Joshua made one major mistake, and the Scriptures tell us that he did not ask for a word from the Lord. Sure he questioned them. He tested them thoroughly to make sure that they weren't just the ordinary enemies of the land.

He questioned them on the evidence that they brought. And they gave such a convincing argument, that he accepted their lie and made a covenant without consulting the Lord.

Easy to Be Deceived

This is a picture of the Christian allowing the influence of the world to prevent him from doing what God has told him to do. I want to look at that in a little bit of detail in this section. I want to show you how it works and how Satan works, and what happens when we permit ourselves to be deceived in this way.

You'll have to pay the consequences, just as I found that in my own experience I had to pay the price for allowing the world into my heart and into my life. You might look at it and say,

"How could Joshua be so stupid? Couldn't he see? Couldn't he identify it? If he wasn't sure, he knew how to ask from God. I mean all they needed to do was to use the Urim and Thummim and just come to God and say, 'Lord, do we accept these people or not?' And God would say yes or no.

It was easy; there was nothing complicated about that. Just call the priests, bring the ephod and bring the Urim and Thummim and say,

"God, should we trust these people and make a covenant with them, or should we not?"

God would say yes or no and that would solve it. It was that simple.

They never used the Urim and Thummim. And you as a child of God have in your heart, a built in spiritual Urim and Thummim which we have discussed frequently in so many places.

Satan will come using the World System to deceive you. And if you are not careful, you will ignore that Urim and Thummim that is speaking loudly and clearly and saying, "No, no, no!" This is because you will allow the voice of the world to shout louder, and you will not hear the voice of your spirit.

Assumption Based on Sight

Why did Joshua accept these people? He made an assumption. Firstly, he assumed that they were harmless. They didn't look like the enemy and he said,

"How could these nice guys be the enemy that we have to go and kill? They are so friendly. They are well dressed."

He made an assumption by their appearance. He looked at them and their demeanor, and their humility as they came to him. But whatever they presented, they presented a front which actually looked pretty good. It made them look on par with the Israelites.

Joshua thought, "These people don't look like out-and-out sinners. They look like righteous, good clean-living people. Maybe they serve God. I think we can accept them."

They were not Israelites. It didn't take any discernment to know that they didn't look like a Jew. The Jewish race is very distinctive. Even scattered throughout the world you can pick out a Jew in any land.

God has made them to stand out and look different. I guess it wasn't much different in the time of Joshua. They were still freshly descended from the tribes of Israel. You could distinguish by their language and by everything that they were not Israelites.

Who had God promised the land to? He had promised it to Israel. Now did God ever say,

"Anybody who is not an inhabitant of the land you can be friends with, because they are on equal par with you?"

Did God ever say that? Did He ever say to the Israelites,

"I have chosen you out to give you the Promised Land. But there are other nations there that I have chosen as well. And you can be friends with them because I have also chosen to bless them."

If Joshua had bothered taking note of what he had clearly read in all of Moses' writings, he would have known that the Israelite nation was chosen of God alone and above all people. They were made the head and not the tail, above only and not beneath, and not equal either. He allowed his emotions and a few other things to get the better of him.

Recognition and Acceptance

I think Joshua was tired of being rejected. He was tired of everybody hating them wherever they went. They must have had such a reputation by then and the people didn't know what friends were anymore. Here came these people and said,

"We've heard about you Israelites. You are so awesome. We've heard of how God has used you and you have conquered all these kings.

"You are such wonderful people. You are the kind of people that come up to our standard to be accepted as equal with us and to be friends with us. You come up to our standard of accreditation.

"We'll give you accreditation Joshua, because you guys have made it. You've come up to the same kind of things that we believe are necessary and which we have accomplished as a great nation from a far off land."

Joshua thought, "Actually we are pretty good you know. And you know what? I'm the leader. Did you know that even when Moses was alive, it was me who was the leader of the Army?

"Did you hear about that? Did you hear that I was the general - right from the beginning you know? It wasn't just when we came in here. I was the guy who led them. Do you know that it was under my leadership that we conquered the Amalekites?"

I'm sure Joshua must have sat down and told them a whole lot of tales of his strategy. What a brilliant leader he was, and what a brilliant soldier and general of the Army he was!

Joshua felt good because he was accepted. He was elevated by the status quo. Can you see where I am going? Joshua apostle, what are you doing rubbing shoulders with the world?

You say, "They recognize me and accept me. After all, these guys have got their doctorates and they are professors. They are the intelligentsia of society. These are nobility and they are royalty. They are wealthy barons who own great wealth and land. And do you know what? They think I am the same level as them.

"They have heard what a great job I did when I founded this church. I got this ministry going and they have heard about me. They saw it in the Christian magazine. I was on the front cover. I made a name for myself. I think we could work with these people."

"They are not Christians. They are unbelievers."

"Yeah, I know, but you know we might be able to influence them later. And you know it's good to have contacts. You have to have contacts in this world. You must have contacts out there you know; get your name out there and be known.

"The time will come when I will need to call on them for a favor. They can open doors for me that I might not be able to get into. They have contacts in high places.

"They know somebody who is a Senator. We can pull the right strings and open the door. We can get our ministry in there. We can get licensing and get to do things that other churches can't do, because we have the contacts.

"I think it's a good thing. I think we should network with these people, don't you?"

Do you think the elders would tell Joshua he is an idiot? They were probably caught in the same thing. They gave into flattery. An old English expression says,

Flattery will get you nowhere.

I often say with tongue in cheek:

Flattery will get you everywhere.

It is human nature. You must be very careful. Joshua has been called to displace the world out of the midst of the heart of God's people.

He has been called to bring the church out of the world; to make the Body of Christ stand distinct, clear and separate to the world. And the first thing Satan is going to do to you if you are a Joshua apostle, is to try and somehow get you to link with and to ally with the world; to be involved in the World System.

A Covenant and Obligation

Joshua went and made a covenant with them. Can you believe it? He accepted something from them which immediately made it a case of,

"You've scratched my back, now I've got to scratch yours."

But not only that, he accepted gifts from them and then put himself on the line for them.

You see when you made a Blood Covenant with somebody, it wasn't just a case of what you were going to give them. If they got into trouble and they cried out, you had to come running. If somebody attacked them you were obligated to get in there and fight.

This is of course what happened. As soon as Gibeon landed in trouble they cried and said,

"Joshua, you're in covenant with us remember? We're being attacked; we're in trouble. You are obligated to come and help us now."

What are you going to do, Joshua apostle, when your worldly contacts call in what you owe them? And what they are calling upon you to do is something that will compromise the call of God on your life, and it is going to compromise the mandate that God has given you.

It is going to cause you to do something which will damage the work of God, for the sake of your friends that you have made in this world.

Don't you dare touch, get involved with, ally yourself or become friends with any worldly organization. Don't do it with worldly leaders or contacts in this world, in the hope that this may benefit you in the future and in your ministry. You will end up like Joshua did at Gibeon, and you will end up fighting on Satan's side instead of God's.