9:1-2 Enemies of Israel become allies with each other ("the enemy of my enemy is my friend.")
9:3-5 The Gibeonites have a different plan. Instead of opposing the Israelites, they craft a plan to align with them. The Israelites were forbidden by God from creating alliances with the people of this region so the Gibeonites disguise themselves as foreigners.
9:6 Disguised, the Gibeonites ask Joshua to make a covenant with them. A covenant would bind the two camps together as allies.
9:7-8 The children of Israel are initially skeptical. Instead of consulting God, Joshua lightly interrogates the Gibeonites to discover the truth. The lesson here is that God's consultation is infinity more reliable than our instinct.
This circumstances with the Gibeonsites serves as further reminder to invite God into every detail of our lives. God is with us in the battles and the wars, yes. But He is also with us in the day-to-day and moment-to-moment. He knows our every movement and thought, Psalm 139, and He also knows what is happening externally. The Gibeonites are able to fool the Israelites but they were not for one second tricking God.
9:9-13 The Gibeonites concoct a story about having heard the wonders of the Israelites' God and being told by their elders to make a covenant with them.
9:14-15 Joshua agrees to join into a covenant with the Gibeonites, who are actually a group of Canaanites.
9:16 Very soon after cemented in the covenant, the Israelites learn the truth.
9:17-18 Because of the new covenant, the children of Israel were legally barred from attacking these places. Had Joshua consulted God, these lands would have been given to them as Jericho and Ai had been.
9:19-21 The Israelites begin to scramble. They do not know what to do with their now sworn-ally. They decide to honor the covenant, the honorable thing to do, but assign the Gibeonites to the lowly jobs of the community. The reason is likely to prevent a Gibeonite from gaining a platform to taint and change the faith the Israelites live by.
9:22-23 Joshua explains the situation to the Gibeonites: because of their lies, their progress will forever be stunted.
9:24-27 The Gibeonites explain that it was their last resort to deceptively enter into an alliance with the children of Israel. They did not want to be destroyed like their neighbors. The Gibeonites agree to Joshua's terms: they will live as servants of God. Because of that, they do indeed preserve their lives.
