Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble and I'm your host for the Bible Recap.

Before we launch into today's recap, we need to remember something we read in

Deuteronomy 20 to help it all make sense. In that chapter, God gave very

different instructions on how the Israelites were supposed to handle

cities outside of the promised land versus cities inside the promised land.

For cities outside Canaan, they were supposed to greet the cities with peace and kill only the males and only if they opposed them.

But for those inside Canaan, they were supposed to operate by a principle called Charum,

where everything is dedicated to Yahweh and devoted to destruction.

As we've talked about before, God used this practice to serve multiple purposes.

Today we meet another group of people from Gibeon, they're called the Gibeonites or the

Hevites, and they've apparently gotten word of God's instructions to the Israelites.

They lived in Canaan, but decided to pretend like they didn't, so they could get the more lenient treatment and not be entirely destroyed.

Pretty sneaky.

They asked Israel to enter into a protective covenant with them.

Remember yesterday how Joshua won the battle against Jericho,

then failed to ask God for guidance

when fighting against AI, and they lost?

Then he won against AI when he followed God's commands.

It seems like he learned very little from that incident because here he is,

failing to ask God for guidance again and just forging out on his own.

So he gets duped into making a covenant with his enemies,

which is in direct violation of God's commands

...