When Deception Sounds Religious — Joshua 9 (Session 11)

In this verse-by-verse study of Joshua 9, Reasoning Through the Bible examines the deception of the Gibeonites. After Israel’s victories at Jericho and Ai, the kings of Canaan begin to band together against Israel. But the Gibeonites choose a different strategy. Instead of open battle, they use deception, pretending to be travelers from a distant land so they can make a covenant with Joshua.

This session explores how the Gibeonites used worn-out clothes, old wineskins, dry bread, and religious language to convince Israel that they came from far away. Their deception worked because Joshua and the leaders failed to ask counsel from the Lord before making an agreement. Joshua 9 becomes a warning about spiritual discernment, rushed decisions, and religious-sounding deception.

The episode also addresses practical lessons for believers today. Christians should be innocent as doves but wise as serpents. Not everyone who uses religious language is trustworthy, and not every opportunity should be accepted without prayer, investigation, and wise counsel. The chapter also teaches that promises matter. Even though Israel was deceived, they had sworn an oath before the Lord and were still required to keep it.

Topics in this episode include:

• Joshua 9 study
• the Gibeonite deception
• religious con jobs
• wise as serpents
• asking counsel from the Lord
• making agreements carefully
• keeping promises
• spiritual discernment
• wolves in sheep’s clothing
• the world, the flesh, and the devil in Joshua

Reasoning Through the Bible is a verse-by-verse Bible teaching ministry committed to careful exposition, biblical context, and faithful application.

Questions in this session:  

• Do evil forces disguise themselves today?
• Are there people today who use religion a tool for deceiving us? 
• Should we expect to see deception? 
• How can we keep our guard up but still help those in need? 
• What should we do when our leaders make mistakes?  

Transcript

Introduction to Joshua Chapter 9

Speaker 1 0:15

Hello , welcome back to another session of Reasoning Through the Bible . We've been going through the book of Joshua and we finished up chapter 8 in our last session . Today we're going to go through chapter 9 . As a little bit of a recap , we saw in chapter 8 that the Israelites , the nation , as they're going through and conquering the land of Canaan . They took over Ai in chapter 8 . And now , as we go into chapter 9 , we're going to see a little bit of a deception that's happening with some of the people there .

Speaker 2 0:49

So the first couple of verses in Joshua , chapter 9 , say this . Now , it came about when all the kings who were beyond the Jordan , in the hill country , in the lowland and on the coast of the great sea , towards Lebanon , the Hittite and the Amorite and the Canaanite , the Perizzite , the Hivite and the Jebusite heard of it that they gathered themselves . So these kings and these verses banded together to fight . We've got all these kings of the land that are against God . They got together to fight against God , that are against God . They got together to fight against God . Have you ever seen in our day , steve , where there may be people that disagree with each other , but when it comes to their view of Christianity , they tend to band together against Christians and Christian ways ? I've seen that a few times .

Speaker 1 1:40

Yeah , and it's a good point that you bring out . They're fighting against Yahweh , the God of Israel , because before , as we noted in some of the other chapters , they recognized and knew that it was Yahweh , the God

Kings of Canaan Band Together

Speaker 1 1:53

of Israel , the miracles that had been done . As Israel comes through here , the nation , to conquer and take over the land again , it's not just the people , the nation of Israel . These kings know that they're going up . Just the people , the nation of Israel , these kings know that they're going up against Yahweh , the God of Israel . To your point , as far as Christianity in our lives today , the people put up opposition many times , not because of us or who we are . It's really against Jesus Christ and the things that God represents , and that's their real opposition . We just happen to be getting in the way .

Speaker 2 2:26

And it's interesting , this was 3,000 years ago , but yet here we are with people today doing the same thing . They may disagree with each other , they may fight amongst each other , but when it comes to the Lord , god Almighty , they band together and fight against him . So , steve , why don't you start in verse 3 and read through verse 15 .

Speaker 1 2:45

But when the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and to Ai , they on their part acted with cunning and went and made ready provisions and took worn out sacks for their donkeys and wineskins , worn out and torn and mended with worn out patched sandals on their feet and worn out clothes , and all their provisions were dry and crumbly . And when they went to Joshua in the camp of Gilgal and said to him and to the men of Israel We've come from a distant country , so now make a covenant with us . But the men of Israel said to the Hivites , they said to Joshua we are your servants . And Joshua said to them who are you and where do you come from ? They said to him From a very distant country . Your servants have come because of the name of the Lord , your God .

