Title: The Failure of Israel
Text: Josh 9 -10

I. The Deceit of Gibeon 9:1-22

The other Kings are making plans for war
The Gibeonites are making plans to deceive

Both still opposing and resisting God

Both groups, like Rahab, had heard about God. The Gibeonites admit this in verses 9-11 but their choices are different. One chose outright hostility the other deception.

That's what we find in the world today. The hostility of the world towards God is easy for us to spot, we know where the line is drawn in the sand. It's the deception we have to worry about. The world deceives us in much the same way as the Gibeonites deceived Israel, by putting on a false front, trying to make us think it's something it isn't.

Lawrence Funderburke, forward Sacramento Kings knows about the worlds deception. He accepted Christ when he was 11 0r 12. He began to fall for the worlds deception as went to college he walked further away from the Lord. He played 3 years of basketball in France and was MVP of the French Professional League in 1996 & 97. He came to the NBA in 1997.

He remembers it was on a road game in Chicago, during the game he said he felt as if he had forgotten how to play and he realized God was calling him back. He had been deceived into thinking he had it all by the world but he didn't have peace.

He told his teammates on the plane home his days of partying and hanging out were over. When he got home he said he cried all night confessing to God and crying for his mercy.
(Sports Spectrum Magazine Nov-Dec 2000)

II. The Warning from God Deut 7:1-5; 2 Cor 6:11-18

First from the Old Testament God's warning to Israel:

Deut 7:1-5 
1 "When the LORD your God shall bring you into the land where you are entering to possess it, and shall clear away many nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and stronger than you, 2 and when the LORD your God shall deliver them before you, and you shall defeat them, then you shall utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them and show no favor to them. 3 "Furthermore, you shall not intermarry with them; you shall not give your daughters to their sons, nor shall you take their daughters for your sons. 4 "For they will turn your sons away from following Me to serve other gods; then the anger of the LORD will be kindled against you, and He will quickly destroy you. 5 "But thus you shall do to them: you shall tear down their altars, and smash their {sacred} pillars, and hew down their Asherim, and burn their graven images with fire. (NAS)

Then from the New Testament:

2 Cor 6:14-18
14 Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? 15 Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? 16 Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said, "I will dwell in them and walk among them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 17 "Therefore, come out from their midst and be separate," says the Lord. "And do not touch what is unclean; and I will welcome you. 18 "And I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me," says the Lord Almighty. (NAS)

This is clearly a warning to believers not to compromise their faith through alliances with non believers.  That doesn't mean we don't have contact with non-believers or that we don't do business with them or talk to them. It does mean that we don't enter into any type of alliance that would cause us to forsake our beliefs.

The basis of God's warning is His covenant relationship with His people.
We mentioned in the previous message the three basic forms of the covenant relationship: The spoken Word; The written Word; The Living Word.  In the Old Testament we have the spoken word revealed through the written word. God used prophets, judges, kings and others to speak for Him and to write His commands and law.  In the New Testament we have the written word which reveals the Living Word. Those who are in fellowship with God, who have placed their faith in Him for salvation, have a covenant obligation to obedience to His word. (Jn 14:15; 21-24; 15:10-14; Lk 6:46)

Deut 7:4 "For they will turn your sons away from following Me to serve other gods; then the anger of the LORD will be kindled against you, and He will quickly destroy you." (NAS)

We always like to think we are the exception, but the odds are against us. The bad spoils the good. The bad influence overshadows the good influence.

IV. The Failure of Israel

1. Did not seek God's mind - You would have thought they would have learned this lesson at Ai.

2. Judged by outward appearance

(Nash Bridges episode Joe buys a house - pretty on the outside but behind the walls faulty wiring and plumbing and other problems)

V. The Results of their failure

What Jericho could not do with walls and Ai could not do with weapons Gibbon did with deceit.

It only took 3 days for Israel to discover they had been tricked, but they had given their word. To fail to honor their word would only have compounded their error.

Later they had to actually fight for the Gibeonites. Which led to the miracle of chapter 10 where the sun stood still.

The eventual outcome was that the nation fell into sin.

That's the trouble with compromising with the world. It always leads further from God into sin. It takes us out of position to receive God's blessing. It damages, and in some cases destroys, our witness. It robs us of the joy of Fellowship with God and the joy of salvation.