Leviticus; The Law of Holiness and Grace
Vows
Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony
Subject: Pentateuch
Genre: Lessons with Q & A
Lesson: 77
Track: 77
Dictation Name: RR172AQ77
Date: Early 70s
Let us worship God. Serve the Lord with gladness. Come before His presence with singing. Enter into His gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise. Be thankful unto Him and bless His name. For the Lord is good. His mercy is everlasting and His truth endureth to all generations.
Let us pray.
Almighty God our Heavenly Father, we give thanks unto Thee that even as men falter and fail, and even as their counsel brings nothing but disaster to the world, Thou art on the throne. And it is Thy purpose and Thy government that shall prevail, that shall rule and overrule. In this faith our Father, we come to Thy presence to give thanks for the blessings of the week past, to rejoice in those blessings with which Thou wilt fill our todays and tomorrows. We come to give ourselves to Thy Word and Thy Spirit, that Thou mightest use us and accomplish Thy purpose in us and through us. Our God, we praise Thee. In Christ’s name, amen.
Our scripture is Leviticus 27:1-13. This, the last chapter of Leviticus, deals with vows. Leviticus 27:1-13:
“1 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,
2 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, when a man shall make a singular vow, the persons shall be for the Lord by thy estimation.
3 And thy estimation shall be of the male from twenty years old even unto sixty years old, even thy estimation shall be fifty shekels of silver, after the shekel of the sanctuary.
4 And if it be a female, then thy estimation shall be thirty shekels.
5 And if it be from five years old even unto twenty years old, then thy estimation shall be of the male twenty shekels, and for the female ten shekels.
6 And if it be from a month old even unto five years old, then thy estimation shall be of the male five shekels of silver, and for the female thy estimation shall be three shekels of silver.
7 And if it be from sixty years old and above; if it be a male, then thy estimation shall be fifteen shekels, and for the female ten shekels.
8 But if he be poorer than thy estimation, then he shall present himself before the priest, and the priest shall value him; according to his ability that vowed shall the priest value him.
9 And if it be a beast, whereof men bring an offering unto the Lord, all that any man giveth of such unto the Lord shall be holy.
10 He shall not alter it, nor change it, a good for a bad, or a bad for a good: and if he shall at all change beast for beast, then it and the exchange thereof shall be holy.
11 And if it be any unclean beast, of which they do not offer a sacrifice unto the LORD, then he shall present the beast before the priest:
12 And the priest shall value it, whether it be good or bad: as thou valuest it, who art the priest, so shall it be.
13 But if he will at all redeem it, then he shall add a fifth part thereof unto thy estimation.”
Leviticus 27 concerns vows made to God. Now, the whole chapter, like so much in Leviticus and elsewhere in the scripture, is like a foreign realm for us—very difficult to penetrate because we have departed so from anything that is scriptural, anything that is godly.
To illustrate: for us, speech has become a very casual matter. We routinely make statements, affirmations, promises that we pay no attention to. We say I am going to do thus-and-so or I promise you I’ll take care of that. And we fail. We all do—all of us do this casually, because words have become cheap. And in any non-Christian era, words become cheap; very cheap.
I was very much amused a couple of days ago in reading a recent issue of the Catholic Digest, to find an article and it was about the penance an elderly priest had imposed upon this woman. Apparently the priest and the woman were, I think, both Irish. And his statement was very simply this: you penance is to keep your mouth shut. And she said she found it hard to do, but it was amazing how much it improved the family life when she kept her mouth shut! Because she recognized it had been her habit to tell everybody what she thought they ought to be told. And it gave the family life a different character. Well, that’s true of all of us. If we did penance by keeping our mouth shut, our lives and the lives of those around us would all improve. We are guilty of treating language too casually.
This is why we cannot understand this. What this chapter says, that anything that is said with respect to God or to His sanctuary, or with respect to the faith, is, when it goes out of our lips, binding. It is about anything that we promise to God verbally, even though we don’t formally say, “I solemnly swear before God and man that I’m going to do this before the Lord.” But if you said anything that involved God or the faith, it was binding. It was a vow. And therefore you did not get out of that vow if for some reason or another you were unable to fulfill it very cheaply. There was a price for that, and that’s what this chapter’s about.
