Deuteronomy
Vows
Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony
Subject: Pentateuch
Lesson: 77-110
Genre: Talk
Track: 077
Dictation Name: RR187AP77
Location/Venue:
Year: 1993
Let us worship God.There is therefore no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. For as any as are led by the Spirit of God they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear but you have received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry Abba, Father. Let us pray.
Our Father we thank Thee that by the adoption of grace we are Thine, Thy children. Sons and daughters of Thy kingdom. Make us ever joyful in the heritage that is ours in Christ that we are heirs of all things, citizens of the new creation. That in Christ we have a strength the world cannot overcome, that in Hi we are more than conquerors. Oh Lord our God grant that our hearts be firmly fixed upon Thy word and Thy promises so that we may face all the trials of this world in the confidence of victory. In Christ’s name, Amen.
Our scripture is Deuteronomy 23:21-23. Our subject: Vows. Deuteronomy 23:21-23.
“When thou shalt vow a vow unto the Lord thy God, thou shalt not slack to pay it: for theLord thy God will surely require it of thee; and it would be sin in 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.”
Vows no longer have the place in people’s lives that they once did. The reason for this is that people no longer take prayer as seriously as once was the case. To understand what this means let us analyze what a vow is. First, a vow is a promise to God for something received or to be received. A man received an unexpected and unasked blessing or deliverance. His response is to tell God that in gratitude for an unasked blessing he will do certain things as His thanksgiving to God. It is a spontaneous response to God’s providential care and mercies but it is also a firm promise to do something by way of response. Then second, a vow is at times a pledge to abstain from something otherwise permitted in order to fix one’s entire attention on doing something for God. It is an expression to oneself and to God of seriousness of intent. The vow began to fade when it became a poetic device as in William Blake’s poem From Milton:
I will not cease from mental plight nor shall my sword sleep in my hand till we have built Jerusalem in England’s green and pleasant land.
The romantic movement did a great deal to undermine the high seriousness of vows when it used them for dramatic purposes and emphasis. In fact, it became a very common operatic device. From a pledge of one’s total integrity to an operatic device it’s what the vow became in the hands of the romantics. Then third, a vow is a binding promise to God that if a thing prayed for is given one will do certain things in gratitude.
In Genesis 28:20-22 we have the first recorded vow in the bible. Jacob promises that if God cares for him he will serve the Lord and tithe faithfully to him. It was not the best of vows but when God blessed Jacob God had respect for even that faulty vow. Whatever the faults of Jacob’s vow Jacob took God very seriously and literally. Fourth, the vow could be positive or negative. The man can vow to do something or he can vow never to do certain things. Both kinds involve some kind of sacrifice to himself. The man making the vow is not asking for something other than God’s blessing in the form of strength, as he tries to do certain things. The vow concerns some major concern and to indicate the high seriousness of the cause a vow is made to God. A man by his vow allows himself no retreat from his dedication to a particular effort. The vow presents him with a necessary task and it prevents him from turning his back on his word. If certain circumstances should make a fulfillment of the vow impossible the man can be discharged from his vow by a religious authority. Fifth, a man making a vow to God and pledging to give something if God hears his prayer cannot give to God what he has no right to give, according to Leviticus 27:26. He cannot give a human life, for example, in sacrifice, as did Jesse. Neither can he give what belongs, for example, to his wife. A vow does not dissolve the property ownership of those around him. For this reason the wife or a child could not make a vow without the father’s permission. A vow is entirely voluntary but it is subject to legitimate authorities. Vows are closely related to prayer and this is the reason why vows today are not a part of everyday life.
Prayer has lost much of its meaning and therefore vows are no longer common in our time. Prayer is talking to God. It means acknowledging God as absolute lord and the source of all things. When we pray to God we are talking to one who is the creator and sustainer of all things and the absolute cause of all things. God is a person, a very real person to whom we can make earnest petitions in the assurance that he can respond to them. Where God becomes remote the vow becomes almost meaningless because the vow is a very intense and earnest pledge to the Lord of all creation. Then sixth the vow is often the dedication of something we have or ourselves to God’s service or use. I have known of men who promised God a given time of service in return for something. A doctor I knew in return for his recovery from a very serious illness served a given number of years in the 1930s as a medical missionary in Africa. At no point in the bible does God require a vow of us. It is an act of personal dedication whatever form the vow takes. It is a person to person exchange. I recall as a child a man whose daughter was near death and no hope was held possible. He prayed for his daughter’s life and vowed a vow. It was for him an intensely personal promise and response. It is important to stress this because it is basic to vows. The present neglect of vows is due to the impersonalism many implicitly ascribe to God. Ecclesiastes 5:4-5 tells us:
“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. Better is it that thou shouldst not vow then that thou shouldst vow and not pay.”
God is a person and to offend Him is the worst kind of folly. Any man who does so is a fool, he incurs the wrath of God.
