But the Israelites did not attack them, because the leaders of the assembly had sworn an oath to them by the LORD, the God of Israel. – Joshua 9:18

Today’s Scripture Reading (January 5, 2019): Joshua 9

A recent article itemized thirty words that we need to stop using in 2019. The list included “canceled” (as in, you disagree with me, so you are canceled) to “GOAT” (Greatest of All Time) and its antonym “WOAT” (Worst of All Time). The list of words that need to be left behind this year also included a couple of politically motivated phrases: “Fake News” and “Witch Hunt.”

In a world that now gets more of its news from Social Media than it does through print news or legitimate news-gathering organizations, “Fake News” would seem to be a legitimate problem and not one that we are likely to leave behind any time soon. But “Fake News” is also an interesting problem for us. The reality is that no news is objective. Every news story that you will read or hear today comes to you from someone’s distinct point of view. There is always an agenda behind the words, and a major task of the consumer is to recognize that agenda. And the reality is that any story that shares our agenda is likely to be recognized, by us, as a story that is real. And any news story that originates from a point of view that is not ours is more likely to be labeled, at least by us, as “Fake News.”

The problem is that the point of view of a news story may impact the conclusion that we gather from the story, but it does not make the story “Fake News.” There is nothing inherently fake about the story. Even a story that contains a mistake is not fake. It is the honest effort of a flawed reporter. And if the reporter is human, and I believe that they all are, then the reporter is also flawed and will occasionally make mistakes. Having said that, “Fake News” does exist on our social media sites. These are stories that pedal outright lies, not mistakes. During the 2016 federal election in the United States, they were stories like the ones that accused Hillary Clinton of being involved in the sex trade, and these stories continue to influence the people who read them, people who should know better. But in a cruel twist, the news organizations that we label as “Fake News” are often not “Fake News;” they are legitimate news sites with whom we disagree concerning their conclusions.

The inhabitants of Gibeon are afraid, and so the decide to resort to a ruse. They attempt to make a treaty with Israel, pretending to be citizens of a far-off city rather than what they really were, neighbors from a nearby community. The story of the treaty with Gibeon is “Fake News.” Nothing that Gibeon tells Israel is true. This is not a true story with which there is a disagreement over conclusion or in which mistakes are made. The story Gibeon tells Israel is totally fabricated. It is “Fake News.”

But what is amazing about the story is the end of it. Even though the treaty is based on a lie, Israel decides to stand by their decision to make the treaty with the city. The attitude seems to be “we should have known better and checked the story deeper, so this is on us. Therefore, we will honor the word that we gave to the Gibeonites.”

It is an attitude that we need to emulate in our contemporary society. “Fake News” the word might go away, but I am afraid that the phenomenon is here to stay. And in the end, we are responsible for the lies that we are willing to believe. As Christians, we need to be willing to test what we hear so that we are not led astray. Because our reality is that Gibeonites are living on the other side of every hill hoping to mislead us, and if we are misled, it isn’t their fault. It is ours. We should have known better.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Joshua 10