Joshua 9:1-15 KJV And it
came to pass, when all the kings which were on this side Jordan, in the
hills, and in the valleys, and in all the coasts of the great sea over
against Lebanon, the Hittite, and the Amorite, the Canaanite, the
Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, heard thereof; (2)
That they gathered themselves together, to fight with Joshua and with
Israel, with one accord. (3) And when the inhabitants of
Gibeon heard what Joshua had done unto Jericho and to Ai,
(4) They did work wilily, and went and made as if they
had been ambassadors, and took old sacks upon their asses, and wine bottles,
old, and rent, and bound up; (5) And old shoes and
clouted upon their feet, and old garments upon them; and all the bread
of their provision was dry and mouldy. (6) And they
went to Joshua unto the camp at Gilgal, and said unto him, and to the
men of Israel, We be come from a far country: now therefore make ye a
league with us. (7) And the men of Israel said unto the Hivites,
Peradventure ye dwell among us; and how shall we make a league with
you? (8) And they said unto Joshua, We are thy servants.
And Joshua said unto them, Who are ye? and from whence come ye?
(9) And they said unto him, From a very far country thy servants
are come because of the name of the LORD thy God: for we have heard the
fame of him, and all that he did in Egypt, (10) And all
that he did to the two kings of the Amorites, that were beyond Jordan,
to Sihon king of Heshbon, and to Og king of Bashan, which was at
Ashtaroth. (11) Wherefore our elders and all the
inhabitants of our country spake to us, saying, Take victuals with you
for the journey, and go to meet them, and say unto them, We are your
servants: therefore now make ye a league with us. (12) This
our bread we took hot for our provision out of our houses on the day we
came forth to go unto you; but now, behold, it is dry, and it is
mouldy: (13) And these bottles of wine, which we filled,
were new; and, behold, they be rent: and these our garments and our
shoes are become old by reason of the very long journey.
(14) And
the men took of their victuals, and asked not counsel at the mouth of
the LORD. (15) And Joshua made peace with them, and
made a league with them, to let them live: and the princes of the
congregation sware unto them.
We ministered about this issue a couple of years ago, and wish to
expand upon it tonight.
The Gibeonites knew that their region was next in line for conquest by
Israel, as JOshua led the people into the Promised land to claim it as
their own.
- So in order to survive and not be destroyed, they plotted a
means by which they would deceive Joshua and cause him to think they
were not from the immediate area.
- They convinced Joshua they were from so far a country that
the bread they freshly cooked and brought with them had grown mouldy
from the journey.
- The fresh wine they prepared for the journey had become old
and the bottles became old.
- And by means of the mouldy bread, and old wine and tattered
clothing and ragged shoes, they deceived the Israelites.
- They let on they were ambassadors.
- All was a lie.
- The enemy wanted to survive.
Joshua asked the nature of the league they requested, and they replied
they merely wanted to be servants.
- So Israel took their victuals of false proof and made a
league without consulting God about it all.
Bread and wine is indicative of the truths of the cross.
- Christ's body was broken in death and blood shed in death
for our salvation.
- The truths of the cross are everything to us.
- And mouldy bread and old wine indicate a FALSE TEACHING
that entails the cross in a way THAT DOES NOT GIVE LIFE.
Mouldy bread and old wine does not give life!
- It sickens!
- It is unhealthy.
- And the devil knows that if he can get us to receive a
false teaching that will not bring about his destruction, he can
survive!
We are to drive the devil out of our lives and families and homes.
- He wants to stay there and survive, though.
- THIS IS WHAT HE DID WITH EVE.
The serpent tempted the woman to take a FALSE FRUIT.
- Oh, it was fruit, alright, but not the fruit God intended
them to eat.
- God wanted them to have LIFE, not knowledge of good and
evil.
- And the woman did not consult God any more than Joshua did,
and took the fruit as he took the victuals.
The knowledge of good and evil is any teachings that does not stress
truths that engender life into our souls.
