In the Bible, bad things happen when people make pledges. (Examples: Judges 11:30-40 and Acts 23:12-14)
Jesus says not to vow at all.
Jesus said, "Let your Yes be Yes and your NO be NO. Anything else is of THE EVIL ONE." (Matthew 5:33-37; James 5:12)
People multiply their guilt. They vow before God, then break their vows.
Who in their right mind would do such a thing? But the church encourages this behavior when OUR Savior tells us not to do it. (Matthew 5:33-37)
The church does not tell you that vows are of THE EVIL ONE.
The church does not tell you that wedding vows are also of the Devil.
That means that when a wife divorces her husband that you still are under your vow to not have any others. Even when she commits adultery, you are still bound by your vow. "Forsaking all others." So stupid to make a vow, and more stupid that the church has people vow when Jesus spoke against making any vows. Why does the church want to double our guilt? Why does the church want to go against the teachings of Christ? The church would do more well assuring that girls are a virgin for their first husband and that people not divorce. Instead, the church doubles the sin of people in having people VOW against the teachings of Christ. (Matthew 5:33-37)
Numbers 30:1-9
Moses said to the heads of the tribes of Israel: “This is what the Lord commands: 2 When a man makes a vow to the Lord or takes an oath to obligate himself by a pledge, he must not break his word but must do everything he said.
3 “When a young woman still living in her father’s household makes a vow to the Lord or obligates herself by a pledge 4 and her father hears about her vow or pledge but says nothing to her, then all her vows and every pledge by which she obligated herself will stand. 5 But if her father forbids her when he hears about it, none of her vows or the pledges by which she obligated herself will stand; the Lord will release her because her father has forbidden her.
6 “If she marries after she makes a vow or after her lips utter a rash promise by which she obligates herself 7 and her husband hears about it but says nothing to her, then her vows or the pledges by which she obligated herself will stand. 8 But if her husband forbids her when he hears about it, he nullifies the vow that obligates her or the rash promise by which she obligates herself, and the Lord will release her.
9 “Any vow or obligation taken by a widow or divorced woman will be binding on her.
Judges 11:30-40 - The saddest story in the Bible!
30 And Jephthah made a vow to the Lord: “If you give the Ammonites into my hands, 31 whatever comes out of the door of my house to meet me when I return in triumph from the Ammonites will be the Lord’s, and I will sacrifice it as a burnt offering.”
32 Then Jephthah went over to fight the Ammonites, and the Lord gave them into his hands. 33 He devastated twenty towns from Aroer to the vicinity of Minnith, as far as Abel Keramim. Thus Israel subdued Ammon.
34 When Jephthah returned to his home in Mizpah, who should come out to meet him but his daughter, dancing to the sound of timbrels! She was an only child. Except for her he had neither son nor daughter. 35 When he saw her, he tore his clothes and cried, “Oh no, my daughter! You have brought me down and I am devastated. I have made a vow to the Lord that I cannot break.”
36 “My father,” she replied, “you have given your word to the Lord. Do to me just as you promised, now that the Lord has avenged you of your enemies, the Ammonites. 37 But grant me this one request,” she said. “Give me two months to roam the hills and weep with my friends, because I will never marry.”
38 “You may go,” he said. And he let her go for two months. She and her friends went into the hills and wept because she would never marry. 39 After the two months, she returned to her father, and he did to her as he had vowed. And she was a virgin.
From this comes the Israelite tradition 40 that each year the young women of Israel go out for four days to commemorate the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite.
Acts 23:12-14
12 The next morning some Jews formed a conspiracy and bound themselves with an oath not to eat or drink until they had killed Paul. 13 More than forty men were involved in this plot. 14 They went to the chief priests and the elders and said, “We have taken a solemn oath not to eat anything until we have killed Paul.
It is against the words of Jesus taking vows. It is foolish making vows. And then we do this before God. And the church wants us to do what OUR Savior tells us not to do. You can't make this stuff up!
What opinions do you have on MAKING VOWS?
I think it is against the teachings of Christ. Yet people do stupid things.
"May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if ..."
If you want to make vows, go ahead. Multiply your guilt! WHO IS TRUE?
"Let God be TRUE and every man be proved a liar." (Romans 3:4)
