Howdy Friends! It is obvious that Gibeon’s treason was the motivation for their hatred and their assault on the nation of the Gibeonites. Yet, Israel was bound by a blood oath to protect the newly assimilated nation as their own people. (Joshua 9:3)
Consider a similar situation in our day. For those of us that have been raised in a non-Christian home, or a Roman Catholic home or even a non-Reformed home environment.
Once we depart from the family religious circle, we are often viewed as traitors.
Once we have made peace with God through the Effective Work of the Holy Spirit on our lives by the regeneration, we actually become enemies, either secretly or openly.
Once we go over to the Side of God, we are viewed as disparaging the Religion of our fathers, EVEN if that religion is never seriously practiced.
We are seen as a rebuke to what is the family tradition which is mostly a golden calf.
What the transition from the false faith of our families to the true faith of Biblical Christianity suggests, is that their faith wasn’t good enough. Our conversion is viewed as an assault and a refutation on the way they brought us up, as if it was wrong, and now it is rejected.
This is a personal thing and it is taken personally. It is as if, by our Biblical Convictions, without even expressing them, THEY are judged.
Once we defect to the Side of God, we become a threat to the ungodly.
Once there is a departure from the family’s false faith, a great gulf is drawn between what is true and what is not. That gulf results in a personality separation which results in tension among members of the family.
This was the issue against the Gibeonites. As a result of the Covenant oath and blood sacrifice confirming Israel’s oath and the agreement of the Gibeonites to adhere to that treaty, their assimilation into the nation of Israel COULD NEVER BE BROKEN.
By Gibeon’s newly formed alliance, they were an open rebuke to all of the tribes of Canaan. But they were more than that.
They were a threat to Canaan since they would support Israel in their Dominion campaign against Canaan according to their Covenant agreement.
And as are we a threat to those from whom we’ve traveled by understanding and building a fierce faith in the one true LORD and Savior. And by that faith we stand with the LORD’S armor. ~ Gitty Up, Dutch.
