J10-6: What If You Were Stuck In A Situation Where You Had To Fight Your Enemies To Protect Your Enemy?

Let’s pause and take a breather for a second to think about Israel’s current situation here in Joshua 10.

Just a few weeks ago, the Gibeonites had tricked Israel into entering into a peace treaty with them.

And in spite of this peace treaty being based on a total lie and against God’s clear instructions, Israel decided to honor the careless vow they had made to Gibeon anyway.

And now look what happened.

Israel finds themselves stuck in this crazy situation where they have to risk Hebrew lives to war on Gibeon’s behalf (a people who had deceived them in the first place).

Really think about just how insane this situation really is.

Because of a rash vow they decided to honor, Israel is now being forced to fight on behalf of a people the Lord has deemed is Israel’s enemy and worthy only of death.

Or to put it another way, Israel would be fighting their enemies (the five kings) on behalf of their enemy.

Pretty nuts, right?

Man oh man, it just can’t get any worse than this.

Ah, but as we shall see, it is precisely in situations like this that the Lord shows Himself to be the ultimate strategist when it comes to war.

Yes, it is true that Israel made a big mistake when they decided to ally themselves with Gibeon.

But here’s the thing.

After Israel’s miraculous crossing over the Jordan River, and after Israel’s supernatural victories over the cities of Jericho and Ai, Israel was pondering what their next move should be.

They were in a state a confusion.

Because if the conquering of the Promised Land was going to involve attacking and then taking over the protected cities one at a time throughout the region, this could take like generations, not to mention the risk of life involved.

Or here’s another way to look at it.

It’s pretty much darn near impossible for a nation to keep up an intense offensive against their enemies for decades no matter how strong they are.

But again, it is in chaotic situations like this where God shines at His greatest.

We’re going to see how the Lord, in a master move, was going to using Gibeon to take the next step that would accelerate Israel’s progress in conquering the land.

We’ll start getting into the details of this the next time we meet.