May 13, 2007

Genesis 28: 20-22

Gen 28:20-22: And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, so that I come again to my father's house in peace; then shall the LORD be my God: And this stone, which I have set [for] a pillar, shall be God's house: and of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee.
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As he opened the class in prayer, he prayed, “we ask you to be with us this day as we study...etc.” After he finished the prof. spent a little time explaining to us what Jesus meant in Matt. 28 when he said "I am with you always.” Now while it is not wrong to pray “please be with us” it is not actually necessary to ask either. We have God’s word that he will be with us.

That is quite the same situation in which we find our friend Jacob here as well. HE is putting an if clause on what God had just promised to do.”

Now I understand that when we ask God to be with us it is an expression of love, a letting him know that we like him around us..not quite so with Jacob.

Here in this section, Jacob vows the first recorded vow in scripture.

What is a VOW and is it important in our lives ? Is it something we should do? Is it something we are obliged to keep if we do it?

Lets look in the annals of scripture and history and see what we can discover.

First WHAT IS A VOW?
The American heritage dictionary says:vow1. An earnest promise to perform a specified act or behave in a certain manner, especially a solemn promise to live and act in accordance with the rules of a religious order.
2. A declaration or an assertion.

The New Bible dictionary states:
In Semetic thought the idea of a vow may have been derived from the name of a deity . If so it illustrates the fact that in biblical usage a vow is always used with reference to God

A vow may either be to perform as used in this passage, or to abstain from an act in return for God’s favor (Numb 21:1-3) or an expression of devotion or zeal towards God.(ps 22:25).

But in the case of Jacob, he was trying to earn God’s favor, a favor which had already been bestowed by fiat of a God whose word is sure. We can understand why Jacob would do this perhaps, but it shows that he knew not quite enough about this Jehovah God.

I want to look at Vows today and ask a few questions about them and see where it leads us. First question is: MUST WE TAKE VOWS :NO.There is no commandment to take a vow. These are voluntary.(except in a few cases) We do not have to vow to God to “get from him” in this age. We have a new relationship, one in which we have been told “all you have to do is ask. If ye ask anything in my name I will give it” said the master and that is a sure word. And John 15: 7 If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.1Jo 3:22 And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.1Jo 5:14 And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us:

So within His already prescribed limitations, we ask and receive. Faith, Salvation, His will. So a vow is not mandated in scripture.which brings us to a second question

IF WE VOW MUST WE KEEP IT? The Bible dictionary says “it is no sin either to vow or not to vow but if a person vows a vow it is as legally binding as an oath. What God requires of us is that we always mean what we say and say what we mean. God says an interesting thing about his great prophet Samuel listen to 1Sa 3:19 And Samuel grew, and the LORD was with him, and did let none of his words fall to the ground...Samuel was careful about meaning what he said and saying that only.

It is easy for us to make promises that we cannot keep, in fact many times we are trying to find ways out of the promise before we say it. God holds that practice in contempt saying in Mt 12:36 But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.

What we say ,is of great importance to God, He says “Jas 5:12 But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath: but let your yea be yea; and [your] nay, nay; lest ye fall into condemnation.

You do not need to VOW to God in a ceremony, just do as you say you will do. You see from just these three verses that your words are sacred to God. He holds your YES as important as a vow and you NO as well.

But if you vow to God it must be kept almost always...we’ll see why but first I want to note a RASH vow in the Bible and the unsettling consequences of that vow. Turn with me to Judges 11: 29 - 40 (read it)

RASH? You bet it was a rash vow. And it cost this daughter dearly. Now there is some confusion as to what went on here. Just as an aside you need to know that God does not accept human sacrifices, except in one case, but allows for a “buy back.”

In Exodus 13 we can see that they first born of a flock was slain as a sacrifice, but the first born of a family was redeemed. It was a custom to dedicate children in a vow thus spoken to service in God’s house. This young woman possibly had to serve unmarried in the house of God all her days. This meant that here would be no grandchildren for Jephthah and no other life as daughter of his house for this girl. I am not sure what happened here, but I do know that in any case it was a rash vow...such a vow is not wise yet still is held to by God’s people.

