Day 183: Vows and Oaths [1]

Today's Connected Passages: 

• Leviticus 7:16-21; 22:17-32; 27:1-13 
• Numbers 30:1-16 
• Deuteronomy 23:21-23 
• Judges 11:1-40 [Numbers 20:14-21] 
• 1 Samuel 14:24-52

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:07

Welcome to the Canon Connected, where we read the connections, see the connections, and study the connections of the Bible. I appreciate you joining us here on day number 183, the beginning of the second half of the year of the Canon Connected. We are in July, if you're all caught up with the plan, and maybe in July, even if you're behind, because you'd be but you'd be days ahead of ahead of this, um, on the calendar at least. And uh, we are uh gonna begin today a two-part series on vows and oaths and promises in the Bible. This is something I really didn't think about very much until I did this reading plan. I knew some of the stories. Like I know that like we read today, Jonathan, or not Jonathan, but Saul, you know, made his his men swear an oath they wouldn't they wouldn't drink anything or eat anything until they killed David and and I knew about Jephthah and all that. But there really is a lot in the Bible. And even in the in the, as we're gonna see tomorrow in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus even references this idea because it was a part of their law and it was a huge part of their of their history in these stories. Um and just uh the main thing we've we can see, one of the main things, if not the main thing, is how foolish it is to make vows, okay, whenever you you really should not or cannot keep them. That'll be a part of the application that we see today, or or tomorrow maybe. I think I'm gonna do the applications uh uh tomorrow at the end of all of the readings so they can they can be more uh more powerful and how they flow out of you know everything that we're gonna read on this. But making oaths, promises, vows, um, these things are absolutely just uh um uh uh something that the scripture speaks to seriously. And I will say, even though Jesus spoke to this, so we know it's a New Testament idea as well, I don't think as far as the law, you know, um, that the way that we make promises and oaths and vows is quite to that level, and yet I still think there's a very reasonable application for us, again, that we'll talk about tomorrow. But you can imagine, you know, from the readings today and as you do them tomorrow, what they'll be. They will be very obvious. And I'll try to make some of them even very specific, even if they're not for everyone, but just to give an idea. But what we see from today, again, as I've alluded to already, is that the idea of uh making vows and fulfilling vows was part of even like voluntary offerings we see in Leviticus 7, we see in Leviticus 22, um, we see in Leviticus 27 and Numbers 30. Um, the idea of fulfilling vows was again built into their law because again, it was showed the idea that they could make promises to God. And if they did, it was, you know, like again, your word is is is your bond, your word is your character, truly. That is something that directly applies, I think, to us. And so if you were going to promise God something, you know, like an offering, okay, or in in the case of Numbers 36 about uh the the young woman um while she's living in a father's home, um, then you have to take it seriously, okay? It is something to be taken seriously. And of course, with numbers, the numbers 31, there's so there's some gray area there, and you know, because you sometimes when you make vows, other people are a part of it, and so you you can't be accountable for other people's behavior. But the idea of vows and oaths and promises, again, was built into their their sacrificial system, especially as far as voluntary offerings, because it was a way of saying, God, I'm gonna do this, okay? And um and you have to be accountable to that. This very easily could have been connected to, and I didn't think of this again until I did this just this week, to the idea of don't take God's name in vain. Remember, we talked about that with the Ten Commandments. Don't hypocrisy is what we basically talked about. That's what this truly is an issue of, and it would have fit perfectly in those readings of the after the two days we've talked about hypocrisy to study this because we see people's hypocrisy and we see how much God hates that through how he talks about vows and oaths. If you vow something to God, do it. Okay? Be a person of your word. All right, because it truly is an issue of truth as opposed to lies. And you know, sometimes we promise things and you know things happen, and that's a little bit different, and that's probably a lot different than what we're looking at here. But for us, you know, and them, it truly is an issue of you do what you say you're gonna do because it's a matter of integrity. I like how Deuteronomy 23 explains it. When you make a vow to the Lord your God, be prompt in fulfilling whatever you promised him. For the Lord your God demands that you promptly fulfill all your vows, or you will be guilty of sin. Again, it's an issue of integrity, it's an issue of character, it's an issue of reflecting to God what he deserves, okay? And it's an issue of being like God because God is truth, okay? Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. Okay, that's that's his nature, that's his character, that's essential to his um to his being. And so we have to reflect that. And when we don't, it falls short of the glory of God. It's sin, okay? And then it says also, however, it is not a sin to refrain from making a vow. A lot of these vows are voluntary, okay? They were not part of the demands of the sacrificial system. But once you have voluntarily made a vow, be careful to fulfill your promise to the Lord your God. Um that again is uh is God holding us accountable to our word, to uh, to our bond, to our character. And then Judges 11, Jephthah making the vow about the next person he saw, you know, putting them to death. And Numbers 20 is a commentary on that. Is again it's a truly repulsive story to us, okay? Um no doubt, and there is even some difference of opinion. I've read you know commentary on this, you know, over several different times teaching it. Not everyone believes he actually put her to death, you know, but but regardless of what the end result of this is, we can see how foolish it is to make vows without thinking through them, okay? And that again is applicable for us. We'll talk about that more in full tomorrow. But we can see again, if you're going to promise to do something, and or vow oath is the biblical words, you know, then you've got to think through it. You can't just say you're gonna do something, you know, because it seems right in the moment or you're in you're in your feelings or whatever, and then not do it. Okay. Um that's why you, like my dad always said, never make a decision when you're in any extreme emotion. If you're extremely happy, you know, or extremely angry, extremely sad, those are the wrong times to make decisions, okay? Um, I remember as I've alluded to before, whenever I was dating Kayla, we got married just a year and a few weeks after we started dating, but there were times I wanted to get married a lot faster than that because you know I was in an extreme, you know, um enamored, you know, uh uh infatuation emotion, and it would have been foolish, I think, you know, because of her circumstances and mine and the whole scenario to to do anything like that, because again, it's not it's not wise um to to make vows, to make oaths, to make decisions even that pertain to vows and oaths um without thinking through them, without using wisdom, without even using patience at times. And then, of course, I also included today's very similarly Saul, you know, place them under an earth. Um, let a curse fall on anyone who eats before evening, before I have full revenge on my enemy, so no one ate anything all day, and then you know, Jonathan takes the honeycomb. And you see how silly it is. It's not silly, and you know, I don't want to devalue this because this is it's sin what Saul's doing here. Saul is not connected to God at all at this point, I don't think. Um, and yet, you know, it's like he is doing something so so ridiculous, you know, in one sense, that he doesn't even follow through with it, okay? And Jonathan even proves how how how ridiculous it is. Jonathan's refreshed when he eats the honey. So notice in this too, a lot of times our decisions, as far as oaths and vows and promises, they affect other people, okay? We have to remember that. Sin always affects the people around us. But that includes whenever we are, you know, trying to do right or we're or we're we're making decisions or whatever it may be, you know, and we and we do things that are foolish. Um, God leads his dear children along. All right, this is the opposite of that, truly. This is human reasoning and human emotion and human arrogance and human pride and sin leading these people along. And so we have to see these as warnings to us. So a lot of practical things that we can say in response to this, and we're gonna read some more examples tomorrow. One of my favorites is from Ecclesiastes chapter 5. Phillips Craig and Dean even did a song about it. Um, you were God in heaven, here I am I on earth, so let my words be few. Um, that's what Ecclesiastes 5 is gonna say in regards to this topic tomorrow. But there are many other passages as well, so let's study them together tomorrow. Come back and be with us, and we'll continue to read, see, and study the connections. Thank you.