace.
What can we
learn about human behavior and sinfulness here?
From the Hivites we learn that human beings will turn to lies and deception
to save our livelihood. From the Hebrew
people we learn that human beings will trust their senses (sight, primarily)
even over our greater logic and understanding.
I think that this is a great lesson to learn. People will believe what they think they see
over and above what they reason to be true.
This is such an incredibly dangerous aspect of human beings. We can also learn from the Hebrew people that
we tend to overlook consultation with God.
Look at what
we can learn about deliverance here. The
people of Gibeon are delivered. Granted,
they are delivered from destruction into slavery. The fact remains, though, that they are
allowed to live! Their people are one of
the few people in the area of Jericho and Ai that remain alive because they are
delivered through deception. Of course,
this leads us to a sticky conversation.
Is it okay to lie in order to get our way? The short answer is no. But the real answer is that this lie is no
normal lie. There is truth here. In order for these Hivites to set up the decpetion,
they have to genuinely believe that the God of the Hebrew people is stronger
than their own gods or else they wouldn’t be afraid of the Hebrew people. Therefore, in this lie we can sense at the
very least an openness to God. It is
subtly hidden openness to God that bring about their deliverance, not their deception.
Finally, let’s
look at the passive will of God. God
allows the Hivites to live. In spite of
their deception and even more in spite of the fact that they are Canaanite and
God wanted all of the Canaanites to die, here they are alive as slaves and
serving the Hebrew people. This was not
a part of God’s plan any more than Achan’s rebellion and the defeat at Ai. What we see happening here, though, is that
God’s perspective on the course of events is fluid. He has His plan and what He desires to see
happen. He also knows that human beings
are going to muck it up and often cause the plan to come out differently than
one might suspect. God seems to be okay
with that. In most things, perhaps even
all things except salvation, God’s passive will is more dominant than God’s
active will.
As an adult
who spends much time with teenagers, this is a highly important lesson for me
to learn. Most days, I get up with an
agenda about how I want the day to go.
Most days, the day does not go as planned because I am interacting with
other human beings. I’m willing to be
that most days don’t go as God planned, either, because He is dealing with
human beings and allows His passive will to dominate over His active will. That’s what I need to learn to imitate to
become more like God.
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