Seeking Divine Counsel: Lessons from Joshua 9

Hello and welcome to the Middletown Baptist Church podcast, where we are proclaiming the truth to the world.

My name is Pastor Josh, and I want to thank you for listening to this podcast.

I hope that this podcast can be a blessing to you and strengthen you in the word of God.

Now, come along, let's look into the Bible and see what God has for us here today.

Well, we're in the book of Joshua.

Turn with me to Joshua chapter nine.

We're going to pick up where we left off two weeks ago.

Last week we weren't able to meet, but I do know that even after one week, we need some.

Some recap when we study the Word of God.

So in Joshua, chapter eight, it was this great revival that happens with the children of Israel.

If you remember, they come out of a failure in a place called AI and they are not seeking the Lord's guidance, not seeking the Lord's wisdom.

They go into battle, they have sin in the camp.

Ultimately, they get that right.

They go back, they have a great victory.

And.

And after that, Joshua rounds all the Israelites up.

They follow Moses's guidance earlier on to build an altar there at Mount Ebal.

And there's the blessings and the cursings.

You have Mount Gerizim.

And there was all of that that we talked about last time, and even some of the archaeological finds that have come about through that, that have validated these stories in Scripture.

And there's this great revival.

They commit themselves to obedience.

They commit themselves to.

To following the Lord.

And then we get to chapter nine, and this is sometimes what happens in our own life.

We get to a place of revival.

We get to a place of a spiritual victory.

We would even maybe call it a spiritual high.

We're in that place of victory.

And then right away, when we find those times of obedience, when they.

When we find those times of blessing, the attack comes.

And the attack can come from different sources, from different angles.

And we see in verse number one of Joshua, chapter nine.

And it came to pass when all the kings which were on this side, Jordan, in the hills and in the valleys, and in all the coasts of the great sea, over against Lebanon, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, and the Hivite and the Jebusite heard thereof.

And what did they hear of?

They heard of the victory that the Israelites had, and they heard of their dedication to the Lord.

They heard about the altar that was built.

They heard about those blessings that they had received.

And what did they do?

Well, verse two, that they gather themselves together to fight with Joshua and, and with Israel with one accord.

And so what they essentially see here is that all the evil pagan nations around them are uniting against good.

And we talked about this last time that oftentimes when we are standing up for the things of God, the enemy will come against us in different forms.

And one of those forms would just be head on attacks from the enemy.

And actually what we see is people that disagree amongst themselves can at least agree on the fact that they don't agree with what we're doing, the power of God and the truth of God.

And so they're going to come against us.

And so when the Canaanite kings heard that the Lord delivered Jericho and delivered AI to Israel, they come against Israel.

And this is the classic attack on, on the front side.

They're going to try to defeat Israel on the field of battle in a head to head competition.

And that's sometimes how the battle is for us in our life.

I mean, obviously evil comes our way and we have a decision on how we're going to deal with that.

But then we're going to see that in verse number three that there's going to be another type of attack.

There's going to be an attack that doesn't come on the front, but actually comes secretively with deceit.

And so one of the ideas that I think we need to think about here this evening and what we need to learn in our lives is that oftentimes Satan isn't going to package temptation.

He's not going to package evil in a way that looks evil.

On the front side.

It actually might look unassuming, it might look innocent, it might even look pleasurable or beneficial.

But what the Bible says is that ultimately when we compromise what God has told us to do, we're going to find ourselves in great difficulty.

We're going to find ourselves in a place where we wish we never got.

And so verse three.

And when the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and to AI, they did work willily or deceitfully and went and made as if they had been ambassadors and took old sacks upon their asses, and wine bottles old and rent, and bound up and old shoes and clouded up their feet, and old garments upon them, and all the bread of their provision was dry and moldy.

So these people, these, these people from Gibeon hear about the victory and they say, okay, instead of attacking straight on, what we're going to do is we're going to try to pretend like we're Travelers, we're going to try to pretend like we come from a far away place and we're beggars and we need help.

But really what they were trying to do was assimilate into Israel so that they would not be defeated.

And so this is a very interesting way that we see attack coming in.

So they craftily and deceitfully come in and they try to lead Israel into making a peace treaty with them.

And so that actually might sound good.

It might say to, to your thought, well, maybe this is a good thing for Israel.

Maybe Israel should make a peace treaty with Gibeon.

But the Bible actually says in the book of Exodus, Exodus, chapter 23 that Israel was forbidden to make peace treaties with any of the tribes of Canaan.

So they have a directive from God not to make a peace treaty with these Canaanite people.

But yet what's going to happen is that they're going to think about this and they're going to basically allow themselves to fall into the trap of this deceit and make a peace treaty.

And so we need to notice the way that these Gibeonites came to Israel because oftentimes this is how evil sneaks into our life.

And so we need to notice the methods of deception.

And the Bible says that Satan is a deceiver.

The Bible says that Satan is the father of lies.

And oftentimes we even know that he will come in in a way that seems to be maybe not that harmful, maybe almost as we would see in our life, this will help me.

This will benefit me.

And we see in Ephesians chapter 6 the whole idea of the armor of God.

Satan is, is, is crafty.

He's got deception.

The Bible says that we need to arm ourselves with the armor of God.

We need to prepare ourselves for this battle.

Because why Satan is going to try to deceive us and come in a place that doesn't seem to affect us.

