Joshua 9: The Gibeonites deceive Israel.

After Israel conquered Jericho and then Ai, the news about the strength of the Children of Israel - and their mighty God, Jehovah - spread quickly among the people of Canaan. In this chapter, the people of Gibeon came up with a plan to trick Joshua and the Israelites into granting them safety.

To preserve themselves, the Gibeonites cooked up a story that they had come from far away. They dressed in old clothing and worn-out sandals, and brought shabby wine-skins and moldy bread as proof of their long journey. After questioning these travelers, Joshua agreed to guarantee their safety, and the Israelites made a covenant to let them live. Note that the Israelites did not consult the Lord.

In the end, the Gibeonites admitted that they lived close by and were neighbors of Israel, just as the Hivites (the Gibeonites' ancestors) had been with Abraham. Joshua, unable to revoke his promise to them, made them wood-cutters and water-carriers for the altars of the Lord.

This chapter offers us several spiritual lessons. The main one is that there is a place for simple, well-intentioned goodness in our spiritual life, along with our love of God and our love for other people (See Swedenborg's exegetical work, Arcana Caelestia 3436, for details). This is what the Gibeonites stand for; they were not warlike but peaceful, content to live usefully day after day. This is an illustration of natural good, which is an important part of life in this world and in heaven (Arcana Caelestia 3167).

On a spiritual level, their story about living in a country far-away means that when we live good, well-intentioned lives, we are ‘far away’ from the evils of the Canaanites. Although the Gibeonites lived among the Canaanites, their higher values were entirely different. So while the Gibeonites deceived Israel to save themselves, they spoke truthfully when they said: “we come from a place a very long way away” (See Swedenborg's work, Heaven and Hell 481).

Their tattered and torn appearance is meant to illustrate the hard work of doing good. It can be quite wearing to continue doing good things, especially when we feel it is all up to us. Acknowledging that all good is from the Lord renews us, and keeps us from the burden of merit.

In the same vein, their worn-out appearance is also about our relationship with the Word. Little children love and delight in the stories of the Word, but as they grow up, this love dwindles (Arcana Caelestia 3690). But as adults, we have the choice to find those guiding principles from the Word, helping us to keep leading good lives.

The fact that Joshua commanded the Gibeonites to cut wood and draw water also holds spiritual significance. The beauty of wood is that it comes from living trees, and can be turned into many, many useful things. It stands for the steady, humble wish to do good each day (See Swedenborg's work, True Christian Religion 374). This must be present in our worship at the altars of the Lord.

Drawing water provides essential, life-giving refreshment for others. Water stands for truth, and our better actions draw the water of life for the sake of others. Truly, acknowledging the goodness in other people is part of our faith in God. This story shows us that we must allow others to live and to serve everything of God, just as Joshua showed mercy toward the Gibeonites.

10648. 'And they go whoring after their gods' means from which falsities of evil arise. This is clear from the meaning of 'whoring after the gods of the nations' as being linked to falsities of evil; for being linked together unlawfully is meant by 'whoring', and falsities of evil by 'the gods of the nations'. For the meaning of 'gods' as falsities, see 4402(end), 4544, 7873, 8867, and for that of 'nations' as evils, above in 10638. The expression 'from which falsities of evil arise' is used because from evil all kinds of falsity come forth. Falsities however which do not arise from evil are indeed falsities in the outward form they take, but they are not inwardly so. For falsities can exist with someone who leads a good life; but they have good interiorly present in them which causes the evil of the falsity to be removed. Consequently that falsity does not appear before angels as falsity but as a sort of truth; for angels look at the inner features of faith, not the outward aspects of it. This is why everyone, whatever their religion, even gentiles who possess no truths from the Word, can be saved, provided that they have regarded leading a good life as their end in view, and the religious teachings they have received as the means to that end, see 2589-2604.

[2] 'Whoring' is spoken of frequently in the Word. An unlawful joining to truth is meant by this, and an unlawful joining to good by 'committing adultery', so that 'whoring' means the falsification of truth, and 'committing adultery' the adulteration of good. The falsification of truth takes place in the following three ways,

1. If a person leads an evil life while acknowledging truths received through religious teachings, for the truths then have evil inside them, and evil falsifies truth. It does so because evil dispels from truths what is heavenly and Divine, and introduces what is hellish, as a consequence of which falsification takes place.

[3] 2. If a person first accepts the truths in religious teachings and afterwards assents to the falsity of another set of teachings, which happens solely in the case of those who lead an evil life, because evil has an appetite for falsity and freely takes hold of it as the truth.

3. If a person who is leading an evil life and adopting falsities as his religious teachings takes hold of truths belonging to another set of teachings, he too falsifies truths, because he does not acknowledge truths for their own sake, only for the sake of earning some gain, important position, or reputation.

[4] In the Word all these kinds of falsification are called acts of whoredom and prostitution, because a lawful joining together, which is that of goodness and truth, is meant by a marriage, see 2727-2759, so that instances of an unlawful joining together are meant by acts of whoredom. The truth of this may be recognized from a large number of places in the Word, of which let just these two be brought forward here:

In Ezekiel,

O Jerusalem, you committed whoredom because of your renown, and poured out your acts of whoredom on every passer-by. You took some of your garments and made for yourself high places variously coloured, and on them committed whoredom. For your adornment you took vessels made of My gold and of My silver, which I had given you, and made for yourself figures of the male, and committed whoredom with them. You took your sons and your daughters, whom you had borne to Me, and sacrificed them to them. Were your acts of whoredom a small matter? You committed whoredom with the sons of Egypt, your neighbours, great in flesh, and multiplied your whoredom to provoke Me to anger. You committed whoredom with the sons of Asshur, and you committed whoredom with them and were not satisfied. And you multiplied your whoredom, even as far as the trading land of Chaldea. Ezekiel 16:15-17, 20, 26, 28-29ff.

And in the same prophet,

Two women, the daughters of one mother, committed whoredom in Egypt. In their youth they committed whoredom. Oholah is Samaria, and Oholibah is Jerusalem. Oholah committed whoredom under Me and doted on her lovers, on the Assyrians her neighbours. She bestowed her acts of whoredom on them. Her acts of whoredom brought from Egypt she did not give up, for they had lain with her in her youth. Oholibah corrupted her love more than she, and multiplied her acts of whoredom above her sister's acts of whoredom; she doted on the sons of Asshur. She added to her acts of whoredom and saw the images of the Chaldeans. As soon as her eyes saw them she desired them. The sons of Babel came to her, into her love-bed. Ezekiel 23:2-5, 7-8, 11-12, 14, 16ff.

Further examples of the same thing occur in many other places, which may be seen, together with explanations of them as well as of the two quoted here, in 2466, 8904.