October 26, 2025 • 42 mins
A ragged caravan, cracked wineskins, and a story that won’t let go: Joshua 9 shows what happens when clever deception meets unprayed decisions. We walk through the Gibeonite ruse, the leaders’ oath, and the shocking part—God holds Israel to a promise they never should have made. From there we map a crucial framework most of us feel but rarely name: the difference between a promise, a contract, and a covenant. One rests on honesty, one on justice, and one on relationship. To anchor it, we revisit God’s covenant with Abraham—God alone walking between the pieces—and see how that grace explains both the cross and our call to be people whose yes means yes.
The conversation turns practical fast. Israel discovers the lie within three days but refuses revenge because they swore before the Lord. Centuries later, a famine exposes Saul’s breach of that same covenant, proving that words echo across generations. We explore how this tension lands in modern life: marriage vows as a Spirit-sealed covenant, church membership as a pledge of spiritual family, and everyday commitments that shape character. Integrity is costly, but it can be worship—a way to honor God when keeping your word hurts more than breaking it. We offer concrete counsel on praying before you sign, inviting wise voices into big decisions, and guarding your speech so your future isn’t mortgaged by hasty promises.
If you’re craving a deeper, sturdier view of commitment—rooted in Scripture, honest about pain, and rich with hope—this one will steady your steps. Listen, reflect, and share with someone who needs courage to keep a hard promise today. If this helped you, follow the show, leave a review, and tell a friend what stood out most.
If you want to learn more about the MidTree story or connect with us, go to our website HERE or text us at 812-MID-TREE.
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SPEAKER_00 (00:47):
All right, um, so Joshua 9 3.
But when the inhabitants ofGibeon heard what Joshua had
done to Jericho and to Ai, theyon their they on their part
acted with cunning and went andmade ready provisions and took
worn-out sacks for their donkeysand wineskins worn out and torn
and mended, with worn outpatched sandals on their feet,
(01:09):
and worn out clothes, and alltheir provisions were dry and
crumbly.
And they went to Joshua in thecamp of Gilgal and said to him
and to the men of Israel, Wehave come from a distant
country, so now make a covenantwith us.
Jumping to verse 14.
So the men took some of theirprovisions, but did did not ask
counsel from the Lord.
(01:30):
And Joshua made peace with themand made a covenant with them to
let them live, and the leadersof the congregation swore to
them.
This is the word of the Lord.
Amen.
Thank you, Rob.
SPEAKER_02 (01:40):
Much appreciated.
All right, guys.
So if you're if you've beenplaying along at home, what
you've realized is we just wentback in time.
Uh we did Joshua 10 last week.
We're doing Joshua 9 this week.
We don't typically do that.
Uh there are two reasons.
One, I wanted you to kind ofknow what it was that happened
that led to this text that we'regonna read.
(02:02):
And the other one was I reallywanted to teach chapter 10 with
Thomas, and he's doing a weddingthis weekend.
And so we flopped them.
There's not a huge theologicalreason for us to go out of
order.
However, what we see in Joshuachapter 9 is this really great
narrative, and it has somethingto say about the words that come
out of our mouths, and I thinkit has something to say about
(02:25):
the commitments that we make.
One of the great things aboutchapter nine is it is just a
beautiful narrative story.
So, what I kind of want you toimagine sometimes I try to tell
you guys how I'm going to preacha text.
This is a little bit lesspreaching and a little bit more
teaching.
Uh, this is a Sunday morningwhere maybe you can grow in your
(02:45):
ability to study your Bible,understand your Bible, but it is
also a Sunday where hopefullyyou feel like you're in Miss
Chamberlain's first grade class,sitting on the rug when she
brings out the huge storybookand she starts reading this
story in front of you.
That was my first grade teacher.
I don't know who yours was.
And you're just kind of, it'slike you're just kind of cozying
(03:06):
in, and it's story time.
That really is how I think weought to feel as we hop into
Joshua chapter nine.
So let me give you what I findto be one of the most
fascinating but unknown storiesin the Old Testament that has
massive ramifications for ustoday.
As soon as all the kings whowere beyond the Jordan in the
hill country and in the lowland,all along the coast of the Great
(03:29):
Sea toward Lebanon, theHittites, the Amorites, the
Canaanites, the Perizzites, theHivites, the Jebisites heard of
this, they gathered together asone to fight against Joshua and
Israel.
This is what we talked about.
This big battle that happenedand the prayer that came
forward, where Joshua has thissmall prayer offered in public
(03:51):
that God honors, which is why wespent so much time on prayer
last week.
What comes next is what led upto those things.
And here's how Joshua 9 breaksdown.
Thomas does this frequently, andI do not, but it was a gift last
week.
So I thought I would do it.
In verses 1 to 13, there's goingto be a lie, a fabrication of
the truth.
(04:12):
Then we're going to see afailure, a fallout, and what
happens in the future fromthere.
If you're a note taker, you'llsee it on the bottom left of the
slides as we continue on.
All right, so verse 3.
When the inhabitants of Gibeon,this is called the Gibeonite
deception, in many of yourBibles, if there are subtitles
above verse one, but when theinhabitants of Gibeon heard what
(04:34):
Joshua had done to Jericho,march around, blow a couple of
trumpets, and one of thegreatest fortresses of the known
world crumbles, when they heardwhat he had done to Ai, they on
their part acted with cunningand they hatched up a little
scheme.
This is what they do.
(04:54):
They look and they're like, bythe way, if you remember from
chapter 9, the Gibeonites werethe most mighty of the six
remaining kingdoms that we see.
So when the other five realizethe Gibeonites have gone to make
a pact with Israel, that's whythey get so irritated.
It would be as though themilitary said, Hey, we're just
not going to hang out with you.
We're going to hang out withthem.
It's like, well, kind of, you'rekind of a big deal.
(05:17):
And they had the largest army,the greatest fighting men.
That's the way the text treatsit.
And so they come up with thisplan.
We do not want to fight againstthe kind of people that walk
around walls and then they falldown.
We do not want to fight againstthe kind of people when they
walk up to a river, God justrips it open and they walk
through.
We don't want to fight thosekind of people.
So let's make a covenant withthem.
Let's make a promise with them.
(05:38):
But the Gibeonites also knewthis.
Israel was not allowed tobefriend them.
Israel was not allowed to bringthem in.
We've talked about this in theweeks ahead, but because inner
marriage would definitely leadto idol worship, it would lead
to the people of God havingtheir hearts led astray.
God basically looked at him andhe said, This is not going to be
(05:59):
good for you.
You need a fresh start.
It would have been like Noahopening the door and letting
folks in.
Joshua 9, verse 4.
They on their part acted withcunning, and here's what they
did.
They went and made readyprovisions and took worn out
sacks for their donkeys andwineskins, worn out and torn and
mended, with worn out andpatched sandals on their feet
(06:21):
and worn out clothes, and alltheir provisions were dry and
crumbly.
And they went to Joshua in thecamp at Gilgal and they said to
him and to the men of Israel, Wehave come from a distant
country.
So now make a covenant with us.
If I take this passage and Ibreak it out, I haven't changed
any of the words.
I put a couple of things in boldand I've changed the alignment.
(06:41):
I want you to look at how hardthat how much trouble they went
to to make this lie work.
They probably get the olderlooking donkeys.
They go and get wineskins.
Some of you will remember aparable that Jesus tells about
the wineskins.
They burst over time.
They would have been made ofleather.
They went and got leather thatwas torn and tattered and dried
(07:03):
out.
They put on old clothing thathas been intentionally torn and
then restitched.
Their chacos are busting apartand their clothes look horrible.
When you look at their food,it's two, three, four weeks old.
And this is how they show up toJoshua.
And here's what they say.
The men of Israel said to theHivites, Perhaps you live among
(07:28):
us.
Then how can we make a covenantwith you?
Everybody just freeze for aminute.
Look at verse 7 on your own.
Just quietly read verse 7 toyourself.
Sometimes in life we have thismoment of pause.
(07:49):
And we choose in that moment toeither be a person of conviction
that says, This is somethingseems a little off here.
It might just be my emotions.
Maybe I didn't have a greatbreakfast.
Maybe the Holy Spirit isbringing something to my
attention.
And God gives us this sort oflittle emotional, spiritual,
(08:11):
mental pause for us to decidewhat we're going to do.
And we have to decide, am Igoing to just, ah, I don't want
to overthink it.
I've got a busy life, myschedule's full, it'd be more
convenient.
And I just want you to see verseseven.
Because if verse seven goes alittle bit differently, all of
history changes.
(08:32):
But they have this moment ofpause.
And it's important that theBible captures this for us.
What if these people aren'ttelling the truth?
And Joshua and the leaders ofIsrael, they kind of look at
each other and they're like, Imean, that Stanley Cup is really
busted up.
And that Tiva is torn in half.
This car is bumping along likeit's got two spark plugs in it.
(08:56):
What are the odds that thesepeople actually came from near?
These people have been travelingfor months to get to us.
And in verse 7, they miss itbecause they don't do one thing
that we pointed to last week.
Why do you think Joshua was sogood at praying in chapter 10?
Because he really screwed it upin chapter 9.
(09:19):
Really screwed it up in chapter9.
Perhaps you live among us.
How could we make a covenantwith you?
And they said, they said toJoshua, we're your servants.
And uh, we're your servants.
And Joshua said, Who are you?
