The sermon titled 'We'll Handle This One' focuses on Joshua chapter 9, emphasizing the importance of seeking God's wisdom and guidance in all decisions. The narrative follows Joshua and the Israelites, who are deceived by the Gibeonites into making a covenant with them, despite God's command to destroy the inhabitants of the promised land. The Gibeonites craftily present themselves as ambassadors from a distant land and manage to secure a peace treaty through deception. This event becomes a pivotal lesson for the Israelites, highlighting the dangers of relying solely on human understanding and neglecting to seek divine counsel. The sermon draws parallels between this biblical account and the Christian life, urging believers to depend on God in all aspects and avoid the 'I'll handle this one' mentality. It underscores the necessity of faith and adherence to God's promises, demonstrating the consequences of failing to consult God through the historical context of Israel's journey and conquest.

The sermon text for this morning is Joshua chapter 9. Please follow along. It came to pass when all the kings who were on this side of the Jordan, in the hills and in the lowland and in all the coasts of the great sea toward Lebanon, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite heard about it, that they gathered together to fight with Joshua and Israel with one accord. But when the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and Ai, they worked craftily and went and pretended to be ambassadors. And they took old sacks on their donkeys, old wine skins torn and mended, old and patched sandals on their feet, and old garments on themselves, and all the bread of their provision was dry and moldy.

And they went to Joshua, to the camp at Gilgal, and said to him and to the men of Israel, We have come from a far country. Now therefore make a covenant with us. Then the men of Israel said to the Hivites, perhaps you dwell among us, so how can we make a covenant with you? But they said to Joshua, we are your servants. And Joshua said to them, who are you and where do you come from?

So they said to him, from a very far country your servants have come because of the name of the Lord your God, for we have heard of his fame and all that he did in Egypt and all that he did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon king of Heshbon and Og king of Bashan, who was at Ashtaroth. Therefore our elders and all the inhabitants of our country spoke to us saying, take provisions with you for the journey and go to meet them and say to them, we are your servants. Now, therefore, make a covenant with us. This bread of ours we took hot for our provision from our houses on the day we departed to come to you. But now look, it is dry and moldy, and these wineskins which we filled were new, and see, they are torn, and these are garments, and our sandals have become old because of the very long journey." Then the men of Israel took some of their provisions, but they did not ask counsel of the Lord.

So Joshua made peace with them and made a covenant with them to let them live, and the rulers of the congregation swore to them. And it happened At the end of three days, after they had made the covenant with them, that they heard that they were their neighbors who dwelt near them. Then the children of Israel journeyed and came to their cities on the third day. Now their cities were Gibeon, Chefira, Birof, and Kirjath-Jerim. But the children of Israel did not attack them because the rulers of the congregation had sworn to them by the Lord God of Israel.

And all the congregation complained against the rulers. Then all the rulers said to all the congregation, we have sworn to them by the Lord God of Israel. Now therefore we may not touch them. This we will do to them. We will let them live, lest wrath be upon us because of the oath which we swore to them.

And the ruler said to them, let them live but let them be woodcutters and water carriers for all the congregation as the rulers had promised them. Then Joshua called for them and he spoke to them saying, why have you deceived us saying we are from a very far from we are very far from you when you dwell near us? Now therefore you are cursed and none of you shall be freed from being slaves, woodcutters, and water carriers for the house of my God. So they answered Joshua and said, "'Because your servants were clearly told that the Lord your 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 very much afraid for our lives because of you and have done this thing. And now here we are in your hands.

Do with us as seems good and right to do to us." So he did to them and delivered them out of the hand of the children of Israel so that they did not kill them. And that day Joshua made them woodcutters and water carriers for the congregation and for the altar of the Lord in the place which he would choose even to this day. Let's pray. Oh Holy Spirit, fall upon this place. Open our hearts, open our ears, keep us attentive to what you will teach us today through Jason.

We commit this time and dedicate it to you. In Jesus' name, Amen. The title of the sermon this morning is, we'll handle this one. I think we've all been in this spot where We think we understand exactly what's going on. So we assume we know exactly what to do.

And we take on this disposition. I'll handle this one. The answer to the test is obvious, and so I don't need any help on the test. I got it. But God wants His people to learn to depend on Him for everything.