And so he, he does that just as the Gibeonites do here.

And so we need to notice that they came in, as it says here, Willy, or that's craftily, cleverly, they come in with man's wisdom, they come in with tricks.

They come in in a way that doesn't seem to be as clear as what we would hope they would be.

We always hope that people are clear with us and honest with us.

But the truth is, is that people in the world and Satan are not going to play fair.

They're not going to play by what we would consider to be the rules.

And that's exactly what happens here.

And so they come in, they were clever and they misrepresented themselves.

They pretend, you see that there in verse four says that they, they made as if they had been ambassadors.

So they misrepresent themselves and they, they give basically false evidence to these things.

They, they basically lie.

They say they're from a faraway country and they, they dress a certain way, they appear a certain way, and then they talk a certain way and then they act a certain way.

So let's go down in verse six.

And they went to Joshua unto the camp at Gilgal and said unto him, and to the men of Israel, we come, we become from a far country, now therefore make ye a league with us.

So there's the pitch there, there's the, there's their desire.

And Israel has to make a decision on what they're going to do.

Are they going to be discerning?

Are, are they going to be clear in what God has called them to do?

Are they going to entertain this opportunity?

Verse 7.

And the men of Israel said unto the Hivites, peradventure ye dwell among us, how shall we make a league with you?

And so right then and there we see in verse number seven that they entertain this idea.

They entertain this idea.

So what ultimately happens here is that instead of just rejecting this, knowing that this is the wrong thing to do, instead of asking God for wisdom, instead of saying, lord, are these people who they say that they are, they just say, hey, so, so what would that look like?

What would it look like if we made a treaty with you?

What would it look like if we came in partnership with you?

Verse 8.

And they said unto Joshua, we are thy servants.

So again you see what they're trying to do.

They're trying to come in and, and act unassuming.

We are your servants.

And Joshua said unto them, who are ye?

And from whence come ye?

And they said unto him, from a very far country, thy servants are come because of the name of the Lord thy God.

And so they actually say the reason why we're coming is because of the power of your God.

Now there is a recognition of God's power here, but I don't believe that this is an authentic recognition.

Now people are basically using the Israelites faith to come in league with them and ultimately use them and control them.

And so the Gibeonites lie to Israel.

Even though they say they have proper admiration and honor for God, we see that they don't.

And ultimately we know that the word of God has come before Israel, they, they know who he is and they know that they need to be on that side.

For we have heard the fame of him and all that he did in Egypt.

So it doesn't say anything about them coming to worship.

They just say, we've heard of this fame, of this God, and you know, we've heard about his power.

And you know, we, we want to be a part of this.

We want to come in and reap the same benefits that you're reaping.

And, and I find this very interesting because, you know, there's a lot of people, I think, that are wanting the benefits of what we have in peace, what we have in confidence, what we have in strength, but yet are not willing to come and submit themselves under the truth and the guidance of the Lord.

They want the external benefits without the internal commitment.

And verse 10.

And all that they did, all that he did to the two kings of the Amorites that were beyond Jordan, to Sihon the king of Heshbon, and Og, the king of Bashan, which was at Asheroth, wherefore our elders and all the inhabitants of our country spake to us, saying, take victuals with you for the journey, and go to meet them, and say unto them, we are your servants, therefore now make ye a league with us.

This our bread we took hot for our provision out of our houses on the day we came forth to go to unto you.

But now behold is dry and it's moldy.

So again, they're just trying to prove that they're not coming with bad intentions.

And these bottles of wine which we filled were new.

And behold, they rent, they be rent, and these are our garments, and our shoes are become old by reason of the very long journey.

Again, they're trying to give as much proof as they can.

And sometimes that should be a red flag for us if someone's trying to validate something about their life.

Like I, I know that sometimes we're trying to prove ourselves to people, but we need to be careful about trying to justify all these things because ultimately God can speak for us.

Let.

Let our actions do our talking.

And that's what they don't do.

And obviously Israel could have investigated this, went to the Lord, asked him for wisdom, asked him for guidance, and God would have directed them.

But that's not what happens here.

So Joshua and the leaders of Israel, instead of just rejecting and thinking and praying, they accept the deception of the Gibeonites.

And this is where I would like us to pause and think about this for a minute.

How often do we just jump right into the first thing that we hear, the first attraction, the first wave of some kind of trend?

Sometimes you'll see someone say, you know, maybe someone says the name of Jesus and immediately we think like, hey, we need to jump onto everything that person's teaching.

Be very cautious about someone who says, hey, I'm religious.

Hey, I'm a Christian now.

Believe everything that I say.

Hey, that doesn't necessarily mean that that person's a Christian just because they say that they're a Christian.

We see that the Bible says over and over again that there are going to be people coming as wolves in sheep's clothing.

The Bible says that there's going to be people that come that preach Jesus, but a different Jesus.

The Bible says in Second Corinthians that there's going to be people coming preaching a gospel, but a different gospel.

And so the Bible says here that these people come with, with all of this evidence externally trying to show, but they have no internal truth when it comes to what they're doing.

They're deceptive.

And so they don't ask counsel.

Look at verse number 14 with me.

Because verse number 14 is really telling where the Israelites hearts are in this case.

And the men took of their victuals and asked not counsel at the mouth of the Lord.

