Thus Joshua struck all the land, the hill country and the Negev and the lowland and the slopes and all their kings. He left no survivor, but he utterly destroyed all who breathed, just as the Lord, the God of Israel, had commanded (Joshua 10:40).

During Joshua's lifetime, Israel was victorious in every battle. They won not because they had such greater military might but because they fully obeyed the LORD. After Joshua's death, we discover that Israel would not be completely faithful to the LORD, leaving survivors from their conquests, contrary to what God commanded. As a result, God would cease to give them victories.

As I reflect on this today, I do not conclude that if we fully obey as Christians, God will make our every earthly pursuit prosperous. While this was promised to Israel under the Old Mosaic Covenant, this is never promised to Christians, who are under thew New Covenant in Christ.

However, we have the greater promise of eternal life. And we can at least draw this application, which is true today as it was in Joshua's day. The only thing that matters in life is to trust and obey God. It does not matter how smart we are, how financially secure we are, or even how happy we are. What matters is that we trust and obey God regardless of our lot in life. For our aim is not to find fulfillment in this life, which is swiftly passing away, but to please the One, who is preparing a place for us in heaven for all eternity. 

Every morning before I rise, I pray, "Father, let me just live to please You this day. Grant me wisdom and discernment not to fill my hours with vain things but to think and plan and do just what pleases You and glorifies You most." And even though my days still come far short of this mark, it is my constant prayer and ambition. 

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There was not a city which made peace with the sons of Israel except the Hivites living in Gibeon; they took them all in battle. For it was of the Lord to harden their hearts, to meet Israel in battle in order that he might utterly destroy them, that they might receive no mercy, but that he might destroy them, just as the Lord had commanded Moses (Joshua 11:19-20).

With but one exception, which was probably to test Israel, not one city made peace with Israel. In other words, every city chose to fight, even though they were deathly fearful of Israel and heard of Israel's loss-less track record of victories in battle, as well as their ruthless slaughter of every living being, whether man, woman or child. Why? Was it because they were stupid to fight against such terrible odds? No. It was because the LORD hardened their hearts. God was determined to destroy the whole lot of them. He treated them like a cancer, such that every last bit of them had to be destroyed to prevent a future resurgence of the disease. God precluded any showing of mercy, not even to the least of them. 

This is the often neglected, though all-important aspect of God's nature. It is often preached that God is love, but the Bible also teaches that God is holy. In fact, while there is but one reference to the oft quoted "God is love" passage in 1 John 4:8, there are virtually hundreds of references to "God is holy." Clearly the balance of emphasis falls on the holiness of God over the love of God, yet when I survey the landscape of preaching, the emphasis is lopsided toward the love of God. 

While I do not diminish the importance of the love of God, let us not be found to fall short of preaching the whole counsel of Scripture or to give a distorted potrayal of the nature of God. He is holy, by which we mean that He is not bound by the rules that govern His creation. And to the extent that we are connected to Him by trusting and obey Him, we too become holy. 

So the Israelites examined their food, but they did not consult the LORD. (Joshua 9:14 NLT)

The Gibeonites succeeded in their deception, so that Joshua and the people of Israel bound themselves on oath not to destroy them and even to protect them. As Unmi mentioned in a former post, an oath before the LORD is sacred and binding, even when there has been deception involved. That is why every precaution should have been taken before entering into the oath. The Israelites checked only obvious things, but the Scripture adds, "but they did not consult the LORD." The presumption was that if they had checked with the LORD, He would have revealed their deception, and the Gibeonites would not have become such a thorn in the side of Israel.

Consider the New Testament teaching regarding oaths:

But most of all, my brothers and sisters, never take an oath, by heaven or earth or anything else. Just say a simple yes or no, so that you will not sin and be condemned. (James 5:12 NLT)

Oaths are like covenants in that they assure, and even insure, the other person that you will fulfill your part of the bargain. If you fail to do so, penalties ensue. Because of the serious nature of oaths, both Jesus (Matthew 5:33-37) and James command believers never to voluntarily enter into them. The oath that Israelites took with the Gibeonites lasted from generation to generation in perpetuity. 

Two practical principles come to mind that we might apply to our contemporary experience. First, if you are like me, you have signed all kind of documents and checked your approval to all kinds of legal language without first carefully reading what you are agreeing to. We do this out of convenience because we presume that companies require this not so much to harm us but to protect themselves against frivolous suits. While this might be generally true, I am reminded that this does not excuse us from our responsibility. 

If you were duped into signing up for something that you did not intend, you might criticize the tactic, but you are bound before the LORD to fulfill your side of that contact. If you have incurred credit card debt, you are bound before the LORD to pay it. If someone persuades you to negotiate with the supplier so that you only pay a portion of your debt,  this is not a cause for rejoicing, but it should be a shame to you, for they only agreed to it because they feared you would not pay anything at all, which is something that dishonors the God, who sanctifies all oaths. 

