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More Joshua commentaries
Joshua 6:1-14
The Destruction of Jericho
Joshua 6:15-27
A shout that shattered the walls
Joshua 7:16-26
The destruction of the stolen goods
Joshua 8:1-29
Israel Destroys the Town of Ai
Joshua 8:30-35
Joshua leads the people to Shechem
Joshua 9:1-15
Tricked into believing the enemy
Joshua 9:16-27
Making your mistakes work for you
Joshua 10:1-15
The Lord wants to fight our battles
Joshua 10:16-28
Divide and conquer was Joshua’s strategy
Joshua 10:29-43
The Lord gives the victory
Joshua 11:1-15
Joshua Captures Towns in the North
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Making your mistakes work for you
Joshua 9:16–27
» View this passage in NIV (Bible Gateway)
Quotes from “Who Said That?” by George Sweeting:"The man who is incapable of making mistakes is incapable of anything.” Abraham Lincoln"I have my faults, but being wrong ain’t one of them.” James Riddle Hoffa"Sometimes we may learn more from a m … More
Within a few days Israel learned that they had been tricked and the Gibeonites lived only about 20 miles from Gilgal and not in a far country as they had said (v. 16). The Israelites left the place where they had camped and arrived at the four towns two days later (v. 17). The Israelites wanted to disregard the covenant they had made with the Eanoanites and destroy them, but the agreement had been ratified in the name of the Lord and could not be broken. To break it would bring down the wrath of God on Israel (vv. 18-20).
Even though Israel could not back out on their promise, the deceivers had to be punished. Joshua rebuked these Gibeonites for their dishonesty and declared they would be in slavery as woodcutters and water-carriers for the Israelites (vv. 21-27). Thus the very thing the Gibeonites hoped to retain, they lost. They desperately wanted to remain free, but now they became slaves.
However, what started out to be a curse turned out in the end to be a blessing for the Gibeonites. As they performed their work they were exposed to the ministry of God. The fact that they were blessed by such an arrangement is confirmed in the years to come by their usefulness to God’s service! The Tabernacle was pitched at Gibeon (II Chronicles 1:3) and still later the Gibeonites replaced the Levites in temple service (Ezra 2:43;8:20). The novelist Joseph Conrad wrote, “It’s only those who do nothing that make no mistakes.” In this passage it tells us how Joshua turned his mistake into a victory.
Application
It is good to know that God will not only forgive my mistakes in life, but in His grace he can overrule and bring blessing out of these things.
Joshua 9:16-27 (English Standard Version)
At the end of three days after they had made a covenant with them, they heard that they were their neighbors and that they lived among them. And the people of Israel set out and reached their cities on the third day. Now their cities were Gibeon, Chephirah, Beeroth, and Kiriath- jearim. But the people of Israel did not attack them, because the leaders of the congregation had sworn to them by the LORD, the God of Israel. Then all the congregation murmured against the leaders. But all the leaders said to all the congregation, "We have sworn to them by the LORD, the God of Israel, and now we may not touch them. This we will do to them: let them live, lest wrath be upon us, because of the oath that we swore to them." And the leaders said to them, "Let them live." So they became cutters of wood and drawers of water for all the congregation, just as the leaders had said of them. Joshua summoned them, and he said to them, "Why did you deceive us, saying, 'We are very far from you,' when you dwell among us? Now therefore you are cursed, and some of you shall never be anything but servants, cutters of wood and drawers of water for the house of my God." They answered Joshua, "Because it was told to your servants for a certainty that the LORD your God had commanded his servant Moses to give you all the land and to destroy all the inhabitants of the land from before you--so we feared greatly for our lives because of you and did this thing. And now, behold, we are in your hand. Whatever seems good and right in your sight to do to us, do it." So he did this to them and delivered them out of the hand of the people of Israel, and they did not kill them. But Joshua made them that day cutters of wood and drawers of water for the congregation and for the altar of the LORD, to this day, in the place that he should choose.
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