Right there we see their wrongdoing.

It's sometimes easy to be deceived.

And God's not asking us to be all knowing.

He's not asking us to know every single truth that's in the world today.

He's not asking us to be able to quote every passage of scripture.

But what he is asking us to do is to come to him and have that relationship with him and allow him to guide us into the decisions that we're making and the partnerships that we're making and the friendships that we're making and the relationships that we have.

And here what happens is this.

They do not ask for the counsel of the Lord.

What would this look like with our lives?

It would look like this.

We have a big decision to make, as we've already mentioned in our testimony time.

Like I've got to make a decision, but I'm just going to do what makes me feel right, what makes sense to me, what.

What adds up in the grand scheme of my perception, my senses, my surroundings.

But instead what we need to be doing is pleading with the Lord for His wisdom, for his counsel, for his guidance.

All of us come to different periods of our life where we have to make really impactful decisions.

I can think of some of those decisions in my life.

Obviously, where you're going to go to school, what you're going to do for a career, who you're going to marry, how you're going to raise your children, where you're going to live.

All of these things are huge decisions.

And I think all of us hopefully would agree that we should be falling before the Lord in humility, pleading with him to give us wisdom on those things.

I think, sadly, some people that claim to be Christians don't even do that with those big decisions.

But I'm going to pose to you here this evening.

I think that we need to be asking the Lord for his counsel in all these decisions, even the decisions that might seem unassuming.

You know, someone might come and say, hey, can you do this favor for me?

Well, we should be like, well, of course I should do that favor for them.

But I would encourage you to, as the book of Ecclesiastes says, consider the whole matter.

Think about some different elements to this and think about what this would mean for me as a Christian.

Think about what this would mean for me as a, as a father, as a husband, as a, as.

As a servant of the Lord.

And what I would say here is that they just rush right into this relationship with these Gibeonites.

And I would, I would just caution you so much to seek the counsel of the Lord in the decisions that you're making.

I would, I would venture to say that most Americans, most Christians in general in this world, are not as intentional as they need to be with the decisions that they're making in their life.

It's kind of like just fly by the seat of my pants, right?

As long as I'm doing this, I'm doing that, I'm going to church on Sundays, everything's okay.

But I would say for us, a lesson that we can learn is that we could avoid a lot of issues and struggles in our life if we seek the counsel of the Lord.

And so the Gibeonite deception was a clever deception, and therefore we know a very powerful deception.

Because if something like, let's say, for example, we're cautioning ourselves against a false teacher.

If a false teacher walks into our church, he or she is not going to be wearing a sign around their neck that says, I'm a false teacher.

They're not going to get up and teach, by the way, what I'm about to teach you is a false teaching.

They're going to present it in a way that seems to be true.

They're going to present themselves in a way that looks good, looks attractive.

That's why so many people follow false teachers.

If false teachers were so clearly open about their false teaching, no one would follow them.

But we know that there's so much attraction with someone who's trying to lead someone astray.

So what we see here is that there's a lot of power in deception.

But the real problem, even though we can look at this and say, well, those terrible gibeonites, they're such deceivers, these are the big, big sinners in this passage of Scripture, I would venture to say that the real problem was that Joshua and the leaders of Israel did not seek the Lord's counsel when the the deceivers came their way.

So a lot of times we look at a Christian and we see that they get deceived and we go, wow, those terrible false teachers.

And they're going to face condemnation.

The Bible does teach that the false teachers will face their day.

But I will say that those Christians who are misled and make the wrong decisions are also responsible too.

You know, I'm responsible for you and what I'm teaching you.

I think about that a lot.

I pray through that a lot.

And I do my best to present to you what I believe is, is the truth.

But at the end of the day, you could hear what I'm preaching and go, yeah, but I want to do my own thing.

So I'm going to go and just decide to follow whatever I want to follow.

One day when I stand before the Lord, I don't have to answer for the decisions that are made after the truth is presented.

Same thing goes as false teaching is presented.

So the people, Christians have a responsibility to make the decision on whether or not this is true, whether or not this is false, whether or not this is biblical, or whether or not this is just completely anti Scripture.

And so what I would say for us all is when you hear someone come to you in the name of peace, in the name of the gospel, in the name of the truth, in the name of friendship, in the name of partnership, the Bible teaches, don't be unequally yoked.

That's a passage of Scripture in second Corinthians, and we could talk hours about what that means to be unequally yoked.

But essentially it's making relationships with people that are unsaved that are going to lead us astray.

And the Bible says here that there should not have been this league that they make.

But yet the reason why they fall into this trap is because they did not seek the counsel of the Lord.

They took of what they saw to be approved by their own leaders.

There they say, well, of course, this makes sense.

And so verse 15.

And Joshua made peace with them and made a league with them to let them live.

And the princes of the congregation swear unto them.

And so this shows that they did not trust the counsel of God.

They trusted the circumstances around them.

They looked at the bread, they looked at the food.

They.

They saw how stale it was.

They saw how broken down those people looked.

They look like travelers.

They look like people coming from a faraway land.

And they said, well, what we see is what we believe.

And the Bible says something completely different.

Second Corinthians says, we walk by faith and not by sight.

It's not always what we see.

It's what we know to be true from God.

And so we don't go off of what we see.

We go off of what we know that God has already told us.

So say, for example, this is.