That might be the great summary statement of the text. God wants His people to learn to depend on Him in everything. God wants His people to slow down at least long enough to ask Him for wisdom and insight and help. And thus Joshua chapter 9, that's why we have this chapter. Because God wants to teach you to slow down at least long enough to ask Him for wisdom and insight and help.

Even when you're convinced that you know the answer to the test so you don't need any help. God, I thank You for chapter 9. We confess that we are a people who need it. And it wouldn't be suitable for us to go from chapter 8 to chapter 10. Something would really be missing.

So thank you. Let us drink in the truth of this chapter. Help us to be very humble and very content to need you in everything. Don't let us be discontent to need you for everything. Teach us.

Pray in Jesus' name. Amen. We're going to subdivide this week into three sections. We'll start just with verse 1 and 2 because it's so different from the rest of the chapter. Hopefully your thumb is still in Joshua chapter 9 and follow along as I reread verses 1 and 2.

And it came to pass when all the kings who were on this side of the Jordan, in the hills and in the lowland and in the coasts of the great sea toward Lebanon. The Hittite, the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite heard about it, that They gathered together to fight with Joshua and Israel with one accord. So in these two verses we have the almost unanimous response. If you're taking notes on the handout by filling in the blank, almost fills in the blank. The response is almost unanimous.

A unanimous response would be everyone responding exactly the same way. And it's almost like that. Almost everyone responds in exactly the same way, but the rest of the chapter will be about the Gibeonites who are an exception to the rule. The rule is the kings band together. They hear the report so they band together.

Our author is setting up a contrast between what everyone else did and what the Gibeonites do. It might seem like these first two verses are a departure from what we've seen so far in the book of Joshua. Look back at chapter 2. Listen to what Rahab said in chapter 2. Remember Rahab was one of the inhabitants of Jericho In Joshua chapter 2 verses 9 through 11 we see this.

And she said to the men, I know that the Lord has given you the land, that the terror of you has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land are faint-hearted because of you. For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were on the other side of the Jordan, Sion and Og, whom you utterly destroyed. And as soon as we heard these things our hearts melted, neither did there remain any more courage in anyone because of you, for the Lord your God, he is God in heaven above and on earth beneath." So, Rahab, who was in no sense a great historian, already knew all that God had done for His people. And it melted the hearts of the inhabitants. She says all the inhabitants of the land are fearful.

If you look at chapter 5 verse 1, here's chapter 5 verse 1, So it was when all the kings of the Amorites who were on the west side of the Jordan, and all the kings of the Canaanites who were by the sea, heard that the Lord had dried up the waters of the Jordan from before the children of Israel, until we had crossed over, that their heart melted, and there was no spirit in them any longer because of the children of Israel. So when we come to our chapter and our text, it might seem like, well this is different. Now the kings seem to have have courage. This is a departure from what we've seen so far in the book of Joshua, but when we think it through, This is perfectly consistent. This is what people who have been paralyzed with fear do when they regain their wits.

So both are perfectly true and they actually fit together. They are perfectly consistent when a people who have been paralyzed by fear regain their wits. They band together and it's a fight or flight instinct And they're going to fight. The kings have heard a report, or probably multiple reports, a report of what? A report of Og and Sihon, these two mighty Amorite kings on the other side of the Jordan who Israel conquered and they destroyed all of the inhabitants of those kingdoms.

They've heard of the Jordan being cut off 16 miles upstream and piling up in a heap to dry up so that the people could cross over on dry land. They've heard of Jericho, this mighty city, and the wall is no more, and the inhabitants are no more. They've heard of AI that was burned to the ground, and the inhabitants are no more. So what do they do? They band together in an attempt to repel the invasion.

Who is banding together? Well, the text gives us geographies, Hills, lowland, coastlands, and the text gives us peoples. Six different peoples are named. I won't torture you with my pronunciation of the peoples. But the point is, it's broad.

It's all the geographies and all the peoples of the land. That's really the point of the listing. The hills are the area close to the Jordan. The lowland is this place between the sea and the Jordan and the coastlands are along the Mediterranean, the western border. And so the whole point of naming the geographies and naming the people is to telling you everyone is coming together to fight against the Israelites.

