Joshua’s failure to seek the Lord regarding the Gibeonites is one of the earliest biblical examples of breaking trust with one’s congregation (You can read the full story in Joshua 9). During Israel’s conquest of Cannan, the leaders of Gibeon (a Canaanite city) were sweating bullets at their coming demise. So, they devised a clever plan to trick Joshua into making a peace treaty with them. It worked too! But out of the ashes of Joshua’s misstep, we discover how to rebuild trust with an angry and upset congregation. As our age is marked by an epidemic of broken trust in churches, it is an example we desperately need.
Deceived in the Desert
First, we need to explore how Joshua got into this mess. Using a little sanctified imagination, we can see how the Gibeonites might have come up with their clever ruse. Picture this scene:
In a crowded upper room atop the city gate, the King of Gibeon stares nervously out a window. On the horizon, he sees smoke rising from the Israelite camp a distance away. While wiping the sweat from his forehead with the sleeve of his robe, he turns to the officials nervously gathered. They knew cities just like theirs were being put to the sword. Putting his hands on his hips, the King says,
“Gentlemen, we need a plan, and we need it now! The Israelites are camped three days away. To fight them would be futile. To surrender means certain death. The prayers to our gods have gone unanswered. Yet, surely, there must be something we can do.”
The chief of the nearby hamlet of Beeroth offered, “We could flee!”
“No,” the king replied. They would catch us completely defenseless. We’d be slaughtered in the desert.”
A leader from Chephirah, a neighboring town, motioned to speak, his hand shaking, “What if we join the kings of the hill country? I hear they are putting together a coalition.”
The king slammed his fist on the table, “No, no, there’s no time for that!” The king continued, “And besides, you know what the Hebrews did to Og, Sihon, Ai, and Jericho. We will not defeat the Israelite God through warfare!”
A spokesman from Kirath-Jearim cleared his throat. Stroking his beard, he pondered aloud, “Their God has given them victory after victory since they departed Egypt, yes?” Yes, the group nodded in unison. “And they have not had a single significant loss?” His words hung in the air.
“Yes, yes!” The king said impatiently. “Get to the point!
The spokesman pondered, “What if we took advantage of their confidence?” We could send a delegation to fill their heads with admiration for all their God has done for them. Maybe then they would be friendly toward us.”
“A clever idea,” the king replied slowly, “But it will never work. Their policy is to destroy all who live in Canaan. They would not entertain a delegation from Gibeon.”
The room was silent for a few seconds when one chief leaped to his feet and shouted, “What if the delegation were not from Gibeon!”
The king shot back, “Are you so confused that you no longer know where you are from?”
“No, my lord,” the chief explained. “What if the delegation pretended to be from a distant land? We could pretend we were awestruck by the things we had heard about them and ask for a treaty.” The chief was on a roll now. “Just last week, a troop of actors entertained us at court. Let’s pay them to play ambassadors from a distant kingdom. We’ll stock them with moldy supplies and put worn-out sandals on their feet. I am certain those performers can pull it off!”
The king took the idea more seriously. He could see it in his mind’s eye. “Well now, that just might work. Yes, summon the players. Tell them it is the role of a lifetime! Because, if they fail, it will be the last performance of their lives!” The room quickly cleared out as they put the plan in motion.
Breaking Trust by Failing to Seek the Lord
Joshua, for his part, was fresh off a mountaintop experience renewing the covenant and basking in a delayed victory over Ai. He proved vulnerable to both overconfidence and self-reliance. The painful moral of the story has haunted church leaders ever since: Joshua and his team “did not ask for the counsel of the Lord” (Josh. 9:14).
To Joshua and his team, it probably seemed like a no-brainer. The envoys from a land “far, far away” posed no threat. In man’s eyes, it was a decision of little consequence. In God’s eyes, it was an issue that would haunt Israel for the next 400 years. It led to unjust ethnic cleansing under Saul and a painful three-year famine in the days of David (2 Sam. 21).
It did not take long for Joshua’s expedient decision to trip him up. Three days later, Israel’s leaders discovered that the Gibeonites lived much closer than they thought. And here is where things get ugly. When news of the Gibeonite ruse got to the camp, the congregation responded angrily, “And the whole congregation grumbled against the leaders.”
Rebuilding Broken Trust
However, if we look closely, Joshua and the other leaders demonstrate how to rebuild trust with an angry congregation. First, Joshua did not become reactive toward the Gibeonites. He would not have been the first leader to take his misstep out on the people who got him in trouble. To blame shift, scapegoat, or annihilate the Gibeonites would have been human instinct. Instead, Joshua stood by his agreement with the Gibeonites because he made it in the Lord’s name.
Second, he did not make matters worse by becoming aggressive toward the grumbling congregation. There were no plans to identify and target the grumblers for discipline. There was no defensiveness in Joshua’s manner. He did not fault them for finding fault! As a result, he avoided an “us vs. them” scenario. He evaded further division. It was already bad enough. Ostracizing those who disagreed with the decision or who were silent about it at the time it was implemented would only have made things worse.
Third, Joshua brought the matter out into the open. He gathered the whole congregation to admit what they did and how it came to be. There was no cover-up, backroom meeting, circling the wagons, or political spin. He messed up publicly and faced the music publicly. Joshua and the other leaders were completely transparent (and likely humiliated) about what happened.
Fourth, Joshua came up with a workable plan that pacified the congregation. The Gibeonites saved their necks but would live the rest of their lives as slaves, hauling water and chopping wood for Israel (Josh. 9: 19-21). This quieted the congregation and appeared to satisfy God because His blessing continued as they pursued the remaining conquest of Canaan.
Joshua teaches us that it is possible to rebuild trust with a congregation. He shows us that it takes keeping one’s cool, not lashing out, complete transparency, and praying for wisdom to salvage the mess we made when we failed to seek the Lord’s counsel.
Mark Barnard serves with Blessing Point Ministries. Blessing Point works to heal ministries with painful histories. Mark is the author or coauthor of several books related to corporate spiritual dynamics including his latest, “The Corporate Church – Why We Need to Get Our House in Order.”