best suits when we started on this long, hard journey. These wine-skins, now patched and broken, were new when we left home. They were filled with sweet grapejuice, and smell them now!” Dis playing their mouldy crusts of bread, they shook their heads with sorrow and said, “ Gentlemen, these were hot bis cuits right out of the oven, when we started on this trip.” The record states that the princes of Israel were “ convinced by the victuals,” and they fell into this trap. They swore by the honor of Jehovah that they would never lift sword against the city of these ambassadors, but made with them a compact of peace and amity forever. We had the audacity to maintain that the Hivites were the shrewdest people that ever lived. This seems reasonable in the face of the fact that they were the only people of history who have ever beaten all the Jews in a bargain at the same time! If the reader does not think that that requires brains, try it on one child of Abraham, and see how far you get! When the ambassadors were rested, the journey of the horde was resumed, until they came before the walls of Gibeon. When the princes of Israel pre pared the horde for the battle, they said to these mock-ambassadors, “ Stand thou by and see how we overcome this city.” The ambassadors replied, “Not this city! This is our city, protected by your oath of friendship and peace.” The princes of Israel raved with in dignation, but they were s e c u r e l y trapped, and saw no way out. So, char acteristically, they made the best of a bad bargain and got what they could out of the deal. They bound the Gibeon ites to themselves by an oath and said, “ Thou shalt be the slaves of our God forever.” The Gibeonites retorted that it was better to be living slaves of a mighty God than dead rejecters of a pact, and the covenant of mutual defense and pro tection was consummated. There being no further use for the army at the moment, Joshua marched the horde up to Gilgal, where they went into rest camp to recover from the ravages of their hard campaigns. When Adoni-zedec, the genius and head of the league, heard of the defec tion of the Hivites, he was alarmed as well as angered. He reasoned justly that if Israel added to their own army the thirty thousand fighting Hivites, the league was hopeless. Not only was the league weakened, but Israel was strengthened by this number. So he did the only logical thing under the circumstances, and called upon the rest of the heads to join him. He informed them of the defection of the Hivites and bitterly railed against their lack of faith and fidelity to the pact. It seems to have been all right, in his estima tion, for the league to betray a mem ber, but the member must not betray the league! ( Continued on Page 16)
these impostors with patched and mend ed wine-skins, in which they put a few pints of sour vinegar. They gave them some mouldy crusts of bread, and sent them forth as ambassadors of their mighty power. Into the ’ camp of the children of Israel these humbugs limped, saying as they came, “ We be come from a country
ior the sacrifiée of the Hivites. He de sired to use the city of Gibeon as a buffer between Israel and the rest of the league, while the army of the league ■took time to prepare for the defense of the rest of their territory. Here is one league of nations, that dates back almost thirty-five centuries, .organized to frustrate the people and ■the plan of God. It was headed by a man of wordly wisdom, who knew noth ing of God and His will for the land wherein he dwelt. This land was foul with the most unnatural sins, and the only way the land could be purged was by the removal of the source of infec tion, which was the entire utterly de generated populace. So this league recognized no law save the law of expediency, and when its leader thought it desirable, he did not hesitate to sacrifice one entire nation. You may be sure that the nation elected to the sacrifice was not his own people! Adoni-zedec’s strategy called for the fortification of his capital city, Jerus alem. In that region he intended to mass the combined army of the league, in the hope that he could crush Joshua in a pitched battle. So he called a secret meeting of his league and failed to in form the Hivites that the meeting was being held. With skillful oratory he told the fellow members something like this, “ It is better that one should die for all, than that we should all perish together. We realize the seriousness of this decision, but it is necessary that somebody be sacrificed for the good of the league. The walls of Gibeon are strong and high, and they will delay Joshua long enough for us to complete our plans and fortifications. Therefore, we will betray our allies, the Hivites, and toss them to the lions to delay the onrush until we are ready for battle.” The rest of the league were sym pathetic with the Hivites, but under stood the brilliant strategy of Adoni- zedec. As long as they were not them selves to be the victims, they voted to have it that way. The Hivites, however, refused the role of martyr. They ap parently had their spies at the confer ence of the league. When they learned that they were to be offered as a sacri fice for the rest of the league, they acted first. Promptly, they betrayed the pact before the pact could betray them ! They perpetrated one of the shrewdest strata gems of history, and as a result gained a secret pact with Israel that made them servants of the God of Israel in return for protection and security. It is not too much to say that the Hivites were probably the shrewdest people who ever lived on the face of this earth. In defense of that statement, we would offer the irigenious stratagem perpetrated by the Gibeonites, the story of which is told in the ninth chapter of Joshua, which chapter we are now dis cussing. Somewhere in their city these Gibeonites found some old gentlemen with frowsy hair and ragged white beards. They dressed them in worn-out garments and put upon their feet clout ed and broken shoes. They provided
that is very far removed. We have heard of the might of Israel and the power of thy God, and we have come to make a pact with thee.” The princes of Israel replied, “ How do we know that you do not belong in this very land that we have set out to conquer?” These skillful prevaricators humbly re plied, “ You see our worn-out shoes and clothing? These were our newest and
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