by Brian Walters, Director of Adult Ministries @ MBC Loudoun  

Do you remember who the Gibeonite’s were in Scripture?  They were the inhabitants of the city Gibeon, which was northwest of Jerusalem. The Gibeonite’s were about seven miles from Ai, one of the cities Joshua lead the Israelites to conquer as God’s people were taking over the Promised Land (Joshua 8). Gibeon feared for their lives because they saw how Ai and Jericho were destroyed by Israel, so they deceived Israel into making peace with them (Joshua 9).

Recently, I read about this Gibeonite deception of Israel and I got very frustrated because I wondered why Israel kept their promise with the Gibeonites after they deceived them. The Gibeonites acted like they came from a distant land to make peace w/Israel. They even dressed up in old and dirty clothes to play the part. They totally lied to Israel so to me the foundation of this agreement, or contract, should have been voided because it was based completely on inaccurate and false information. 

So why did Israel keep their promise? As I began meditating, praying and looking over the chapter carefully I came across verse 14, which says, “So the men took some of their provision, but did not ask counsel from the Lord.”  So Israel and its leaders before making a promise should have prayed for guidance from the Lord and for wisdom to determine if this was the right thing to do – a strong point that we can take away from John’s sermon this past weekend. While I knew this was an important point, it wasn’t the reason Israel kept their promise.

I then saw verse 11 which says, “We are your servants.  Come now, make a covenant with us.”  And there in lies the reason why the Israelites did not revoke or terminate the promise they made with the Gibeonites – the word “covenant.”  You see a covenant is often mistaken for a contract, but the two things are very different. I realized I had made this mistake myself.

The Evangelical Dictionary of Theology defines a covenant as, “A compact or agreement between two parties binding them mutually to undertakings on each other’s behalf.” A covenant is based on trust before two parties, as opposed to a contract, which is based on distrust. A covenant is based on unlimited responsibility and a contract is based on limited liability. A covenant cannot be broken if new circumstances occur and a contract can be voided by mutual consent. A covenant is not something that can be broken.

So now that you know what the difference between a covenant and contract now I challenge those who are married to ask themselves is my marriage a covenant or a contract?  For those you are single and have made a covenant to God with your eyes or perhaps a covenant not to gossip, my question to you would be have you treated this covenant as a contract?  Let’s take time this week to look into those areas of our life that we have made a covenant and see if we are truly treating those things as a covenant instead of contract.  Remember, “Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him” (John 14:21).