Yes or No or As you say

DEVOTION

GENESIS

YES OR NO

or

AS YOU SAY

Gen 44: 1-10

44:1 Now Joseph gave these instructions to the steward of his house: "Fill the men's sacks with as much food as they can carry, and put each man's silver in the mouth of his sack. 2 Then put my cup, the silver one, in the mouth of the youngest one's sack, along with the silver for his grain." And he did as Joseph said. 3 As morning dawned, the men were sent on their way with their donkeys. 4 They had not gone far from the city when Joseph said to his steward, "Go after those men at once, and when you catch up with them, say to them, 'Why have you repaid good with evil? 5 Isn't this the cup my master drinks from and also uses for divination? This is a wicked thing you have done.'" 6 When he caught up with them, he repeated these words to them. 7 But they said to him, "Why does my lord say such things? Far be it from your servants to do anything like that! 8 We even brought back to you from the land of Canaan the silver we found inside the mouths of our sacks. So why would we steal silver or gold from your master's house? 9 If any of your servants is found to have it, he will die; and the rest of us will become my lord's slaves." 10 "Very well, then," he said, "let it be as you say. Whoever is found to have it will become my slave; the rest of you will be free from blame."

NIV

Joseph knew full well what trickery he was doing to his brothers and it surely appears this is a full-throat ed payback. But we know that is not the case, as Joseph has his whole family brought into Egypt so they can survive the great famine. But this plot does smack of trickery, deception, untruthfulness. But our lesson in not in this plot of Joseph today. Our lesson is in the words of the steward's  response to what the brother’s said in defense of their innocence. They were so convinced of their innocence they voiced a vow that whoever had that cup would die and the rest would become slaves. First, that was a very foolish thing to say, as they had already experienced their silver in their sacks the last time they came to Egypt and dealt with this lord of the land. Did they not think he was doing the same thing to them? Did they think this time would be different because they thought they had become friendly with him, having dined in his home? Nevertheless they proclaimed death on the one with the cup. There was no wisdom, no thinking through the situation, just the blurting out of words in an effort to prove their innocence. The steward's response, “Very well then, let it be as you say”. Words are important. It is not wise to vow anything, to swear about anything.

Matt 5:33-37

33 "Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, 'Do not break your oath, but keep the oaths you have made to the Lord.' 34 But I tell you, Do not swear at all: either by heaven, for it is God's throne; 35 or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. 36 And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. 37 Simply let your 'Yes' be 'Yes,' and your 'No,' 'No'; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.

NIV

They would have been far better off just saying we did not do that, and leave it at that. But no, they had to vow this was not true and make a promise to prove they were right. We should not make any vow to do something in order to prove anything. It is far better to simply say, “yes” or “no”.  However when we say yes, that means yes, we will do that which we have been asked to do. It is far better to respond yes, or no when asked if we have done something or not. To make excuses, to make such claims as these brothers did just deepens our trouble. Yet, it seems so easy to want to prove our innocence or make some case, or reason for our behavior, whether good or bad. It would be wise to watch our words, for they have meaning. It is far better not to promise, but just say yes or no. If yes, do it, if no, don’t do it. If asked if we did or did not do something, say yes, or say no, and leave it at that.