Keeping Oaths

This is what we will do to them: We will let them live, so that wrath will not fall on us for breaking the oath we swore to them.

 

Joshua 9:20

Joshua and the people of Israel were in the Promised Land. They were winning battles and were feeling good about their progress. However, one day a band of Gibeonites came by dressed as travelers in order to fool Joshua. They wanted to make Joshua believe they were merely travelers instead of enemies. The Gibeonites asked Joshua to make a peace treaty with them. Since Joshua chose to believe their story, he did just that.

 

That was a mistake on Joshua's part.

 

The Bible says Joshua did not inquire of the Lord about the Gibeonites. This forced Joshua to uphold the peace treaty with the Gibeonites, even though it was made under false pretenses. Keeping our oaths before the Lord is a serious matter. One might think that Joshua had every right to consider the agreement with the Gibeonites null and void since it was done on false pretense.

 

Nevertheless, Joshua knew how God viewed oaths.

 

He knew that a man's word, once it was given, should be good as done. There was no reversing it. He also knew that if he did not keep his oath, he was subject to God's disfavor, which meant his ways would not be blessed.

When we became believers, from that moment on we represent God, and when we follow unrighteousness, we lack His favor in our lives.

 

Is there any unfulfilled oath you have made to anyone?

 

Ask God if you have not fulfilled a commitment or if you are in the process of making a commitment that you do so with the means to fulfill it.