What a vow/promise/commitment means to God.
Numbers 30:[SUP]2 [/SUP]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.
The emboldened part of that verse means that God cannot help you with your vow. Your vow means you are telling everyone and God that you are going to do it.
Here is why God cannot help you with your vow.
Ecclesiates 5:[SUP]6 [/SUP]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?
Your vow means that is your work. God cannot help you keep your vow for you to say you had kept it when you did not. Your vow, promise, or commitment speaks of you and your willpower and your determination to finish a task.
This is why Jesus warned believers not to make any vows at all that are His to keep.
Matthew 5:[SUP]33 [/SUP]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: [SUP]34 [/SUP]But I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God's throne: [SUP]35 [/SUP]Nor by the earth; for it is his footstool: neither by Jerusalem; for it is the city of the great King. [SUP]36 [/SUP]Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black. [SUP]37 [/SUP]But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.
We are the work of His hands, not ours.
This is what happens when a believer makes a vow and does not finish it and why Jesus said it was of evil.
Ecclesiastes 5:[SUP]4 [/SUP]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. [SUP]5 [/SUP]Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay. [SUP]6 [/SUP]Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin;
Paul warned believers about looking to the deeds of the law to make themselves "good" or to make them do "good deeds".
Galatians 2:[SUP]18 [/SUP]For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. [SUP]19 [/SUP]For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. [SUP]20 [/SUP]I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. [SUP]21 [/SUP]I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.
Such warnings were prophesied beforehand.
Psalm 50:[SUP]16 [/SUP]But unto the wicked God saith, What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, or that thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth? [SUP]17 [/SUP]Seeing thou hatest instruction, and casteth my words behind thee. [SUP]18 [/SUP]When thou sawest a thief, then thou consentedst with him, and hast been partaker with adulterers. [SUP]19 [/SUP]Thou givest thy mouth to evil, and thy tongue frameth deceit. [SUP]20 [/SUP]Thou sittest and speakest against thy brother; thou slanderest thine own mother's son. [SUP]21 [/SUP]These things hast thou done, and I kept silence; thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself: but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes. [SUP]22 [/SUP]Now consider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver. [SUP]23 [/SUP]Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me: and to him that ordereth his conversation aright will I shew the salvation of God.
So what is a believer in Jesus Christ to do with their vows?
Psalm 50:[SUP]14 [/SUP]Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto the most High:
Can't pay it? Can't ever really say you have finished it because you left it broad and open that it can never be finished? Like a promise to be a good husband? Like a promise to be a good father? And yet by that promise is the knowledge of sin where there will be moments when you were not a good husband nor a good father. What to do then?
Psalm 50: [SUP]15 [/SUP]And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.
That means recognizing what is not in your power to do, making yourself a good husband and a good father by keeping a promise to make yourself one. Surrendering to God to call on Him for help means to recognize that you cannot keep it, and to free your from that promise & vow to rest in His promises in the New Covenent in believing He will help you to be a good husband and a good father by the grace of God.
Galatians 3:1O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you? [SUP]2 [/SUP]This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? [SUP]3 [/SUP]Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh? [SUP]4 [/SUP]Have ye suffered so many things in vain? if it be yet in vain.
1 John 1:[SUP]9 [/SUP]If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Matthew 18:[SUP]18 [/SUP]Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. [SUP]19 [/SUP]Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.
Galatians 5:1Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.....[SUP]5 [/SUP]For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.
So how does a believer look to in becoming a good husband and a good father? By faith in the Son of God.
John 6:[SUP]28 [/SUP]Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? [SUP]29 [/SUP]Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.
Philippians 1:[SUP]6 [/SUP]Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:...[SUP]9 [/SUP]And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment; [SUP]10 [/SUP]That ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ. [SUP]11 [/SUP]Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God.
Psalm 100:[SUP]3 [/SUP]Know ye that the Lord he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
Psalm 118:[SUP]8 [/SUP]It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man.
Warning: The CEV Bible completely undermines the truth in His words and have changed the message as if it is okay for a believer to make promises.
Truly, since boasting in this way below of any plans to do tomorrow is of evil, what does that say about promises of what you are declaring to man and to God of what you are going to do tomorrow and to finish in this lifetime?
James 4:[SUP]13 [/SUP]Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: [SUP]14 [/SUP]Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. [SUP]15[/SUP]For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that. [SUP]16 [/SUP]But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil. [SUP]17 [/SUP]Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.
That is why the just shall live by faith in the Son of God and all of His promises to us so we can rest in Him in living the christian life as the Good Shepherd He is in helping us to follow Him as we rest in Him for eternal life as the Saviour He is. Amen.
