A Different Look at Israel and the Gibeonites!

 In the course of studying Biblical covenants these past months, I became a little puzzled by the story of the Gibeonites. As you may recall, when Israel invaded the Promised Land, the people of Gibeon dispatched ambassadors to the Israelites and asked Israel to make a covenant with them (Josh. 9:3-6). Knowing that Israel’s Divine mission required destroying every nation in that land, the ambassadors pretended to have journeyed from another land far away (v. 6).

As we’re told in v. 14, Israel didn’t seek God’s advice in this matter. They simply believed the Gibeonites and made a covenant with them (v. 15). Though obtained by fraud, this covenant held fast. Many generations later, God punished Israel because King Saul had violated the covenant and murdered some of the Gibeonites (2 Sam. 21:1-3).

Now, this raises some eyebrows. Number one, this covenant had been obtained by deceit. Number two, God had explicitly commanded Israel to make NO covenant with the peoples of the land (Ex. 23:32; Deut. 7:2; Judg. 2:2). In fact, this command constituted part of God’s covenant with the Israelites, and it angered Him when they spared other peoples of the land (Judg. 1:21-2:3).

It should be obvious that no covenant or agreement can lawfully require disobedience to God. No one can be bound by an agreement that requires sinning against Almighty God. Ezra commanded the Jews to dissolve their marriages with foreign pagans precisely because those marriage covenants violated their covenant with God (Ezra 9-10).

So then, how could Israel’s covenant with the Gibeonites be binding? Not only was it obtained by fraud, but it seemingly violated God’s instructions. Let’s take a look!

Some Background

As we’ve seen previously, the peoples of Canaan practiced every abomination known to man: child sacrifice, all manner of sexual perversion, witchcraft, and more. So, much as He’d done to Sodom and Gomorrah, God sentenced them all to death. All that evil must be wiped off the face of the earth, and everyone polluted by that society must be destroyed.

Here’s what God told Israel, as we read in Deut. 7:1-5:

1 “When the LORD your God brings you into the land which you go to possess, and has cast out many nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than you,

2 “and when the LORD your God delivers them over to you, you shall conquer them and utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them nor show mercy to them.

3 “Nor shall you make marriages with them. You shall not give your daughter to their son, nor take their daughter for your son.

4 “For they will turn your sons away from following Me, to serve other gods; so the anger of the LORD will be aroused against you and destroy you suddenly.

5 “But thus you shall deal with them: you shall destroy their altars, and break down their sacred pillars, and cut down their wooden images, and burn their carved images with fire.”

Why did God command Israel to destroy the Canaanites? Was it because they were racially inferior or because they weren’t Israelites? Was it because they were just in Israel’s way? No, no, and no!

God put the Canaanites under the death penalty because of their wickedness. As He had earlier spoken of Sodom and Gomorrah, they were “exceedingly wicked and sinful against the LORD” (Gen. 13:13).

Does this mean they wouldn’t be allowed to repent and be spared, if they were willing? Again, no. Remember, Rahab and her family forsook the wicked society around them and cast themselves on the mercy of God and His people: “By faith the harlot Rahab did not perish with those who did not believe, when she had received the spies with peace” (Heb. 11:31).

The Attitude of the Gibeonites

When the Israelites invaded Canaan, they obeyed God and annihilated the first cities they encountered, Jericho and Ai, sparing only Rahab and her family. How did the rest of the Canaanites respond? Did they repent or seek God’s mercy as the people of Nineveh would later do? No.

Instead, “they gathered together to fight with Joshua and Israel with one accord” (Josh. 9:2). In fact, because these peoples clung to their wickedness, God strengthened their resolve to fight with Israel: “For it was of the LORD to harden their hearts, that they should come against Israel in battle, that He might utterly destroy them, and that they might receive no mercy, but that He might destroy them, as the LORD had commanded Moses” (Josh. 11:20).

But we’re told the Gibeonites weren’t among these people who gathered together to fight with Israel. Instead of fighting, the Gibeonites sent ambassadors to Joshua and the Israelites, as we already saw. They acted deceitfully, and yet their attitude differed from that of their neighbors.