This is sometimes how it looks in our society today.

Well, we know that the Bible says this about this action, but that person that's doing that's really nice.

So, you know what?

How could I judge them for that?

They're very nice to me.

Well, what we've done is essentially the big word, the compromise, where we compromise because of what we feel, we compromise by what we've experienced.

We compromise in our senses.

Instead of saying, lord, I feel a certain way, I must be feeling wrong, because your word says this.

And so in this scenario, they were told not to make a league with these nations.

God clearly says it.

But yet, because of their senses and because of what they perceive around them, they say, well, it must be okay.

And that's why we see so many believers, so many churches drifting away from the truth.

Because you know what?

That was for a different time.

We live in a different time today.

And so therefore, we don't need to hold it as a standard anymore.

And so.

So it's walking by sight and not by faith.

And so the opposite of walking by faith is walking by what we see and what we understand and what makes sense to us.

So if culture says something, then okay, it must be okay.

But it's the opposite.

No, we go back to what the word of God says.

I'm going to tell you, there are days where I wake up and I feel a certain way.

I don't know if you guys know what that means, but sometimes I just wake up and I feel like I don't want to go the way of.

Of what the Bible says.

You say what a pastor thinks that it's sometimes hard to live for the Lord in our strength, in our flesh.

I'm supposed to be nice to people when they're mean to me.

I just want to get up in the morning and tell people how I feel.

And sometimes I don't feel very nice.

The idea would be this.

We don't act on what we feel.

We act on what we know to be true.

So.

So.

So I wake up.

I sometimes maybe I'm the only person.

I don't feel love.

Sometimes when I wake up in the morning, I don't feel the love of God when my.

My knees are aching and my children are a certain way and they're acting up and I'm going, lord, why don't you love me?

What's going on?

But instead of saying, lord, you must not love me because of all these problems that I'm facing, we say, lord, I know you love me, so therefore get me in a place where I need to be right so that I can live in that love today, no matter what my circumstance might be.

So it goes back to that same principle.

Living by faith and not by what we see, not by what we feel.

It would be so easy to turn our backs and say, well, Lord, it doesn't make sense to me, so I'm done.

This makes a lot more sense to do this.

Many a person over the years has fallen into sin, but yet thought that it was the right thing to do because they justified it in their feelings.

Well, you know what these.

My heart tells me to do this.

And if my heart tells me to do this, I'm supposed to listen to my heart.

The Bible says something completely different.

Don't listen to your heart because your heart's just desperately wicked.

It will deceive us.

So, so we go back and we see verse 15.

Joshua makes peace with them and makes a league with them to let them live.

And the princes of the congregation swear unto them.

So they find themselves in trouble.

They find themselves in trouble.

Why?

Because they did not seek the counsel of the Lord.

And so because they believed what the Gibeonites were bringing to them, they made a treaty and they broke the truth of what God has called them to live out in their life.

They compromised.

And so God allows Israel to make treaties with destinations, but not with nations from this area.

God says, don't do this.

So they.

They make a mistake.

And we're going to see here that even though they make a mistake, there is Hope.

God.

God does forgive in verse 16.

And it came to pass at the end of the three days after they had made a league with them that they heard that they were neighbors.

So it's that, oh, moment.

We got deceived, we got caught.

They're actually neighbors.

They're actually from Canaan.

We.

We messed up.

We made a treaty with someone that we were not supposed to make a treaty with.

And I think this is oftentimes what we see happening in a lot of people's life.

It's that moment of regret, it's that moment of realization.

It's that moment of, well, I wish I didn't do that, but I did it, so now I got to deal with it.

That's what we see here happening in verse number 16.

They find out at the end of three days that these people are.

Are not who they say they are.

And I'm going to tell you, there's going to be people that present themselves in a certain way to you, whether it be personally or just publicly, that eventually the Lord will reveal their hearts.

Eventually their true character will be seen.

And.

And we know them by their fruit.

And so what happens here is that they are revealed to be the Canaanite neighbors and that they dwelt among them.

And so Joshua and the people of Israel discover that they have been deceived, but then they're kind of stuck because they made.

They've made a treaty, so what do they do?

And so even even though they recognize that there is this issue, they're going to deal with it.

I believe in a way that basically was the best that they could in that moment.

And I think that's sometimes what we have to do after we make bad decisions.

We have to submit ourselves to the Lord, and we have to make a decision on how to obey him in that moment.

We can't go.

We can't change the past.

I. I've tried to wallow in past regret.

We can't live on our past.

All we can do is get right with the Lord right now and say, you know what?

That's a mistake that I made.

And this is how we're going to deal with it now.

So verse 17.

And the children of Israel journeyed and came unto their cities on the third day.

Now their cities were Gibeon and.

And Chair, first chair for.

And be Roth and Kirath, Jarem.

And the children of Israel smote them not, because the princes of the congregation has sworn unto them by the Lord God of Israel.

And all the congregation murmured against the princes so basically what happens here is they say, even though we should not have made a treaty with them, we made a treaty with them.

So now we can't kill them.

We've got to keep our work.

We can't go back on what we have promised.

And verse 19.

Well, verse 18 tells us that everyone's murmuring.

They're like, we can't do that.

We need to just go back on our promise.

Verse 19.

But all the princes said unto all them, all the congregation, we have sworn unto them by the Lord God of Israel.