The Lord spake unto Moses saying, and what he says is how people can alone get out of a vow. They may have vowed to do certain things, but if they cannot or choose not to, they’re going to pay a price.
Now, the doctrine of the covenant and the Jubilee make clear God’s total government over all things. We live in God’s empire of His Law. We’ve forgotten that term which was once very commonplace in theology: the empire of law. We no longer see an empire of law, because we don’t see causality, because we don’t take God seriously. And we are thus in a totally God-created environment and realm because of that empire of law, and because God is God. We turn the world upside-down and forget that we owe everything to the Lord and that this is the basic fact. We see ourselves owing everything to ourselves.
Now the meaning of the vow is that the covenant man, mindful of his debt of gratitude to God will from time to time seek to demonstrate that gratitude in a practical way. He will promise or vow to God to do certain things or to make certain gifts. Now this can be done in a moment’s flush of gratitude, and then it can be forgotten. But it is not forgotten by God. The vow is voluntary, but it is a commitment and we are duty-bound always to observe it.
We are told in a number of passages, various things about vows. For example, in Deuteronomy 23:21-23:
“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 to thee.
22 But if thou shalt forbear to vow, it shall be no sin in thee.
23 That which is gone out of thy lips thou shalt keep and perform; even a freewill offering, according as thou hast vowed unto the Lord thy God, which thou hast promised with thy mouth.”
In other words, it’s no sin not to vow to give something to God because you’re grateful for something that has taken place. It is a sin, however, if in the flush of gratitude you say I’m so grateful to God that I’m going to do thus-and-so and then you don’t do it.
Then again, Proverbs 20:25 says, “It is a snare to the man who devoureth that which is holy, and after vows to make enquiry.” That is, it is wrong for a man to hastily or rashly make a vow and then later consider the implications of that vow, because God holds us accountable for what we say. We are told that every idle word will be held against us. How much more so a vow to God?
Then Ecclesiastes 5:4, 5, “4 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.” In other words, we are fools if we make a promise to God and do not keep it.
In the text that we are considering today, Leviticus 27:1-13, three kinds of vows are cited.
1. Vows of persons, whereby a man dedicates himself to do God’s service in some way or another.
2. Vows wherein certain animals are promised to God, clean animals.
3. In other vows, unclean animals which are useful (like a horse) are promised to God.
The law here says that the only way out of such vows is by the payment of an equivalent price.
Now in the first kind of vow, a man seeks to get out of paying to God that service which he performed. Perhaps he said that, I’m going to do certain things for you in the next month and give so much volunteer time to Thy service. Well, in each case, the price of redemption is a telling one; very interesting one, in fact. A person can only redeem himself at the price that he or she would have commanded in any pagan slave market. The price, usually, of an adult male slave was fifty shekels, as in II Kings 15:20. A boy commanded twenty shekels, as in Genesis 37:2, 28, and a woman brought thirty shekels. (Now, according to II Kings 12:4 and following, all such funds that came to the sanctuary from the redemption of vows went into a fund for the repairs and maintenance of the temple. So they had a good fund to take care of repairs and maintenance because people commonly did not keep their word.) The child up to five years required less redemption and the same was true of men and women over sixty. The vow could be a very minor matter, or it could be a negative vow, that is a promise to abstain from certain activities or pleasures for a given time, like giving up certain things (I’m not going to have any dessert or I’m not going to smoke—any vow). These had to be redeemed when made to God. Whatever the vow, the redemption price was the same: the cost of their life if they were put in a slave market.
Since a promise to God, whether it’s a trifling matter or a serious matter is serious in the sight of God, there was no merit gained in a vow. It did not obligate God in any way. Rather, when a man in gratitude obligated himself to God and then did not render the promised service, or keep what he was going to do, even if the benefit were to himself, he had to render a penalty. In other words, speech had to be taken very seriously, something we have forgotten about. Words to us, today, are things to be used for advantage, not for communication.
