According to the written testimony of the various contributors to the ‘Holy Bible' canon, the LORD tells a number of lies; and teaches his princes, principalities, prophets, kings, judges, priests, and people to do likewise.
In Exodus 23, while the Israelites were allegedly serving the LORD at mount Hor (always at instant hazard to their own lives from the LORD), Moses says the LORD made a promise to him which the historical record contained in the various applicable books following Exodus in the canon confirm He did not keep.
Perhaps this sort of back- handed faithfulness is to be expected from a LORD who says to His own people, “ye shall know my breach of promise,” as Moses says the LORD did in Numbers 14:34. Every broken promise is a lie, however, especially when told by the omniscient and only God, as the LORD claims always throughout the canon to be.
[How is it possible to be omniscient yet unable to establish a conversation on a better foundation than that of lies and broken promises told and made to those one claims infallible, eternal, and boundless superiority over; as the LORD, according to the ’Holy Bible’ canon, et. al., does (while claiming to be the only God)?]
At mount Hor (in Exodus 23), while the LORD was informing Moses of a number of statutes which subsequently became a part of the canon of legal singularities referred to as “Moses' law“: the LORD informed Moses that He'd assigned an “Angel” to see the children of Israel the rest of the way to the promised land. This change- of- guard takes place in chapter 34 of Exodus (verses 6 - 8)– while the children of Israel remained at mount Hor– after Moses, desirous of seeing the LORD’s “glory” (33:18, ibid.),” is forewarned of the LORD, “thou shalt see my back parts: but my face shall not be seen;” (which means, in the common vernacular: “Kiss my ass, and taste my blow- by. I’m gone.”) in the final word of chapter 33.
Meanwhile, in Exodus 23, the LORD– in setting Moses' heart at ease about His upcoming leave- taking– tells Moses: "28 I will send hornets before thee, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before thee. 29 I will not drive them out from before thee in one year; lest the land become desolate, and the beast of the field multiply against thee. 30 By little and little I will drive them out from before thee, until thou be increased, and inherit the land [Exodus 23:28 - 30]."
Notice: the LORD says “I will…” three times in the above passage from Exodus 23; “before thee” four times; and mentions “the Hivite” at the top of His list of targets assigned for harassment by the hornets He promises to chase them, the Canaanites, and the Hittites out of the land with.
In fact, the manner in which the LORD makes this particular promise to Moses is entirely reminiscent of the wonder of the “swarms” which allegedly harassed Pharaoh and the Egyptians to distraction in the earlier chapters of Exodus. At any rate, the historical record in the book of Joshua informs the discerning reader that the LORD broke His promise of Exodus 23 to drive the Hivites, Canaanites, and Hittites out of the promised land by harassing them with hornets.
Joshua 9 tells of the Israelites' first encounter with the Hivites (who occupied the top of the list of targets reserved for harassment by hornets) after their alleged return from Egypt. This meeting with the Hivites takes place after crossing the river Jordan and entering the land of Canaan promised to “Abraham” (Abram) by the same LORD who said to Abraham’s descendants, “ye shall know my breach of promise” (Numbers 14:34).
This encounter with the Hivites is the Israelites’ third experience with the inhabitants of the land on the west side of Jordan. According to the narrative of the book of Joshua, the Hivites sent a peace envoy to the children of Israel while the children of Israel were in Gilgal– presumably resting and recuperating in the aftermath of the destruction they visited on the cities of Bethel and Ai, in the second challenge they faced in their holy land conquest after crossing the Jordan.
The ninth chapter of Joshua says that the embassy sent by the Hivites to Joshua and the children of Israel in Gilgal was made up of a number of the inhabitants of “Gibeon, and Chephirah, and Beeroth, and Kirjath-jearim” (verse 17). Furthermore, it is alleged that these chosen Hivites had been sent “wilily” (verse 4) to beguile a peace treaty out of their hostile new neighbors, the Israelites.