Where do you come from?
I I've got to I've got to atleast ask a couple of questions
here.
And they said, Oh, well, we comefrom um uh a very distant place.
(09:40):
Like they can't even name it,they can't even come up with a
fake name from imaginary land, avery different country.
Your servants have come becauseof the name of the Lord your
God.
For we have heard a report ofhim.
These people know their history.
The Gibeonites are not dumb.
They may be deceitful, but theyare not dumb.
(10:02):
We know what he did in Egypt.
This would have been many yearsago.
We know what he did to the twokings of the Amorites who were
beyond the Jordan, to Sihon, theking of Heshbon, to Ag the king
of Bashan, who lived inAsheroth.
So our elders and all, by theway, they're gonna add more in a
minute.
So our elders and all theinhabitants of our country said
to us, Take provisions in yourhand for the journey and go and
(10:23):
meet them and say to them, Weare your servants, come now and
make a covenant with us.
Here's our bread.
It was still warm when we tookit from our houses as our food
from the journey, on the day weset out to come to you.
But now, behold, it's dry andcrumbly.
(10:43):
These wineskins, this StanleyCup was brand new when I left.
But now it's all busted up.
These garments, the sandals ofours, they're all worn out from
the long journey.
So the men, this is referring toGod's people, took of some of
their provisions.
Let's take a look, but did notask counsel from the Lord.
(11:10):
You want to know how to become areally good prayer?
Screw it up once in a major way.
Okay?
It is not what I would advocateas the best way to do it, but
this is one of the reasons Ithink Joshua's prayer is so
miraculously answered in thefollowing chapter.
Because what ends up happening?
Joshua made peace with them, andhe made a covenant with them to
(11:33):
let them live, and the leadersof the congregation swore to
them.
They put so much effort intothis lie.
They portray to be somethingthat they are not, and their
deception works.
God allows his people to befooled, would be the subtitle
(11:54):
here.
Because of their lack ofdiligence, God absolutely allows
it, even though they had thismoment in verse 7 where they
were like, Maybe you live amongus.
Here's a question for you as wemove forward.
Is there a difference?
Promise, contract, covenant.
Now, here's the reason I bringthat up.
(12:15):
The word here, there are threethings that Joshua does.
He makes peace, he enters into acovenant, and he swears to them.
All three of these things arehigh-level promises.
And so I just want you to thinkfor a minute, how would you uh
put discrepancy between thesethree words in your life?
By the way, you did this whenyou were seven years old.
(12:37):
You didn't know you were doingit, but you did it.
I'll tell you how that workedout in a minute.
What's the difference in apromise?
What's the difference in acontract, and what's the
difference in a covenant?
Let me give you just a littlebit of a biblical education on
this.
Let's hit pause from our story.
A promise is you saying, I will.
I will do something.
By the way, you do this all thetime.
Some of us don't consider it tobe a promise unless we end the
(12:59):
sentence with, or we begin thesentence with, I promise, okay?
Jesus doesn't work that way.
Just so you know.
Uh, if you're if you don't learnanything else from this morning,
learn this.
It doesn't work that way, okay?
If you say, I will be there attwo, okay, like you're telling
(13:20):
somebody you're gonna be thereat two.
Now, we see this in Proverbs 12,22, lying lips, an abomination.
That's that's a word that theBible does not use lightly.
Lying lips are an abomination tothe Lord, but those who act
faithfully are his delight.
Now, when Jesus is doing theSermon on the Mount, he makes
this incredible teaching inMatthew chapter 5.
(13:40):
I just want you to realize whatGod had given his people in
Proverbs many, many yearsbefore.
Jesus reiterates and then goesinto depth in Matthew 5.
Many of you have read this, butin the event that you need the
reminder, here is what Jesuswould think of our promises.
Again, you have heard that itwas said to those of old, you
shall not swear falsely, butshall perform to the Lord what
(14:03):
you have sworn.
Just notice these words.
But I say to you, do not take anoath at all, either by heaven,
for it's the throne of God, orby the earth, for it is his
footstool, or by Jerusalem, forit's the city of the great king.
Don't take an oath by your head,for you cannot make one hair
white or black.
Let what you say be yes or no.
(14:25):
Keep it simple, like yourprayers, anything more than this
comes from evil.
When I say anything more, whenGod says anything more than this
comes from evil, what's hepointing to?
That if you say, I promise I'llbe there, that you have sort of
erred into sin and need torepent?
No.
What it's saying is, disciples,this is who he's talking to,
some disciples, I want you to bethe kind of people where you
(14:47):
just say, I'll be there, I'll dothis, I'll say this, I'll carry
this, I will cover this.
And nobody needs you to sayanything else.
Your character is of such highesteem and value.
You have lived a life ofintegrity and faithfulness and
rapport to the point thatsomebody would say, if Will says
(15:09):
something, it's gonna happen.
If Jonathan says something, it'sgoing to pass.
If Sarah says this, she means itwhen she says it.
Now, here's what I mean when Isay all of you did this when you
were seven years old.
Okay?
How many of you already knowwhere I'm going?
Okay, a couple?
All right.
You're uh let's say it's secondgrade.
(15:30):
Second grade, a month from now,Christmas is coming up.
And you're sitting at a tablewith some of your classmates and
you're talking about Christmasgifts, and you say, I'm getting
a PlayStation 6 for Christmas.
And the person in the deck desknext to you says, No, you're
not.
What do you say next?
I you start with what?
(15:52):
I promise.
I promise.
I'm getting one.
I'm getting a PlayStation 6 forChristmas.
You're not, okay?
They only made two of them.
You're not getting one of them.
What do you say next?
I swear.
Okay, you remember this?
Now some of you won't evenrepeat the next part because it
hits home so hard.
If they don't believe you whenyou said when you said, I swear,
(16:12):
what comes next?
I swear to God.
Now, I I just want you to noticedid some of you feel the drop
when I said, I swear to God?
Okay, even me saying it nowcauses this sort of why where
does that come from?
Why is it that when we invokeGod's name, all of a sudden the
(16:36):
whole tone changes?
I promise I'm getting aPlayStation 6.
Nobody cares.
I swear.
I swear to God.
Why?
Because whether you realize itor not, and and I'll be honest
with you, my theology isn't wideenough or big enough or deep
(16:56):
enough to explain this.
I don't know if you have to be aChristian to feel this, or if
it's written into the Imago Day,or if it is something that the
Holy Spirit, when in your life,sort of activates.
But when I feel that weight, itis telling me that there is a
truth that has been writtenbefore time began, that when
(17:16):
God's name is invoked, itchanges everything.
And I wanted you to feel thatbecause that is what we see.
You see, when we make a promise,what we're basically saying is,
I will do something.
And that promise is rootedsimply in that person's honesty.
If they're an honest person, youhave a high degree of
confidence.
If they're not an honest person,you may question it.
(17:39):
When we move down, it continuesto expand the weight.
If we want to look at acontract, one of my favorites is
in Ruth.
This is not Boaz purchasingRuth.
This is a land agreement, butnotice the contractual language.
Boaz had gone up to the gate andhe sat down there.
The gate was where business wasdone.
Behold, the redeemer of whomBoaz had spoken came by.
(18:02):
So Boaz said, Turn aside,friend, sit down here.
He's the other person with avested interest in this
property.
And he turned aside and satdown.
He took ten men of the elders.
Let's get a quorum so we canhave a business presiding that
is official.
Sit down here.
They sit down.
Verse 3.
He said to the Redeemer, Naomi,who has come back from the
(18:23):
country of Moab, is selling theparcel of land that belonged to
our relative Elimelech.
So the contract works this way.
If you will, then I will, and Iwant you to watch it play out.
So I thought I would tell you,and I would say, buy it in the
presence of those sitting hereand in the presence of the
elders of my people.
If you will redeem it, redeemit, if you will not tell me that
(18:48):
I may, this is a contract.
This is Boaz saying in front ofpeople, this is bigger than a
promise.
This is bigger than just basedon our honesty.
There are there are stipulationsif one of us breaks this
contract.
Tell me that I may know, forthere is no one beside you to
redeem it, and I come after you.
And he said, Hey, I'll take theland.
(19:08):
Sounds like a good deal.
And then Boaz says, Well, justone real quick thing.
You don't know this, but there'sthis incredibly God-fearing,
beautiful woman who has livedone of the most reputable lives
of anyone on the planet.
That is not the way he pitchesRuth.
The day you buy the field fromthe hand of Naomi, you will get
Ruth the Moabite.
Oh, goodness.
(19:29):
You don't want that, do you,bud?
Then the Redeemer said, I can'tredeem it for myself.
I'll impure my I don't wantthat.
If it was just land, I wouldtake it.
I don't want the responsibility.
And so a contract is struck.
And to confirm the transaction,he took off his shoe and he gave
it to him, and he lost one ofhis Sicconis that day.
But he was good with it becauseit showed that forever we have
(19:51):
agreed, the elders have seenthis is a contract.
If you will do this, then I willdo that.
This is rooted in justice.
It feels bigger.
When somebody breaks a promiseto you, it hurts.
When somebody breaks a contract,you thought you were going to
get the house, and thensomebody, it there should be
this bigger feel because itfeels like injustice was done.
(20:15):
We had already agreed.
We had sat down.
We had made a plan because itwas a contract.
If you'll do this, then I'll dothis.