Speaker 1 3:42

We have heard a report from him and all that he did in Egypt and all that he did to the two kings and to the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan , to Sihon , the king of Heshbon , and to Og , king of Bashan , who lived in Ashtoreth .

Speaker 1 3:59

So your elders and all the inhabitants of your country said to us take provisions in your hand for the journey and go to meet them and say to them we are your servants , come now , make a covenant with us . Here's our bread . It is still warm when we took it from our houses and our food for the journey on the day we set out to come to you , but now , behold , it is dry and crumbly . These new wineskins were new when we filled them and , behold , they have burst and these garments

The Gibeonite Deception Unfolds

Speaker 1 4:30

and sandals on ours are worn out from the very long journey . So the men took some of their provisions but did not ask counsel from the Lord . And Joshua made peace with them and made a covenant with them to let them live , and the leaders of the congregation swore to them so here we have these men that are from the land of Canaan .

Speaker 2 4:52

They're from close by . We're going to learn here later in the chapter that they were within about a three-day walk and they pretended what . What was their ?

Speaker 1 5:01

story . Their deception is that they were from a land far away , so far away that all of their clothes were tattered and their wineskins were worn out . The bread that they had was all now dried out and crumbly , so they gave the appearance that they had traveled and were people from a long way , when in actuality , there's people that are right there within the land with them .

Speaker 2 5:25

They had these hooks for their con job . They're telling a lie , but it's a con job . Oh , they're pretending that they were from a long way away . So they had these little hooks and these little techniques . Look at verse 9 . What was one of the major hooks they did ? To try to appeal to Joshua . They knew that Joshua would care about what .

Speaker 1 5:47

God Yahweh , that they had heard about Yahweh , their God , and what the things that he had done .

Speaker 2 5:53

So they were making themselves out to be . We came here because we heard about your God . We're just so interested in your God that that's why we made this huge , long journey . They're using religion to try to appeal to Joshua in this lie , this con job . Now , would there be anybody today that would perhaps use religion or use Christianity as a tool for a con job ?

Speaker 1 6:19

We need to realize that sometimes , as Christians , we sometimes are kind of naive and trusting , I should say , of other people , especially if they say that they're fellow Christians and there's nothing wrong with that . But at the same time we should realize that we should keep our guard up , prove people out and the things that they're telling us and make sure that they are who they actually say that they are .

Speaker 2 6:45

As we're making this recording . Just this week in the news there was a man who was a Christian at least he made himself out to be a Christian but just got convicted of a Ponzi scheme of taking people's money . He ended up getting a long prison term . It turned out it was just a lie . He used Christian words and Christian techniques to appeal to Christians , but he was really just stealing the money , and this happens on a fairly regular basis . So Christians need to be a little more wise in how we deal with the world .

Speaker 2 7:19

These people were trying to sound like followers of God , but yet they were really evil forces , and I think we can be confident to say that evil forces disguise themselves still today . Are there people today that sound like Christians but are really not ? Some of them are wolves in sheep's clothing . We see panhandlers on the side of the street that say God bless , they found that we're soft touches . They seem to talk a whole lot about God when they're asking for money , so the deception must work . They use these Christian words and in this case , these men here . Should we expect to encounter people like that , or is this just a one-time thing ?

Speaker 1 8:01

No , I think we should have our guard up one-time thing . No , I think we should have our guard up . And Joshua to his point . They're in a hostile land , they're going through the land , they're conquering the land . So there should be set an expectation that anybody that approaches them should be looked at askance what are they saying ? Are they really who they say they are ? Because they shouldn't be letting their guard down . It's kind of the same thing with us in our world today . We're in the world , we are Christians living in our world today , and the world is an enemy of God and an enemy of us because we worship God and Jesus . So we should also keep our guard up as well and know we're in a hostile world and keep that view there as we go through our life , just as Joshua should have done the same thing . I'm in a hostile land because we are here representing God , taking this land back .

