A non-Christian student of mine a couple of years ago offered that he knew of no sin that Joshua had committed. We know about Adam, Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and others. But he could not remember any mistakes or sins mentioned about Joshua in the Bible. I suggested that perhaps that’s why God chose the name “Jesus” for our Savior, His namesake.
But then I read the Bible more closely. Joshua was a great leader, to be sure. “Choose for yourselves today whom you will serve …but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord,” Joshua famously challenged (24:15). So faithful was he and he had such a powerful influence that it is said: “The people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who survived Joshua, who had seen all the great work of the Lord which He had done for Israel” (Judges 2:7). He was a good leader. But he was not perfect.
God had commanded the Israelites to kill all the inhabitants of the land of Canaan. If they did not, the pagans would lead the Israelites away from God. In the midst of the Israelites conquering and killing, a group of people from the village of Gibeon, about 5 miles northwest of Jerusalem, hatched a plan to deceive Joshua and save their own lives. Despite the fact that it had been decades since God divided the waters of the Red Sea and brought Israel across on dry ground, the Gibeonites remembered those great acts of power and were afraid of the God of Israel (Joshua 9:9-10).
They sent out envoys with worn-out and torn wineskins and patched sandals on their feet and worn-out clothes. The food they took was intentionally dry and crumbled. When they came to Joshua, the great military conqueror, they spoke craftily, “We have come from a far country; now therefore, make a covenant with us” (9:6). Being taken in by the craftiness of the devil (cf. Genesis 3:1), operating through the Gibeonites, Joshua made peace with them.
Joshua’s error is explicit in 9:14: “So the men of Israel took some of their provisions, and did not ask for the counsel of the Lord.” It would have been easy to consult the high priest dressed with the Urim and Thummim. But, taken in by the moment and the promise of immediate peace, Joshua and the Israelites violated one of God’s commands.
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But there stood up a false prophet, Hananiah by name – from Gibeon (Jeremiah 28:1). Hananiah discouraged the Israelites from obedience by suggesting that they would only be in exile for two years. Two months after Hananiah made this false prophecy, God took his life (28:17). But what damage had already been done?
If Joshua had consulted the Lord back in Joshua 9, learned about the deceit, and killed the Gibeonites as he was commanded, there would have been no Hananiah in Jeremiah 28.
Brethren and friends, we cannot anticipate the evil that will come upon us and our people if we fail to consult the Lord. “Pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17).
–Paul Holland
