Yes or No

DEVOTION

JOSHUA

YES OR NO

Josh 9:1-15

9:1 Now when all the kings west of the Jordan heard about these things — those in the hill country, in the western foothills, and along the entire coast of the Great Sea as far as Lebanon (the kings of the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites)— 2 they came together to make war against Joshua and Israel. 3 However, when the people of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and Ai, 4 they resorted to a ruse: They went as a delegation whose donkeys were loaded with worn-out sacks and old wineskins, cracked and mended. 5 The men put worn and patched sandals on their feet and wore old clothes. All the bread of their food supply was dry and moldy. 6 Then they went to Joshua in the camp at Gilgal and said to him and the men of Israel, "We have come from a distant country; make a treaty with us." 7 The men of Israel said to the Hivites, "But perhaps you live near us. How then can we make a treaty with you?" 8 "We are your servants," they said to Joshua. But Joshua asked, "Who are you and where do you come from?" 9 They answered: "Your servants have come from a very distant country because of the fame of the LORD your God. For we have heard reports of him: all that he did in Egypt, 10 and all that he did to the two kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan-Sihon king of Heshbon, and Og king of Bashan, who reigned in Ashtaroth. 11 And our elders and all those living in our country said to us, 'Take provisions for your journey; go and meet them and say to them, "We are your servants; make a treaty with us." '  12 This bread of ours was warm when we packed it at home on the day we left to come to you. But now see how dry and moldy it is. 13 And these wineskins that we filled were new, but see how cracked they are. And our clothes and sandals are worn out by the very long journey." 14 The men of Israel sampled their provisions but did not inquire of the LORD. 15 Then Joshua made a treaty of peace with them to let them live, and the leaders of the assembly ratified it by oath.

NIV

Oaths are not the best method of making any treaty or agreement. Another word for an oath we use more often than we should is “ promise”. We promise we will get that done as soon as possible, and then we sort of forget that we made an oath. Israel made this oath with the people of Gibeon who came to them with nothing but lies. We are going to see that oath bite the Israelites in the backside, so to speak. Although a law was given to the Israelites about oaths as recorded in Leviticus when the LORD God told them not to swear falsely by his name, as it would profane his name. Yet Jesus commanded that we should not swear at all, neither by heaven, for it is God’s throne. Jesus went on to tell us to simply let our ‘yes’ be ‘yes’ and our ‘no’ be ‘no’. We know there are times that a person may ask us to promise to do this or that and it would be best not to make that promise, but to simply either say yes or no. Of course, the promise we make to our spouse on our wedding day is the one oath we need to keep, although we have seen a decline in that oath-keeping in our culture over the past few decades. Let us not make the same mistake that Israel did, but we can say, yes or no and let that be sufficient. It might not make for the best answer as sometimes a person may want us to promise that we would either do or not do something. We must remind them that we cannot promise, or swear that we will or will not do something, for it is against the word of our Lord. If we can use this example of the ruse those people came to Joshua with as how some people may come to us falsely wanting to trap us in a promise, although, for the most part, we would think most people would not do that. Yet, we also need to seek the gift of discernment so we will know who comes truthfully asking our help, or seeking assistance so that we can say, “yes” and mean “yes”.