If I do this, then you'll dothat.
And it is rooted in justice.
But Joshua doesn't strike withthe Gibeonites a promise nor a
contract.
He gives them a covenant.
A covenant is when we say tosomeone, I am yours and you are
(20:40):
mine.
This is bigger, this is deeper,this is wider, this is greater.
We see this in Genesis 17.
God says, I'm gonna establish mycovenant between me and you and
your offspring after you throughtheir generations for an
everlasting covenant brought uptwice here to be God to you and
your offspring after you.
Now, I don't know if youremember this.
Let me tell you a little story.
(21:01):
I gave you a picture in the topright corner to be a memory jog.
God looks at Abraham and hesays, For no reason other than
the simple fact that I love you,I'm gonna enter into a covenant
with you.
I'm not promising.
I'm not just saying I'm gonna dothis.
I'm not entering into acontract.
If you'll do this, then I'll dothis.
There's a sacrifice that is laiddown and it's torn in half.
(21:21):
Why?
Because when you make acovenant, it's a bigger deal
than a promise or a contract.
You're not just saying I'm gonnado this if I am yours.
You are mine.
And what's supposed to happen isboth parties walk between the
sacrifice.
It's a bigger deal than handingsomebody your shoe.
All right?
And what does it mean?
(21:41):
It means if I do not honor whatI said I would honor when I told
you I was yours and you aremine, may it be to me as it has
been to the sacrifice.
If I don't honor my covenant, Iought to be torn in half.
Bonus points to the camp store.
If somebody will be willing totell me what happens next in
(22:02):
this story.
God walks right through it.
Abraham does not walk through.
A fire and a smoking pot, by theway, flame and smoke would have
been how God presented himself.
God tears it in half, and hesays, Abraham, don't move.
And God walks right through thebroken sacrifice.
(22:25):
Why?
Because here's what God's sayingI am yours and you are mine.
And when you do not hold up yourend of this, bigger than
promise, bigger than contract,covenant, you're not gonna be
the one who gets torn in half.
I will.
Genesis 17, the cross, it's ondisplay.
It's God looking at a people andsaying, I love you so much.
(22:49):
I want you to be mine, and Iwant to be yours, and I know
you're not gonna live up tothis.
So when you don't, I will tearmyself in half.
And we see it in Genesis, and wesee it in the Exodus, and we see
it in Jeremiah, we see it allthe way in the book of
Revelation.
This new covenant that God hasmade with his people.
Behold, the dwelling place ofGod is with man.
(23:11):
I am yours and you are mine,forever and all millennia, with
no sin attached.
He will dwell with them, andthey will be his people, and God
himself will be with them astheir God.
Christians in the room, this isthe greatest of promises.
Broken as you are, God holdstogether the covenant.
(23:32):
If you are not a believer inthis room and you are wondering
what's unique aboutChristianity, all these
religions talk about my sin andmy brokenness.
Here's what's different.
In every other religion, youhave to walk through the
brokenness.
In every other religion, youhave to be torn in half.
In Christianity, God says, I'vegot it.
I've got it covered in a way younever would have been able to
cover it.
Do you want the gift of notbeing torn in half when you
(23:55):
deserve to be?
This is the difference.
A covenant is I am yours and youare mine, and it is rooted in a
relationship.
And that brings us to thefallout.
At the end of three days afterthey had made a covenant with
them, they heard that they, theGibeonites, were their neighbors
(24:15):
and lived among them.
Anybody want to guess how farthese people lived away?
Anybody want to guess?
20 miles.
Some of you drew drove furtherthan that to get to church.
Okay?
20 miles.
That's it.
By the way, you could walk it inabout a day and a half, okay?
The the fabrication they put ondisplay was, if it wasn't so
(24:37):
sinful, quite impressive,actually.
And they pull it off.
But God's people figure it out.
Now, I don't need, please don'tanswer this one out loud.
When someone lies to you, whatdo you want to do?
Uh, it didn't repent.
That's what you want to do afterwhat you do, okay?
What do you want to do?
You want justice, right?
(24:58):
Because that's what a contractis.
You want them to be honest andyou want them to hear the
honesty of their dishonesty.
That's a promise.
But if somebody breaks acovenant, you told me you were
mine and I was yours, and thatis not what played out.
What do you want to do?
Well, I'll tell you what God'speople wanted to do.
The people of Israel sat out andreached their cities.
(25:18):
They're like, it's going down.
Everybody head to theGibeonites.
Let's go.
We're gonna go deal with thesefolks.
Now their cities were Gibeon,Cheraph, Beerath, and Kirajirim.
But the people of Israel did notattack them.
They're angry, they're hot,their faces are red, we've been
fooled in the sight of theworld.
(25:39):
And they marched, by the way, itwould have been uphill the
entire way, 20 miles, to getthere.
But they did not attack thembecause the leaders of the
congregation had sworn to them.
They didn't just swear, theyswore to God they wouldn't touch
them.
Then the congregation gotirritated with Joshua and the
(26:02):
elders.
You see, they step in and theysay, Look, we cannot bring about
the wrath that we want to,because we didn't just promise
them.
We didn't just make a contractthat we can breach and deal with
the ramifications.
We have looked them eye to eyeand we have said, I am yours and
you are mine.
(26:23):
They wanted to absolutelydestroy them, and here is the
finality of it (26:26):
the future.
Joshua summoned them, and hesaid to them, Why did you
deceive us, saying, We are veryfar from you and you dwell 20
miles away?
Now, therefore, you are cursed.
Some of you will never beanything but servants, cutters
of wood and drawers of water forthe house of my God.
(26:49):
How do you think the Gibeonitesrespond when somebody says, All
right, since you did this, fine,we won't kill you.
Fine, I am yours and you aremine.
Which is why last week inchapter 10, they went to defend
him.
All they said here was, We won'tkill you, but when you enter
into a covenant, you enter intoa relationship.
And it doesn't matter how madyou are at your little brother,
(27:12):
when the neighbor starts pickingon him, you go and you deal with
the neighbor because you are inrelationship with him.
And that's what happens here.
He says, You're not gonna beanything but servants.
Y'all are gonna get really goodat cutting wood and drawing
water because that is going tobe your future.
And they look at Joshua and theysaid, Look, because it was told
(27:33):
to your servants for a certaintythat the Lord your God had
commanded his servant Moses togive you all the land, because
it was certain that you wouldhave destroyed all the
inhabitants of the land frombefore you, we were afraid, and
we did this thing.
Now, I don't want to give like apretty silver little lining to
(27:55):
something that doesn't exist,but I will tell you this sounds
an awful lot like faith to me.
I am certain your God is who hesays he is.
I'm sure of it.
We've heard the stories fromMoses all the way forward.
I just didn't want to die.
You will find out that thesepeople never fold themselves
into God's people.
You will find that they neverturn from faith in a meaningful
(28:19):
way.
And now God's people have made apromise to do the very thing God
told them not to do.
Behold, we are in your hand, theGibeonites say, Whatever seems
good, whatever seems right inyour sight to do to us, do it.
So he did this to them, and hedeli delivered them out of the
hand of the people of Israel,and they did not kill them.
(28:41):
But Joshua made them that daycutters of wood and drawers of
water for the congregation andfor the altar of the Lord to
this day in the place that heshould choose.
Let me give you two littleapplications as we look at this
text.
When you realize who you are andwho God is, this word gets an
(29:06):
awful lot easier to deal with.
Some of you will never beanything but servants because
you don't deserve to be anythingmore than servants.
The more we know who God is, themore we realize who we are, the
less we have a problem beingservants for all of our days.
Christian, that really should beyour demeanor as you look at
(29:26):
this text.
There's not a lot to learn fromthe Gibeonites.
They're liars and they'redeceivers, but they're shrewd
and they're thoughtful.
And they realize I can either beon the wrong side of this God,
or I can be on the non-wrathfulside of this God.
And if it means I'm cutting woodall of my days, so be it.
Christians, this is the kind offreedom we put in the hands of
the Lord.
Whatever it is that you wantfrom me, you have rescued me
(29:48):
from death.
If you want me to be adoorholder, I'll be a
doorholder.
Whatever it is that you wantfrom me.
But the second thing that I wantyou to ask yourself is this God
chastises them for not seekinghim before they made this
covenant.
They didn't pray.
So the men did not ask counselof the Lord.
In another situation in Isaiah,we read God's opinion.
(30:08):
Ah, stubborn children, declaresthe Lord, who carry out a plan
but not mine, who make analliance but not of my spirit.
Why, when you know what I wantyou to do, do you do the
opposite thing and think it'sgoing to go well for you?
But this is my question.
How is God going to chastisethem for keeping this new
covenant?
God told him, You cannot make acovenant with these people.
(30:31):
You must destroy them.
And now they make a covenant andthey choose not to destroy them.
How is God going to deal withhis people?
What do you think is going tohappen here?
Here's let me let me make itless theological.
Does God want them to honortheir Word when doing so cause
them to break their word to God.
What do you do here?
You ever found yourself in asituation like this?
(30:52):
You just talked a little bit toomuch and you should shut your
mouth, and now you've talkedyour way into kind of a
difficult situation.
What is it that you're supposedto do?
To find the answer to thisquestion, you have to go four
hundred years in the future.
Check this out.
Now there was a famine in thedays of David for three years.
(31:15):
In case you don't know, thatmeans a lot of people died.
