Joshua's league with gibeon.
Josh. ix. 15. And Joshua made peace ivith them, and made a league with them, to let them live.
IT is not uncommon for persons to harden them- selves against God, and, like Ahaz, " in their dis- tress to trespass yet more against the LordV The inhabitants of Canaan had been filled with terror
a 2 Chron. xxviii. 22.
252.] joshua's league with gibeon. 587
and dismay even before the Israelites had passed over Jordan : yet they prepared to contend with the invading army, and to repel force by force. But when they saw that a passage was opened for Israel through Jordan, and that the walls of Jericho were thrown down by the sound of rams' horns, and that Ai also was vanquished, it might have been hoped that they would submit themselves to the God of Israel, and endeavour by penitence to avert the impending danger. This however was not the case : on the contrary, the different kings of the country formed a confederacy, to oppose with their united power those whom they despaired of withstanding by their separate exertions. One people indeed ventured to stem the tide : the Gibeonites deter- mined to shun the storm which they could not avert : accordingly they sent some of their chief men to make a league with Joshua.
This league is the subject of our present conside- ration : and we shall notice it, with a view to,
I. Moral instruction —
Two things in particular require our attention ;
1. The deceit they practised —
[The device which they executed was extremely subtle and ingenious. They knew that God had given to the Israelites a command to extirpate the seven nations of Canaan : and they saw by the manner in which Jericho and Ai had fallen, that there was no hope of resisting them with success. They there- fore sent some of their chief men, with instruction to feign themselves ambassadors from a distant nation, and in a very submissive manner to entreat that they might not be extir- pated also. Whatever terms Joshua chose to impose, they were ready to accede to, provided they might but return to their country assured on the oath of Israel that they should be permitted to live. That their story might have the appearance of truth, " they took old sacks, old and rent leathern wine-bot- tles, old shoes, clouted upon their feet, and old garments, and, for their provision, bread that was dry and mouldy," pretending that every tiling was new when they set out from home, but that, by reason of the length of their journey, it had been reduced to the state in which it then was. They professed a great regard for the God of Israel whom they feared, having heard of all the wonders he had wrought for his people in