- Teachings that do not focus upon the cross in the correct
perspective.
- Anyone can get filled with knowledge, but LIFE is something
the enemy tries to keep away from us at all costs.
Bread and wine represent the truth of the works of the cross.
- And the greatest truth about the cross is that WE CANNOT
SAVE OURSELVES, BUT GOD ALONE CAN SAVE US.
- And He did it by way of the cross!
False bread and wine are teachings that focus UPON OUR EFFORTS.
- It's like the devil telling Eve she would be as gods.
- It's coercing people to think THEY CAN SAVE THEMSELVES BY
THEIR GOOD WORKS.
- Give them a list of GOOD WORKS to do and tell them to AVOID
THE EVIL WORKS, and they save themselves.
- Legalists are like this.
- They pump people full of what and what not to do, and never
teach the ABSOLUTE NEED OF RELYING UPON GOD'S WORK to save us!
- THis occurs so much until the people only consider what
they are or are not doing in order to be saved.
- AND SATAN CAN SURVIVE, FOR THERE IS NO LIFE OF GOD DRIVING
HIM OUT INTO DESTRUCTION.
The devil knew mankind would drive him out of earth if they got God's
life in them, because God drove him out of heaven!
- So he set out to survive by fooling the man and woman to
eat fruit that was FALSE.
THree days later, Joshua heard rumours of the alleged ambassadors being
liars and actually people of the very next city they were to destroy.
Joshua 9:16 KJV And it came to pass at the end of
three days after they had made a league with them, that they heard that
they were their neighbours, and that they dwelt among them.
- On the very day it took for Joshua to arrive at Gibeon, the
third day since the liars deceived him, he expected to come and gain
great victory and wipe that enemy out.
Joshua 9:17 KJV And the children of Israel journeyed, and came unto their
cities on the third day. Now their cities were Gibeon, and
Chephirah, and Beeroth, and Kirjathjearim.
- But how shocked he was to learn he could not wipe them out
because they had deceived him.
- He made a league with them in God's name and could not
break it.
- He had to allow them to survive.
Three days also links us to the truths of the cross.
- It took three days for Christ to die and resurrect.
- The thought of Joshua taking three days until realization
of the true picture of the liars represents the revelation of the cross
that exposes all false teachings.
- You do not garner all false teachings that contradict the
cross, but rather learn about the cross so fully that you easily
recognize that which does not agree with it.
- And the truths of the cross stress GOD'S WORK IN SAVING US
to such an extent that ever afterwards we would never dare so much as
to consider something without Knowing GOD'S THOUGHTS.
- We could not allow ourselves to solve an issue.
- Since we had to be saved By God's Word, we surely have to
deal with every issue according to HIS WILL.
- And before Joshua went through these three days, he did not
seek to consult God about it.
- Before someone learns the TRUTHS of the Cross and GOD'S
WORK, people try to solve their own problems in their own ingenuity.
Between Joshua's deception and conquest of Gibeon was A THREE DAY
PERIOD.
- In other words, this represents how we are as far away as a
"A REVELATION OF THE CROSS" from conquest!
Joshua cursed the Gibeonites to be servants of servants, JUST AS NOAH
CURSED CANAAN in Genesis 9.
- Noah's son, Ham, mocked his father during Noah's drunken
nakedness.
- Shem and Japheth covered Noah and would not disgrace him.
- Noah ;learned what Ham did and cursed Ham's son, Canaan, to
be a servant of servants.
- This was fulfilled when Joshua cursed the Gibeonites as
well.
- However, they should have been destroyed completely.
The enemy never comes with true bread and wine.
- Like the false fruit, the enemy makes something CLOSE to
what God wants, in order to deceive.
- And God said such false fruit KILLS.
- Mouldy bread would sicken and push backwards towards ill
health rather than NOURISH a soul!
- The enemy never comes encouraging you to trust in the work
of God.
- He lures you to become your own god.
