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Themes: Sin Found Out D.J.C. People have used disguises to fool other people since the beginning of history. Jacob is only one of many people in the Bible who used disguises for one reason or another. Another example of a good disguise that worked is recorded in the ninth chapter of Joshua.
The Israelites, after finally coming from slavery in Egypt to the promised land of Canaan, had conquered the mighty cities of Jericho and Ai and appeared to all the other cities and nations that stood in their path to be invincible (which they certainly were when they trusted in God and obeyed His commandments). So the men of Gibeon, a city that was sure to be attacked by the Israelites, came up with a plan.
Some of the men put on worn out, torn clothes, and old shoes that were falling apart. Then they loaded up their donkeys with old sacks, wine bottles that had ripped and then been patched up (bottles were made of leather back then), and some loaves of stale, moldy bread. Then they walked a fairly short distance across the desert to where the Israelites were camped. When they were within sight of the camp, they began to act as though they had been on a long, long journey across the desert and wouldn't make it much farther. When the men of Israel came out to meet them, the Gibeonites told them that they had come from a very far country in order to meet them, after having heard of how mighty the God of Israel was, and of all their adventures in Egypt and their escape from slavery. Then they asked if they could sign a peace treaty with them on behalf of their people. The Israelites would never have signed a treaty with a nation that lived in the land God had promised them, but the Gibeonites' disguise was so perfect that the men of Israel took one look at their ragged clothes, their moldy bread, and leaking, patched wine bottles and figured that their country was so far away that there wouldn't be any harm in making a treaty with them.
Only three days later, they were shocked to find out that they had just made peace with a nation that lived next door to them! But it was too late then to back out of the treaty. The Gibeonites' great disguise had worked, and they were spared from going to war with the mighty Israelites.
The reason that disguises are used so often is because if they are done well enough, they always stand a very good chance of working. This is because people can be easily fooled. However, many people forget that God is never tricked by any disguises. People often try to look like they have trusted in the Lord Jesus as their Savior when in fact they really haven't. If they try hard enough, they can usually convince other people that they are genuine by acting like a Christian, but no one can fool God. "For the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart." (I Samuel 16:7)
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Peter Orasuk
