VOWS

NUMBERS

CHAPTER  30

            Hi everybody, and welcome back again!  We're heading into the home stretch of the book of Numbers now, and in our last segment we learned about the offerings that God's people gave daily, on the Sabbath, each month, and on feast days.  You'll notice when you read about offerings in your Bible that often times the Lord mentions that an offering is for a sweet savour unto the Lord.  When the sacrifice was burnt, the smoke would rise to heaven and God liked the way it smelled.  It's kinda similar to the way we may like the smell of a candle.  It was His people's gift to Him.

            Now then, the next thing that the Lord told Moses to tell the children of Israel about was vows.  If a man makes a promise to the Lord or commits himself with an oath or a promise or gives his word or swears (pledges) something, he should not break his word, but he should do whatever he vowed.

            If a woman is still in her youth and lives in her father's house, and her father hears her make a vow, if he doesn't object to it, then she is responsible for keeping her vows.  But if her father doesn't allow her in the day that he hears the vows, then she is not held to her vows and the Lord will forgive her because her father disallowed her. The same applies to a woman if she has a husband.

            Every vow of a widow, and of a divorced woman shall stand unless the husband made her vows invalid on the day he heard them.  Then she is not responsible for them and the Lord will forgive her.

            A woman's husband may establish or make void any vow and any binding oath she makes to humble the soul.  If a husband holds his peace on the day he heard his wife vow, and then later disallows it, then he will bear her guilt.

            This is what Jesus said about vows in Matthew 5:34-36:  But I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God's throne:  Nor by earth; for it is his footstool:  neither by Jerusalem; for it is the city of the great King.  Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black. 

            Is that great advice or what?!  How many times have you heard these words . . . YOU PROMISED . . . ?  The next time you're requested or compelled to make a promise, it may behoove you not to swear to something, but to just try your best.  Unforeseen circumstances are more common than not and well intended deeds can get foiled in the blink of an eye.  If you simply do your best without the commitment of a promise, not only does it release you from do or die situations but any guilt you may feel for not keeping your word is eliminated as well.

            Never forget the forgiveness factor!  These were laws from the Old Testament.  Some people feel bound by an oath when sometimes it wasn't the Lord's will to begin with.  Do you think the Lord wants to hold you to something that makes you unhappy and/or that doesn't fulfill His will just cuz you agreed to it in deception?  It sure seems like such a thing could affect a person enough to interfere with their relationship with the Lord, doesn't it?  He knows we make mistakes.  He knows that we need His understanding and forgiveness.  He also wants us to spend the precious moments of our lives happily serving Him, not sorrowfully living out promises that separate us from Him.  As we study through this Old Testament, and compare it to our lives today, it's easy to see how similar we are to God's people from those times.  He saw that they couldn't do it without His mercy and grace, and we need it DAILY.  That's right, we need Him every day. 

            Be sure to join us next time when we learn about Israel going to war against the Midianites, right here at Daily Bread.

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