Okay?
A famine back then for threeyears, people are dying.
Year after year.
It's consecutive.
I have an issue with the nextstatement because it says, and
David sought the face of theLord.
I don't know why he waited threeyears.
I think that's like a week threetype of a situation.
But for whatever reason, afterthree years, David's like, oh
(31:37):
yeah, prayer, it's kind of animportant thing.
I remember stories from Joshua.
I don't know if that's exactlyhow it played out, but it seems
like how it reads.
And the Lord said, There isblood guilt on Saul and on his
house.
Because 400 years after thispromise was made, they broke it.
God expects them to honor theirword, even when they made it in
(32:00):
a way that he would not havepreferred for them.
Even when they do it in a waythat is not their best.
And what ends up happening hereis seven family seven heads of
Saul's family are killed.
God puts a famine on his peoplefor not honoring a covenant they
made, even though making thatcovenant went against what God
(32:22):
had wanted for them.
This is for Christians andnon-Christians.
Your words today forecast yourweather tomorrow in ways that
you do not even understand.
400 years from now, if the Lordtarries, the things you say, I'm
not even talking about thethings you do, the things you
(32:44):
say will have massiveramifications on the future of
you and your family.
And I don't want you to missthis.
God expects his people to honortheir word even when it wasn't
his best option, even when theywere deceived when they made it,
even when everyone else wouldexcuse them, even when a lot of
(33:04):
time has passed, and even whenother whoops, others turn out
not to be who they said.
I'll fix it for service too.
How many covenants do you enterinto in today's day and age?
I can think of two.
(33:26):
Uh Matthew, Catherine, or yeah.
These are your vows.
Uh Gracie and uh Zach areserving in kids' ministry.
They'll be these are their vows.
This is what it looks like tomake a covenant in 2025.
This and church membership.
These are the covenants we livein, and I just want you to
(33:46):
notice them.
I take you to be my husband, tohave and to hold from this day
forward, for better or forworse, for richer, for poorer,
whether we're sick or whetherwe're healthy, to love and to
cherish until death do us part.
(34:08):
I give you my promise.
It's not actually what it says.
A lot of times nowadays peoplewant to write their own vows,
and I have to say, I'm cool withthat, but you've got to give
them to me first.
Because my job as a pastor is tomake sure it goes above.
We'll watch whatever you want towatch on Netflix at night.
(34:29):
It's gotta go beyond, we'll eatat the restaurants you like.
All right, we'll always laughtogether, right?
No offense, it's garbage, it's agarbage voice.
I swear to God.
That is what elevateseverything.
(34:50):
And when you invoke God's name,it changes every promise you
make.
Why in Malachi is this guycovering the Lord's altar with
tears?
He's weeping and he's groaningbecause God no longer regards
(35:10):
him.
Verse 14.
Why does he not?
Because the Lord was witnessbetween you and the wife of your
youth to whom you have beenfaithless.
Though she is your companion andyour wife by covenant.
And if you feel like I'm addingto God's word, did he not make
them one with a portion of thespirit in their union?
(35:34):
When we stand and we say, tohave and to hold from this day
forward as God is my witness,what scripture is saying is he
is putting his hand on that.
He is attaching himself to this.
He, like he did with Abraham, isattaching himself.
If we look in Matthew, and thePharisees come up to Jesus just
to be difficult because they'repunks of people.
(35:56):
Jesus, divorce, how does itwork?
Can we divorce for any reason?
He answered, Have you not readthat he who created them from
the beginning made a male andfemale?
And he said, Therefore a manshall leave his father and his
mother, hold fast to his wife,the two shall become one flesh.
We talk about that all the time,but do you know what comes next?
They're no longer two but one.
God has joined them together.
(36:17):
What sense does it make for manto separate something?
God has joined.
When we invoke the name of God,everything changes, which means
God expects.
This is, by the way, not a texton marriage, but there are only
two ways that I can apply thisdeeply.
When we make a commitment to oneanother in membership, which is
not a silly little thing.
(36:38):
We're saying, I'm yours andyou're mine.
I'm gonna cheer you on and I'mgonna weep with you.
This is God saying we are familynow.
You don't share blood, but youshare my spirit.
And by the way, when you getmarried as a Christian, as God
is my witness, you share in myspirit there as well.
God expects his people to honortheir word.
God expects husbands to honortheir word.
He expects wives to honor theirword even when it wasn't his
(37:02):
best option.
I married somebody that Ithought it was a believer and
they're not a believer.
1 Corinthians chapter 9.
I'll be happy to grab coffeewith you and talk through that
if you would like.
God expects people to honortheir word even when they were
deceived.
He's not who he said he was.
Yeah, well, none of us are.
She's not who she said she was.
(37:23):
Yeah, none of none of them are.
Even when everybody else wouldexcuse them and welcome to a
world where that is true.
Everybody will tell you to justgo and be happy.
It makes sense.
If I was in your shoes, Godexpects his people to honor
their word even when a lot oftime has passed.
It's been 40 years.
(37:43):
Yeah, well, God held themaccountable for a hundred years.
Tell you what, your marriagegets to 401, I'll give you a
pass.
Even that's not true either.
If somehow there's a uhmethusela among us.
Even when others turn out not tobe who they said they were, and
none of us are.
(38:09):
Stokes, if you want to go aheadand come up and lead us in
worship.
Christians, if you're if you'rea non-Christian, all I want you
to hear today is that Jesus iswilling to be ripped in half so
that you can have a relationshipwith the Father.
If you want to talk more aboutthat, it is literally as simple
as you praying, yeah, God, Iaccept that sacrifice.
I need the forgiveness of mysins.
(38:30):
And if you want help with that,any believing Christian in the
pews would help you with that.
And we'll have a couple ofpastors on the back porch if you
want to join us.
But Christians, keeping apainful oath does not remove the
pain.
It's not as though if you say,I'm gonna keep it, six months
later, it's gone.
This was difficult for God'speople for centuries.
(38:54):
You being a person of integrityis as costly as it is expected.
This is what God expects of you.
And keeping a hard promise isnot weakness, but worship.
And if I could give you onetidbit, again, this is not on
marriage.
What I would really want you todo is think about your words.
What I would really want you todo is before you sign the dotted
(39:16):
line, pray.
I would want you to invite, asProverbs 15 says, counsel in.
I would want you to thinkthrough your friends in your
inner circles.
Uh by the way, if you're ateenager in the room, if you're
a young adult in the room, ifyou're pre-married in the room,
you need to think about yourfriendships the way a lot of
people think about theirmarriages because they're going
to inform a lot.
Be careful who you link yourselfwith, even with words like, I
(39:38):
will always be there.
We will BFF or whatever else itis.
I want you to think through yourfriendships.
I think this is a text forparents to train their kids.
When we say something, we meanit.
It doesn't matter if we promiseor if we swear, we are
Christians who are called to bepeople of integrity.
I would want you to think aboutchurch life and literally being
committed, not just saying, Istood up and now I'm a member,
(40:00):
so let's just no, we arecommitted.
We are a family.
I would want you to know thatwhen you are deceived, there is
a way that you are expected togo forward.
But I will tell you this this isthe only choice you have on this
side of heaven for it to gowell.
And if you will choose to allow,when you have been deceived, you
keep a hard promise, not to seeit as weakness, but as worship,
(40:21):
all that happens is you move itaround and you say, I am going
to worship God in the brokennessof my poor decisions, their poor
decisions, life not working outthe way I want it to.
I am gonna choose to worship.
And in choosing to worship allof the hard things, you're still
gonna feel weak, but it turnsinto something that can be a
strength.
This is not a sermon aboutdivorce and remarriage, we can
(40:43):
talk about that.
This is a sermon about yourwords matter.
Because the world's gonna tellyou one thing, and I just want
you to see God's word.
He's gonna tell you somethingvery, very different.
So let's be a people who use ourwords.
But when we do, let's be honestwith them.
And if we are struggling to keepour vows, if we are struggling
to keep our oaths, if integrityis costly, just realize it can
(41:06):
be worship as well, as we chooseto honor God even in the
brokenness and even in theweakness.
Do with that as you may, and letthe Holy Spirit lead us, and
Stokes you can lead us fromthere.
All right, um, so Joshua 9 3.
But when the inhabitants ofGibeon heard what Joshua had
done to Jericho and to Ai, theyon their they on their part
acted with cunning and went andmade ready provisions and took
worn-out sacks for their donkeysand wineskins worn out and torn
and mended, with worn outpatched sandals on their feet,
(01:09):
and worn out clothes, and alltheir provisions were dry and
crumbly.
And they went to Joshua in thecamp of Gilgal and said to him
and to the men of Israel, Wehave come from a distant
country, so now make a covenantwith us.
Jumping to verse 14.
So the men took some of theirprovisions, but did did not ask
counsel from the Lord.
(01:30):
And Joshua made peace with themand made a covenant with them to
let them live, and the leadersof the congregation swore to
them.
This is the word of the Lord.
Amen.
Thank you, Rob.
SPEAKER_02 (01:40):
Much appreciated.
All right, guys.
So if you're if you've beenplaying along at home, what
you've realized is we just wentback in time.
Uh we did Joshua 10 last week.
We're doing Joshua 9 this week.
We don't typically do that.
Uh there are two reasons.
One, I wanted you to kind ofknow what it was that happened
that led to this text that we'regonna read.
