Any vow or obligation taken by a widow or divorced woman will be binding on her.– Numbers 30:9

Today’s Scripture Reading (August 23, 2012): Numbers 30

I recently watched a series of videos that I found on Youtube revealing surprising facts that many people just do not realize are true. It contained things like - did you know that China will soon be the number one English speaking nation in the world.  Or maybe that India has more kids in the honors program in their schools than the United States has kids.  It was just a list of things that were surprising - and maybe even hard to believe.  And then I watched another video. It looked like other ones I had seen, except that the end of the video contained a disclaimer – all of the facts in the video had been made up. The entire video was a lie.

Every so often I catch myself saying (or writing) something like ‘to tell you the truth.’ The intention is to underline the reality that stands behind my words. But I know that the true effect of my words gives the impression that sometimes my words are not true – the impression that sometimes my words reflect reality of the last video that I watched, the one that was totally made up.

It is unlikely that these statutes held in these verses arose out of nothing. It would seem likely that there had been a problem; a vow that had been entered into at one part of life, only to be forgotten during another stage of life. The vow seemed to come with an expiry date – but it was not an expiry date that God accepted.

The reality is that making vows is almost always a dangerous business. Vows seldom do any good, and often they seem to do much evil.  They give us the false impression that what we are doing is the will of God. But the one who does not feel themselves bound to do what is fit, right, and just from the standing testimony of God's word, is not likely to do it from any obligation that they may lay upon their own conscience by taking a vow. If God's word is not enough to cause godly behavior, the persons own word (and their own vow) can never really be trusted. Our reality is that the responsibility of every person who professes a faith in Christ to devote their body, soul, and spirit to God, not only to the furthest extent of their powers, but also as long as they live. And there is no vow that can take the place of that responsibility.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Numbers 31