No Means No
Many of us have trained our kids to wait for the 3rd or 4th “no” before they even act like we’ve spoken. When my kids were little, we were taught and practiced the concept of “first time obedience,” say it once and if they don’t obey—boom (whatever the appropriate discipline). I got tired of threatening. And this new concept worked most of the time.
You know it’s almost funny
when I think about some of the implied threats I’ve heard and maybe used some myself. Things like, “don’t make me come in there” or “wait ‘til your father gets home.” They all have one thing in common. They teach our little ones that we don’t mean what we say…until we get mad and raise our voice. Anybody relate to that?
I was reading in Joshua this morning. Moses had just died. Joshua was in charge of the Israelite mob. His task was to go to war with all the surrounding people and kill everything that moved men, women, animals, everything. Whatever spoil was taken was for the treasury of the Lord. Nothing was to be taken for personal use. God fought their battles for them and defeated ALL their enemies…up until now. Enter Achan. He obviously didn’t take Joshua’s warning from God seriously. Must have been a 3rd or 4th time kid growing up. He took some of the spoils from Jericho for himself and hid them in his tent. Nobody knew.
The next battle
was at Ai, a comparatively small town. Joshua led only a portion of his army (about 3,000 men) out to battle the little group, because his spies had reported back that, “they are few.” But the men of Ai routed Joshua’s army and killed three dozen of his soldiers. Joshua sought the Lord as to why He had let this happen.
As usual, God got right to the point with Joshua. He said, “Israel has sinned…taken…things under the ban and have stolen and deceived.” (Jos. 7:11) You can read the whole narrative in Joshua 7 and 8. Spoiler alert: The end of the story is that God ultimately gave them the win over Ai after they dealt with Achan. It didn’t turn out so well for Achan. Joshua took Achan, his sons, daughters, oxen, donkeys, sheep, all he’d stolen, and all that belonged to him and stoned them and burned them. Boom.
All justice belongs to God.
That should be a comfort to us who know Him. It should scare the wits out of those who don’t. Nobody but nobody gets away with sin. It may seem like it sometimes, when those who have wronged us skate. But if we don’t know the forgiveness of sin paid for by Jesus Christ, this world is as good as it gets. The next is horrible. But for those of us in Christ, our sins are forgiven, our debt fully paid, and our home in paradise awaits.
When you stand in judgment and ask God to let you into heaven, if you know Jesus the answer is yes. No Jesus and no means no. It’s not too late to confess your sin and move to the yes line. Find out how. CLICK HERE.