Now therefore, we may not touch them.

This we will do to them.

We will even let them live, lest wrath be upon us because of the oath which we swear unto them.

So, meaning this.

Well, two wrongs don't make it right.

I think that's sometimes what we end up doing, right.

We will make a mistake, and then to fix that mistake, we go back and we try to do another mistake.

And that's.

That's something that can get us into more trouble.

So they say this, we're not going to get back into pulling.

We're not going to deceive them because they deceived us.

Because that's the idea of recompensing no man evil for evil.

We're not going to do unto them as they've done to us.

We're going to treat them with honor and respect.

Why?

Because we made a commitment to them.

Because if they would have come back and said, well, we made a treaty with you, but now we're going to kill all of you, then that would have been essentially the same thing that the other people did to them.

So they said, no, we need to keep our word and we need to deal with our consequences.

We need to deal with what happens.

But there is a plan, and God's grace does shine through in all of this.

And verse number 20, he says, we're not going to let them die.

Verse 21.

And the princess said unto them, let them live, but let them be hewers of wood and drawers of water unto all the congregation, as princes, as the princes had promised them.

So essentially what happens is they spare their lives, but they allow them to become what's called bond servants, which essentially would be that they're working for them.

They're working for them for that time because that's what the original agreement was.

And so even though the people complained about this, the.

The rulers, the leaders, the princes still knew that they had to do what was right and honorable.

They had to keep their oath.

And so I think that this is something that we can learn from in our life, that if we make a mistake, if we are deceived, instead of trying to deceive them or trying to turn back and trying to not be a person of our word, we need to be careful not to continue to sin, but to live as morally and as honest and with integrity as we can.

You know, one of the things that we want to teach to the next generation, but really we need to teach it to all generations, is to have integrity, to have character.

And what that means is, I want to do the right thing, even if it's difficult, I want to do the right thing, even if no one's watching.

I want to do the right thing, even if nobody knows that I'm doing the right thing.

Because sometimes it's easy to do the right thing if people are watching.

Sometimes we still do wrong even when people are watching.

But that's another whole story.

But what we do sometimes when it's in private or when we think we can get away from the struggle or the punishment for this sin, folks, we're never going to get rid of the punishment of sin, even though we ultimately know the punishment of sin is death, which we, God has spared us in.

But there are certain decisions that we sow into our life that eventually our sin is going to find us out.

And that's exactly what they do here.

They say, look, we need to recognize this.

We need to be above reproach, and we need to keep our word.

So I think that it is a mark of godliness for them here in this case, to not remove them, not kill them, to keep their word.

So verse 22.

And Joshua called for them, and he spake unto them, saying, wherefore hath ye beguiled us?

So he calls them out on their deception, which I think is appropriate, saying, we are very far from you when ye dwell among us.

Now therefore you are cursed, and there shall none of you be freed from being bondmen and Jewers of wood and jars of water for the house of my God.

So he says, even though we can't kill you, we're going to put you into subjection to our God by serving us.

Verse 24.

And they answered Joshua and said, because it was certainly told thy servants how that the Lord thy God commanded his servant Moses to give you all the land and to destroy all the inhabitants of the land from before you.

Therefore we were sore afraid of our lives because of you and have done this thing.

So basically, the Gibeonites are trying to justify what they Did.

They said, we were just afraid that your God was going to kill us.

We were just trying to do what we could.

We believe that your God's going to take all of this land.

So we were just trying to find a way instead of being honest and coming and saying, hey, we, we.

We want to worship your God.

They said, well, we.

This is, this was our plan.

And this, I think this is also a testament of just how messed up the ways of man can be.

Like, just so off, so, so far from what the word of God says.

Verse 25.

Now, behold, we are in thine hand, as it seemeth good and right unto thee do unto us do.

And so did he unto them and delivered them out of the hand of the children of Israel, that they slew them not.

And Joshua made then that day hewers of wood and drawers of water for the congregation and for the altar of the Lord, even unto this day in the place which he should choose.

And so essentially what we see is this.

Joshua allows for them to have mercy and grace from God, to be spared and to live peaceably amongst the people of Israel.

And so I would say that the Gibeonites are extended grace and mercy as well, because they deserve death, but they get the opportunity and the blessing to live amongst the people of God and to serve them and to serve the Lord.

And so I think that that's a blessing.

Joshua could have killed the Gibeonites, but he said, no, we're going to let them work for us and for the Lord.

And Joshua said, hey, look, we need you to commit to the Lord.

And that's what they did.

They said, okay, we're going to commit.

This is, this is better than dying.

And that's essentially what they do.

And so the Gibeonites were obviously not in the best scenario.

The best scenario would be that they weren't subjected to the Israelites, but ultimately they were going to serve as wood cutters, as water carriers.

But they did know that those things could be for the Lord.

And, and they knew that ultimately this is going to be a blessing.

So the, the question would be this.

Do we feel as if the Gibeonites found salvation in the God of Israel?

I think they did.

Even though they were perfect, I don't think that even though they weren't perfect, I think that they found salvation much like the Gentiles, like Rahab did and some of the others in.

In Scripture.

And so I. I think that there's a lot to be said about the Gibeonites and Actually, after Joshua chapter nine, we see more about the Gibeonites in Scripture.

So I think that what they do here by submitting to this servanthood, they.

