God's Word on Vows and Oaths [Numbers 30]

 1Then Moses spoke to the heads of the tribes of the sons of Israel, saying, "This is the word which the LORD has commanded.

 2"If a man makes a vow to the LORD, or takes an oath to bind himself with a binding obligation, he shall not violate his word; he shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth.

 3"Also if a woman makes a vow to the LORD, and binds herself by an obligation in her father's house in her youth,

 4and her father hears her vow and her obligation by which she has bound herself, and her father says nothing to her, then all her vows shall stand and every obligation by which she has bound herself shall stand.


 

It has taken years for me struggling through with the Lord to get some clarity on this passage. Part of the reason it has been difficult for me is that it appears that women are not equal with men in God's eyes and can't make decisions on their own. As a modern woman in a politically correct world where women are considered equal in every way to men, this passage rightfully has stirred up some strong feelings. Now I have great peace with this chapter because I have finally accepted God's view of men and women and rejected the world's view. After all, it makes a lot more sense to accept my Creator and Designer's word over what the world has to say. And amazingly, over the years, I have come to embrace and celebrate God's design.


God made us women boldly opposite from men so that we would be a vital counterpart to make the life of a man complete and more like God. He also made us equally precious and valuable as men. We are not worse than or better than, but just different than men. Men are in general more heavily endowed with the more distant and harder character of God with strengths in leadership, logic, justice, provision, and protection. Women, on the other hand, reflect the softer side of God's nature with strengths in compassion, emotions, beauty and nurturing. Alone, men are out of balance and the same goes for women. We were built to pool our resources and for drawing from each other's strengths and balancing out the weaknesses.

Numbers 30 focused on an area where men can protect women (specifically daughters and wives) using their strengths of logic and leadership when it came to making promises to God or any other type of promise. Making a vow is serious because in God's view, it is binding and must be fulfilled. Other types of promises bind us to provide compensation or service to someone. These are generally legally binding with difficult consequences if not fulfilled. Women tend to make decisions at times based upon the emotion of the moment and not on logic. God knew that her strength of emotion could be a weakness in certain situations and provided protection from this through her father or husband. I now understand how much I need my husband to guide me through emotional situations and see his guidance as protection and am grateful for that protection! However, it took me years to get to that place. Also, I would be lying if I said I don't struggle with submitting to my husband's leadership at times. I still have my selfish flesh that sometimes takes a lot of prayer to surrender to God! When I finally do surrender, there is always great peace and contentment (at least about that!).

Unmarried women had no choice but to fulfill their promises according to Numbers 30. However, a wise woman then and today would consult God and perhaps some male spiritual leaders in her congregation before she made any promises. God is not absent for these women. He is there for them to guide and protect along the way. That doesn't mean they won't make mistakes and face consequences, but all of us will do that even with our fathers and husbands oversight.

 Matthew 5

33"Again, you have heard that the ancients were told, 'YOU SHALL NOT MAKE FALSE VOWS, BUT SHALL FULFILL YOUR VOWS TO THE LORD.'

 34"But I say to you, make no oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God,


 

These are the words of Jesus. While making vows to God was part of the Old Testament tradition, Jesus explained that they were not to be part of our worship in these last days. God knows that we are weak and that vows will not make us any stronger... they will only prove that we can't be good in ourselves. Although, we still make contracts (oaths) in the market place and promises to friends and family, we need not bother to make any promises to God. He has already fulfilled His promise to us and for us because we can't fulfill our own apart from Him.

When I was a new Christian, I didn't understand that God didn't expect anything of me. I kept making vows to prove myself to Him and I kept getting devastated because I could not keep those promises no matter how much I wanted to or how hard I tried. Now I know that Jesus died to pay for my inabilities and that I never needed to prove myself to God or make deals with Him to get Him to provide for me or love me. Jesus did it all and I can do nothing apart from Him, not to get into God's kingdom nor to stay in that kingdom!!!

Thank you, God, for your perfect design for men and for women. Thank you for fulfilling the only vow that made any difference at all, the vow that brought a Savior to pay for and do what we could not. Cause us to embrace and celebrate your design for men and women and to embrace and celebrate that your grace freely given as we ask for it through Jesus Christ.




 

Beth Warlick, 8/9/2010