[Numbers 30] Vowing the Vow of Life. Is it wise to vow a vow or take an oath? Are words just words, or do they affect us far more than we know? Numbers chapter 30 is entirely devoted to the issue of vows taken and the implications concerning oaths and “binding our souls.” In this chapter, we will see that words are so powerful that they are part of how God activates the new birth experience. Our culture says words are cheap and mean nothing. Insincere words and foolish jesting are a big part of how we communicate in the western world. Jesus dealt with this in His day and made the point that we must consider the power of our words for good or evil in our lives and the lives of others.
[Num 30:1-16 KJV] 1 And Moses spake unto the heads of the tribes concerning the children of Israel, saying, This [is] the thing which the LORD hath commanded. 2 If a man vow a vow unto the LORD, or swear an oath to bind his soul with a bond; he shall not break his word, he shall do according to all that proceedeth out of his mouth. 3 If a woman also vow a vow unto the LORD, and bind herself by a bond, [being] in her father’s house in her youth; 4 And her father hear her vow, and her bond wherewith she hath bound her soul, and her father shall hold his peace at her: then all her vows shall stand, and every bond wherewith she hath bound her soul shall stand. 5 But if her father disallow her in the day that he heareth; not any of her vows, or of her bonds wherewith she hath bound her soul, shall stand: and the LORD shall forgive her, because her father disallowed her. 6 And if she had at all an husband, when she vowed, or uttered ought out of her lips, wherewith she bound her soul; 7 And her husband heard [it,] and held his peace at her in the day that he heard [it]: then her vows shall stand, and her bonds wherewith she bound her soul shall stand. 8 But if her husband disallowed her on the day that he heard [it]; then he shall make her vow which she vowed, and that which she uttered with her lips, wherewith she bound her soul, of none effect: and the LORD shall forgive her. 9 But every vow of a widow, and of her that is divorced, wherewith they have bound their souls, shall stand against her. 10 And if she vowed in her husband’s house, or bound her soul by a bond with an oath; 11 And her husband heard [it], and held his peace at her, [and] disallowed her not: then all her vows shall stand, and every bond wherewith she bound her soul shall stand. 12 But if her husband hath utterly made them void on the day he heard [them; then] whatsoever proceeded out of her lips concerning her vows, or concerning the bond of her soul, shall not stand: her husband hath made them void; and the LORD shall forgive her. 13 Every vow, and every binding oath to afflict the soul, her husband may establish it, or her husband may make it void. 14 But if her husband altogether hold his peace at her from day to day; then he establisheth all her vows, or all her bonds, which [are] upon her: he confirmeth them, because he held his peace at her in the day that he heard [them]. 15 But if he shall any ways make them void after that he hath heard [them]; then he shall bear her iniquity. 16 These [are] the statutes, which the LORD commanded Moses, between a man and his wife, between the father and his daughter, [being yet] in her youth in her father’s house.
In this chapter, we find statutes concerning vows and oaths. Is it wise to take a vow? What are the implications of doing so? Are vows and the words of our mouths so powerful because God enforced these laws upon men, or did God give these laws to show how powerful the words of our mouths are in the first place? Does any of this apply to us in the New Testament era or is this just for those under the law.?
Consider the fact that words spoken are such an intrinsic part of the New Birth:
[Rom 10:8-11 KJV] The word is nigh thee, [even] in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach; 9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. 11 For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.
Your words are far more powerful than you know. From the passage above, conviction in the heart and verbalization by mouth constitute belief or what is termed saving faith. Prayer and faith are nothing if they are not verbal. Those things you are not praying into and speaking into, confessing and professing into you do not believe.
Vows are particularly powerful. Consider the following:
[Ecc 5:4-6 KJV] 4 When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it; for [he hath] no pleasure in fools: pay that which thou hast vowed. 5 Better [is it] that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay. 6 Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin; neither say thou before the angel, that it [was] an error: wherefore should God be angry at thy voice, and destroy the work of thine hands?
This passage reveals to us that angels attend to our words. A vow unspoken is nothing, but once a vow is taken verbally, it constitutes a new and personal standard for sin in the eyes of the angels that stand guard over your life. While it may not be a sin according to the bible, if you make a vow and then disregard it, then it is a sin to you. The angels charged with your care will destroy the work of your hands if you work folly in your life by careless vows and oaths.