(02:02):
And the other one was I reallywanted to teach chapter 10 with
Thomas, and he's doing a weddingthis weekend.
And so we flopped them.
There's not a huge theologicalreason for us to go out of
order.
However, what we see in Joshuachapter 9 is this really great
narrative, and it has somethingto say about the words that come
out of our mouths, and I thinkit has something to say about
(02:25):
the commitments that we make.
One of the great things aboutchapter nine is it is just a
beautiful narrative story.
So, what I kind of want you toimagine sometimes I try to tell
you guys how I'm going to preacha text.
This is a little bit lesspreaching and a little bit more
teaching.
Uh, this is a Sunday morningwhere maybe you can grow in your
(02:45):
ability to study your Bible,understand your Bible, but it is
also a Sunday where hopefullyyou feel like you're in Miss
Chamberlain's first grade class,sitting on the rug when she
brings out the huge storybookand she starts reading this
story in front of you.
That was my first grade teacher.
I don't know who yours was.
And you're just kind of, it'slike you're just kind of cozying
(03:06):
in, and it's story time.
That really is how I think weought to feel as we hop into
Joshua chapter nine.
So let me give you what I findto be one of the most
fascinating but unknown storiesin the Old Testament that has
massive ramifications for ustoday.
As soon as all the kings whowere beyond the Jordan in the
hill country and in the lowland,all along the coast of the Great
(03:29):
Sea toward Lebanon, theHittites, the Amorites, the
Canaanites, the Perizzites, theHivites, the Jebisites heard of
this, they gathered together asone to fight against Joshua and
Israel.
This is what we talked about.
This big battle that happenedand the prayer that came
forward, where Joshua has thissmall prayer offered in public
(03:51):
that God honors, which is why wespent so much time on prayer
last week.
What comes next is what led upto those things.
And here's how Joshua 9 breaksdown.
Thomas does this frequently, andI do not, but it was a gift last
week.
So I thought I would do it.
In verses 1 to 13, there's goingto be a lie, a fabrication of
the truth.
(04:12):
Then we're going to see afailure, a fallout, and what
happens in the future fromthere.
If you're a note taker, you'llsee it on the bottom left of the
slides as we continue on.
All right, so verse 3.
When the inhabitants of Gibeon,this is called the Gibeonite
deception, in many of yourBibles, if there are subtitles
above verse one, but when theinhabitants of Gibeon heard what
(04:34):
Joshua had done to Jericho,march around, blow a couple of
trumpets, and one of thegreatest fortresses of the known
world crumbles, when they heardwhat he had done to Ai, they on
their part acted with cunningand they hatched up a little
scheme.
This is what they do.
(04:54):
They look and they're like, bythe way, if you remember from
chapter 9, the Gibeonites werethe most mighty of the six
remaining kingdoms that we see.
So when the other five realizethe Gibeonites have gone to make
a pact with Israel, that's whythey get so irritated.
It would be as though themilitary said, Hey, we're just
not going to hang out with you.
We're going to hang out withthem.
It's like, well, kind of, you'rekind of a big deal.
(05:17):
And they had the largest army,the greatest fighting men.
That's the way the text treatsit.
And so they come up with thisplan.
We do not want to fight againstthe kind of people that walk
around walls and then they falldown.
We do not want to fight againstthe kind of people when they
walk up to a river, God justrips it open and they walk
through.
We don't want to fight thosekind of people.
So let's make a covenant withthem.
Let's make a promise with them.
(05:38):
But the Gibeonites also knewthis.
Israel was not allowed tobefriend them.
Israel was not allowed to bringthem in.
We've talked about this in theweeks ahead, but because inner
marriage would definitely leadto idol worship, it would lead
to the people of God havingtheir hearts led astray.
God basically looked at him andhe said, This is not going to be
(05:59):
good for you.
You need a fresh start.
It would have been like Noahopening the door and letting
folks in.
Joshua 9, verse 4.
They on their part acted withcunning, and here's what they
did.
They went and made readyprovisions and took worn out
sacks for their donkeys andwineskins, worn out and torn and
mended, with worn out andpatched sandals on their feet
(06:21):
and worn out clothes, and alltheir provisions were dry and
crumbly.
And they went to Joshua in thecamp at Gilgal and they said to
him and to the men of Israel, Wehave come from a distant
country.
So now make a covenant with us.
If I take this passage and Ibreak it out, I haven't changed
any of the words.
I put a couple of things in boldand I've changed the alignment.
(06:41):
I want you to look at how hardthat how much trouble they went
to to make this lie work.
They probably get the olderlooking donkeys.
They go and get wineskins.
Some of you will remember aparable that Jesus tells about
the wineskins.
They burst over time.
They would have been made ofleather.
They went and got leather thatwas torn and tattered and dried
(07:03):
out.
They put on old clothing thathas been intentionally torn and
then restitched.
Their chacos are busting apartand their clothes look horrible.
When you look at their food,it's two, three, four weeks old.
And this is how they show up toJoshua.
And here's what they say.
The men of Israel said to theHivites, Perhaps you live among
(07:28):
us.
Then how can we make a covenantwith you?
Everybody just freeze for aminute.
Look at verse 7 on your own.
Just quietly read verse 7 toyourself.
Sometimes in life we have thismoment of pause.
(07:49):
And we choose in that moment toeither be a person of conviction
that says, This is somethingseems a little off here.
It might just be my emotions.
Maybe I didn't have a greatbreakfast.
Maybe the Holy Spirit isbringing something to my
attention.
And God gives us this sort oflittle emotional, spiritual,
(08:11):
mental pause for us to decidewhat we're going to do.
And we have to decide, am Igoing to just, ah, I don't want
to overthink it.
I've got a busy life, myschedule's full, it'd be more
convenient.
And I just want you to see verseseven.
Because if verse seven goes alittle bit differently, all of
history changes.
(08:32):
But they have this moment ofpause.
And it's important that theBible captures this for us.
What if these people aren'ttelling the truth?
And Joshua and the leaders ofIsrael, they kind of look at
each other and they're like, Imean, that Stanley Cup is really
busted up.
And that Tiva is torn in half.
This car is bumping along likeit's got two spark plugs in it.
(08:56):
What are the odds that thesepeople actually came from near?
These people have been travelingfor months to get to us.
And in verse 7, they miss itbecause they don't do one thing
that we pointed to last week.
Why do you think Joshua was sogood at praying in chapter 10?
Because he really screwed it upin chapter 9.
(09:19):
Really screwed it up in chapter9.
Perhaps you live among us.
How could we make a covenantwith you?
And they said, they said toJoshua, we're your servants.
And uh, we're your servants.
And Joshua said, Who are you?
Where do you come from?
I I've got to I've got to atleast ask a couple of questions
here.
And they said, Oh, well, we comefrom um uh a very distant place.
(09:40):
Like they can't even name it,they can't even come up with a
fake name from imaginary land, avery different country.
Your servants have come becauseof the name of the Lord your
God.
For we have heard a report ofhim.
These people know their history.
The Gibeonites are not dumb.
They may be deceitful, but theyare not dumb.
(10:02):
We know what he did in Egypt.
This would have been many yearsago.
We know what he did to the twokings of the Amorites who were
beyond the Jordan, to Sihon, theking of Heshbon, to Ag the king
of Bashan, who lived inAsheroth.
So our elders and all, by theway, they're gonna add more in a
minute.
So our elders and all theinhabitants of our country said
to us, Take provisions in yourhand for the journey and go and
(10:23):
meet them and say to them, Weare your servants, come now and
make a covenant with us.
Here's our bread.
It was still warm when we tookit from our houses as our food
from the journey, on the day weset out to come to you.
But now, behold, it's dry andcrumbly.
(10:43):
These wineskins, this StanleyCup was brand new when I left.
But now it's all busted up.
These garments, the sandals ofours, they're all worn out from
the long journey.
So the men, this is referring toGod's people, took of some of
their provisions.
Let's take a look, but did notask counsel from the Lord.
(11:10):
You want to know how to become areally good prayer?
Screw it up once in a major way.
Okay?
It is not what I would advocateas the best way to do it, but
this is one of the reasons Ithink Joshua's prayer is so
miraculously answered in thefollowing chapter.
Because what ends up happening?
Joshua made peace with them, andhe made a covenant with them to
(11:33):
let them live, and the leadersof the congregation swore to
them.
They put so much effort intothis lie.
They portray to be somethingthat they are not, and their
deception works.
God allows his people to befooled, would be the subtitle
(11:54):
here.
Because of their lack ofdiligence, God absolutely allows
it, even though they had thismoment in verse 7 where they
were like, Maybe you live amongus.
Here's a question for you as wemove forward.
Is there a difference?
Promise, contract, covenant.
Now, here's the reason I bringthat up.
(12:15):
The word here, there are threethings that Joshua does.
He makes peace, he enters into acovenant, and he swears to them.
All three of these things arehigh-level promises.
And so I just want you to thinkfor a minute, how would you uh
put discrepancy between thesethree words in your life?
By the way, you did this whenyou were seven years old.
(12:37):
You didn't know you were doingit, but you did it.
I'll tell you how that workedout in a minute.
What's the difference in apromise?
What's the difference in acontract, and what's the
difference in a covenant?
Let me give you just a littlebit of a biblical education on
this.
Let's hit pause from our story.
A promise is you saying, I will.
I will do something.
