 |
| DUH! |
Leviticus 5:4-6 Or if someone swears thoughtlessly with his lips to do anything good or evil—in whatever matter a man may rashly pronounce an oath—even if he is unaware of it, when he realizes it, he is guilty in the matter. 5If someone incurs guilt in one of these ways, he must confess the sin he has committed, 6and he must bring his guilt offering to the LORD for the sin he has committed: a female lamb or goat from the flock as a sin offering. And the priest will make atonement for him concerning his sin.
I was reminded recently about the importance of keeping vows to God. In the middle of it, someone brought up Judge Jephthah, who made a vow to offer the first thing that came out of his house, and it was his daughter. Some want to talk about how awful God is for making him do that. Many have tried to say that he didn't really kill her, but ordered her to live without a husband. The truth was, he probably did kill her, but God didn't want him to.
As you can see in the passage in Leviticus 5, god didn't want people to keep vows that were rash or foolish. The stipulation was that if one did, there were two things that had to be done: confession and an offering. God does hold us to our vow, as it will cost us something if we have to break it, but he would rather have that than us doing something wrong, like Jephthah. God does want us to be people of our word, but not people whose foolish words bring us into sin.
We can't blame God for our stupidity, as it seems Jephthah or Saul did (Judges 11, 1 Samuel 14). We will have to confess and receive forgiveness, but the problem for many is that they would rather fulfill the sinful vow than confess that they were wrong.
The only excuse that might be offered in Jephthah's or Saul's situation was that they were ignorant of God's law. Yet, even there God commanded that the leaders of Israel study the law, so even here they are not innocent.
How does this apply to us? Don't make stupid vows, and second, don't blame God when you keep them.
