Joshua 9:22–27

Then Joshua called for them, and he spoke to them, saying, “Why have you deceived us, saying, ‘We are very far from you,’ when you dwell near us? Now therefore, you are cursed, and none of you shall be freed from being slaves—woodcutters and water carriers for the house of my God.”

So they answered Joshua and said, “Because your servants were clearly told that the LORD your God commanded His servant Moses to give you all the land, and to destroy all the inhabitants of the land from before you; therefore we were very much afraid for our lives because of you, and have done this thing. And now, here we are, in your hands; do with us as it seems good and right to do to us.” So he did to them, and delivered them out of the hand of the children of Israel, so that they did not kill them. And that day Joshua made them woodcutters and water carriers for the congregation and for the altar of the LORD, in the place which He would choose, even to this day.

There’s an amusing piece of God’s providence on display here. How did they know what the LORD had told Moses?

Because Israel wandered around in the desert for forty years. That gave travelers plenty of time to go back and forth between Egypt and Canaan carrying news of what had happened.

Had Israel gone straight to Canaan after crossing the Red Sea, they would have gotten there before anyone knew what was coming, and this whole deception thing wouldn’t have happened.

But, as always, God was playing the long game, and He had long plans.

It looks like He wants plenty of woodcutters and water carriers for His altar.

This lesson can be very encouraging if we don’t go overboard with it.

And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. — Romans 8:28

We all make mistakes, sometimes big ones. We can take comfort in the fact that those mistakes do not overturn God’s eternal decree; they do not surprise God in the slightest. In fact, our mistakes are part of His plan. They have a purpose.

It’s in that purpose that we avoid going overboard. One can use Romans 8:28 as an excuse-crutch. Every mistake can just be excused and ignored. That’s an even bigger mistake.

Mistakes are still mistakes. They should be learned from. Our goal is not to see how far we can stretch grace but to see how much we can glorify the LORD.

Job one for every Christian is our own sanctification.

Unfortunately, we often think that job one is everyone else’s sanctification.

These Monday—Friday DEEPs are written by Mike Slay. The Weekend DEEPs are written by Matt Richardson. To subscribe to all the DEEPs click here:

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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. ESV stands for the English Standard Version. © Copyright 2001 by Crossway. Used by permission. All rights reserved. NIV stands for The Holy Bible, New International Version®. © Copyright 1973 by International Bible Society. Used by permission. All rights reserved. KJV stands for the King James Version.