And this is remarkable. Why is it remarkable? Because this isn't a reunion of friends. Please Don't think of it that way. This is a coalition of peoples who are normally rivals and have undoubtedly fought wars against each other.

It reminds me of the Gospels when you read Matthew, Mark, Luke, John for the first time, you think that the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the Herodians are the best of friends. But when you begin to study it, you learn that they are anything but the best of friends. They hate each other's guts. But they're unified on one thing, something has to be done about Jesus. So when you read the Gospels and you don't know the historical context, you would think, these are the best of friends.

They are easily joining together, not so. They are unified only in their opposition to Jesus and so it is here these people who are normally rivals unite to repel the Israelites and scripture recounts that each of these peoples are more numerous and mightier than the Israelites. So you can read this and begin to think that these kings and peoples who had been so fearful are the underdogs. No, no, no, no. That's upside down.

Deuteronomy 7 verses 1 and 2, you can fact check me on this, Deuteronomy 7, 1 and 2 makes it clear that each one of these peoples are more numerous and mightier than the people of Israel. So don't misidentify the underdog here. Israel is the underdog here except for that God is with them. But every human advantage is enjoyed by the home team. And these people in the different geographies, these six different peoples that are named, are each more numerous and mightier.

And Israel is the underdog except that God is with them. The only thing Israel has going for them against the home team is that the God of heaven is on their side. That's all you need. That's plenty. That's plenty.

Verses 3-15 is the section where the Gibeonites send ambassadors to trick the Israelites. It is a sophisticated scheme. It's a well thought out, thorough scheme. We find that they've thought of everything here. And so this is the section about the crafty work of the Gibeonites.

It's a long section. I'm not going to reread this section. But I'm talking now about verses 3-15. If you're taking notes on the handout, crafty fills in the blank. The crafty work of the Gibeonites.

I'm taking that right out of verse 4. They worked craftily and went and pretended to be ambassadors. The Gibeonites do what no one else does. They seek peace with the people of God. Let's begin by considering Deuteronomy 20.

Turn to Deuteronomy 20 please. Deuteronomy 20 really lays out for us with great clarity what we're dealing with here. I'll be reading Deuteronomy 20 verses 10 through 18. Deuteronomy 20 beginning in verse 10. When you go near a city to fight against it, then proclaim an offer of peace to it.

And it shall be that if they accept your offer of peace and open to you, then all the people who are found in it shall be placed under tribute to you and serve you. Now if the city will not make peace with you but war against you, then you shall besiege it. And when the Lord your God delivers it into your hands, you shall strike every male in it with the edge of the sword. But the women, the little ones, the livestock, and all that is in the city, all it spoil, you shall plunder for yourself. You shall eat the enemy's plunder which the LORD your God gives you.

Thus you shall do to all the cities which are very far from you, which are not the cities of these nations, but of the cities of these peoples which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance, you shall let nothing that breathes remain alive, but you shall utterly destroy them, the Hittite, and the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite, just as the Lord your God has commanded you, lest they teach you to do according to all their abominations which they have done for their gods, and you sin against the Lord your God." Now I've already done the comparison for you. The same six peoples that are named in Deuteronomy 20 are the same six peoples that are named in our chapter, Joshua chapter 9. So we're talking apples to apples here. This has to do with two distinct kinds of warfare. There is a warfare to be waged against those who are very far from you, not inhabitants of the promised land, and warfare of those who are native to inhabitants of the promised land.

You would have to say it's almost like the Gibeonites had either read or heard Deuteronomy chapter 20. Well let me ask, how many times has Joshua sent out spies so far in the book of Joshua? He sent spies to Jericho, they brought him back Intel. He sent spies to AI, they brought him back Intel. Turned out to be bad Intel, but it was Intel.

So twice already he's sent out spies. Do you think that Israel is the only nation who has spies? Do you think when you have two and a half million people on your doorstep and kings and peoples have already been conquered that you're not gathering intel? So The text doesn't fill in the blank for us, but we know at the end of chapter 8, they were all at Mount Ebal. All 2 million, 2.5 million of them were at Mount Ebal.

