Gullible: Joshua 9
In Joshua 9 Joshua and the Israelites are tricked because they trusted their own wisdom and didn't' seek God. Proverbs 3:5 tells us not to trust our own wisdom. This story is great example of why.
No-one likes to be on the wrong end of gullible. We want to believe that the people we live work with can be trusted. They would never hurt us to save their own skin or to get a laugh. They love us, right?
When we find that they have played us for simpletons, the trust turns to skepticism, and the laughs are less enthusiastic. Something important is lost. Relationships that were once easy become strained and we feel the need to guard ourselves so we don’t get taken again.
No-one likes to be on the wrong end of gullible. We want to believe that the people we live work with can be trusted. They would never hurt us to save their own skin or to get a laugh. They love us, right?
When we find that they have played us for simpletons, the trust turns to skepticism, and the laughs are less enthusiastic. Something important is lost. Relationships that were once easy become strained and we feel the need to guard ourselves so we don’t get taken again.
As my children have gown up and left the nest, stories of their teenage antics have begun to surface. I laugh with them as they banter back and forth about crawling out windows, toilet papering friends homes and close calls . I think back to my naïve young parenting years and it is clear that I was duped. I had been taken in by their creative alibies. I am actually amazed they are all alive and such wonderful people. Another part of me realizes that I was happier before I knew that my little angels had been fibbing to me for years.
Joshua and the Israelites are taken for a ride by a nearby
nation. As the people around them realize Israel is on the way they prepare to go to war, shaking in
their boots. The stories of Jehovah spread like wildfire through the lands of Canaan. They knew that they
were on the wrong side of this battle. All along the coast between the Mediterranean and the Jordan fear takes hold.The people of Gibeon in an effort to save their necks give a winning
performance. Joshua and the Israelite elders are skeptical at first, but eventually the Gibeonites wear him down with their worn out clothes and moldy bread "we are travelers and just want to be Israelites servants". Without going to God for wisdom Joshua and the elders of Israel are
taking in by the lie, making a treaty with what ended up being "the nation next door".
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