“The men of Israel sampled their provisions but did not inquire of the LORD.”
~ Joshua 9:14
Hi James and Ellen,
Do you tell lies in order to get your way? Do you tell lies to cover up something? Are you okay with being lied to by another kid? Are you okay with being lied to by another kid in order to get you to accept that something is true when it is not? Do you think that it is okay to tell a fib – a lie, if it means that it will save you from being punished or even killed? When your grandpaa worked for Liberty Loan and then for Beneficial Finance, one of the jobs that your grandpaa had where you grandpaa was working was to call up the guys and/or gals who had loans who were behind on their monthly loan payments. Your grandpaa really did not mind calling up the guys and/or gals who were behind on making the monthly payments on his or her or their loan. Sometimes a guy and/or gal who had a loan in the loan office where your grandpaa was working would move to another town or city without telling the places where he or she or they owed money where he or she or they had moved. These guys and/or gals were called ‘skips’. Your grandpaa got to be really good at finding a ‘skip’. Something that your grandpaa would do to find a ‘skip’ – if your grandpaa knew generally where the ‘skip’ had moved to to live and if the ‘skip’ had a relative in the area, was to make up a story which was to try to get the relative to tell your grandpaa the address of where the ‘skip’ lived. One story that your grandpaa made up was to tell a relative of a ‘skip’ that your grandpaa was calling from the Welcome Wagon. Your grandpaa in his story would tell the relative of the ‘skip’ that the Welcome Wagon had just gotten the name of the ‘skip’ as well as the telephone number that the ‘skip’ had given to be contacted – which was the number that your grandpaa called. Your grandpaa would tell the relative that the Welcome Wagon would like to send a gal or guy over to where the ‘skip’ lived with some free things and some coupons. Your grandpaa would tell the relative that he was calling to confirm the address of the ‘skip’. Sometimes the relative of a ‘skip’ would know the address of the ‘skip’ and . . . your grandpaa while working in the Sioux Falls, South Dakota Beneficial Finance office used this story one day about being from the Welcome Wagon to try to find a ‘skip’. One of the gals who worked in the same Beneficial Finance office with your grandpaa heard your grandpaa tell his made up story about being from the Welcome Wagon over the telephone while he was looking for a ‘skip’. The gal who worked with your grandpaa in the same Beneficial Finance office knew that your grandpaa went to church. When your grandpaa finishing telling his made up story over the telephone about being from the Welcome Wagon, the gal who worked in the Beneficial Finance office with your grandpaa told your grandpaa that she did not know that a guy who went to church was able to lie like your grandpaa.
Do you think that it was okay for your grandpaa to tell a made up story to find a guy and/or gal who was not planning to pay back money that he or she or they had borrowed? Do you think that it was okay for some Gibeonite people group’s guys to fool – to lie, to Joshua and the Israelite people group’s guys and gals – God’s specially chosen guys and gals, to keep from being killed? Joshua had been clearly told by God to purge, eliminate, get rid of, destroy and not let any enemy guy, gal or kid remain alive in the land that God had promised His specially chosen guys and gals that they would always have to live in as their very own land. The Gibeonite people group’s guys, gals and kids were supposed to be all killed by the Israelite people group guys. The Gibeonite people group’s guys had heard what God’s specially chosen guys had done on the east side of the Jordon River when they killed the Amorite people group’s kings Sihon and Og. The Gibeonite people group’s guys had also heard how the Israelite people group’s guys and gals had seen to the destruction of the cities of Jericho and Ai. An option that the Gibeonite people group’s guys had was to join a coalition of six kings who had decided that they would make war against God’s specially chosen guys and gals. A small contingent of Gibeonite people group’s guys instead went to where God’s specially chosen guys, gals and kids were camped. This contingent of guys from the Gibeonite people group went in sandals that had been patched up and wore old, worn clothes and they took with them dry, moldy bread and wine in cracked wineskins in hopes of being able to fool Joshua and God’s specially chosen guys into thinking that they had trekked a long ways in order to meet with them. The Gibeonite people group’s guys through lying tricked Joshua into making a binding treaty with them that had Joshua promising that God’s specially chosen guys would not kill them, their wives and their kids. Joshua in Joshua 9 recounts how the Gibeonite people group’s guys lied to him.
Three days after Joshua was tricked – lied to, by some Gibeonite people group’s guys in order to make a treaty with them to not to kill any Gibeonite people group guy, gal or kid, Joshua realized that he had been tricked – lied to, by those Gibeonite people group’s guys. Who do you think that Joshua blamed for having made a treaty with the Gibeonite people group that he and the Israelite people group’s guys were never to do – per God’s expressed desire, with any people group who was living in the land that God . . . Joshua says in verse 14, “The men of Israel sampled their provisions but did not inquire of the LORD.” Joshua to your grandpaa seems to put the blame on the Israelite people group’s guys. Joshua mandated that the Gibeonite people group’s guys to be water carriers and wood cutters for God’s specially chosen guys and gals. Your grandpaa never used a made up story again to look for a ‘skip’. Your grandpaa did not want to be thought of as a liar. Your grandpaa believes now that there is never ever a reason to lie.
Joshua 9 (281)