Psalm 76:11

Psalm 76:11

All about vows

We have talked before about the use of vows in Bible times. The use of the word “vow” conveys the sense of a conscious, deliberate, promise to do something, sometimes conditioned by an “if”:

Jephthah made a vow to the LORD, saying, “If you really do hand the Ammonites over to me,31then whoever is the first to come through the doors of my house to meet me when I return safely from fighting the Ammonites– he will belong to the LORD and I will offer him up as a burnt sacrifice.” (Jdg. 11:30-31 NET; Genesis 28:20-22; 31:13; Numbers 21:2; 1 Samuel 1:11)

A vow may or may not be made “to” the Lord but it is made “before” or in the presence of the Lord. In other words, God is a witness to the vow. That makes it pretty solemn. By and large, a vow is considered binding, with very few exceptions. In the case of Israel’s covenant with the Gibeonites in Joshua 9, their covenant promise to protect the Gibeonites was honoured, even though this promise had been achieved deceitfully. Israel took its commitments seriously.

In Leviticus 27 a promised offering is viewed as a vow, which may be its most common occurrence. But if the one who made the promise is not able to give the promised amount the priest can pronounce a reduced obligation. Note that what is vowed can be redeemed, but with a 1/5th penalty. After the event, it was also common practice to bring a “thank offering” to the Lord to acknowledge that He had honoured and fulfilled the agreement made. 

This is a practice that is not really on the agendas of Christians today, maybe the giving of vows died out after the time of Christ, not least because there was nowhere to bring the Thank Offering! Maybe we should take our relationship with the Lord to another level, if a situation demands it, then we should trust Him by striking a vow. A vow that He will keep, and so must we!

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