When the Gibeonite ambassadors came to Joshua, they expressed fear of Israel’s God. First, they told Joshua, “We are your servants” (Josh. 9:8). Then, they said, “From a very far country your servants have come, because of the name of the LORD your God; for we have heard of His fame, and all that He did in Egypt, and all that He did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan — to Sihon king of Heshbon, and Og king of Bashan, who was at Ashtaroth” (Josh. 9:9-10).

Now, of course, they lied about being from a far country. Though the Israelites acted foolishly by not asking counsel of God, the Gibeonites still deceived them and obtained a covenant by fraud. “So Joshua made peace with them, and made a covenant with them to let them live; and the rulers of the congregation swore to them” (Josh. 9:15).

“And it happened at the end of three days, after they had made a covenant with them, that they heard that they were their neighbors who dwelt near them” (Josh. 9:16). By failing to ask counsel of God, Joshua and the Israelites found themselves in a predicament. They couldn’t disobey their Creator and allow the heathens of this land to live — in fact, every idolater in Israel was to be put to death (Deut. 13:6-10) — and yet they had sworn by Almighty God to let these people live.

So here’s what they did. Joshua rebuked the Gibeonites and said, “Now therefore, you are cursed, and none of you shall be freed from being slaves — woodcutters and water carriers for the house of my God” (Josh. 9:23). The Israelites would spare the Gibeonites as they had promised, but in return the Gibeonites would have to give up their wickedness and dedicate themselves to the service of God and His sanctuary.

How did they respond? Here’s Josh. 9:24-25:

24 So they answered Joshua and said, “Because your servants were clearly told that the LORD your God commanded His servant Moses to give you all the land, and to destroy all the inhabitants of the land from before you; therefore we were very much afraid for our lives because of you, and have done this thing.

25 “And now, here we are, in your hands; do with us as it seems good and right to do to us.”

Again, the Gibeonites expressed their fear of Israel’s God. Now, they also agreed to become His servants. They asked for no other conditions; they would simply do as they were commanded.

“And that day Joshua made them woodcutters and water carriers for the congregation and for the altar of the LORD, in the place which He would choose, even to this day” (Josh. 9:27).

Aside from Gibeon and its sister cities of Chephirah, Beeroth, and Kirjath-Jearim (Josh. 9:17), no other Canaanite city sought the mercy of Israel or Israel’s God. In Josh. 11:19-20, we read,

19 There was not a city that made peace with the children of Israel, except the Hivites, the inhabitants of Gibeon. All the others they took in battle.

20 For it was of the LORD to harden their hearts, that they should come against Israel in battle, that He might utterly destroy them, and that they might receive no mercy, but that He might destroy them, as the LORD had commanded Moses.

Servants of God

Being spared from death, the Gibeonites transformed into a people whose lives centered on service to God, His priests, and His sanctuary. They had been under the death penalty, they were spared, and now they would be God’s servants.

When parceling out the land of Canaan to the tribes of Israel, God designated Gibeon as a priestly city: “Thus to the children of Aaron the priest they gave… Gibeon with its common-land” (Josh. 21:13, 17).

At this point, it’s worth noting that the name Gibeon (Strong’s # H1391) means, according to Gesenius, “‘pertaining to a hill,’ i.e. built on a hill.” So Gibeon was a city on a hill. More on this later.

During the time of King David, God’s tabernacle resided with the priests in Gibeon. 1 Chron. 16:39 tells us that “Zadok the priest and his brethren the priests [served] before the tabernacle of the LORD at the high place that was at Gibeon.” Again, we’re told, “For the tabernacle of the LORD and the altar of the burnt offering, which Moses had made in the wilderness, were at that time at the high place in Gibeon” (1 Chron. 21:29).

Later, when Solomon became king, He journeyed to Gibeon and worshiped God at His tabernacle. Here’s 2 Chron. 1:3-6:

3 Then Solomon, and all the assembly with him, went to the high place that was at Gibeon; for the tabernacle of meeting with God was there, which Moses the servant of the LORD had made in the wilderness.