And the law was read before the people. Do you know how easy it would be to infiltrate an event like that? With two and a half million people of tribes, various tribes, and not everyone knows each other, it would be very easy to infiltrate. So whether the information came from that event or from another event, it doesn't matter. So the text doesn't explicitly say that either the Gibeonites are the luckiest guessers ever, Or they knew what God had instructed his people to do with cities that were very far off.

That's exactly the words that the Gibeonites use and what they should do to the people who were native to the promised land. The Gibeonites seem to have thought of everything. They have old sacks, they have old wine skins, torn and mended, old and patched sandals, old garments. Even the bread is dry and moldy. They say, it was fresh out of the oven the day we left.

Notice they won't actually say where they're from. In verse 6 they say, we have come from a far country. In verse 8 Joshua asks, who are you and where are you from? And their answer in verse 9, all they say is we're from a very far country. It's so far away if we told you it wouldn't help you.

You wouldn't have even heard of it. Notice when the Gibeonites report what they have heard, we heard about you. So they report things that they've heard. They don't say a word about recent events, But in our chapter in verses 1 and 2, the reports that the kings have heard and are banding together against our recent reports about Jericho and Ai. Not a word of that comes out, oh we were traveling, We wouldn't have heard of that.

They really seem to have thought of everything. They talk about the more distant events. We've heard about Sihon and Og and their peoples who were conquered. We've heard about what God did for you 40 years ago when you left Egypt. Not a word about crossing the Jordan, not a word about Jericho, not a word about AI.

The story checks out. Now imagine, you've been wandering for 40 years, you've not had a homeland, and now a people sends ambassadors to humble themselves before you and to ask for terms of peace. If you should ever make it to our far country, please let us live. How gratifying that must have been. Just the sense that it's happening.

We're being made a real nation and other nations are recognizing us and want to be at peace with us, allied with us. The whole chapter turns on verses 14 and 15. So look back at Joshua 9 verses 14 and 15. Then the men of Israel took some of their provisions. So Let us check out the bread.

Let us inspect the bread. But they did not ask counsel of the Lord. So Joshua made peace with them and made a covenant with them to let them live. And the rulers of the congregation swore to them." So this is really the hinge point of the chapter. It all rises and falls on what is said in those two verses.

So it wasn't that they were oblivious to the fact that someone might come and try to make peace with them even though they were inhabitants of the promised land and they were forbidden to make treaties with such a people. Look at verse 7. Then the men of Israel said to the Hivites, Perhaps you dwell among us, so how can we make a covenant with you? So it's not that they were totally unsuspecting. They knew this was a possibility and they did their due diligence.

Let us inspect your provisions. Listen to Numbers 27. Numbers chapter 27. You turn there if you'd like or you can just listen. Numbers 27 verses 15 through 21.

Then Moses spoke to the Lord saying, Let the Lord, the God of the spirits of all flesh, set a man over the congregation, who may go out before them and go in before them, who may lead them out and bring them in. That the congregation of the Lord may not be like sheep which have no shepherd. So this is the end of Moses' life and he's asking God to name his successor. Verse 18, And the Lord said to Moses, Take Joshua the son of Nun with you, a man in whom is the Spirit, and lay your hand on him. Set him before Eliezer the priest, and before all the congregation, and inaugurate him in their sight.

And you shall give some of your authority to him that all the congregation of the children of Israel may be obedient. He shall stand before Eliezer the priest who shall inquire before the Lord for him by the judgment of the Urim." So we don't know exactly what the Urim was, but it's something like lots, the casting of lots for a decision. And it's not to be a random chance like we think of rolling the dice. The Urim was actually something prescribed by God, given by God as a way for the people of God to get an answer from Him. So Eliezer, who is now the High Priest because his father Aaron is dead, Eliezer the High Priest is going to be joined with Joshua and have the Urim given by God to give an answer to things when they needed an answer.

Joshua never does that. In Joshua chapter 9. It's available to him. It was given to him for that purpose. He was given a partner in the high priest Eliezer who had a tool for getting an answer from God.

