THE STORY OF
THE GIBEONITES
One of Deceit and Guile
by LeRoy Gardenier
The Gibeonites were a very shrewd bunch of people. You can read about them for yourself in the Book of Joshua, chapters nine and ten. A brief, but important, reference to the Gibeonites can also be found in 2 Samuel 21:1-14. I don't know a great deal about this particular segment of those biblical people called the Hittites. All I do know is that they do 
hold a solid place in world history and one of their offshoots or branches were the Gibeonites. Their special, if dishonest, dealings with the leaders of Israel gained them a notoriety that most of the tribes and clans of the ancient Mid-East never attained. The Gibeonites have the dubious distinction of having duped Joshua and the elders of Israel. To all appearances, it seems that they got away with it.
At the time the Israelites under Joshua invaded the Promised Land of Canaan, most of the inhabitants rose up in arms against them. The Gibeonites decided on a different strategy. Instead of warfare and bloodshed, their weapons were guile and deceit. The Gibeonites actually lived only a few miles from Jericho, the Twelve Tribes' designated entry point to Palestine. These cagey enemies of God's people were destined to be destroyed, so they devised a simple, but clever scheme to deceive Israel in the hope of saving their own necks. Hearing that Joshua was camped in their general neighborhood, after his devastating defeat of the strategic cities of Jericho and Ai, the Gibeonites sent a delegation to him at nearby Gilgal. Their representatives were not up front with the Israeli leaders. They didn't present themselves in a truthful light saying that they were neighbors who respected Israel's strength and godly advantage and were suing for peace. Instead, they told a story that either ignored the truth completely or, at least, shaded the truth in such a way that it was full of guile and deceit. The Gibeonites presented themselves to the invading Israelites, not as nearby neighbors, but as distant foreigners who lived in a far-off land. They made their dust-covered clothes to look worn and ragged as if they had been on the road for many days, even months. They handed their enemies hard, stale, moldy bread and told them it had been freshly baked when they left home. Even their empty wine skins were completely dried up and cracked. All they wanted, they said, was a peace treaty with Israel; then they would return to their distant home. If, in the event the Israelis ever came their way, they would be servants to the people of Israel. The Gibeonites merely asked for a mutual help pact that would guarantee not only mercy and aid from Israel, but protection from their common enemies.
For a relatively small group the Gibeonites drove a hard bargain and soon it was a done deal. For unknown reasons, Joshua and the elders of Israel quickly bit on this proposal. Without checking out their story; without surveying the geographical situation; most of all, without consulting the Lord and waiting for His guidance, Joshua went impulsively ahead and signed a binding, lasting agreement with the Gibeonites. Only after three days did they discover that their "far-distant" allies were really next-door neighbors! Only when the Gibeonites were under siege from a common enemy and were calling in the marker on their mutual aid treaty did the Israelites turn to God for counsel and advice. The Lord told them they had made a commitment to these people and they had to stand by it.
Deep and long lasting trouble for both parties - both the Israelites and the Gibeonites - was the fruit of this clever, but calamitous deception. The Gibeonites deceived Israel, but God's people had really deceived themselves. On the mammoth scene of world history this minor alliance would rank as a minute encounter. In the economy of God's providence, however, such tiny events often matter much. The prophet Zechariah asks a question that is forever pertinent to all spiritual considerations and decisions: "For who hath despised the day of small things?" (4:10). For the Gibeonites, their wily guile and deception gained them survival and nothing more. God spared them as a people, but His nation condemned them to endless servitude. The Gibeonites remained enemies and aliens to the household of God forever after. Each generation had to live out its days as "hewers of wood and carriers of water". The Gibeonites achieved their short term goal - survival; but they paid a terribly long term price for it - virtual slavery!
Israel plagued by allowing the deception
We don't hear much of the Gibeonites again until the reign of King Saul. From the time of Joshua, throughout the long period of the Judges, the very presence of these deceitful people had not only been a thorn in the side of the Israelis; their position in the land was a dividing wedge that separated southern Judah from the rest of the Kingdom. Saul, Israel's first king thought he knew better than God. If the Gibeonites brought guile and deceit into the land; it was Saul who set the example for deep and devastating delusion. Completely ignoring God's explicit command to spare the Gibeonites, Saul decreed it was time to remove them completely by exterminating them. The Bible barely alludes to the king's mad scheme, but we know that Saul's plot miserably failed. By deluding himself that he could solve any problem; by presuming that the end justifies the means; by deliberately countermanding clear and specific orders from the Most High God; Saul not only failed to remove an evil people from the land, he also guaranteed the ultimate destruction of his own family. King Saul exhibited that hubris, that overweening pride in his own decisions and that unfounded confidence in his own good judgment that he brought certain and lasting disaster upon his own dynasty.
The Bible tells us that after Saul's death God sent a famine into the land mainly to get the attention of Saul's successor, King David. When this righteous ruler turned to God, the Lord showed him that arrogant error of his predecessor. Once again, God's anointed was compelled to humble himself and his nation before a delegation of these servile Gibeonites. Their deceit, Israel's lack of vigilance and Saul's deep delusion caused God's people centuries of grief and embarrassment. For all his misguided efforts and pains, Saul reaped the fruits of his delusion. In their poverty and slavery the bowed but ever proud Gibeonites refused financial and other forms of compensation for the attempted genocide on their tribe. Instead, the Gibeonites demanded the execution of seven of Saul's sons. King David was compelled to hand over his own people to the power of Israel's ongoing enemies.
The world's arsenal is growing daily in material strength and sophisticated intimidation. Those who believe that they can outsmart, outflank or in any way outmaneuver our Enemy through cerebral strategies are doomed to the slavery and destruction heaped upon Saul and the Gibeonites. Spiritual virtues and qualities are largely unseen yet are more real and potent in lasting effects than the most formidable nuclear pile. Throughout the Scriptures warnings of spiritual dangers are signaled by the flash cards of attention getting words like: "Take heed" or "Consider". Over the years I've urged our Fellowship to check out, investigate and take to heart such biblical alarms. When asked about the time of the end; when questioned about the signs that would precede His Second Coming, our blessed Lord instinctively cautioned: "Take heed that no man deceive you." & "Take heed that you be not deceived." Matt 24:4/Mk 13:5/Lk 21:8. Deceit and delusion are powerful spiritual weapons of destruction but they pale in potency compared to the creative and edifying Word of God come alive by faith in believers' hearts!
"Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. He shall receive the blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation" Psalm 24:4-5