Joshua 9

Now we come to a very different kind of thing-man failing. And man always fails first in the direction of self-confidence. The thirteenth of John gives us a parallel to this. That chapter is really a history of the church, it shows 'us all the grace of Christ, and the cause of all the disorder and distraction in the church ever since. If you want an epitome, an internal history of the church, I give you John 13 In taking heavenly ground the odds are against us-ourselves, and everything; and if God be not for us we shall surely fail. There was self-confidence where Satan was, and so they were not able to meet him. It is a very remarkable thing in connection with morals, that you cannot predicate what will be the result of a certain evil; I mean the offspring cannot be foreknown from the parent.
For instance, take the Corinthians. They did not judge the evil that was within, and the consequence was, they went themselves to be judged by those that were without. This comes out plainly if you look at chapters 5. and 6., in connection with each other; before quite disposing of the subject in the fifth, he turns to tell them of their failure in going to law before the unbelievers, and then ends with " Flee fornication." Just in this way Bethesda people say there is no connection between their course now and that which happened years before in Plymouth. We are often deceived by the fruit, and do not see the root that it springs from.
So the people are deceived by the Gibeonites. In their case self-confidence was the fruit of unpurged sin in the assembly. It is another thing quite that now deceives them; it is wiles: "The men took of the victuals, and asked not counsel at the mouth of the Lord."
I think that the. Gibeonites give us in figure the world getting into the church, and making terms with it. It is the old story-Balaam's proposition: you cannot kill God's people, but you can entertain them, make up with them, intermarry with them, and thus morally overcome them.
They were not near them; they were a great way off; they could not do them any harm from there Just as people say now: We are very far removed from laxity. But if the devil be at the end of the chain it does not signify how long it is.
He was there with these men of Gibeon just to prevent the people extirpating them. It is a figure of course; you cannot now destroy men; but you must be superior to them.
It was the elders who were at fault: " the princes of the congregation." The point of mischief was making a league with them whether they were far off or near. If they were far off, let them stay there; why should they make a league at all in that case? But the league being made, when Saul thought to break it, he got into trouble. ".After vows " you cannot " make inquiry." If a man marries an unconverted woman it is too late to make inquiries after. The thing was not to make the league; if they were far off so much the better; but they were near whilst they pretended to be a great way off. That was their wile.
Verse 27.-" Joshua made them hewers of wood and drawers of water for the congregation,. and for the altar of the Lord." They afterward got the name of Nethinims. The two things that -remained with Israel were the Nethinims and the porters. The church has in a way been served by the adoption of Christianity by the world; it renders a kind of external service to us.
Still it is remarkable how the heavenly position is thwarted on every side. The object of Satan is to thwart it. The moment all were introduced—the very mothers with their babes in their arms-that moment the hallowed circle is broken into by their making this league with the Gibeonites.. Yet the world itself does not like their league with God's people; they turn upon them, and thus Gibeon becomes a trap for its destruction. I believe Gibeon represents false ones-hypocrites, if you like. The great thing in the beginning of Acts was that " no man durst join himself to them; " they were afraid of them. In another light Gibeon represents the flesh that does not like the heavenly exaction. The leaders-" princes"-are those who addict themselves to the Care' of the assembly, and who, if evil comes in, are, in a certain sense chargeable: " They watch for your souls, as they that must give account."
The point is to be extremely careful of any mixture that is not of God. It does not matter how far off you may be from a thing; the question is, is it of God? Immediately after all had taken their place come these strangers from very far off, and want wilily to take that place too. The people ought to have said: You are not one of this company that stood round about Mount Ebal, and we cannot have anything to do with you. They had distinctly taken possession of the land for God; nothing was to withstand them; they were to be exclusively the people of God upon earth, they had just avowed it down to the smallest of their details, their children and their strangers; and they ought to have said: No; we are God's people, and we must stand separate.
Possession is the grand point here. In the book of Deuteronomy we find that dwelling, not possession, is the time for worship. When they brought the basket of first fruits they were dwelling; it was no more conflict. The idea was, that you took the first ripe thing that you saw, put it into your basket, and went up to Jerusalem saying, " I am come unto the country which the Lord sware unto our fathers for to give us."