I was amused, in an ironic sort of way, when Otto and I were in Edinburgh; I went to a book store and bought a number of very valuable books. One was a three-volume set, history of the Early Church after the close of the gospel era, so let us say roughly from 100 – 461 [AD] ; three large volumes. They came out of the library of a very prominent theologian. They were written by a very prominent scholar at Oxford. The man from whose library they came was at Edinburgh. Now the interesting thing about these three volumes was that the pages were uncut—uncut, except for a few pages in Volume I, and then a few pages in Volume III so you could quote a statement here or there as he praised the book, as he no doubt would. Nobles Oblige. Scholars regularly pat themselves on their back. And of course, they are to be when they are of the stature of these two men, above criticism.
If I may digress, I recall in the early 60s, being asked to review a couple of books by Christianity Today. And one was by the brother of this Edinburgh scholar, himself a faculty member. It was a horrible book, and I reviewed it very critically. The same time, I reviewed also very critically, a book by Norman Vincent Peale. And that ended my relationship with Christianity Today because I was told I had no right to be anything but respectful and laudatory about two such prominent people.
Well, now, that is using language dishonestly. And that’s what this chapter is telling us, even as our Lord says that men will account for every idle word on the Day of Judgment. And here, anything in the way of a promise before God, even if it may be a trifling matter still costs us the equivalent price of our life, a very serious matter. The only exemption here to a limited degree, we see in verse 8, the priest, or Moses, or whoever succeeded Moses had the discretionary power to lower the redemption rate for a poor man, but he could not waive it. Poverty is no excuse for a failed vow to God.
Now in the second section, verses 9 and 10, we have the redemption of clean animals. We see that any attempt by a man who had vowed to give an animal to God in gratitude for a blessing he had received, could not be followed by the substitution of a lesser animal. If he attempted to pay God with a lesser animal, with a calf instead of a heifer, then both animals had to be surrendered to the temple or purchased at the price set by the priest. In fact, no substitution could be made even if a better animal were offered. The precise nature of the vow had to be kept and redemption had to be in terms of the original animal vowed.
Then in the third sections, verses 11-13, unclean animals are cited. A man could vow to give his donkey in gratitude for something that God had given. And then perhaps regretted the possibility of losing a very well-trained animal and decided to change his mind. But he had to redeem it. This, if he had reneged, he could only undo at the assessed value, plus 20%. The term ‘unclean animal’ of course, could also include a clean animal which was unfit for sacrifice because of some defect.
All of these vows are vows made to God. Some vows are made before God, to abide by certain obligations and duties. Then also, there are still other vows, going into the variety of vows, which are made both to God and to man. In this last category, of vows made both to God and man, we have baptismal vows made either by us or for us by our parents. And these are eventually going to be vows that make us accountable. It is essentially a vow to God but it involves both the family and the church. The marriage vow is before God and men and it is both to God and to one’s spouse. The ordination vow is before God and man and it is to God and the Church. The vow or oath in a courtroom is before God and man and it is to God and man. We then swear to bear witness honestly so that justice may be, uh, may prevail.
Now there are other forms of vows, and some are invalid. A century ago, Meyrick, an English scholar, commented on such vows, on the conditions under which vows and oaths are not, or must cease to be obligatory. And I quote, “Jeremiah writes in 4:2, ‘and thou shalt swear the Lord liveth in truth, in judgment and in righteousness,’ in other words, you cannot swear a vow that is not in terms of justice and truth. Isaiah speaks of those who swear by the name of the Lord and make mention of the God of Israel, but not in truth nor in righteousness. Accordingly, any oath or vow is void which was an unrighteous oath or vow when taken. And the sin of breaking it, though a sin, is less than that of keeping it. Therefore, Herod ought not to have kept his vow to the daughter of Herodias. And the observance of their oath by the forty conspirators who had bound themselves to kill Paul would have meant a sin on their part. Further, a vow, as distinct from an oath or contract, ceases to be obligatory if the person concerned comes to regard it as an unrighteous one and wrong for him to fulfill with his changed mind or under changed circumstances. Thus the vow taken at ordination to administer the sacraments in the form received by a special church is not binding if a man ceases on conscientious grounds to be a member of that church. If for example, he is a Lutheran and he can no longer subscribe to the doctrines of the Lutheran Church, he can leave and dissolve that vow, because it is made in the context of a church. And the vow of celibacy taken by Luther and others, who have become reformers, no longer binds them when they have come to the conviction that the vow was unrighteous and when they have rejected the discipline of their church.” In other words, we have no right to abide in a place when we can no longer maintain the vow and we feel the vow taken in the context of that organization or church was on that we did not understand and we’ve grown, with better knowledge, we have a better awareness of what is at stake. And so at times, a vow is not valid, if in its origin it has an invalid premise.