By the way, you do this all thetime.
Some of us don't consider it tobe a promise unless we end the
(12:59):
sentence with, or we begin thesentence with, I promise, okay?
Jesus doesn't work that way.
Just so you know.
Uh, if you're if you don't learnanything else from this morning,
learn this.
It doesn't work that way, okay?
If you say, I will be there attwo, okay, like you're telling
(13:20):
somebody you're gonna be thereat two.
Now, we see this in Proverbs 12,22, lying lips, an abomination.
That's that's a word that theBible does not use lightly.
Lying lips are an abomination tothe Lord, but those who act
faithfully are his delight.
Now, when Jesus is doing theSermon on the Mount, he makes
this incredible teaching inMatthew chapter 5.
(13:40):
I just want you to realize whatGod had given his people in
Proverbs many, many yearsbefore.
Jesus reiterates and then goesinto depth in Matthew 5.
Many of you have read this, butin the event that you need the
reminder, here is what Jesuswould think of our promises.
Again, you have heard that itwas said to those of old, you
shall not swear falsely, butshall perform to the Lord what
(14:03):
you have sworn.
Just notice these words.
But I say to you, do not take anoath at all, either by heaven,
for it's the throne of God, orby the earth, for it is his
footstool, or by Jerusalem, forit's the city of the great king.
Don't take an oath by your head,for you cannot make one hair
white or black.
Let what you say be yes or no.
(14:25):
Keep it simple, like yourprayers, anything more than this
comes from evil.
When I say anything more, whenGod says anything more than this
comes from evil, what's hepointing to?
That if you say, I promise I'llbe there, that you have sort of
erred into sin and need torepent?
No.
What it's saying is, disciples,this is who he's talking to,
some disciples, I want you to bethe kind of people where you
(14:47):
just say, I'll be there, I'll dothis, I'll say this, I'll carry
this, I will cover this.
And nobody needs you to sayanything else.
Your character is of such highesteem and value.
You have lived a life ofintegrity and faithfulness and
rapport to the point thatsomebody would say, if Will says
(15:09):
something, it's gonna happen.
If Jonathan says something, it'sgoing to pass.
If Sarah says this, she means itwhen she says it.
Now, here's what I mean when Isay all of you did this when you
were seven years old.
Okay?
How many of you already knowwhere I'm going?
Okay, a couple?
All right.
You're uh let's say it's secondgrade.
(15:30):
Second grade, a month from now,Christmas is coming up.
And you're sitting at a tablewith some of your classmates and
you're talking about Christmasgifts, and you say, I'm getting
a PlayStation 6 for Christmas.
And the person in the deck desknext to you says, No, you're
not.
What do you say next?
I you start with what?
(15:52):
I promise.
I promise.
I'm getting one.
I'm getting a PlayStation 6 forChristmas.
You're not, okay?
They only made two of them.
You're not getting one of them.
What do you say next?
I swear.
Okay, you remember this?
Now some of you won't evenrepeat the next part because it
hits home so hard.
If they don't believe you whenyou said when you said, I swear,
(16:12):
what comes next?
I swear to God.
Now, I I just want you to noticedid some of you feel the drop
when I said, I swear to God?
Okay, even me saying it nowcauses this sort of why where
does that come from?
Why is it that when we invokeGod's name, all of a sudden the
(16:36):
whole tone changes?
I promise I'm getting aPlayStation 6.
Nobody cares.
I swear.
I swear to God.
Why?
Because whether you realize itor not, and and I'll be honest
with you, my theology isn't wideenough or big enough or deep
(16:56):
enough to explain this.
I don't know if you have to be aChristian to feel this, or if
it's written into the Imago Day,or if it is something that the
Holy Spirit, when in your life,sort of activates.
But when I feel that weight, itis telling me that there is a
truth that has been writtenbefore time began, that when
(17:16):
God's name is invoked, itchanges everything.
And I wanted you to feel thatbecause that is what we see.
You see, when we make a promise,what we're basically saying is,
I will do something.
And that promise is rootedsimply in that person's honesty.
If they're an honest person, youhave a high degree of
confidence.
If they're not an honest person,you may question it.
(17:39):
When we move down, it continuesto expand the weight.
If we want to look at acontract, one of my favorites is
in Ruth.
This is not Boaz purchasingRuth.
This is a land agreement, butnotice the contractual language.
Boaz had gone up to the gate andhe sat down there.
The gate was where business wasdone.
Behold, the redeemer of whomBoaz had spoken came by.
(18:02):
So Boaz said, Turn aside,friend, sit down here.
He's the other person with avested interest in this
property.
And he turned aside and satdown.
He took ten men of the elders.
Let's get a quorum so we canhave a business presiding that
is official.
Sit down here.
They sit down.
Verse 3.
He said to the Redeemer, Naomi,who has come back from the
(18:23):
country of Moab, is selling theparcel of land that belonged to
our relative Elimelech.
So the contract works this way.
If you will, then I will, and Iwant you to watch it play out.
So I thought I would tell you,and I would say, buy it in the
presence of those sitting hereand in the presence of the
elders of my people.
If you will redeem it, redeemit, if you will not tell me that
(18:48):
I may, this is a contract.
This is Boaz saying in front ofpeople, this is bigger than a
promise.
This is bigger than just basedon our honesty.
There are there are stipulationsif one of us breaks this
contract.
Tell me that I may know, forthere is no one beside you to
redeem it, and I come after you.
And he said, Hey, I'll take theland.
(19:08):
Sounds like a good deal.
And then Boaz says, Well, justone real quick thing.
You don't know this, but there'sthis incredibly God-fearing,
beautiful woman who has livedone of the most reputable lives
of anyone on the planet.
That is not the way he pitchesRuth.
The day you buy the field fromthe hand of Naomi, you will get
Ruth the Moabite.
Oh, goodness.
(19:29):
You don't want that, do you,bud?
Then the Redeemer said, I can'tredeem it for myself.
I'll impure my I don't wantthat.
If it was just land, I wouldtake it.
I don't want the responsibility.
And so a contract is struck.
And to confirm the transaction,he took off his shoe and he gave
it to him, and he lost one ofhis Sicconis that day.
But he was good with it becauseit showed that forever we have
(19:51):
agreed, the elders have seenthis is a contract.
If you will do this, then I willdo that.
This is rooted in justice.
It feels bigger.
When somebody breaks a promiseto you, it hurts.
When somebody breaks a contract,you thought you were going to
get the house, and thensomebody, it there should be
this bigger feel because itfeels like injustice was done.
(20:15):
We had already agreed.
We had sat down.
We had made a plan because itwas a contract.
If you'll do this, then I'll dothis.
If I do this, then you'll dothat.
And it is rooted in justice.
But Joshua doesn't strike withthe Gibeonites a promise nor a
contract.
He gives them a covenant.
A covenant is when we say tosomeone, I am yours and you are
(20:40):
mine.
This is bigger, this is deeper,this is wider, this is greater.
We see this in Genesis 17.
God says, I'm gonna establish mycovenant between me and you and
your offspring after you throughtheir generations for an
everlasting covenant brought uptwice here to be God to you and
your offspring after you.
Now, I don't know if youremember this.
Let me tell you a little story.
(21:01):
I gave you a picture in the topright corner to be a memory jog.
God looks at Abraham and hesays, For no reason other than
the simple fact that I love you,I'm gonna enter into a covenant
with you.
I'm not promising.
I'm not just saying I'm gonna dothis.
I'm not entering into acontract.
If you'll do this, then I'll dothis.
There's a sacrifice that is laiddown and it's torn in half.
(21:21):
Why?
Because when you make acovenant, it's a bigger deal
than a promise or a contract.
You're not just saying I'm gonnado this if I am yours.
You are mine.
And what's supposed to happen isboth parties walk between the
sacrifice.
It's a bigger deal than handingsomebody your shoe.
All right?
And what does it mean?
(21:41):
It means if I do not honor whatI said I would honor when I told
you I was yours and you aremine, may it be to me as it has
been to the sacrifice.
If I don't honor my covenant, Iought to be torn in half.
Bonus points to the camp store.
If somebody will be willing totell me what happens next in
(22:02):
this story.
God walks right through it.
Abraham does not walk through.
A fire and a smoking pot, by theway, flame and smoke would have
been how God presented himself.
God tears it in half, and hesays, Abraham, don't move.
And God walks right through thebroken sacrifice.
(22:25):
Why?
Because here's what God's sayingI am yours and you are mine.
And when you do not hold up yourend of this, bigger than
promise, bigger than contract,covenant, you're not gonna be
the one who gets torn in half.
I will.
Genesis 17, the cross, it's ondisplay.
It's God looking at a people andsaying, I love you so much.
(22:49):
I want you to be mine, and Iwant to be yours, and I know
you're not gonna live up tothis.
So when you don't, I will tearmyself in half.
And we see it in Genesis, and wesee it in the Exodus, and we see
it in Jeremiah, we see it allthe way in the book of
Revelation.
This new covenant that God hasmade with his people.
Behold, the dwelling place ofGod is with man.
(23:11):
I am yours and you are mine,forever and all millennia, with
no sin attached.
He will dwell with them, andthey will be his people, and God
himself will be with them astheir God.
Christians in the room, this isthe greatest of promises.
Broken as you are, God holdstogether the covenant.
(23:32):
If you are not a believer inthis room and you are wondering
what's unique aboutChristianity, all these
religions talk about my sin andmy brokenness.