Speaker 2 9:01

Innocent as dove , but wise as serpents . Right , we need to be very careful in our dealings with the world , because there are people out there that are trying to cheat us . Do you think that Israel or Joshua should have been able to see through this con job ? What did these people do ? They had the stale bread and their sandals were wore out . Their clothes were wore out and their wineskins were wore out . The wineskins were made out of leather , and if Joshua would have just stopped and thought about this for a minute and did like you were suggesting

Recognizing Religious Con Jobs

Speaker 2 9:35

I'm in a hostile land here , I don't really know these people If he would have waited a bit and thought about it and maybe slept on it overnight , he might not have gotten into this counsel .

Speaker 2 9:49

So one just practical advice for people today is don't rush into agreements . Sometimes you need to just sleep on it , wait a little bit . What are some things just in this passage that Joshua could have noticed that may have given him a clue ? Does sandals wear out as fast as bread molds ? Then they say oh , these wineskins were fresh when we left . Well , if you just think about it a minute , wait a minute It'd take a long time for a leather wineskin or leather sandals to wear out , and that's not going to wear out in two weeks or three weeks when you claim you've been traveling If you would have just thought about it a little bit the lie gets discovered . What happens when we tell lies ? Are they ever totally good enough to where nobody ever finds out ?

Speaker 1 10:35

No , and it goes with the theme that we've been talking about , that a little bit of sin goes a long way , can affect other people besides just yourself . And a little lie same thing . At some point it's going to be discovered and you end up having to tell bigger lies in order to cover up that little lie .

Speaker 2 10:56

So what are some practical ways for people today to eliminate the falling into these problem cases ? One is as you just said , steve . Expect to encounter some . Don't be naive , you're going to eventually find problems . What are other ways ? Pray to the Lord , ask for discernment , wise counsel of pastors . If we are faced with going into an agreement with either a person or an organization or any group , what can we do to learn some things about them , to try to make sure that we're safe ? Or what can we do in our agreements ?

Speaker 1 11:31

And look at their financials . Look and see what they actually do with their money . If they're a nonprofit group , they're supposed to have financials that can be viewed . If they're out in the public , they should have documents that you can go and view and see what they're actually doing with their money .

Speaker 2 11:49

We can also do things like just ask around . We can do things like investigate how they handle their business affairs . You look at the ministry or the group or the organization . Is this run by one very strong leader who controls everything , or is there a system of checks and balances in there ? So there's several just practical things we can do . Remember previously the two spies that Joshua sent in and they met with Rahab , and you remember what agreement they made with Rahab . They said our lives for yours if you don't tell this business of ours . So they made an agreement with conditions and they said your blood's on your head if you don't follow this agreement . Joshua could have done the same thing . He could have made a simple agreement that said if everything you tell me is true , then we won't kill you . An out clause . It's just practical , common sense , wise things to do . But he didn't . Joshua rushed into this . Verses 14 and 15 . What mistakes did Joshua ?

Speaker 1 12:58

make . Well , the key thing there is he did not ask counsel of Yahweh , he did not seek the will or the wisdom in regards to this situation .

Speaker 2 13:08

Didn't stop and ask God what to do about it . Whenever that happens , we end up with a problem . Was Israel supposed to make covenants with the people of Canaan ? No , Deuteronomy 7 , verse 2 , you shall make no covenant with them . So God had told him this , but yet Joshua failed to inquire of the Lord , failed to wait , failed to be just good , prudent agreements . What does this teach us about making agreements with people that appear religious ? There's some legitimate religious and legitimate Christian organizations that are good people there's a lot of them out there and they need our support but there's some that are convent . How do we know the difference ?

Speaker 1 13:50

And I think as well in verse 15 that Joshua made the peace with them and then the leaders went with Joshua . So I think another thing is that we don't necessarily have to follow the leaders . We have a responsibility on our side to investigate and not just trust leaders . We need to do some due diligence

Joshua's Failure to Seek God

Speaker 1 14:13

on our side as well .

Speaker 2 14:14

So let me read the second half of the chapter , starting in verse 16 . It came about at the end of three days after they made a covenant with them , that they heard that they were neighbors and that they were living within their land . Then the sons of Israel set out and came to the cities on the third day Now , the cities were Gibeon and Shephira and Beroth and Kirith-Jerim , and the sons of Israel did not strike them because the leaders of the congregation had sworn to them by the Lord , the God of Israel . And the whole congregation grumbled against the leaders . But the leaders said to the whole congregation we have sworn to them by the Lord , the God of Israel , and now we cannot touch them . We will do with them , even let them live , so that wrath will not be upon us for the oath which we swore to them .

