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Vow and Commitment

One of the hardest things to do when making goals and forming resolutions is to commit. The Bible’s word for commitment is covenant. God covenants us to be with us and help us no matter what. Our way of expressing devotion to his commitment to us—even though we will fail because we’re not perfect—is vowing.

Vowing is important when thinking about our maturity in and under God’s authority. In the Hebrew language there are three different “weights” or “angles” to one’s vowing, and they all appear in Numbers 30. To make a “neder” vow is to dedicate our treasures. To make an “eesar” vow is to bind our souls to righteous things and away from wicked things, and to “shvooah” is to bear the responsibility publically for our actions and mis-actions. These vows instruct our hearts to live in a kingdom not our own. We bear responsibility to an authority greater than ourselves. Thus we do not own our words, God does. 

But what about Jesus? Wasn’t he against vowing? This is what Jesus said to the Pharisees, “You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.’ But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.” 

In this teaching Jesus confronted the Pharisaic practice of using rule-formulas to create different levels of promises, oaths, and vows. The Pharisees created their own “weight” system to determine which of person’s words were most and least binding. In this way, the Pharisees were able to excuse their own behavior. Jesus therefore encouraged people not to swear in this way, but to invest the simple words they did say into important yes and no actions. 

Therefore, Jesus honors truthful vowing and would agree that we should vow, hold to our goals, own our spiritual growth and maturity, and learn his authority. Jesus would suggest however, that we listen to Jeremiah as to how a vow can be truly just and truthful: it should beg the question "Where is God?" (2:6-8), it instructs us to pursue scripture as valuable (2:8), to fear God (2:19), to seek God in times of prosperity as well as times of trouble (2:27), and to be open to receiving correction (2:30).