Here's what's different.
In every other religion, youhave to walk through the
brokenness.
In every other religion, youhave to be torn in half.
In Christianity, God says, I'vegot it.
I've got it covered in a way younever would have been able to
cover it.
Do you want the gift of notbeing torn in half when you
(23:55):
deserve to be?
This is the difference.
A covenant is I am yours and youare mine, and it is rooted in a
relationship.
And that brings us to thefallout.
At the end of three days afterthey had made a covenant with
them, they heard that they, theGibeonites, were their neighbors
(24:15):
and lived among them.
Anybody want to guess how farthese people lived away?
Anybody want to guess?
20 miles.
Some of you drew drove furtherthan that to get to church.
Okay?
20 miles.
That's it.
By the way, you could walk it inabout a day and a half, okay?
The the fabrication they put ondisplay was, if it wasn't so
(24:37):
sinful, quite impressive,actually.
And they pull it off.
But God's people figure it out.
Now, I don't need, please don'tanswer this one out loud.
When someone lies to you, whatdo you want to do?
Uh, it didn't repent.
That's what you want to do afterwhat you do, okay?
What do you want to do?
You want justice, right?
(24:58):
Because that's what a contractis.
You want them to be honest andyou want them to hear the
honesty of their dishonesty.
That's a promise.
But if somebody breaks acovenant, you told me you were
mine and I was yours, and thatis not what played out.
What do you want to do?
Well, I'll tell you what God'speople wanted to do.
The people of Israel sat out andreached their cities.
(25:18):
They're like, it's going down.
Everybody head to theGibeonites.
Let's go.
We're gonna go deal with thesefolks.
Now their cities were Gibeon,Cheraph, Beerath, and Kirajirim.
But the people of Israel did notattack them.
They're angry, they're hot,their faces are red, we've been
fooled in the sight of theworld.
(25:39):
And they marched, by the way, itwould have been uphill the
entire way, 20 miles, to getthere.
But they did not attack thembecause the leaders of the
congregation had sworn to them.
They didn't just swear, theyswore to God they wouldn't touch
them.
Then the congregation gotirritated with Joshua and the
(26:02):
elders.
You see, they step in and theysay, Look, we cannot bring about
the wrath that we want to,because we didn't just promise
them.
We didn't just make a contractthat we can breach and deal with
the ramifications.
We have looked them eye to eyeand we have said, I am yours and
you are mine.
(26:23):
They wanted to absolutelydestroy them, and here is the
finality of it (26:26):
the future.
Joshua summoned them, and hesaid to them, Why did you
deceive us, saying, We are veryfar from you and you dwell 20
miles away?
Now, therefore, you are cursed.
Some of you will never beanything but servants, cutters
of wood and drawers of water forthe house of my God.
(26:49):
How do you think the Gibeonitesrespond when somebody says, All
right, since you did this, fine,we won't kill you.
Fine, I am yours and you aremine.
Which is why last week inchapter 10, they went to defend
him.
All they said here was, We won'tkill you, but when you enter
into a covenant, you enter intoa relationship.
And it doesn't matter how madyou are at your little brother,
(27:12):
when the neighbor starts pickingon him, you go and you deal with
the neighbor because you are inrelationship with him.
And that's what happens here.
He says, You're not gonna beanything but servants.
Y'all are gonna get really goodat cutting wood and drawing
water because that is going tobe your future.
And they look at Joshua and theysaid, Look, because it was told
(27:33):
to your servants for a certaintythat the Lord your God had
commanded his servant Moses togive you all the land, because
it was certain that you wouldhave destroyed all the
inhabitants of the land frombefore you, we were afraid, and
we did this thing.
Now, I don't want to give like apretty silver little lining to
(27:55):
something that doesn't exist,but I will tell you this sounds
an awful lot like faith to me.
I am certain your God is who hesays he is.
I'm sure of it.
We've heard the stories fromMoses all the way forward.
I just didn't want to die.
You will find out that thesepeople never fold themselves
into God's people.
You will find that they neverturn from faith in a meaningful
(28:19):
way.
And now God's people have made apromise to do the very thing God
told them not to do.
Behold, we are in your hand, theGibeonites say, Whatever seems
good, whatever seems right inyour sight to do to us, do it.
So he did this to them, and hedeli delivered them out of the
hand of the people of Israel,and they did not kill them.
(28:41):
But Joshua made them that daycutters of wood and drawers of
water for the congregation andfor the altar of the Lord to
this day in the place that heshould choose.
Let me give you two littleapplications as we look at this
text.
When you realize who you are andwho God is, this word gets an
(29:06):
awful lot easier to deal with.
Some of you will never beanything but servants because
you don't deserve to be anythingmore than servants.
The more we know who God is, themore we realize who we are, the
less we have a problem beingservants for all of our days.
Christian, that really should beyour demeanor as you look at
(29:26):
this text.
There's not a lot to learn fromthe Gibeonites.
They're liars and they'redeceivers, but they're shrewd
and they're thoughtful.
And they realize I can either beon the wrong side of this God,
or I can be on the non-wrathfulside of this God.
And if it means I'm cutting woodall of my days, so be it.
Christians, this is the kind offreedom we put in the hands of
the Lord.
Whatever it is that you wantfrom me, you have rescued me
(29:48):
from death.
If you want me to be adoorholder, I'll be a
doorholder.
Whatever it is that you wantfrom me.
But the second thing that I wantyou to ask yourself is this God
chastises them for not seekinghim before they made this
covenant.
They didn't pray.
So the men did not ask counselof the Lord.
In another situation in Isaiah,we read God's opinion.
(30:08):
Ah, stubborn children, declaresthe Lord, who carry out a plan
but not mine, who make analliance but not of my spirit.
Why, when you know what I wantyou to do, do you do the
opposite thing and think it'sgoing to go well for you?
But this is my question.
How is God going to chastisethem for keeping this new
covenant?
God told him, You cannot make acovenant with these people.
(30:31):
You must destroy them.
And now they make a covenant andthey choose not to destroy them.
How is God going to deal withhis people?
What do you think is going tohappen here?
Here's let me let me make itless theological.
Does God want them to honortheir Word when doing so cause
them to break their word to God.
What do you do here?
You ever found yourself in asituation like this?
(30:52):
You just talked a little bit toomuch and you should shut your
mouth, and now you've talkedyour way into kind of a
difficult situation.
What is it that you're supposedto do?
To find the answer to thisquestion, you have to go four
hundred years in the future.
Check this out.
Now there was a famine in thedays of David for three years.
(31:15):
In case you don't know, thatmeans a lot of people died.
Okay?
A famine back then for threeyears, people are dying.
Year after year.
It's consecutive.
I have an issue with the nextstatement because it says, and
David sought the face of theLord.
I don't know why he waited threeyears.
I think that's like a week threetype of a situation.
But for whatever reason, afterthree years, David's like, oh
(31:37):
yeah, prayer, it's kind of animportant thing.
I remember stories from Joshua.
I don't know if that's exactlyhow it played out, but it seems
like how it reads.
And the Lord said, There isblood guilt on Saul and on his
house.
Because 400 years after thispromise was made, they broke it.
God expects them to honor theirword, even when they made it in
(32:00):
a way that he would not havepreferred for them.
Even when they do it in a waythat is not their best.
And what ends up happening hereis seven family seven heads of
Saul's family are killed.
God puts a famine on his peoplefor not honoring a covenant they
made, even though making thatcovenant went against what God
(32:22):
had wanted for them.
This is for Christians andnon-Christians.
Your words today forecast yourweather tomorrow in ways that
you do not even understand.
400 years from now, if the Lordtarries, the things you say, I'm
not even talking about thethings you do, the things you
(32:44):
say will have massiveramifications on the future of
you and your family.
And I don't want you to missthis.
God expects his people to honortheir word even when it wasn't
his best option, even when theywere deceived when they made it,
even when everyone else wouldexcuse them, even when a lot of
(33:04):
time has passed, and even whenother whoops, others turn out
not to be who they said.
I'll fix it for service too.
How many covenants do you enterinto in today's day and age?
I can think of two.
(33:26):
Uh Matthew, Catherine, or yeah.
These are your vows.
Uh Gracie and uh Zach areserving in kids' ministry.
They'll be these are their vows.
This is what it looks like tomake a covenant in 2025.
This and church membership.
These are the covenants we livein, and I just want you to
(33:46):
notice them.
I take you to be my husband, tohave and to hold from this day
forward, for better or forworse, for richer, for poorer,
whether we're sick or whetherwe're healthy, to love and to
cherish until death do us part.
(34:08):
I give you my promise.
It's not actually what it says.
A lot of times nowadays peoplewant to write their own vows,
and I have to say, I'm cool withthat, but you've got to give
them to me first.
Because my job as a pastor is tomake sure it goes above.
We'll watch whatever you want towatch on Netflix at night.
(34:29):
It's gotta go beyond, we'll eatat the restaurants you like.
All right, we'll always laughtogether, right?
No offense, it's garbage, it's agarbage voice.
I swear to God.
That is what elevateseverything.
(34:50):
And when you invoke God's name,it changes every promise you
make.
Why in Malachi is this guycovering the Lord's altar with
tears?
He's weeping and he's groaningbecause God no longer regards
(35:10):
him.
Verse 14.
Why does he not?
