The Problem of Walking by Sight

Edited by Steve Fountain. Taken from a sermon preached on August 26, 2012.

We find the children of Israel faced with decision — they are given the opportunity to walk by faith, but instead stumble on their own common sense. It is a lesson for us today in how we make decisions.  

In Joshua 9:1-2, the remaining inhabitants of the region must come together or risk the same fate as Jericho and Ai at the hands of God's chosen people.

The Israelites were given clear instruction in the Law of Moses of how to deal with people who wanted to make peace with them. In Deuteronomy 20:10-18, the Jews were instructed to make peace, when asked for it, but not with the people of the land of Canaan.  In verse 17-18, they were told specifically not to spare these 6 nations: The Hittities, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.   

These 6 nations are the same 6 listed in Joshua 9.

The people of these nations are not noble savages. They are people given over to their sins and lacking any hope of repenting — hence God's clear instruction on destroying them. 

Yet, in verses 3-5, the elders of Gibeon gather and wisely choose cunning over a battle. 

Despite being only a three-day’s-march away, they make themselves look like they've been traveling for more than  a month. They use worn-out sacks,  torn and mended wineskins, patched sandals, and thread-bare clothes. Their food was dry and crumbly.  At the Israeli camp, they present themselves as travellers from a distant country and ask for a covenant — going as far as to label themselves as “your servants.”

The elders of Israel gather round Joshua to ponder the travelers. Moldy bread, worn-out shoes, clothes, sacks, wineskins — it all added up to a believable story. Verses 14-15 note: “So the men took some of their provisions, but did not ask counsel from the Lord.”

The Israelites had all these tangibles in front of them; can we fault them for making a decision?  We live in a world of making decisions based on what we perceive around us. In a moment of significant decision, the Israelites failed to consult with the Lord. It is an situation we often fine ourselves facing. Do we make decisions based on our knowledge or through seeking God's will. 

As Solomon wrote: “do not lean on your own understanding, trust in the Lord with all your heart, and In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths” (Proverbs 3:5-6).

In just three days, the Israelites discover that they had been hoodwinked as they move forward to wipe from the land the very people they unwittingly just made peace with.

In verse 18, we read, “Then all the congregation murmured against the leaders.”  The foolishness of leadership has been brought to light, and now there is widespread frustration.  I find it fascinating that the people, as concerned as they are, are now murmuring against their leaders, and it is completely justified — not as it was in the days of the wilderness wanderings.  Now the leaders are eating crow.

This is the very problem of walking by sight and not by faith — we reap unintended consequences.

There was no way the people could go back on the oath because they swore by the God of Israel. 

It was many years, when Saul killed the Gibeonites in violation of this oath, the Lord brought a famine upon the land (2 Sam. 21:1), and this would have been the kind of wrath the leaders feared would fall on them.

So, they made the best of it, and made them servants.  It is not as though God does condone their actions, because they reap the consequences of their deception by becoming slaves to the children of Israel forever, but their lives are spared.

Throughout the coming chapters of Joshua, the Gibeonites did not change allegiances, they remained loyal to Israel, fulfilled their duties and they prospered.  Nonetheless, the Israelites faced the consequences of their decision absent of God. 

Walking by faith means (1) taking time to pray.  It means recognizing not just the stories of the Bible, but (2) knowing the God of the Bible.  It also means respecting and (3) appreciating God's grace.