For example, I have known cases where parents have extracted under pressure, a vow from very young children, which has haunted the children. And the vows were ungodly ones. But it has troubled the children, because on their deathbed, their father or mother made them promise certain things which were ridiculous and merely gave expression to their prejudices. Thus, vows are not necessarily always to be abided by. A false vow cannot be binding on us without sin.
Now this chapter is dismissed by some scholars as too mercenary, too much oriented to a bookkeeper’s mentality. I think this criticism tells us a great deal about those who make it. Why is it mercenary to feel that a vow must be made to God? Would they feel it were mercenary if you and I borrowed $500 dollars for them and regarded their demand for a payment of more than $50 as mercenary? Why do people require it as honorably to waive things like that where God is concerned but not where man is concerned? If we resent injustice toward ourselves, can we expect God to feel happy with us if we yield Him a penny when we have vowed to give Him much? God is not a Uriah heap, fawning over us with gratitude for a kindly word. Hebrews 12:29 tells us plainly, “our God is a consuming fire.”
Let us pray.
Our Lord and our God we give thanks unto Thee for this Thy Word. Oh Lord our God, indeed our generation and we ourselves with so oftened cheapened language which Thou hast blessed us with to speak truth and to further justice. Give us grace to do penance, by keeping our mouths shut when we should keep them shut. And day-by-day have the meditation of our hearts as well as the words of our mouths faithful unto Thee. In Christ’s name, amen.
Are there any questions about our lesson, or comments?
Yes.
[Audience] Well, the whole idea of a contract was that a contract, a written contract is a verification of a verbal contract already made.
[Rushdoony] Yes.
[Audience] Now, that’s been turned onto its head. The lawyers now argue that a verbal contract isn’t worth anything. It has to be a written contract, which destroys the whole idea of a man’s word.
[Rushdoony] Yes, and we are beginning to see the implications of it in financial matters, as for example, what was it—one person alone reneged on a $26 million obligation in the October 19 stock market crash. And the fact that he was not within the borders of the United States made it easy for him to do so. But there were countless others who did so. And this is increasingly happening. It is a concern to many people who are in the market.
[Audience] Well, the market cannot function.
[Rushdoony] No, it will mean the end of the market. It was only as Christian standards began to extend to various parts of the world that it was possible to have a market. And now we are in the business of destroying that.
Yes.
[Audience] One other question and that is with this widespread lack of belief, what good is an oath on the Bible?
[Rushdoony] Yes, when men do not take God seriously, they’re not going to take an oath seriously.
We forget, as you pointed out, that language was once contractual the world over. Men felt their word had to be their bond and very little was done on paper until fairly recently, including in this country. Men routinely kept their word, or you did not do business with them.
As a matter of fact, it used to be that there were two categories of testimony in American courts. Courts by believers who were of good character, their oath was held to be sufficient. But those who were ungodly, unbelievers, or of bad character, were not asked to take an oath because their testimony was questionable. Now that was the practice in this country at one time.
[Audience] Then what can we say about our public officials?
[Rushdoony] Well, like the rest of the people, they do not regard their word as important and it is the fact that they know, as most people do, that the memory of the public is rarely beyond 90 days. Anything that’s past is better forgotten, as most people are, as far as most people are concerned.
