The people of Israel had to live with the consequences of their mistake. They had to keep the peace treaty with the Gibeonites. God's view of the importance of this covenant is seen years later in the tragic repercussions that followed King Saul's murder of some of the Gibeonites. The lesson for us is quite plain. There are certain agreements and commitments that we wrongly make but that we must keep.
Marriage is an obvious example.
If we make a wrong choice and marry an unbeliever, we can't go back and correct the situation by getting a divorce. Bad choices in financial areas may also involve us in agreements that we can't walk away from. Marriage to an unbeliever, for example, may result in a lifetime of diminished effectiveness for Christ. The cause of Christ could have been served so much better by a Christian marriage and a Christ-centered home. There has never been a day like it before or since, a day when the Lord listened to a man.