Mon.’s Devo - Israel’s Treaty with Gibeon

Read: Joshua 9:3-10:43; Luke 16:19-17:10; Psalm 83:1-18; Proverbs 13:4 Gibeon means “little hill”. That would mean that Gibeon was a city that was important but not a royal city. A royal city would be considered a “mountain.” Gibeon was larger than Ai so it had over 22,000 people. It was next on the list of towns Israel would come to, so they knew their fate. Instead of fighting Israel and being defeated, they decided they would deceitfully make a peace treaty with them. They sent messengers to Joshua in ragged clothes and old shoes. They carried molded bread to deceive Joshua into thinking they were from a town outside of their boundaries. *** Joshua had gotten a little cocky in his war campaign and didn’t even ask God what he should do. He made a peace covenant with them and three days later, they learned that these men lived nearby. The names of the towns they had made a treaty with were Gibeon, Kiphirah, Beeroth, and Kiriath-jearim. They went and met with them but they couldn’t attack them because of the treaty they had made. Instead they made them their slaves to carry their water and cut their wood. The people of the towns were just glad to serve them and stay alive. The king of Jerusalem, Adoni-zedeck heard that Joshua had captured and destroyed Ai and Jericho and found out about the treaty they had made with the Gibeonites so they were afraid. Adoni-zedeck allied with four more kings listed in verse 3 from Hebron, Jarmuth, Lachish and Eglon to help them destroy the Gibeonites because they had made a treaty with Israel. The men of Gibeon sent for help from Joshua. The Gibeonites were known as great warriors. This time Joshua went with the Lord’s blessing. *** Joshua’s men traveled all night and took the Amorites by surprise. They fought with the sword and heaven’s army fought from heaven with hail. The hail killed more of them than the sword. Joshua prayed that the sun would stand still so they could continue fighting and it stayed noon for hours. They cornered five of the kings in a cave in Makkedah and put rocks over the entrance so they couldn’t escape. They finished killing all the soldiers. When they defeated them, time began to move again. *** They brought the kings out of the cave, made them lie down and ordered his commanders to put their feet on the necks of the king. Joshua told them to never be afraid because that was what God was going to do to all their enemies. Then he had them impaled on poles where they hung until evening. They took their bodies down before evening and had them put in the caves they hid in. Then they sealed the caves with a stone. *** This is exactly what Satan did to Jesus probably as his way of getting back at Israel for what they did to his kings. It was a set up, though, because Jesus’ death was God’s victory and ours too! *** Joshua and his men then went to the towns the kings ruled and destroy them, leaving no survivors. *** In Luke, Jesus tells a parable about a rich man who had everything and a poor man who sat at his gate. He was able to gaze at the luxury the rich man enjoyed but not allowed to eat even a scrap from his table. When the poor man died, he was taken by angels to heaven and sat beside Abraham at the heavenly banquet table. When he rich man died, he went to the place of the dead where he was in torment. He could see the poor man sitting beside Abraham a great distance away with a great chasm separating them. He called out to Abraham and asked him to send someone to his father’s house and warn them about the place he was in. Abraham said, they had prophets to warn him. The man begged God to send someone from the dead, probably him, to warn them to repent and turn to God. Abraham said, they wouldn’t listen to the prophets so they wouldn’t listen to someone who had risen from the dead. *** This was a parable about the people of that day. The prophets had come to warn Israel for years and years and they hadn’t listened. Yet, Jesus, sent from heaven was going to die and come back to life and they would still not believe. *** Jesus warned them of the danger of trying to persuade a young believer to sin and turn back from serving God. They were to discipline believers who sinned and if they repented, they were to forgive. This might mean forgiving them over and over. *** The disciples asked Jesus how they could increase their faith. Jesus told them it just takes a small about of faith to do great things. However, obedience is what God expects us to do as his servants. *** Lord, may we walk humbly with you. Thank you for saving us and revealing to us who you are and your kingdom. May we walk worthy of your name. Show us today, what we can do for you.