And this wasn't witchcraft. This was given by God for the purpose. They had not because they asked not. I mean it is it is James chapter 4 verses 2 very literal very literally They didn't have for one reason and one reason only, because they didn't ask. If they had asked, they would have had.

It's so clear from the text. They inspected the provisions but they did not ask counsel from the Lord and God would have told them. Now I want to give you two texts of scripture that I think will help us. Remember what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10. In 1 Corinthians 10, Paul gives a string of Old Testament facts.

Old Testament historical facts. And then he says this, now all these things happened to them as examples. And they were written for our admonition so here we are in the Old Testament we're given some Old Testament facts why do we have them therefore our example they're supposed to help us therefore our admonition So let me give you an Old Testament text and a New Testament text that will shed light on Joshua chapter 9 and help us. The Old Testament text, Proverbs 3 verses 5 and 6. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.

In all your ways acknowledge him and He shall direct your paths." The Proverbs wouldn't be written for hundreds of years until hundreds of years later, so I'm not accusing Joshua of not knowing the Proverbs. They didn't exist. But we have the Proverbs! And the Proverbs tell us to not trust in our own understanding, but to trust in the Lord, to go to the Lord, to look to the Lord. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and don't lean on your own understanding.

The impulse that says, I got this one, I know the answer to the test, I don't need any help is a bad impulse. Proverbs calls it leaning on your own understanding and rebukes you for it. Rebukes me for it. We are to trust in the Lord with all our hearts. In all our ways we are to acknowledge Him.

Not for any of The questions on the test are we to say, I don't need you for this one, I got it. We are to acknowledge Him in all of our ways, the things that we think are big, and the things that we think are little. And By the way, often we're a terrible judge of that. Often things that look little to us are big because we don't know what's really going on in the background, such as the case in Joshua chapter 9. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your paths.

The New Testament text, 2 Corinthians 5 verse 7. So short, for we walk by faith, not by sight. For we, who's we? Believers. Those who belong to Jesus.

People who belong to Jesus, don't walk just by provision and inspecting. Yup, the bread is moldy, the bread is hard. They said it was fresh out of the oven when they left. This story checks out. Believers in Jesus walk by faith, not by sight.

These texts can help keep us from the dangerous I'll handle this one mentality. God has given us so many places in scripture to help us with this dangerous, I'll handle this one mentality. Before we move on, let me ask, why did all the kings do one thing, and only the Gibeonites did another? I can only give you a partial answer but it is a textual answer. It is an answer that comes right out of the book of Joshua.

We just haven't gotten there yet. If you'll turn a couple of pages to Joshua chapter 11 verses 19 and 20, God gives us at least a partial answer to the question, why did all the kings band together unsuccessfully to repel the invasion and were crushed, that's next week, while the Gibeonites were the only ones who came and sought peace. Listen to Joshua chapter 11 verses 19 and 20. There was not a city that made peace with the children of Israel except the Hivites, the inhabitants of Gibeon. All the others they took in battle for it was of the Lord to harden their hearts that they should come against Israel in battle, that He might utterly destroy them, and that they might receive no mercy, but that He might destroy them, as the Lord had commanded Moses." So you zoom out, you take a step back, and what is God doing here?

He's not just finding a place and emptying it out because there's no empty space on earth to give his people. So he's got to displace someone. He might as well displace these people. He's actually judging a 500 year rising tide of sin and rebellion. And they're coming in and being given the land and wiping out these people is judgment on idolatry.

It is judging and condemning idolatry by judging and condemning and removing the idolaters. That's really what's happening here. So all the kings banded together to fight against Israel because God hardened their hearts to do it because he wanted to wipe them off the face of the earth. But the opposite must be true of the Gibeonites. He didn't harden them.

Why didn't he harden them? The text doesn't say why he didn't. But perhaps it's as simple as God wanting to teach them, the Israelites, and us, greater dependence. He wanted to show them what happens when You won't trust God with all your heart, but you do lean on your own understanding. When you walk by sight and you don't walk by faith.

It could be as simple as he wanted to teach them. Going forward you have to depend on me. He wants us to know going forward. We have to depend on him. On big things, on little things.