4 But David had brought up the ark of God from Kirjath Jearim to the place David had prepared for it, for he had pitched a tent for it at Jerusalem.

5 Now the bronze altar that Bezalel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, had made, he put before the tabernacle of the LORD; Solomon and the assembly sought Him there.

6 And Solomon went up there to the bronze altar before the LORD, which was at the tabernacle of meeting, and offered a thousand burnt offerings on it.

There, God appeared to Solomon in a dream and granted his prayer for wisdom, as we’re told in the following verses.

From Joshua to Solomon and beyond, I’ve found no record of the Gibeonites ceasing from their obligations. They did not break their covenant. Their city had become a priestly city, and they had continued to serve God’s priests and His sanctuary.

And so it’s small wonder that King Saul had incurred God’s wrath for seeking to harm them. Here’s 2 Sam. 21:1-2:

1 Now there was a famine in the days of David for three years, year after year; and David inquired of the LORD. And the LORD answered, “It is because of Saul and his bloodthirsty house, because he killed the Gibeonites.”

2 So the king called the Gibeonites and spoke to them. Now the Gibeonites were not of the children of Israel, but of the remnant of the Amorites; the children of Israel had sworn protection to them, but Saul had sought to kill them in his zeal for the children of Israel and Judah.

Notice that Saul didn’t kill the Gibeonites for any wrongdoing. We aren’t told that they were idolaters, that they’d ceased from serving at God’s sanctuary, or that they’d violated their covenant in any way. No, Saul killed them simply because they weren’t Israelites. In essence, he killed God’s servants — a terrible crime!

The purpose of today’s post isn’t to explore this whole episode with Saul and the Gibeonites, but it should be clear that God upheld the covenant between Israel and Gibeon and that He would punish anyone who violated it. And it should also now be obvious why He upheld it.

Lessons For Us

There are many lessons we can learn from the story of Israel and the Gibeonites.

Firstly, entering into a covenant is a critical matter. Remember, God deems covenant-breakers worthy of death (Rom. 1:31-32; KJV). Though our covenant with God trumps all others, it’s a terrible thing to break ANY covenant!

For this reason, we ought to exercise extreme caution and seek God’s guidance before entering into a covenant with anyone. Because Joshua and the other leaders of Israel failed to ask God for guidance before making a covenant with the Gibeonites, they put themselves in a Catch-22. They could not allow idolaters to live among them, but it would also be a terrible thing to break a covenant made in God’s name.

But the reason God honored Israel’s covenant with Gibeon is that it didn’t require disobedience to Him. The Gibeonites presented themselves unconditionally to Israel and Israel’s God as slaves, and therefore could be spared from the death penalty.

And thereby, this story also illustrates God’s mercy toward those who humble themselves before Him. The Gibeonites had been under the death penalty for their wickedness, they were spared, and they became slaves to God. Their city became a priestly city, and their whole existence revolved around serving God’s priests at His sanctuary.

Like the Gibeonites, we all were under the death penalty for our sins, but we have been spared. “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 6:23). Through baptism, we have accepted our Savior’s sacrifice and entered into a covenant with Almighty God: “Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?” (Rom.6:3). Christ’s blood is “the blood of the covenant” (Heb. 10:29).

But our covenant with God, by which our lives are spared, requires that we give our whole selves to Him and withhold nothing. “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service” (Rom. 12:1). We become God’s slaves: “For just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness, and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness” (Rom. 6:19).

The name Gibeon, remember, denotes a city on a hill. When we follow Christ, we become that city on a hill. As He told us, “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden” (Mat. 5:14).

Just as Gibeon became a priestly city, so we are now priests in training. “You also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Pet. 2:5).

And just as Gibeon became the site of God’s tabernacle, so all who enter into God’s covenant and receive His Holy Spirit are now His tabernacle or temple. “Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” (1 Cor. 3:16).

So the story of Gibeon serves as both a cautionary tale and a wonderful illustration of God’s mercy. It’s a type and foreshadow of His plan of salvation.

If you have any thoughts, disagreements, or further input, please comment below!