Numbers 30:[SUP]2 [/SUP]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.
The emboldened part of that verse means that God cannot help you with your vow. Your vow means you are telling everyone and God that you are going to do it.
Here is why God cannot help you with your vow.
Ecclesiates 5:[SUP]6 [/SUP]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?
Your vow means that is your work. God cannot help you keep your vow for you to say you had kept it when you did not. Your vow, promise, or commitment speaks of you and your willpower and your determination to finish a task.
This is why Jesus warned believers not to make any vows at all that are His to keep.
Matthew 5:[SUP]33 [/SUP]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: [SUP]34 [/SUP]But I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God's throne: [SUP]35 [/SUP]Nor by the earth; for it is his footstool: neither by Jerusalem; for it is the city of the great King. [SUP]36 [/SUP]Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black. [SUP]37 [/SUP]But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.
We are the work of His hands, not ours.
This is what happens when a believer makes a vow and does not finish it and why Jesus said it was of evil.
Ecclesiastes 5:[SUP]4 [/SUP]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. [SUP]5 [/SUP]Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay. [SUP]6 [/SUP]Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin;
Paul warned believers about looking to the deeds of the law to make themselves "good" or to make them do "good deeds".
Galatians 2:[SUP]18 [/SUP]For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. [SUP]19 [/SUP]For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. [SUP]20 [/SUP]I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. [SUP]21 [/SUP]I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.
Such warnings were prophesied beforehand.
Psalm 50:[SUP]16 [/SUP]But unto the wicked God saith, What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, or that thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth? [SUP]17 [/SUP]Seeing thou hatest instruction, and casteth my words behind thee. [SUP]18 [/SUP]When thou sawest a thief, then thou consentedst with him, and hast been partaker with adulterers. [SUP]19 [/SUP]Thou givest thy mouth to evil, and thy tongue frameth deceit. [SUP]20 [/SUP]Thou sittest and speakest against thy brother; thou slanderest thine own mother's son. [SUP]21 [/SUP]These things hast thou done, and I kept silence; thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself: but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes. [SUP]22 [/SUP]Now consider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver. [SUP]23 [/SUP]Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me: and to him that ordereth his conversation aright will I shew the salvation of God.
So what is a believer in Jesus Christ to do with their vows?
Psalm 50:[SUP]14 [/SUP]Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto the most High:
Can't pay it? Can't ever really say you have finished it because you left it broad and open that it can never be finished? Like a promise to be a good husband? Like a promise to be a good father? And yet by that promise is the knowledge of sin where there will be moments when you were not a good husband nor a good father. What to do then?
Psalm 50: [SUP]15 [/SUP]And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.
That means recognizing what is not in your power to do, making yourself a good husband and a good father by keeping a promise to make yourself one. Surrendering to God to call on Him for help means to recognize that you cannot keep it, and to free your from that promise & vow to rest in His promises in the New Covenent in believing He will help you to be a good husband and a good father by the grace of God.
Galatians 3:1O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you? [SUP]2 [/SUP]This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? [SUP]3 [/SUP]Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh? [SUP]4 [/SUP]Have ye suffered so many things in vain? if it be yet in vain.
1 John 1:[SUP]9 [/SUP]If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Matthew 18:[SUP]18 [/SUP]Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. [SUP]19 [/SUP]Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.
Galatians 5:1Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.....[SUP]5 [/SUP]For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.
So how does a believer look to in becoming a good husband and a good father? By faith in the Son of God.
John 6:[SUP]28 [/SUP]Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? [SUP]29 [/SUP]Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.
Philippians 1:[SUP]6 [/SUP]Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:...[SUP]9 [/SUP]And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment; [SUP]10 [/SUP]That ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ. [SUP]11 [/SUP]Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God.
Psalm 100:[SUP]3 [/SUP]Know ye that the Lord he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
Psalm 118:[SUP]8 [/SUP]It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man.
Warning: The CEV Bible completely undermines the truth in His words and have changed the message as if it is okay for a believer to make promises.
Truly, since boasting in this way below of any plans to do tomorrow is of evil, what does that say about promises of what you are declaring to man and to God of what you are going to do tomorrow and to finish in this lifetime?
James 4:[SUP]13 [/SUP]Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: [SUP]14 [/SUP]Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. [SUP]15[/SUP]For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that. [SUP]16 [/SUP]But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil. [SUP]17 [/SUP]Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.
That is why the just shall live by faith in the Son of God and all of His promises to us so we can rest in Him in living the christian life as the Good Shepherd He is in helping us to follow Him as we rest in Him for eternal life as the Saviour He is. Amen.