On the things that seem so obvious to us. It might not be as obvious as you think. The last section, it's a long section, verses 16 through 27. I won't read this section either, but it's the section where they discover very quickly, within three days they hear the Gibeonites live right here. It takes them only three days to move two and a half million people there so they can confront the Gibeonites.

And we'll find in, I think it might be the next chapter or the chapter after that, that actually they make that march in one night. So if you're taking a fighting force you can do it overnight. Most commentators say it's about 20 miles away. They lived 20 miles from where the Israelites were. So they go and they confront the Gibeonites and they make them their servants.

On the handout says, the right blank better late than never. The response fills in the blank. The right response, better late than never. Did you know that when you do a wrong thing, it's actually very easy to double it? Triple it?

Quadruple it? Have you ever done that? Instead of the first rule when you find yourself, have dug yourself into a hole is to stop digging. Stop digging. Hey, they stop digging here.

They could have doubled it, they could have doubled their mistake, but they actually respond well here and they don't double their mistake. Now this is one of many many places in scripture where human wisdom is so far from biblical instruction. Human wisdom would say you obtained my promise by lying to me so all bets are off. If you had just told me the truth, I never would have made you that promise. So That's not even a valid promise.

Or try this one on for size. We made a treaty with the people very far away, right? So we couldn't have possibly been you we made the treaty with. You live right here. I don't know who we made that treaty with, but it was someone very far away so it couldn't be with you treaties off.

It seems clear to me from our text that This is exactly what the majority wanted to do. Verse 26 says that Joshua delivered the Gibeonites out of the hand of Israel so that they did not kill them. The implication from that is Joshua had to hold the people back from saying, no deal you liars! But Bible instruction says, you swore to them by the name of the Lord your God, you must keep your promise. You have to keep your promise.

And this is rooted in the nature of a Biblical oath. What is a Biblical oath? A biblical oath is so different than you saying, I'll be there at five tomorrow. Now when you say, I'll be there at five tomorrow, you should be there at five tomorrow. Your yes should be yes and your no should be no.

But a biblical oath goes so far beyond that. A biblical oath calls God to be present, to witness and judge. So we're going to come together as two parties, and we're going to invoke God's name. We're going to invite Him to come and witness what we promise to do. I'll make a promise and you promise and God you come and hear us say it And if I don't keep my promise, God we invite you to intervene and judge.

In a sense, it is a self-curse if you don't keep the promise. God curse me if I don't keep my promise. So they lied. They don't know God, they don't fear God, they lied. But I cannot lie, because I have invoked the name of the God who cannot lie.

That's what's at the heart of this. They lied, that's true, that's bad, but that doesn't change my part of this at all because I can't lie because I invoked the God who cannot lie. Hebrews 6, 18 says it is impossible for him to lie. It is impossible for him to lie. He cannot lie.

And I fear him and I belong to him so I cannot lie. I must not lie. Listen to Psalm 15. Psalm 15 verse 1 sets the stage for the Psalm. Lord, who may abide in your tabernacle?

Who may dwell in your holy hill? It's actually a depressing chapter because you'll look through the characteristics of the person who can abide with God and you'll say, I'm not this, I can't abide with God. So the right conclusion is to say, Jesus is the things in Psalm 15, and so I must be in Jesus to be able to abide with God. It doesn't say that in the chapter, but that's the right conclusion from the chapter. So setting the stage for the chapter, Lord who may abide in your tabernacle, who may dwell in your holy hill.

And there's a list of things describing righteousness. Now listen to verse 4. He who swears to his own hurt and does not change. He who swears, he who takes a biblical oath, God come witness what we're promising to do and if I don't keep my part or he doesn't keep his part, you come down and judge and you make it right. So, it's righteousness to swear to your own hurt.

I promised but I shouldn't have promised. I promised but they didn't give me all the information but I'll take the hurt rather than not keep my promise because it was made in the presence of God. I won't change. Though the circumstances have changed, Though I didn't have all the information, I won't change because I fear the God who cannot lie. They had made a covenant that they would let the Gibeonites live in verse 15.