Speaker 2 15:03

The leaders said to them let them live . So they became hewers of wood and drawers of water for the whole congregation , just as the leaders had spoken to them . Then Joshua called for them and spoke to them , saying why have you deceived us , saying we are very far from you when you are living within our land ? Now , therefore , you are cursed and you shall never cease being slaves , both hewers of wood and drawers of water for the house of my God . So they answered Joshua and said Because it was certainly told , your servants , that the Lord , your God , had commanded his servant , moses , to give you all the land and to destroy all the inhabitants of the land before you . Therefore , we feared greatly for our lives because of you and have done this thing . Now , behold , we are in your hands . Do as it seems good and right in your sight to do so . And thus he did to them . He delivered them from the hands of the sons of Israel and they did not kill them , but Joshua made them that day hewers of wood .

Speaker 2 16:04

And so how long did it take for Joshua to figure out they were lying ? Just three days . How long did it take God to figure out they were lying ?

Speaker 1 16:19

Oh , he knew it from the beginning .

Speaker 2 16:21

When we tell lies the people around us , they might be fooled for a little while , but are they going to figure it out ?

Speaker 1 16:27

Yeah , they will .

Speaker 2 16:29

And God's going

Discovering the Deception

Speaker 2 16:30

to know it immediately . Even though I may have fooled the people around me temporarily , I'm not going to fool God , and even the people around me are going to figure it out .

Speaker 2 16:39

People know after a while . People that tell lies on a regular basis , everybody knows it and nobody trusts them . So for people that are in a habit of lying really need to stop . God already knows and the people around you already know too . You're usually the only one Verse 18 , the congregation murmured or grumbled against the leaders . The only one Verse 18 , the congregation murmured or grumbled against the leaders .

Speaker 1 17:09

What should we do when our leaders make a mistake ? Well , I think that we should go to them and ask them why is it that you did this ? What was the reasoning behind you made this decision ?

Speaker 2 17:16

Are pastors and church leaders always going to do everything correctly and perfect ?

Speaker 1 17:21

No , and I think there should be something that's set up , that there is some oversight , at least before any major decisions are made , that somebody within the church or the assembly has to know the details of the deal as well and then also take it to that assembly , especially if it's a major decision .

Speaker 2 17:41

I tell you what being a pastor these days is very difficult . It's a hard job and if your church has a good pastor , you need to do things to try to make his life easier , because there's a lot of times when they just get put into really difficult circumstances . Too many times people go to church and then go home and have roast preacher for lunch . We really need to protect our leaders and our pastors . They're not going to be perfect . They're going to make mistakes , but we need to , for modern term , cut them some slack a little bit . They need a little bit of breathing room because they're going to make mistakes and we need to not be so quick to criticize our pastors . They have a very difficult job almost impossible to try to please everybody in a church .

Speaker 2 18:28

So verses 20 and 21, . Here the leaders of Israel decide to allow the enemies to live . They didn't kill the Gibeonites because of the oath they made . Do you think that was a good decision or not ? These Gibeonites had lied to them . They'd gone into this agreement with a false premise and Joshua made an agreement under lying circumstances . But nevertheless , joshua gave his word . So he's in kind of a moral spot here . He could have said oh , they lied to me , so I'm breaking my promise . Or what he did here was I promised I kept my word , so we're not going to kill him . What should he have done ? Do you think I ?

Speaker 1 19:09

think that he probably should have sought the counsel of the Lord in regards to what should I do in this situation . I've made a mistake . They've deceived me . What's the course of action ?

Speaker 2 19:21

What we find is that once they realized they made an agreement and they said we have to keep our word because we swore by our God , I think that was probably the right thing to do . Just because somebody else lies doesn't give me the right to back out on a promise I've made . And we can give some indication of what God thinks about this , because over in 2 Samuel , chapter 21 , 300 years after this , there was the first king of Israel was King Saul , and it says in 2 Samuel 21 that Saul tried to kill the Gibeonites . And in that chapter it says God judged Israel for this and caused a famine in the land , and specifically says you , Israel , promised not to fight against or kill the Gibeonites , and here you're doing it . So God held them to it , even though it was 300 years . Steve , if I make a promise , well , man , that's been a while . I made that promise way back last year and they probably forgot about it anyway , so does that give me a chance to get out of it ?