Since a vow is voluntary it aggravates a man’s sin that he voluntarily breaks his word to God. Seventh, nothing illegitimate nor ungodly can be used to pay a vow. According to Deuteronomy 23:18:
“Thou shalt not bring the hire of a whore nor a price of a dog (that is, a sodomite) into the house of the Lord thy God for any vow.”
Only that which is good can be given to God. Thomas Aquinas gave a short definition of a vow, a promise made to God. It is a promise by a person to the person of God. A New Testament example is Saint Paul in Acts 18:18. Augustine in his commentary on Psalm 76:11 gives us examples of the use of vows in his day. In verse eighteen there is as we have seen a prohibition against bringing to God any hire of a prostitute or a sodomite as payment of a vow. Such persons have no right of access to God. Access to God is a privilege given by His grace to those He chooses. Promiscuous access to man is not countenanced. We cannot go in at any time to see anyone we choose. How much less so to God? This means that the person making a vow has already the privilege of access to God, he is a believer. In terms of this privilege the man asks God’s blessing and promises to give thanks to God in a particular way. Both the vow and the gift are forms of privileged access. Then eighth, a vow cannot be used to disrupt the God-given order of things. A subordinate such as a wife or a daughter cannot make a vow without the father’s consent according to Numbers 30 and implication of this is very clear. None, male or female, can use a vow to undermine or dissolve an existing God-ordained relationship. Our Lord condemned the Pharisees for using vows to God to dissolve their duty to support their parents.
No duty nor relationship which is God-ordained can be undermined, set aside or terminated by a vow. The purpose of a vow must be to further God’s kingdom. Not to undermine it. There are two vows basically which survive in our tie and they tell us how trifling a matter a vow is to people. One is when you are a witness in a court case. You solemnly swear and vow, and even the word vow has disappeared there, that your testimony will be the whole truth and nothing but the truth. But we take vows so lightly that there is no penalty virtually unless before congress for violating that vow. The other vow is in the marriage ceremony. I do solemnly swear and vow before God and these witnesses and so on. Now it’s interesting those who discuss the marriage and divorce issue never bring up the matter of a vow. Has the man or woman broken his vow? Her vow? Have they broken it? Have they been faithless to God. That’s the most serious thing, even more so than adultery. Certain promises are made about the way of life that will be maintained and I have never seen a book on divorce that ever refers to the fact that a vow has been violated, a solemn promise to do certain things, to live in a certain way. Now in God’s sight the violation of that vow is a most serious thing. But life having lost its high seriousness in the post-Darwin world so too have vows now have diminished meaning. Let us pray.
Our Lord and our God we thank Thee for Thy word. We thank Thee that Thy word corrects us, blesses us, guides us and gives us wisdom. Teach us to live in faithfulness to Thee and to Thy word. In Christ’s name, Amen.
Are there any questions now about our lesson? Yes?
[Question] The President of the United States used to be called the chief magistrate and now we have a magistrate who doesn’t have a good word.
[Rushdoony] What has happened in our time is the erosion of language as well as other things. And very obvious meanings have been so eroded that today the language that was common when a few of us went to school is now rapidly becoming obsolete. And people are having difficulties understanding that, so the various offices, the various conditions and estates of man are no longer clearly understood because meaning is breaking down. The boundary lines are gone. Since they are gone in other spheres naturally they are gone in language and it’s not surprising that the newest dictionary no longer sees hard and fast lines. I saw recently and I hope to be reading soon a book by a professor which treats Black English with high seriousness as though it constituted a valid art form and language. So that there are no boundaries, English is what you choose to consider it.
Are there any other questions or comments?
I mentioned in conclusion that the high seriousness of life is gone. I began to realize how rapidly that has happened when I read a very important essay on dragnet; you remember Jack Webb, Dragnet, well the scholar who wrote the essay called attention to certain facts that tell us of the revolution that has taken place in this country. In dragnet [??] guns were never pulled by the police, there was no shooting. There was never a wild car chase, there was never any violence. All it was was detective work and you always ended with a report on the trial and the judge’s decision. It has become the antithesis of what television has since become and until I read it I didn’t realize how great the revolution was. Because here was an immensely successful program, it was the most successful in its day for a long time and it never had any of the elements that now are held to be essential for any dramatic presentation. It was a master piece in its own way of creating interest without violence, gunfire, or any of the things that are now considered necessary. Only when you realize what that program was and what the successful programs are today can you appreciate the revolution that has taken place in so short a time. Well if there are no further comments or questions let us conclude with prayer.
Our Father we thank Thee that Thy son, our Savior, came into this world and gave his life to redeem us from our sins. Oh Lord our God the world around us has lost all its seriousness about any of the things that matter. Make us instruments of Thy kingdom, teach us to respect life, to respect language, to respect those things that are furthering to Godliness. So that we might be Thine instruments in the restoration of all things. . And now go in peace, God the Father, God the Son, the God the Holy Ghost, bless you and keep you, guide and protect you, this day and always, Amen.