“But he did that same day make them choppers of wood and drawers of water for the community and for the altar of Adonai in the place which he would choose; and they remain so to this day.”-Joshua 9:27
Man oh man, verse 27 shows just how careless as heck Joshua was in obeying Hashem’s Torah.
Notice it says that some of the Gibeonites were assigned to chop wood and draw water for use at the holy altar of Adonai.
Holy fruitless fruitcake muffins man!
Can you believe this?
We have goyim who worship other gods being used to not only supply wood for the fire at God’s altar but also bring water for the many holy rituals such as ritual hand washing, bathing and cleaning up the blood that spilled on the ground during the sacrifices.
If my memory serves me correctly (thick sarcasm here folks), I think God made it super clear that ONLY the Levites are allowed to perform these tasks.
It’s pretty clear what actually happened.
Some of the Gibeonite servants were handed over to the Levites who decided to shirk on some of their required menial tasks by having their gentile slaves do the work for them.
This is a no-no because again all of the sanctuary services were to be done by the Levites and ONLY the Levites.
If you think about it, the story of the Gibeonites represents a stark contrast to the story of the prostitute Rahab of Jericho.
Consider this.
Like the Gibeonites, Rahab also wanted to save herself and her family, but her actions were the opposite of the Gibeonites.
She was truthful to the Israelite soldiers but lied to her own people.
She decided to forsake the pagan gods of her people for the one true God of Israel.
Recall she proved her allegiance and faithfulness by helping Israel.
As a result she was permitted to live nearby the Hebrews but still outside the camp of Israel.
And then eventually, she was permitted to live inside the camp as a full-fledged and equal member of Israel.
Now contrast Rahab’s behavior with the the deceitful behavior of the Gibeonites.
In order to save themselves, they lied to Israel while being truthful to their own people.
While they showed a modicum of respect for Israel’s God, they never decided to abandon worship of their own gods.
And they never did anything to demonstrate their loyalty or trustworthiness towards Israel.
All they did was lie and deceive Israel into entering into a peace treaty with them that took advantage of the way out-of-balance “we gotta keep our vows no matter what“ viewpoint prevalent in the whole ancient Middle East at the time.
At the end of the day, the Gibeonites may have saved their lives but it resulted in them being made into servants of Israel forever while at the same time causing Israel to become sloppy in their Torah obedience.
They takeaway here is as clear as an August sunny day in Jerusalem.
Rahab, a prostitute, deceived her people for the sake of Israel and as a result was honored by Israel to the point where her blood line was grafted into the lineage of Messiah.
On the other hand, the Gibeonites attempted to make peace with Israel but wanted nothing to do with Israel’s God, God’s Laws or even God’s people and they ended up being the slaves of Israel forever.
So which path do you wanna choose?
CONNECTING THIS TEACHING TO THE NEW TESTAMENT
“There is neither Jew nor Gentile,
neither slave nor free,
nor is there male and female,
for you are all one in Messiah Yeshua.”
-Galatians 3:28
NEXT TIME WE BEGIN JOSHUA CHAPTER 10
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