The fact that the Hivites of these four cities knew what to say and do to beguile the children of Israel could indicate the betrayal of the children of Israel by the LORD. Chapter nine of Joshua says that, in order to beguile Joshua and the Israelites, “4 [The Hivites] did work wilily, and went and made as if they had been ambassadors, and took old sacks upon their asses, and wine bottles, old, and rent, and bound up; 5 And old shoes and clouted upon their feet, and old garments upon them; and all the bread of their provision was dry and mouldy.” The express intent of the Hivites' artifices in regard to their equipment, provisions, and clothing was their pretense to being distant foreigners.
According to the ninth- and- following verses of the ninth chapter of Joshua, the Hivites “said unto [Joshua], From a very far country thy servants are come because of the name of the LORD thy God: for we have heard the fame of him… 11 Wherefore our elders and all the inhabitants of our country spake to us, saying, Take victuals with you for the journey, and go to meet them, and say unto them, We are your servants: therefore now make ye a league with us. 12 This our bread we took hot for our provision out of our houses on the day we came forth to go unto you; but now, behold, it is dry, and it is mouldy: 13 And these bottles of wine, which we filled, were new; and, behold, they be rent: and these our garments and our shoes are become old by reason of the very long journey.”
Ultimately, the children of Israel are beguiled by the wiles of the Hivites which the LORD promised they wouldn't have to contend in battle with: perhaps mostly by this word from them, “We are your servants.” They therefore accept the peace- and- protection compact proposed by the ambassadors of the four cities of the Hivites.
Subsequently, the next military contest Joshua and the children of Israel have to peel themselves away from Gilgal (yes, they keep retarding to Gilgal) to march off to is in protection of their recently- acquired servants in the Hivite cities of Gibeon, Chephirah, Beeroth, and Kirjath-jearim against “Adoni-zedek king of Jerusalem... Piram king of Jarmuth... Japhia king of Lachish, and… Debir king of Eglon [Joshua 10:1]” who have entered into a destruction compact against the Hivites in response to their making peace with the children of Israel.
A couple of things are noteworthy, here. The promise made by the LORD to drive the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites from the land He promised to “Abraham” was made forty years before the Israelites crossed the river Jordan. While the promise was made under the condition that “[the LORD] will not drive [the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites] out from before thee in one year; lest the land become desolate, and the beast of the field multiply against thee [Exodus 23:29]”: the LORD had forty years from the time the promise was made to “By little and little drive them out from before [the children of Israel], until [they were] increased, and [inherited] the land [Exodus 23:30].”
Likewise noteworthy is the fact that Adoni-zedek king of Jerusalem, Piram king of Jarmuth, Japhia king of Lachish, and Debir king of Eglon– the kings the children of Israel were compelled to protect the Hivites of Gibeon, Chephirah, Beeroth, and Kirjath-jearim from– were, like the Hivites themselves, on the list of targets the LORD promised to harass out of the promised land with swarms of hornets. Adoni-zedek king of Jerusalem, Piram king of Jarmuth, Japhia king of Lachish, and Debir king of Eglon were, each of them, Canaanite kings. The Canaanites were the second target on the hornets hit- list from Exodus 23.
It could be the children of Israel lasted longer in the promised land than the LORD supposed they could or would. At any rate, the really ironical thing in the tale of this ‘Lie’ is a thing Joshua said in his farewell- to- public- service address, in the final chapter of the book which bears his name.
At his retirement party in Shechem, Joshua speaking for the LORD, says: “And I sent the hornet before you, which drave them out from before you, even the two kings of the Amorites; but not with thy sword, nor with thy bow [Joshua 24:12].” However, nowhere does the LORD mention the Amorites in His promise to harass the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites out of the promised land with hornets.
Likewise, nowhere does Moses mention being helped by hornets in his war against the kingdoms of Og and Sihon (the “two kings of the Amorites” cited by Joshua, above) on the other side of the Jordan. The only mention of Amorites in Exodus 23 has nothing to do with hornets, and even if it did: the promise made in verse 28 of Exodus 23 would still be a lie in respect of the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites.
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