[Audience] Well, in defense of most people, I’ll say that their memory is inundated with new trivia and this has got a lot to do with flooding out their recollections.
[Rushdoony] I think that is very true. On the other hand, they regard it as something foreign when you tell them about the necessity for integrity of speech.
I recall an old indian on the reservation who was old-fashioned in two ways. First, he represented the best in the old indian tradition. And second, he had gone to school at a federal boarding school in the days when such schools were run by missionaries. And while he never became a Christian (as far as I knew), he had a very high regard for the biblical teachings he gained. And he would not tolerate any disrespect towards it. What was remarkable in that man, that he regarded words as so important. Because for him, the great God and men both used words and animals didn’t. And he would rarely speak. His wife said he would sometimes go all week without opening his mouth. And both white and indian men who rode with him on round-ups day after day said they never heard him open his mouth. When he did, it was only to say something that was important or necessary. Well, he was regarded with humor—an affectionate humor, but all the same, with humor by both indians and whites. And yet he was a remarkable man and there was a courtliness about him. Once you got to know who he was and what he represented, the man had an aura about him which was very impressive!
Now I’m not saying we should be that silent…
[Audience] I will say that in my experience in the corporate world, you had to rely completely upon the accuracy of a report.
[Rushdoony] Yes.
[Audience] And if you found a man who did not give you an accurate report—let, let me put it another way, might always be inaccurate by omission, and nobody could prove that the omission was deliberate, but if you misstated a fact, you were not asked to give any more reports.
[Rushdoony] Very wise attitude. Well, if there are no further questions or comm—
Yes.
[Audience] Ah, could you clarify exactly what we’re talking about here with regard to a vow. I take it from your references to the seriousness of ordinary speech, that all of our conversations really are intended by God to be a vow? Any pledges we make, even if they’re not formally stated like as an oath, or dedicated words to God, is that what you’re saying?
[Rushdoony] It has reference to something we’ve promised to God or with regard to the Lord’s work. That’s what is involved. But our Lord says, ‘every idle word’ we shall be accountable for. But this chapter—and there are other passages—there’s quite a bit in the law about vows. All have to do with the matter of never taking casually anything we say we’re going to do for God.
[Audience] Do you think it’s recommended to make New Year’s resolutions?
[Rushdoony] What?
[Audience] Do you think New Year’s resolutions are to be recommended?
[Rushdoony] Well, if we take them as a promise to God, if we say I’m going to do this or that, in relationship to the Lord, yes. If we do them religiously, we are bound. As God says, you are not required to make a vow. But if you say you’re going to do something and you invoke my name in word or thought, then you’re involving me. And you’re not to do that. So again and again, the scriptures are clear. Our Lord, swear not by the temple or by God’s throne or by anything; in other words, any promise to God has to be an extremely serious thing.
[Audience] We all probably have a lot of redeeming to do. What would be the, what’s the, ah, redeeming value on an adult male in today’s slave market?
[Rushdoony] Well, I don’t know what the price would be, but it does mean that we, in some way or another, have to make amends to God and say, Lord, we’ve taking your name in vain in these things, and we’re going to try to undo that. First by making sure we never do it again, and second, we’re going to give certain things to your work to make amends for the fact that we have often in the flush of gratitude, or in a time of need, promised certain things, vowed certain things and then treated it casually.
Yes.
[Audience] I understand that in Orthodox Judaism, a woman who has had a baby has to go to the temple and make some sort of compensation for a broken vow, because in labor she always said she’d have nothing more to do with men.
[Laughter]
[Rushdoony] Not a vow she would be likely to keep! [Laughter]
Well, our time is about up. Let us bow our heads in prayer.
Our Lord and our God, we thank Thee that Thou art the Lord and that Thy promises to us in Christ are ‘yea’ and ‘amen,’ are all kept in all their fullness. Give us grace in gratitude, to be faithful in what we yield unto Thee in our promises, that all the days of our life, we may live faithfully and gratefully. And now, go in peace. God the father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost bless you and keep you, guide and protect you this day and always. Amen.