Does any of this matter? Our culture’s prevailing attitude is that words don’t mean much, and we can disregard foolish statements by saying, “it’s just words; I didn’t mean it.” Jesus thought it was important enough that he spoke about this issue of vows and oath
[Mat 5:33-37 KJV] 33 Again, ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths: 34 But I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God’s throne: 35 Nor by the earth; for it is his footstool: neither by Jerusalem; for it is the city of the great King. 36 Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black. 37 But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.
Is Jesus letting us off the hook by merely saying don’t make vows at all, or is He, in fact, saying that we should realize that ALL OUR WORDS are as vows before God and we should be much more sober-minded and disciplined by what we speak Not to belabor the point but Jesus later on against extensively addresses this issue:
[Mat 23:16-23 KJV] 16 Woe unto you, [ye] blind guides, which say, Whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing; but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor! 17 [Ye] fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifieth the gold? 18 And, Whosoever shall swear by the altar, it is nothing; but whosoever sweareth by the gift that is upon it, he is guilty. 19 [Ye] fools and blind: for whether [is] greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifieth the gift? 20 Whoso therefore shall swear by the altar, sweareth by it, and by all things thereon. 21 And whoso shall swear by the temple, sweareth by it, and by him that dwelleth therein. 22 And he that shall swear by heaven, sweareth by the throne of God, and by him that sitteth thereon. 23 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier [matters] of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.
Here we see reference to a practice in Jesus’ day whereby men and women could determine how truthful someone might be in their words. If they swore by the city of Jerusalem, that meant they might do what they said, but they might not. If they swore by the temple, it meant they had every intention of doing what they said, barring some unforeseen complication. But if they swore by the gold on the temple, they would not fail to do it. Jesus says, let you yes be yes, and your no be no. This touches on the issue of vain words. Our culture and how we communicate is wrapped up in the practice of vain words, foolish jesting, sarcastic remarks against one another. These things are costly to us socially and spiritually:
Prov. 4:23 “Keep thy heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life.”
Matt. 12:34 Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.
Prov. 18:21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue and they that indulge it shall eat the fruit thereof.
The words of your mouth are so powerful that they are intrinsically bound up in the very act of the new birth itself. If such a miracle could be wrought by the words of our mouth, we should take extreme care regarding what we allow in our heart and what comes out of our mouth – not with a sense of superstition but in simply recognizing the power for good or evil that our words can have in our lives and the lives of others.
In v. 3, we see that a husband or a father has a right under the law to annul a spouse or daughter’s vow. Other than the obvious implications of this, what can we learn? Remember that God is our Father, and Jesus is our Bridegroom. In that sense, we are individually and corporately as the body of Christ – His bride. Did you know that even a woman has a “spirit man” in her heart? 1 Peter 3:4 speaks of the hidden man of the heart in specific reference to the spiritual make up of a woman.
In Jeremiah 3:1-4; Hos. 2:2-7; Ez. 16:23-26 The people of God are referred to as a woman and God as our husband. This is carried over in the New Testament with the teaching of the bride of Christ. The ancients believed that soul was feminine in nature in both men and women. Jesus is the lover of our soul. What this means is that the spirit is transcendent over the soul. Therefore, when we read this passage about husbands and fathers annulling the vow of a woman, it echoes the more profound truth of Jesus as our husband annulling the vow of death that Adam made with Satan when he partook of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. By accepting the law, Moses and the people of Israel gave God a legal basis on which to annul the very power of sin in the earth and eventually send Jesus to die to ransom humanity from the chains of sin itself.
There are times that you may feel led to make a vow. I would submit to you that every word out of your mouth carries the force of a vow. God created the world with His words and then made us in His image. You are having what you are saying. Out of the heart are the issues of life. If you don’t like what is in your life, then you have to change what is in your heart. You have to humble yourself to God’s process and humble yourself to the truth of God’s word. Things are the way they are because of what you are doing. If you want something different, you have to do something different. If you ever hope to do something different, you are going to have to change your heart and your words because they reflect the creative convictions on the inside that are for good or evil, shaping your life, your health, your relationships, your financial situation and every other aspect of your life.