Ecc.54 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
.De 23:21 When thou shalt vow a vow unto the LORD thy God, thou shalt not slack to pay it: for the LORD thy God will surely require it of thee; and it would be sin in thee.

The point I want to make here is WATCH WHAT YOU SAY...Watch the promises you make carefully for you will be required to give an account of them. Yes the ones you make to your kids, and wife and others.

I am learning slowly over the years to hurt your feelings right up front. To say NO I CAN’T before hand instead of desiring to help and then finding I have other obligations. Early on in ministry work I was wisely instructed to WRITE IT DOWN...and that has been a good help to me..though even then I still mess it up sometimes.

Other than one instance in scripture (Num 30) a vow is a vow. Now you recall that I said earlier a vow is not a command for us? Well in a few cases there have been vows not only commanded but enforced on people who could do nothing about it. One was Sampson. recall that he was a Nazarite from the womb according to God’s command. John the Baptist was another who was commanded to that, and there were others put under a vow.

But in general a vow is something you take to make yourself accountable to God. And if you take a vow you must keep it.

There are stipulations on a vow did you know that? As a Christian you are told to not take an oath.

Matthew 5:34 -37 But I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God's throne: Nor by the earth; for it is his footstool: neither by Jerusalem; for it is the city of the great King. Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black. But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.

James 5:12 says: But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath: but let your yea be yea; and [your] nay, nay; lest ye fall into condemnation.

If I go to court, and they ask me to take an oath on the Bible they need to know that I will not do it. I will pledge my word and that will have to do. If I will lie, I will lie with my hand on the Bible or on the World book encyclopedia for that matter.

Now a vow is different than an oath and you can vow to do or not to do something to honor God. And if you take a vow it better be one that honors the God of the universe through Jesus or you will be judged. God calls that “taking his name in vain” and he says “Ex 20:7 Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

We do not need to castigate old Jacob too much here, I think that his intentions are better than I have let on. I want to how you that YOU do not have to cajole God, just accept his truth. Jacob did not know this God very well and his vow, while not needed for God to keep his promise, was a way of showing his respect and fear of God perhaps. And I wish that you all had a little of that fear as you stand before God. I wish that we all had the fear of God that we do for even the IRS.

Some of us act like the man who was in a terrible jam and cried out, "God, if you get me out of this I will never bother you again”

And that is probably a tempting thing for the Father..well it would be for me at times.

But God desires our words to be our bond. I recall talking to Old CY at a place where I worked. And he pulled out an old bill from the store. He said, “in the old days you just wrote things down and people generally paid with no signature only on their word as their guarantee. Now they take you to court and contest the signature.”

He had a point didn't he. If you are going to tell me the truth do me a favor, don’t say “You can ask so and so, just tell me the truth and assume that I am going to believe it because you said it.” So and so is probably as honest or as dishonest as you are and if you will lie, they will swear to it.

So really old Jacob is scared by this appearance of God, and he promises Go to be faithful if God will only do what he just promised.

Do you know that if you are a child of God, God is faithful to you? Phil 1:6 says “He who began a good work in you is faithful to complete it.”

Did you also know that He wants you to be faithful to Him? He does..He says if you love me keep my commandments.

Do you know that we people will commit to our jobs, our families our clubs, all OK in themselves perhaps, but the greatest commitment we are asked to make we relegate to second place.

Funny that we devote ourselves to things of earth, stuff of earth-and Jesus says Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and he’ll take care of the rest. “Stuff of earth competes for the allegiance I owe only to the giver of all good things.”

Have you had a true encounter with Jesus Christ? Have you seen the King of glory? Has he come into your life? Has he changed you into a child of God? Have you committed your life to Him? Are you putting him ahead of all allegiances?

You can only serve one master...the one you obey, says Rom 6, is the one who is your master. who is your master? Who has your commitment? Who do you serve?