God had commanded the Israelites never to make a treaty with the inhabitants of the land that he was giving to them: “Do not make a covenant with them or with their gods. Do not let them live in your land, or they will cause you to sin against me, because the worship of their gods will certainly be a snare to you.” (Exodus 23:32-33) They were permitted to make treaties with people who were far off but not with their neighbours in the land. It was a pre-emptive measure and one that we see vindicated after the failure of the Israelites to observe this prohibition. Eventually the people who they allowed to remain did indeed become a snare for them. Here in Joshua 9 we see the Israelites breaking this prohibition, but unintentionally. They were deceived by the Gibeonites, who lived in the land, into making a treaty with them on the assumption that they were from far off. The Israelites were still held responsible for making this treaty with the Gibeonites because they did not think to inquire of God on the matter (vs.14). If they would have, God would have brought the deception to light. We have a spiritual enemy, Satan (called the deceiver), who wants to deceive us in to making choices that will allow him to exert greater influence upon us. We should therefore always be asking God to bring the schemes of the deceiver to light so that we will not be ensnared as the Israelites were in this story.
Ask God to bring to light any scheme of the Devil that might be at work in your life now.
Read Joshua 9
