Fearing for their lives, the people of the Hivite royal city of Gibeon decided to try to enter into covenant relationship with Israel. Unlike Rahab, who had acknowledged Jehovah to be “God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath,” and had cast herself upon His mercy, the Gibeonites acted deceitfully. They came with worn-out clothes and shoes, moldy bread, and torn wineskins, and told the Israelites they had come from a far-away country, and that when they had started out, all had been fresh and new.

Without asking the Lord for His direction, Joshua and Israel’s princes entered into a solemn treaty with them to let them live. Three days later the Israelites found out with whom they were now in alliance. They murmured against their princes and were ready to kill the Gibeonites, but Joshua and the rulers stopped them, reminding them that they could not touch them, for the covenant of peace had been sworn by the name of Jehovah the God of Israel.

The Gibeonites had told Joshua, “We are your servants.” Now, their lives were spared, but servants they would be forever! They were to chop wood and draw water. But in God’s wonderful ways they were not to do this only for the assembly of Israel, but also “for the altar of the Lord.” The temple servants who returned from exile in Babylon were descendants of these Gibeonites who valued the privilege of being able to serve God (Neh. 3:7).