So they keep that promise and they take the Gibeonites into servitude as woodcutters and water carriers. Thinking back to Deuteronomy 20, the two kinds of warfare, those far away, not inhabitants of the promised land, when you went and they made terms of peace, they would become your servants. So this is even consistent with Deuteronomy chapter 20. They make them their woodcutters and water carriers. When we read the ceremonial law, so law about what was going to happen in the tabernacle or later in the temple, sacrifices and ceremonial washings and cleansing, I don't think we think through how much wood and how much water is actually required to do what is required in the ceremonial law.

This actually would have been a tremendous help to have woodcutters and water carriers. Ceremonial law requires a tremendous amount of wood and water. So I think it's really clear from the text that this would be in the service of God. The Gibeonites accept it to them that it is better to be woodcutters and water carriers than to be wiped off the face of the earth. Would you rather be a Gibeonite or an inhabitant of Jericho?

Would you rather be a Gibeonite or an inhabitant of AI? Now how can we know for certain that they did the right thing to honor this covenant? Please turn to 2 Samuel 21. This is amazing. You're not left guessing if they made the right call to follow through with the covenant, even though they only made the covenant because they were lied to.

God removes all doubt on this matter in 2 Samuel 21 verses 1-3. Follow along as I read 2 Samuel 21 verses 1-3. Now there was a famine in the days of David for three years, year after year. And David inquired of the Lord, and the Lord answered, it is because of Saul and his bloodthirsty house, because he killed the Gibeonites. So the king called the Gibeonites and spoke to them.

Now the Gibeonites were not of the children of Israel, but of the remnant of the Amorites. The children of Israel had sworn protection to them, but Saul had sought to kill them in his zeal for the children of Israel and Judah. Therefore, David said to the Gibeonites, What shall I do for you? And with what shall I make atonement that you may bless the inheritance of the Lord. You see what's happening here.

This oath that was taken by Saul's great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great forefathers. I mean it's five hundred years later that Saul violates the covenant that they made. And even then when they violated it and killed the Gibeonites simply for being Gibeonites, and Saul did it out of religious zeal, it seems to be what the text is indicating, Saul did it out of misplaced zeal, God sent a famine on the land. So in our chapter in verse 20 when the rulers say we will let them live lest wrath be upon us because of the oath which we swore to them they were exactly right, even though they only swore because they were lied to. Applications, let me give you two.

Number one, God wants and expects you to be happily, totally dependent on Him. Dependent on Him in everything, and not resentful of that position, but happy about it. This is what it means to rest in God. To be happily, totally dependent on Him. It's going to take you all your life to get there.

We are so slow to rest in God. To rest on God. But this is where God is taking us. If you're a believer, you want to know where God is taking you, here's where He's taking you. To be happily, totally dependent upon Him.

To be rid of the impulse, I know the answer on the test. I don't need any help on this question. God, you wrote the test. I think I know the answer, but I want to slow down. God, give me wisdom, give me insight.

Is there anything I'm not seeing here? In Jesus Christ we have been given free access with boldness to God. How dare we assume we know the answer on the test without asking Him for wisdom and help and insight. That's number one. God wants and expects you to be happily totally dependent on Him.

Number two, thank God over and over and over and over and over again that it is impossible for him to lie. It would be appropriate to apply it by saying we shouldn't lie, but this is grounded in God. That's why it matters, because we belong to Him and He is the God with whom it is impossible that He would lie. It is impossible that He would lie. It is impossible for Him to lie.

Why is that so critical? Because we have nothing without that. When you hear Jesus declare on the cross, it is finished. Is it finished? It might not be finished if he can lie.

It might not be finished if he changes his mind. Unless it is impossible for him to lie, we have nothing. What right can a sinner claim? We have no claim upon him except for that he said. That it is finished, that the work is done.

That promise only has value if it is grounded in an unchanging God who always tells the truth and always keeps his promises. God, we thank you that this is true of you. And we know that we have nothing if it's not true of you. We know that it should be such a rare thing for us to call you to witness and call you to judge if we don't keep the promise. We saw it happen yesterday.

A man and a woman stood before you, before human witnesses, and they called you to witness. And they made lifelong promises to each other. And they stood there wanting to be like you. Wanting to be promise keepers. Thank you that you give great and precious promises.

And that we can stand on them, build our lives around them because it is impossible for you not to keep them. We praise you in Jesus' name, Amen. This name. Amen.