Speaker 1 20:32

No , because a promise made is a promise kept , and in these covenants , these were things that were basically you were saying is , if I don't adhere to the conditions of the covenant , the agreement that we're making , then death be on me . That's really how serious these covenants were and it also adheres to . If you make a promise and it has something in the and in that promise . It's a , it's something that says it's going to continue on even after I pass on , then your offspring have an obligation in order to keep that promise as well .

Speaker 2 21:11

What's interesting to me , in verse 24 , the people of Gibeah are answering Joshua , and look at the reason they give . Joshua asked them why did you do this ? And their response was because it was told your servants that the Lord , your God , had commanded his servant Moses to give you the land . They knew

Keeping Promises Despite Deception

Speaker 2 21:30

the word of God as well as Joshua did In this case . Their reason was because they knew what God had commanded and all the people of Canaan were fighting against it . But I find it interesting here that the non-believers , the people that were fighting against God , knew the Word of God as well , or even better , than the people of Israel did .

Speaker 1 21:51

Now here's another question , though on the opposite side . If they know which they say they do , and this is the reason why we feared for our lives so why wouldn't they just come up front and say we know God has given you this land . We're fearing for our lives and we want to worship your God . We acknowledge that he is the one God , but they didn't do that . They come up with this scheme and plot so they really don't commit themselves to God . Correct , they're just coming up with a scheme in order to keep from getting killed and keep from being annihilated , because all the other ones are around .

Speaker 2 22:32

I submit that if they would have gone to Joshua and prostrated themselves and said we repent , and if they would have done it up to now they knew these things , they knew all the way back to the Red Sea parting that God was on their side , they could have repented long before .

Speaker 1 22:47

And that's what Rahab acknowledged . It's your God in the story of Ruth when she says your God is my God . So you see the examples that they're actually going to worship and they take on Israel's God as their God and that's who they're going to follow , not the actual people .

Speaker 2 23:09

Correct From the big picture . Again , joshua and Israel are taking over the promised land and they run into Jericho , which represents the world . Ai , that represents the flesh , because the flesh was desiring the gold and the silver . Here the Gibeonites represent the devil , because they lied . They lied to the people of God . The devil is a liar from the beginning . When Israel goes into the promised land , they meet the world , the flesh and the devil . So the big picture of Joshua is really a picture of our salvation . Yes , it's history , but it's also this image of leaving the wilderness of sin , going into salvation following the Savior . And in that we do meet the land flowing with milk and honey , but we also meet the world , the flesh and the devil . What's interesting here with these people , these Gibeonites ? What was their job that they ended up getting ? They were woodcutters and drawers of water .

Speaker 1 24:14

Menial .

Speaker 2 24:16

Menial job . That's hard physical labor and it's not going to get paid real well . So think of it

Spiritual Warfare and Divine Irony

Speaker 2 24:25

. The irony here is dripping . They put on old clothes and made themselves out to look like they were poor and told a lie in doing so , and their condemnation was for the rest of their lives . They were going to wear old clothes that were worn out and do menial jobs as drawers of water . But it gets even more ironic . What were they cutting wood for ? They were using wood . Where did they use wood ? In the altar ? How many times a day did they have to do sacrifices ?

Speaker 1 25:03

Daily .

Speaker 2 25:04

Daily . So that wood had to be there . How much All the time . And it was an unending supply of wood to keep this fire burning on this altar forever . And the sacrificial ceremonies required washings . So every day the priests had to keep the fire going , had to wash the sacrifices in these ceremonial manners . These people of Gibeah that were fighting against God for so much , where did they spend the rest of their life ? Right out there , next to the altar of God , close to God , hearing God's things . They were condemned to be around God and God's people supplying the sacrifices , which is a central part of the religious exercise , but yet they were condemned to never really be a part of it for the rest of their lives . And that is what happens when we don't follow God and don't submit to God .

Speaker 1 26:03

Would they have been different if they would have decided to worship God rather than have this deception ?

Speaker 2 26:10

I submit . They would have .

Speaker 1 26:12

All right . Well , that's going to be our look at chapter 9 , joshua . Next time we will pick up chapter 10 . This is Reasoning Through the Bible podcast and we look forward to seeing you in the next session .