Reading: Joshua 9-12, Psalm 67
Okay, so almost everyone has heard of Joshua and the battle of Jericho, even if only the name. But as we just saw yesterday that it wasn’t much of a battle for the people of Israel. Fewer people know of the battles of Ai, which also wasn’t all that much of a battle. It was first a route of Israel, and then a route of the army of Ai and the destruction of the city. Has anyone ever heard of the battle of Gibeon?
Our story today begins with the arrival of emissaries from Gibeon. They tell Joshua a straight up lie: we are from far away. They deceive Joshua by showing them old bread and broken wineskins and beat up clothes. Joshua makes a formal agreement with them to not attack them. Then he discovers they are really close at hand! The story goes out of it’s way to tell us that Joshua did not consult God before making this decision, and implies heavily this was a mistake. So now they have an agreement that is not endorsed by God, was made under false pretense, and as we will see, is going to cause Israel to fight a major battle.
Before moving on to the consequences of this agreement, lets look at it from another angle. The Gibeonites have heard of the power of the God of Israel, and that he has ordered his people to annihilate the nations of Canaan. Looking forward, we are told the people of Gibeon were highly respected warriors. Disciplined fighters. But they see the acts of the God of Israel and are self aware enough to admit, hey, we can’t compete with that! So they use deceit to put themselves in a position to survive. Does this remind you of anything? Like, two days ago? Rahab did something very similar, and she is counted righteous. The Gibeonites feared the God of Israel, and were willing to discard their superiority before him. They are even willing to become laborers, servants of the God of Israel. Once again we see that a declaration of dependence leads to being saved.
Ok, on to the immediate aftermath of this event. As I mentioned before, the people of Gibeon were highly regarded warriors, and the nearby king of Jerusalem sees that they have joined up with Israel. This king appears to have been the over-king of several other cities, perhaps including Gibeon. In contrast to the Gibeonites and Rahab, this king puts together his own alliance of kings and sets out to destroy Gibeon, very likely in retribution for their turning to Israel. The Gibeonites ask Joshua for help.
Now Joshua is put to the test. He has this agreement with Gibeon, but is it valid? The agreement was made under false pretenses. One of the parties told nothing but lies. Is Joshua exempt from coming through on his obligations? No. This is not how covenants work in the Bible. God has already said that when the people of Israel do not keep their word, he will keep his. Israel, for once, is behaving like their God. Once the agreement is made, it is binding, despite it being built on false pretense. From a purely practical standpoint, it would have been better to let the king of Jerusalem and his army destroy Gibeon, then sweep in and attack them right as they finish the battle. But Joshua doesn’t do this. He has learned his lesson, and inquires of God, who tells him to go defeat the king of Jerusalem.
So Joshua musters Israel and sets out on an all night march, arriving at the break of day and attacking the enemy camp. God throws the enemy into a panic, and Joshua pursues them. God throws hailstones down on them, and Joshua keeps pursuing them. The sun starts to go down, and Joshua still pursues them. There is a fun story about the sun standing still at Joshua’s request so Israel can complete the smiting of the nations who threatened Gibeon.
/rant Some people have attempted (unsuccessfully, and to the detriment of their reputation) to use this story to “prove” the story of the Bible. Ladies and gentlemen, it is not an astrophysics book, and that is not the point of the story. God grants Joshua’s request for a miraculously long day in order for Joshua to complete the destruction of the enemies threatening Gibeon, not for us to explain it away with annular eclipses or make up stories about NASA finding a “lost day” in the cosmos. /end rant
The story of Gibeon, like that of Rahab, often gets brought up in conversations about Biblical ethics. I don’t want to discourage thinking about such topics, but it seems clear to me that this story is about the correct response of the Gibeonites- their fear of the God of Israel and their declaration of dependence on him- and the faithful response of God through Israel to deliver them from destruction. We will see a number of stories as we move through Scripture of peoples other than Israel attempting to honor and follow the God of Israel in ways that are wrong and backward, but as with Gibeon God respects them anyway. Israel gets to be more than being a delivered people in this story. They are an instrument of deliverance for Gibeon. Despite the irregularity of the circumstances, God comes through to save them.
The rest of today’s reading is a recounting of Joshua’s campaigns against individual cities and one large alliance of kings who come out to fight Israel. In every case Joshua practices obedience and God practices faithfulness. As we will see tomorrow, this is not the end of the conquest, but this is in line with God’s promise to gradually drive out the nations of Canaan before Israel. The day’s reading ends with a review of all the land and cities God has given to the people of Israel so far, starting with Moses on the east side of the Jordan, and continuing through all Joshua’s victories. The theme of Joshua has taken full shape at this point: God is faithful to those who submit themselves to him. When Rahab, the Gibeonites, and Israel hear God say You Are Not Who You Think You Are and agree to be who God says they are, God delivers and blesses. Far from being a story of genocide and destruction, Joshua is, like Leviticus and Deuteronomy, a book of hope.