Because the Lord was witnessbetween you and the wife of your
youth to whom you have beenfaithless.
Though she is your companion andyour wife by covenant.
And if you feel like I'm addingto God's word, did he not make
them one with a portion of thespirit in their union?
(35:34):
When we stand and we say, tohave and to hold from this day
forward as God is my witness,what scripture is saying is he
is putting his hand on that.
He is attaching himself to this.
He, like he did with Abraham, isattaching himself.
If we look in Matthew, and thePharisees come up to Jesus just
to be difficult because they'repunks of people.
(35:56):
Jesus, divorce, how does itwork?
Can we divorce for any reason?
He answered, Have you not readthat he who created them from
the beginning made a male andfemale?
And he said, Therefore a manshall leave his father and his
mother, hold fast to his wife,the two shall become one flesh.
We talk about that all the time,but do you know what comes next?
They're no longer two but one.
God has joined them together.
(36:17):
What sense does it make for manto separate something?
God has joined.
When we invoke the name of God,everything changes, which means
God expects.
This is, by the way, not a texton marriage, but there are only
two ways that I can apply thisdeeply.
When we make a commitment to oneanother in membership, which is
not a silly little thing.
(36:38):
We're saying, I'm yours andyou're mine.
I'm gonna cheer you on and I'mgonna weep with you.
This is God saying we are familynow.
You don't share blood, but youshare my spirit.
And by the way, when you getmarried as a Christian, as God
is my witness, you share in myspirit there as well.
God expects his people to honortheir word.
God expects husbands to honortheir word.
He expects wives to honor theirword even when it wasn't his
(37:02):
best option.
I married somebody that Ithought it was a believer and
they're not a believer.
1 Corinthians chapter 9.
I'll be happy to grab coffeewith you and talk through that
if you would like.
God expects people to honortheir word even when they were
deceived.
He's not who he said he was.
Yeah, well, none of us are.
She's not who she said she was.
(37:23):
Yeah, none of none of them are.
Even when everybody else wouldexcuse them and welcome to a
world where that is true.
Everybody will tell you to justgo and be happy.
It makes sense.
If I was in your shoes, Godexpects his people to honor
their word even when a lot oftime has passed.
It's been 40 years.
(37:43):
Yeah, well, God held themaccountable for a hundred years.
Tell you what, your marriagegets to 401, I'll give you a
pass.
Even that's not true either.
If somehow there's a uhmethusela among us.
Even when others turn out not tobe who they said they were, and
none of us are.
(38:09):
Stokes, if you want to go aheadand come up and lead us in
worship.
Christians, if you're if you'rea non-Christian, all I want you
to hear today is that Jesus iswilling to be ripped in half so
that you can have a relationshipwith the Father.
If you want to talk more aboutthat, it is literally as simple
as you praying, yeah, God, Iaccept that sacrifice.
I need the forgiveness of mysins.
(38:30):
And if you want help with that,any believing Christian in the
pews would help you with that.
And we'll have a couple ofpastors on the back porch if you
want to join us.
But Christians, keeping apainful oath does not remove the
pain.
It's not as though if you say,I'm gonna keep it, six months
later, it's gone.
This was difficult for God'speople for centuries.
(38:54):
You being a person of integrityis as costly as it is expected.
This is what God expects of you.
And keeping a hard promise isnot weakness, but worship.
And if I could give you onetidbit, again, this is not on
marriage.
What I would really want you todo is think about your words.
What I would really want you todo is before you sign the dotted
(39:16):
line, pray.
I would want you to invite, asProverbs 15 says, counsel in.
I would want you to thinkthrough your friends in your
inner circles.
Uh by the way, if you're ateenager in the room, if you're
a young adult in the room, ifyou're pre-married in the room,
you need to think about yourfriendships the way a lot of
people think about theirmarriages because they're going
to inform a lot.
Be careful who you link yourselfwith, even with words like, I
(39:38):
will always be there.
We will BFF or whatever else itis.
I want you to think through yourfriendships.
I think this is a text forparents to train their kids.
When we say something, we meanit.
It doesn't matter if we promiseor if we swear, we are
Christians who are called to bepeople of integrity.
I would want you to think aboutchurch life and literally being
committed, not just saying, Istood up and now I'm a member,
(40:00):
so let's just no, we arecommitted.
We are a family.
I would want you to know thatwhen you are deceived, there is
a way that you are expected togo forward.
But I will tell you this this isthe only choice you have on this
side of heaven for it to gowell.
And if you will choose to allow,when you have been deceived, you
keep a hard promise, not to seeit as weakness, but as worship,
(40:21):
all that happens is you move itaround and you say, I am going
to worship God in the brokennessof my poor decisions, their poor
decisions, life not working outthe way I want it to.
I am gonna choose to worship.
And in choosing to worship allof the hard things, you're still
gonna feel weak, but it turnsinto something that can be a
strength.
This is not a sermon aboutdivorce and remarriage, we can
(40:43):
talk about that.
This is a sermon about yourwords matter.
Because the world's gonna tellyou one thing, and I just want
you to see God's word.
He's gonna tell you somethingvery, very different.
So let's be a people who use ourwords.
But when we do, let's be honestwith them.
And if we are struggling to keepour vows, if we are struggling
to keep our oaths, if integrityis costly, just realize it can
(41:06):
be worship as well, as we chooseto honor God even in the
brokenness and even in theweakness.
Do with that as you may, and letthe Holy Spirit lead us, and
Stokes you can lead us fromthere.
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The Burden
The Burden is a documentary series that takes listeners into the hidden places where justice is done (and undone). It dives deep into the lives of heroes and villains. And it focuses a spotlight on those who triumph even when the odds are against them. Season 5 - The Burden: Death & Deceit in Alliance On April Fools Day 1999, 26-year-old Yvonne Layne was found murdered in her Alliance, Ohio home. David Thorne, her ex-boyfriend and father of one of her children, was instantly a suspect. Another young man admitted to the murder, and David breathed a sigh of relief, until the confessed murderer fingered David; “He paid me to do it.” David was sentenced to life without parole. Two decades later, Pulitzer winner and podcast host, Maggie Freleng (Bone Valley Season 3: Graves County, Wrongful Conviction, Suave) launched a “live” investigation into David's conviction alongside Jason Baldwin (himself wrongfully convicted as a member of the West Memphis Three). Maggie had come to believe that the entire investigation of David was botched by the tiny local police department, or worse, covered up the real killer. Was Maggie correct? Was David’s claim of innocence credible? In Death and Deceit in Alliance, Maggie recounts the case that launched her career, and ultimately, “broke” her.” The results will shock the listener and reduce Maggie to tears and self-doubt. This is not your typical wrongful conviction story. In fact, it turns the genre on its head. It asks the question: What if our champions are foolish? Season 4 - The Burden: Get the Money and Run “Trying to murder my father, this was the thing that put me on the path.” That’s Joe Loya and that path was bank robbery. Bank, bank, bank, bank, bank. In season 4 of The Burden: Get the Money and Run, we hear from Joe who was once the most prolific bank robber in Southern California, and beyond. He used disguises, body doubles, proxies. He leaped over counters, grabbed the money and ran. Even as the FBI was closing in. It was a showdown between a daring bank robber, and a patient FBI agent. Joe was no ordinary bank robber. He was bright, articulate, charismatic, and driven by a dark rage that he summoned up at will. In seven episodes, Joe tells all: the what, the how… and the why. Including why he tried to murder his father. Season 3 - The Burden: Avenger Miriam Lewin is one of Argentina’s leading journalists today. At 19 years old, she was kidnapped off the streets of Buenos Aires for her political activism and thrown into a concentration camp. Thousands of her fellow inmates were executed, tossed alive from a cargo plane into the ocean. Miriam, along with a handful of others, will survive the camp. Then as a journalist, she will wage a decades long campaign to bring her tormentors to justice. Avenger is about one woman’s triumphant battle against unbelievable odds to survive torture, claim justice for the crimes done against her and others like her, and change the future of her country. Season 2 - The Burden: Empire on Blood Empire on Blood is set in the Bronx, NY, in the early 90s, when two young drug dealers ruled an intersection known as “The Corner on Blood.” The boss, Calvin Buari, lived large. He and a protege swore they would build an empire on blood. Then the relationship frayed and the protege accused Calvin of a double homicide which he claimed he didn’t do. But did he? Award-winning journalist Steve Fishman spent seven years to answer that question. This is the story of one man’s last chance to overturn his life sentence. He may prevail, but someone’s gotta pay. The Burden: Empire on Blood is the director’s cut of the true crime classic which reached #1 on the charts when it was first released half a dozen years ago. Season 1 - The Burden In the 1990s, Detective Louis N. Scarcella was legendary. In a city overrun by violent crime, he cracked the toughest cases and put away the worst criminals. “The Hulk” was his nickname. Then the story changed. Scarcella ran into a group of convicted murderers who all say they are innocent. They turned themselves into jailhouse-lawyers and in prison founded a lway firm. When they realized Scarcella helped put many of them away, they set their sights on taking him down. And with the help of a NY Times reporter they have a chance. For years, Scarcella insisted he did nothing wrong. But that’s all he’d say. Until we tracked Scarcella to a sauna in a Russian bathhouse, where he started to talk..and talk and talk. “The guilty have gone free,” he whispered. And then agreed to take us into the belly of the beast. Welcome to The Burden.