Joshua 9

Bible Passage:  Joshua 9

In this chapter there are two points that I would like to share. The first point is that as Christians and children of God, we ought to watch and pray else we may be in danger of being deceived.

Joshua 9:14

“The men of Israel sampled their provisions but did not inquire of the LORD.”

The Gibeonites deceived Israel because they did not inquire of the Lord and trusted in their own judgments. They trusted in their own senses like sight, taste and hearing more than inquiring of the Lord. In this incident seeing, hearing and tasting does not equate to believing in the Truth. If they had seek the counsel of the Lord, the Lord would have revealed the Gibeonite’s deception.

Likewise, today are we guilty of trusting our own instincts or senses more than placing faith and seeking the counsel of God first? There are many temptations and evil that are happening today and are we watchful for them? Are we lured by the sights and sounds and the external beauty of these entities and fail to see that beneath these entities is an underlying opposition to the Word of God?

In this evil world there are more and more evil deeds that are packaged as good or pure and if we are careless and not watchful we may believe that these things are good and beneficial. We may be deceived like the Israelites if we are not careful. For example the latest C’s we know that are built in Singapore are packaged as resorts.

Also some churches are promoting that the ‘traditional Christians’ are out of date and they advertise themselves as being more relevant, contemporary and even more creative with the introduction of rock music, beauty pageants, talent competitions, business networking ‘ministry’ and opening mega businesses. Their leaders describe themselves as highly sort after speakers, successful businessman and humanitarian champions. Their phenomena successes are receiving lots of praises from people and many people are drawn to these churches albeit what they preach is in many ways contrary to the Truth preached in the Bible.

Quite recently, some people have stated that religion is a tacky subject and religious people should not preach so that there will be peace and harmony. People have said that Singapore is a very secular country and secularity is to be promoted instead of religiosity; religiosity is portrayed as something bad and evil. Is Peace and harmony being more important than saving souls?

Furthermore people have even said that the laws (eg. Stealing is a crime, cheating is a crime, bearing false testimony is a crime, murder is a crime..) of Singapore are totally secular and was not based on any religion. Do we believe these people more than believing in God? Do we believe in these churches which are expanding quickly as preaching the correct message?

Secondly, on flip side of the coin, the Gibeonites believed in the True God and believed that He will destroy them through the hand of the Israelites. Like Rahab, they had the fear of the Lord’s judgment on them and knew that if they did not submit and surrender themselves to the Israelites they will be utterly destroyed. Although what they did was deceitful it actually saved them from certain destruction.

Joshua 10:2

“He and his people were very much alarmed at this, because Gibeon was an important city, like one of the royal cities; it was larger than Ai, and all its men were good fighters.”

Unlike the other nations in the land of Canaan, the Gibeonites humbled themselves and submitted their lives to God although they were good fighters. It can be said that in a way they have repented from their sins of worshipping idols and now have become servants of God. It was stated that these people were made to be woodcutters and water carriers for the Israelites and for the altar of the Lord.

I am reminded that as children of God, we ought to fear Him for God is not only a God of love but a righteous and holy God. Pr Chin has stated in a sermon that as Christians we need to grow up and take in solid food. Progression in our faith is measured in our understanding of God and having faith in God’s love, righteousness and holiness. We have to constantly reflect on our ways and if we have done something against the Will of God, we have to come before Him humbly and repent from our ways. If not, in the future we may be excluded from the Book of Life and we may face with utter destruction if we have crucified Christ the second time.

In conclusion,

1 Pet 5:6

“Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.”