They receive blessings.

The Gibeonites become servants at the tabernacle later on, and so they're used by God.

And, and so they work at the tabernacle.

The Gibeonites become.

Or the city of Gideon.

Gibeon becomes a priestly city.

And actually the Ark of the Covenant stays at Gibeon often in the days of David and Solomon.

You can read about that in 1st Chronicles chapter 16 and chapter 21.

One of David's mighty men in 1st Chronicles 12:4 is a Gibeonite.

God appeared and spoke to Solomon at the city of Gibeon.

Gibeonites were among those who rebuilt the walls of, of Jerusalem in Nehemiah chapter three and chapter seven.

And actually some prophets, like Hananiah, the son of Azure, came from Gibeon in Jeremiah chapter 28.

So I believe that these are some examples of the great things that God can do for people who are sinners, who had bad intentions, but ultimately came in humility and were restored and forgiven.

And so, just like all of us, I think all of us could identify with one aspect of this story.

I mean, maybe you've never been deceptive in your life, but I know that most of us have probably had some issues in our life that we don't deserve to be used by God.

And the Gibeonites did not to be.

Did not deserve to be used by God, to be servants of God.

But yet God in His mercy and his grace allowed for them to be used by His.

His people, and ultimately used in many of the, the aspects of the Old Testament and the building of the walls and in, in professing the word of God and being used by David as a mighty man.

There's so much that we could talk about when it comes to that.

But I think that the bigger lesson that we can learn in Joshua chapter nine, and I think it all could be wrapped up in verse number 14.

Anytime someone comes to us with a plan, with a friendship, with an association, we need to seek the counsel of the Lord.

Now, how do we seek the counsel of the Lord?

There's a couple ways that we can seek the counsel of the Lord.

I would say first and foremost to come before him in prayer, to ask the Lord for wisdom.

We need wisdom on who we are associating with in our lives now.

What do we do when we lack wisdom?

I think that the book of James tells us a great place to start when it comes to wisdom, when we lack wisdom.

I preached a few sermons in the book of James, James chapter one, and I've titled them what to do when you don't know what to do.

There's times in our life when we don't know what to do.

So, Lord, should I make a partnership with this person?

Lord, should I serve at this capacity?

Should I work at this place?

Should I be friends with this person?

James chapter one says in verse number five, if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God that giveth to all men liberally and abradeth not, and it shall be given him.

But let him verse 6.

But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering, for he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and toss.

So I think the first step is to ask the Lord in prayer, for wisdom, for discernment, say, lord, is this, what do you want me to do?

What's the wise decision here?

What's your path?

What's your will for this relationship?

And I think that that's something that we should think about.

Not just with our personal friendship relationships, but everything.

I think where we work plays a huge role in what we do in our lives, who we do business with, where we live, how we live, how we raise children, how we serve.

Every aspect of our life should be aligned into the wisdom of God.

Not just where we go to church, not just certain things on Sunday mornings, but our whole lives.

24, 7, 365 should be bathed in prayer for the wisdom of God.

So that's one way that we could seek God's counsel.

But another way that we can seek God's counsel is obviously found in His Word.

I want you to turn with me to Psalm 119.

Some of you know Psalm 119 and the riches that are found in that long, long chapter.

But in Psalm 119, I could just point out a few verses that that teach us to find the wisdom and the discernment in the counsel of God through his word.

So Psalm 119, verse 5.

Oh, that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes.

And so the idea would be this.

Our desire should be that God directs us to keep his word.

And then verse 9 wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way by taking heed thereto unto thy word.

Verse 11.

Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.

Verse after verse deals with this.

I could go to so many more there in Psalm 119.

But one that I think is very appropriate is Psalm 119.

105.

Psalm 119, 105 says this.

Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.

The.

The idea that we see repeated over and over again in Psalm 119 is that the word of God, the scriptures are there for us to find our direction.

God speaks to us through his Word.

I often think about that analogy of if we had a completely darkened room.

And there's a lot.

I actually did this one time when I was teaching the teenagers, I. I got a guy up on the stage.

This was a long time ago.

And I turned as much lights as I could off in the building, and I put up on the stage a bunch of, like, chairs and different things, obstacles.

And then I blindfolded him to make it even worse.

And I said, okay, now you start on that side of the room, and I want you to try to cross the stage.

And he was stumbling, he was falling.

He was trying to find his way.

Got all turned around.

And the picture would be this.

But that's how a person without the word of God is trying to navigate this dark world.

The world is dark, and there's a lot of distractions.

And so a person trying to figure it all out is going to be getting hurt, getting lost, getting confused.

And I don't know if any of you guys have been lost.

I can tell you story after story about being lost in my life.

I had one story that I came.

When I first came to church here.

I got lost up in Pennsylvania in the middle of nowhere.

And it was like I thought I was going to get killed.

I thought I was going to get, you know, abducted.

I didn't know what was going to happen.

I was out in the middle of nowhere.

It was a scary feeling.

And sometimes that's how we feel in this world.

We're so scared, we're so vulnerable because we don't have guidance.

But the Bible says what Psalm 119, 105.

Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.

It illuminates where we're going, so it gives us direction.

It allows us to identify obstacles, and it gives us comfort to know that we're not alone.

Because when that light shines, we see that the Lord is right there with us through it.