Husbands and wives, you must keep the oaths that you spoke to one another before the LORD when you got married. The "till death do us part" is the only thing that frees you from this oath. Therefore, if both of you are living, then both of you are still bound. But you say, "What if my partner is unfaithful?" You are still bound, because you did not make conditional vows to one another. 

Another principle that comes to mind is the importance of prayerful dependence upon God. Joshua may not have been able to see through the deception of the Gibeonites, but God could. His failure to consult God resulted in his being deceived.

In 1 Thessalonians 5:17 we read, "Never stop praying." In the same context Paul commands, "Hold on to what is good. Stay away from what is evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:21-22). The one helps us to do the other. When we always pray, we reveal our limitations and our dependence upon God. We need to constantly consult Him, because we are so easily deceived, even by our own sinful natures. Prayer does not remove our responsibility to "test everything," but when we pray, we demonstrate our reverence for God and our dependence upon Him, so that no matter what befalls us we are ultimately entrusting our wellbeing to God.

News of victory after victory in their battles comes in to the Israelites.  "If God is for us, who can stand against us?"  We saw how weak and useless the Israelites are in a battle from yesterday's reading.  Due to Achan's sin, God couldn't be among the Israelites and when they went up against Ai, "they were routed by the men of Ai, ⁵ who killed about thirty-six of them. They chased the Israelites from the city gate as far as the stone quarries and struck them down on the slopes. At this the hearts of the people melted in fear and became like water."  God was their strength and no one else including themselves!  As they kept themselves holy before the Lord, God even fought against their enemies for them as described in Joshua 10:9-11,  "After an all-night march from Gilgal, Joshua took them by surprise. ¹⁰ The LORD threw them into confusion before Israel, so Joshua and the Israelites defeated them completely at Gibeon. Israel pursued them along the road going up to Beth Horon and cut them down all the way to Azekah and Makkedah. ¹¹ As they fled before Israel on the road down from Beth Horon to Azekah, the LORD hurled large hailstones down on them, and more of them died from the hail than were killed by the swords of the Israelites."  Let us be holy before the Lord by keeping ourselves from this world and being completely devoted to Him so that His glory may shine through us.

I researched the history of the Gibeonites and found some interesting facts.  They allegedly migrated down to Ethiopia when the Israelites were taken captive to Babylon and kept the Pentateuch and Jewish tradition for a long time.  Their descendents have been transferred to Israel from Ethiopia by Israeli government to resettle in Palestine.  If this is true, I think the Gibeonites are the only Canaanites who were influenced by the Israelites whereas all the other peoples led Israel astray.  God must have known their deceiving Joshua but allowed it to happen even though all Canaanites were supposed to be annihilated. 

Chad wrote...In this reading Joshua leads the Israelites against many tribes in the Promised Land and, with the Lord’s help, is successful in all of their battles. Joshua, up to this point, had been very obedient to the Lord so God was with him.  Through the Lord Joshua was a very successful leader amongst the Israelites and lead them through many battles. 
 
How wonderful it is when you have the Lord on your side to help you fight the enemy!  Now that is not to say that we are going to be successful in all that we do and not have any hardships.  But we can have victory over Satan and live a life that pleases the Lord and in that way we can be victorious!

Yujin commented... Amen, brother Chad! Isn't it amazing how God works. God does not just go out and destroy all the inhabitants of Canaan. The Israelites must go out and fight. They must be strong and courageous. They must obey the command of God. But when they do, they don't need to worry, because God fights for them and they will have the victory. The basis of the Law is this: If you obey, I will bless you. If you disobey, I will curse you. In Joshua, this translates to: If you obey, you will win. If you disobey, you will lose.
 
Now, while there is no direct application for believers today because we are not under the Mosaic Law, such that the blessings and cursings tied to it also do not apply to us; nevertheless, we have something better. Because of the grace of God, we can never be cursed. God's grace is unconditional and eternal. Nevertheless, we are commanded to "work out our own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in us to will and to work according to His good pleasure" (Philippians 2:12-13). By virtue of God's grace, His Spirit lives in us and continually prods us in keeping with the principles of Christ-like living, but we must daily choose to respond to that prodding. This is what is meant by "working out" what God is "working in." This is what is meant in Galatians 5:16, where Paul writes, "Walk by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desires of the sinful nature." What does it mean to walk by the Spirit? We are told in Galatians 5:22-23 that the fruit of the Spirit is "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control." Pursuing the things that lead to this fruit is equivalent to Joshua's charge to "be strong and courageous, being careful to obey everything written in the Law of Moses."