These men also lied saying they were ambassadors.
- Paul was a true ambassador of Christ.
2 Corinthians 5:20 KJV Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as
though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye
reconciled to God.
ANd note the details of Paul's message as a true ambassador of Christ.
2 Corinthians 5:14 KJV For the love of Christ constraineth us;
because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead:
The truth of the cross is that Jesus' death counts as our deaths.
- False ambassadors will not teach this.
- True ministers will teach that THIS saves us from sin.
2 Corinthians 5:15 KJV And that he died for all, that they which
live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which
died for them, and rose again.
We will not live to ourselves, as the devil tried to get Eve to do.
- We will serve God and not be our own gods.
2 Corinthians 5:17 KJV Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a
new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become
new.
We are made new creatures and totally changed BY THIS WORK OF GOD.
2 Corinthians 5:18 KJV And all things are of God, who hath
reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the
ministry of reconciliation;
All the things that are become new ARE NOT THE RESULT OF OUR EFFORTS TO
IMPROVE OURSELVES.
- ALL THINGS ARE OF GOD.
- God is the one responsible for it.
- FOR ALL THINGS.
- We do not even have a part we can claim as our own work!
- ALL THINGS ARE OF GOD.
- God did it, not us, by Jesus Christ -- In other words, BY
THE CROSS.
- The CROSS IS GOD'S WORK!
- That is TRUE BREAD AND WINE.
2 Corinthians 5:19 KJV To wit, that God was in Christ,
reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto
them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
- God was doing the work of reconciliation, not us!
- We love HIM because HE FIRST loved us.
2 Corinthians 5:21 KJV For he hath made him to be sin for us, who
knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
We are MADE, not do the making, the righteousness of God.
- It is HIS good works and we are made HIS righteousness.
- If it was our works we would be self righteous.
HIVITE is a name that comes from the Hebrew term VILLAGER.
- A VILLAGE is a LIVING PLACE.
- LIFE- GIVING.
- So these liars were also called LIFE GIVING when they only
had mouldy bread to offer.
- It was a FALSE life.
- A LIE.
Notice that EVE means MOTHER OF ALL LIVING.
- The name HIVITE actually contains the name EVE in Hebrew.
- It is like saying EVE-ITE.
- EVE-ITES are deceived people who deceive others.
- The blind are following these BLIND teachers.
- Eve ate and gave the fruit to Adam.
- Deceived and deceiving others.
True ambassadors tell you to TRUST IN GOD'S POWER TO SAVE BY THE CROSS.
- We shall know false prophets BY THEIR FRUIT.
- FALSE FRUIT.
- FALSE BREAD AND WINE.
Do not come into league with the enemy.
- When Adam and Eve ate the serpent's fruit HE SURVIVED AND
INFLUENCED THEM!
- They made their choice that could not be revoked.
- Thank God that Jesus came to save us and BRING LIFE BACK
ONCE AGAIN!
Stress what the Bible stresses.
- THE CROSS.
- Follow Paul as Paul followed Christ and learn what a TRUE
AMBASSADOR TEACHES.
- If a teaching is not focusing upon the cross, then IT IS
NOT LIFE-GIVING.
Manna bred worms if it was not eaten the day it was given.
- Jesus said HE IS THE TRUE MANNA in John 6, the same chapter
He said he is the BREAD AND WINE.
- Good bread and can turn mouldy.
- Tonight I am anointed and the BREAD IS HOT AND FRESH.
- Eat it WHILE YOU ARE HEARING IT IN ANOINTING.
- OR ELSE IT WILL LOSE IT'S FRESHNESS, and if you put it off
until tomorrow to make your decision, you will find it will not touch
you like it did when it was FRESH.
- TODAY is the day of salvation.
- Someone needs to obey God's word TODAY.
Let us not be spiritually dull because we do not know the THREE DAYS
and are not used to REAL bread and wine that is HOT and FRESH!
Be not deceived.
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