And that's what the Word of God teaches.

And so over and over again in Psalm 119, it talks about the benefits of resting and trusting in the Word of God.

And So I think that what we could say is this.

When we're looking at how to find the counsel of the Lord, instead of like the Israelites that just said, okay, they look great.

It looks like they're telling the truth.

That bread looks like it's pretty old.

So you know what?

We're just going to take it and we're just going to believe it and not seek the counsel of the Lord.

What we should do is say, lord, come to him in prayer.

Ask him for wisdom.

Number two, go to His Word and look for guidance.

And I would say, biblically speaking, number three, go for godly counsel with someone that is a trusted spiritual leader or spiritual companion.

I encourage you to find someone in your life that you could look to to say, you know what, they might not be right about everything, but there's someone that I can bounce ideas off of that I can have pray with me through this.

And sometimes the Bible says that counsel is a good thing.

There's wisdom in the multitude of counselors.

And so I'm not saying that we go to everybody.

You know, I'm not just going to walk up to someone that just joined the church.

Let's say someone, they just got saved today.

And I walk up to them and I ask them a heavy, complex biblical question.

They might go, I don't know.

I don't know.

So I'm not saying that everyone is at the capacity to be able to be a spiritual counselor, but I would say that you need to find someone in your life that you could say, hey, you know what?

I've been asking the Lord for wisdom, and he's been leading me this way.

I've been studying His Word.

He's been leading this way.

What do you think?

And don't just ask them of their opinion.

Okay, so, like, what do you think about this?

But say, what do you believe the Bible says about this?

Would you pr.

Would you partner and pray with me about this decision in my life?

Because what that's going to do is that's not going to show that that person has all the wisdom in their mind, but that they're seeking God's wisdom as well in that process with you.

And so I believe that's how we should seek the counsel of the Lord in our lives when we're making any decision.

And so don't think of it as something that's overwhelming.

Sometimes people struggle with the will of God.

They say, well, I just don't know what the will of God is for me.

I just don't know what decision he wants me to make.

I don't know who he wants me to be with.

I don't know what he wants me to do.

I understand those sentiments, but what I would say is this.

Obviously, if we're praying, if we're seeking the word of God, if we're seeking Godly counsel, he is going to lead you in a direction.

It's whether or not we want to walk through that door and say, lord, okay, that's, that's easy.

That's good.

I can do that.

Or, lord, that's difficult.

But I'm still going to do it.

Right.

That's the idea.

So for Joshua, chapter nine, they were deceived.

But then again, I love, I love how the Lord works.

Because even in Israel's fall, and if you want to call it that, or their, their deception that they bought into, there's still grace for them.

It was never too late for them to turn around.

And then you see the other story.

You see two sides of the coin.

You see the Israelites forgiven and restored.

And then you see the Gibeonites who came with really bad intentions, but ultimately came in and were forgiven and used by God.

And so I think that that's a beautiful picture because, hey, maybe you've been deceived.

There's no, there's no shame in that other than just get right with God.

And so what does this look like?

Practically?

I would say, number one, look at your personal relationships.

You would say, well, what do you mean by that?

Who are you having your closest relationships with and where's their spiritual walk?

Are they leading you away from the word of God, or are they leading you to the word of God?

Are they leading you closer to the will of God?

Are they leading you farther away from the will of God?

The Bible talks about bad company corrupts, good manners or good morals.

We have to be careful on who we're surrounding ourselves with.

But then secondly, I would say this.

Who.

Who are we making more corporate relationships with?

And I'm not going to sit here and say you should, you know, boycott whatever company that you want.

If you want to boycott a company, boycott a company.

I don't care.

But what I would say is this, just be careful on how it affects your Christian walk.

If it affects and hinders your conscience, stay away from it.

Stay away from it.

And I would say this too.

Think about who you're receiving biblical counsel from.

Biblical teaching from.

Today we live in a world that there's a lot of benefits of technology.

Like there, there are great things with technology.

Now, you don't just hear from your pastor on Sunday morning.

You can hear from 50 different pastors throughout the week.

And that's a good thing, right?

More Bible, good things.

But at the same time, just as that gate has opened with a lot of good information, so that gate has opened for a lot of bad information.

What we have to be careful with is discernment on who we are taking biblical advice from.

Biblical teaching, from biblical preaching from.

Because there's a lot of people that are.

I'm just.

I'm gonna get on my hobby horse here just for a second.

There's a lot of people that are not qualified to be teaching you the Bible, but yet they feel as if they are qualified, and therefore they might be misleading you willingly or unwillingly in a false direction.

There might be people that are using the name of Jesus for some sort of financial benefit or some sort of following, but at the same time are not giving us the true content of the Scriptures.

So how do you interpret that?

How.

How do you discern whether or not someone's true?

It's.

It's not that difficult.

You just say, are they matching up to the Word of God?

Are they preaching the word of God?

Are they living the Word of God?

That's it.

I'm not asking, are they perfect?

No one's perfect.

You follow me around long enough, you're going to find that I'm not a perfect person.

Some of you have already found that out.

That's okay.

But the reality is, it's not about being perfect.

It's about, is the teaching aligned with the truth of God's word?

And does the life match up to what God has called them to live out as teachers and preachers?

So there's someone that gets up and says, hey, love your wife and love your family and be the best husband that you should be.

