The Pulpit Commentary — Joshua — Section 219

Yers. 3. 4.-.A stolen treaty. The CanMnite kings are at last roused to united 11etion agamst J oshna antl the host of Israel But their confederation is not complet.e. The inhabitants of Gibeon, on the principle th1tt "discretion is the better part of valour," entleavour, in something like selfish treachery to the common cause. to make peace with the invaders, A suggestive example of the spirit that aniln11,tes the corrupt social life of the world. When men are bent on saving them- seh-es they care little for the ties that bind them to others. Self-interest is a very insecure bona of social unity. It was natural, however, that these men should seek to sa,e themseh·es. and their suit for a treaty of peace would have had no wrong in it but Urn.t it took the form of deceit. I. THE STRATAGEM. It was cleverly devised and skilfully carried out. It was both an acted and a spoken lie. Their profession of reverent submission to the God of Israel \" Because of the name of the Lord thy God," ver. 9) was a, hollow pre- tence. Their whole behaviour forbid, our attributing to them the honesty of pur- pose that Rahab manifested. Base, slavish fear was their real motive (ver. 24). Obsen·e (1) how one sin leads on to another, perhaps a greater. The path of transgression is a downward way. Every fraud needs a falsehood to cov'er it. ,Yhen men ha,e once placed themseh-es in a false position they know not in what meanness and shame it may involve them. (2) If half the ingenuity men show in the pursuit of their own carnal ends were spent in the service of truth and righteous, ness, how much better and happier the world would be. The followers of Christ mar learn many a lesson in this respect from the facts of secular life around them, and e,·en from their adversaries. " The children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of-light" (Luke xvi 8). II. ITs succEss. They gained their end so far as this-that their lives were spared, secured to them by a treaty and a solemn oath (ver. 15). They gained it through the too easy credulity of Joshua and the princes, who supposed that things- were as they seemed to be, and through the unaccountable omission of Joshua to '' ask counsel of the Lord" (ver. 14). (I) Trickery often seems to prosper in this· world. It trades upon the generons trustfulness of men. But its success is short-. li,ed. It carries with it its own condemnation. Better always be the deceived than the deceiver. (2) We must expect to fall into practical error when we fail to seek Divine direction. The wisest and best need something higher than their own judgment to guide them in the serious bnsinesses of life. "In all thy ways acknow- ledge him, and he will direct thy steps" (Prov. iii. 6). • III. ITS PENALTY. They saved their lives at the cost of liberty and honour (,er. 21). The servile condition to which they were reduced fulfilled the curse pronounced by Noah on the children of Ham (Gen. ix. 25). Joshua and_ the princes did right in regarding their oath as sacred and binding, even though 1t had been won by deceit. The people would have had them violate it. "All the congrega- tion murmured against the princes." Popular impulses may as a rule b~ trusted; but are sometimes very blind and false. Vox populi not always Vox Dei. Happy the people whose rulers are able wisely to curb their impetuosity and pres~nt before them an example of inflexible rectitude. If the oath of Joshua and the prmces had pledged them to a thing essentially wrong, they might have us_ed the fact that t~ey were beguiled into it by fraud as an argument for disregarding 1t; but not so se~m_g that, while it bound them to nothing absolutely unlawful, they were involved m it by their own neglect. That God approved of its observance is seen in the fact that, when the Canaanite kings sought to inflict vengeance on Gideon for the clandes- tine treaty, He gave Joshua a signal victory over them (eh. x. 8-12); and also in the fact that the curse of blood-guiltiness came upon the land in after days be- cause Saul broke this covenant with the Gibeonites and slew some of them (2 Sam. xxi. 1, 2). These men, however, must pay the penalty of their deceit. The ~e- cision of Joshua respecting them is of the nature of a just and prudent co~pr~m1se. It avoids the dishonow- !-hat would be done to the natne of God by the v10lat10n of the oath; but saves Israel from the disgrace of a dangerous alliance with the Canaanites by reducing them to a gtate of absolute subjection. L_earn (1) the sane, tity of an oath. A righteous man is one who "sweareth to hlB own hurt, and OR. IX. 1-27.) THE BOOK OF JOSHUA. 159