And then you follow him around and he's a.

A despicable husband.

And there's some.

There's some disparity there, right?

Not that he will be perfect, but if his lifestyle does not reflect in coordination with what he's preaching, there's probably a major issue there.

Same thing with someone preaching the Word.

They say, you know, for example, hey, put your Bibles down now, listen to me.

This is the real good stuff.

That's.

That's a red flag.

Run away from that, okay?

Because the opinion of man does not matter.

It's the word of God.

As Psalm 119 says, the word of God is what's going to stand forever.

My opinions, if God tarries.

My opinions are not going to last in 100, 200 years.

There's most likely no one's going to remember my name.

But what I need to do is preach the gospel so that we know that the Word of God is going to stand forever.

The gospel of Jesus Christ is going to stand forever.

And so it's not about acclaim, it's not about praise.

And so if there's a person who is building their ministry off of attention and praise and fanfare and a congregation of, of fans and celebration in that regard, folks, that's the wrong motivation.

That's the wrong motivation.

The right motivation is that the Word of God is celebrated, that we point to Jesus and nothing else for salvation.

And I encourage you to think about that.

I encourage you to think about who you are taking in when it comes to your ear gate and your eye gate and all of those things.

When it comes to what you're intaking throughout your week, some of you might say, well, you know what, I don't struggle with that.

I'm pretty discerning.

Well, that's fantastic.

Stand strong in that.

But what I would encourage you is to seek the wisdom and counsel of God for those decisions in your life.

I use this as an analogy so often, and I have to, you know, I got to come up with new ones, but I, I've only lived one life, so I can't, I can't make up any new ones unless I steal other people's.

But when I started, when our first child was born, I recognized the, the weight of being a parent.

And I realized that I was going to make mistakes as a, as a father.

But one of the things that I committed to the Lord was like, lord, I want you to guide me as a father.

I want to do this right.

I want to raise my children in the nurture and ammunition of the Lord.

I want to raise them in the Word.

Why?

Because I've only got one shot with each one of them.

And I, and I don't want to miss that shot.

Now for some of us, maybe, maybe we weren't in that place.

And I've been wrong in a lot of things.

But what I will say for my life is that the desire for me is to not waste this.

And so I remember asking God, give me wisdom, give me strength on how to deal with this child.

But then what happens is, is that after the first one was born and we like, I was praying over him constantly.

And then the second one was born and I was praying over constantly.

And then after Your first, second, maybe for some of you, the fourth, fifth, and sixth, you start saying, I've got this handled, okay?

I'm a pro at this.

And that could be in a lot of areas, right?

I used to pray over my job.

I used to pray over my marriage.

I used to just, like, ask the Lord for wisdom and counsel.

But now that I have it all taken care of, I can coast.

Folks, we should never get to a place of spiritual apathy, that we don't seek the counsel of God in every area of our life.

Even if you think you got it, keep asking God for wisdom.

Because the reality is, is that just when we start letting up, just when we start thinking we've got it all together and we've got it figured out, that's when those curveballs come.

That's when the gibeonites come into the camp and start trying to deceive us.

And we say, no, we need to be on guard, and we need to be asking for the wisdom of God, the counsel of God in everything that we do in our lives.

And so that's my challenge for you.

That's my challenge for me.

And as.

As brothers and sisters in Christ, let's pray for each other.

I pray frequently for the hearts and minds of our church to not be deceived from the attractions of this world.

I really do.

And the truth is, is that my.

My concern is that we have so much outward stimuli in our life that we forget that this is the only thing that is the source of truth in this world.

And I know all of us know that intellectually, but sometimes we can easily drift when our senses are pulled away.

And so no matter how you feel, no matter who's treating you a certain way, no matter what the news is telling you, no matter what anything is saying, go back to the truth of the word of God and say, yep, I know that people say this, but God says this, and then live in that.

Stand true to that.

It's okay to be stubborn in that, right?

Sometimes being stubborn is a bad thing, when we're stubborn in our own strength, but being stubborn in the truth of God is a good thing.

You know, if you've ever had a child that is stubborn like, we think of that sometimes as a negative thing.

But if they're stubborn for the truth, if they're grounded in the truth, fortified in the gospel message, that's a good thing.

All of us should be fortified in the truth of God.

And that's what we have to do as Christians.

That's what we have to stand for.

And so I just wanted to share that with you guys.

This evening I'm going to close in a word of prayer and then after that I have a few announcements and we'll be dismissed.

Lord, I thank you for this time that you've given us.

I thank you for the opportunity to come before you this evening with our hearts open and ready to be taught and be led.

Lord, we pray that we can seek your counsel.

Lord, seek your wisdom, seek your guidance in all capacities in our life.

Lord, help us to have our families dedicated to you.

Help us to have our jobs dedicated to you.

Help us to have our marriage is dedicated to you.

Help us to have all of our decisions, whether it be financial decisions or locational decisions or any decision.

Lord, help it to be all put before you for your counsel.

And Lord, that we don't get deceived from the ways of the world.

And so I pray that you be with us as we go our separate ways.

Be with our fellowship to follow.

We ask all these things in Jesus name.

Amen.

Thank you again for listening to the Middletown Baptist Church podcast.

I hope that this sermon has been a blessing blessing for you.

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Thank you so much.

God Bless.

Have a wonderful day.