The Bible basis for vowing is as follows: “When you make a vow to God, do not delay to pay it; for He has no pleasure in fools.  Pay what you have vowed.  It is better not to vow than to vow and not pay” (Ecclesiastes 5:4-5).

 

These Scriptures make known that vows should never be made rashly or thoughtlessly for one may be under the yoke of such vows for the remainder of his or her life. 

  

Scripture warns us: “Do NOT let your mouth cause your flesh to sin, nor say before the messenger (or priest, Malachi 2:7) of God that it was an error.  Why should God be angry at your excuse and destroy the work of your hand?” (Ecclesiastes 5:6).

 

God does not require us to make a vow in the first place as the above Scripture also makes known, and actually discourages us from doing so ((verses 4-5; Deuteronomy 22:23). However, if one has made a vow that is binding, God does expect that person to honor it by performing it.  Otherwise a person who does not is labeled a fool by God (verse 4).

 

There are those who have made vows without thinking their way through what they were solemnly promising to God and then find themselves in a real problems because of it and seemingly no way out of it. 

 

A real life example is Jepthah who vowed to sacrifice the first person he met upon returning home IF God were to win the battle for him against an enemy army.  The battle was won and the first person he met after returning home was his own daughter ((Judges 11:30-40).

 

Scripture also makes known there are those who are NOT SPIRITUALLY MATURE enough to even know the difference between a foolish vow and a wise vow.  This is made clear in the following Scriptures for they not only reveal the seriousness of a vow, but also the maturity that should be there when one is made:

 

“When you make a vow to the LORD your God, you shall not delay to pay it; for the LORD your God will surely require it of you, and it would be sin to you.  But if you abstain from vowing, it shall NOT be sin to you.  That which has gone from your lips you shall keep and perform for you VOLUNTARILY vowed to the LORD your God what YOU HAVE PROMISED WITH YOUR MOUTH (Deuteronomy 23:21-23).

 

These verses make known that it is a sin to break a vow and to refrain from making a vow is to avoid sin.

 

The result in breaking a vow is to lie!  This is violating the 8^th commandment ((Exodus 20:16). This is indeed very serious!

 

MAKING A VOW

 

If one were to make a vow, under what circumstances does it become binding by God?

 

According to the original Hebrew text, IT MUST BE MADE VOLUNTARILY before God, and without any compulsion from without.

 

To reveal the seriousness of making a vow, God has devoted one whole chapter in the Bible to this subject.  

 

 WHEN NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR A VOW

 

In this chapter we shall see not only the continued seriousness of all vows that are bound by God, but also we will see where these Scriptures qualify three special cases of vows made by women under authority: 1) before marriage 2) married women 3) after marriage, i.e. widows and divorced women.

 

Beginning with the last part of verse 1, “This is the thing which the LORD has commanded: ‘If a man has vowed a vow to the LORD, or swears an oath to bind himself by some agreement, HE SHALL NOT BREAK HIS WORD, HE SHALL DO ACCORDING TO ALL THAT PROCEEDS OUT OF HIS MOUTH’” (Numbers 30:1-2).

 

Scripture now proceeds to qualify the three special cases of women who make vows:

 

THE FATHER’S RESPONSIBILITY

 

1) “Or if a woman vows a vow to the LORD, and binds herself by some agreement while in her father’s house in her youth, and her father HEARS her vow and the agreement by which she has bound herself, and her father holds his peace (margin: says nothing to interfere), then all her vows shall stand, and every agreement with which she has bound herself shall stand. BUT if her father OVERRULES her ON THE DAY THAT HE HEARS, then none of her vows nor her agreements by which she had bound herself shall stand; and the LORD will forgive her, BECAUSE her father has overruled her” (verses 3-5). 

 

God makes it very clear that a girl yet in her father’s home, AND NOT YET MATURE ENOUGH to be responsible for making a vow, and when he hears of one she has made, has the right from God to unbind her from it, but it had to be done within the day he hears of it.

 

A daughter is under her father’s authority until she is married.

 

THE HUSBAND’S RESPONSIBILITY

 

 2) “But if indeed she takes a husband, while bound by her vows or by a rash utterance from her lips by which she bound herself, and her husband HEARS it, AND MAKES NO RESPONSE to her ON THE DAY that he hears, then her vows shall stand, and her agreements by which she bound herself shall stand. BUT if her husband OVERRULES her ON THE DAY that he hears it, he shall make void her vow which she vowed and what she uttered with her lips, by which she bound herself, and the LORD will forgive her” (Verses 6-8.

 

This is a very important verse.  Notice what it means!

 

These Scriptures make very clear that in the case of the wife or daughter, as written here in Numbers 30, a vow may be annulled AT THE TIME THE RESPONSIBLE PARTY HEARS OF IT.  A vow does not have to be annulled at the time it is taken, but AT THE TIME WHEN IT IS HEARD by the responsible party whose God-given right is to make the decision whether that vow is binding.

 

A WIDOW OR DIVORCED WOMAN

 

3) BUT if any vow of a widow or a divorced woman, by which she has bound herself, shall stand against her (verse 9).

 

BUT IF she vowed in her husband’s house, or bound herself by an agreement with an oath, and her husband HEARD it, AND MADE RESPONSE TO HER AND DID NOT OVERRULE HER, then all her vows shall stand, and every agreement by which she bound herself shall stand. BUT if her husband truly made them VOID ON THE DAY HE HEARD THEM, then whatever proceeded from her lips concerning her vows or concerning the agreement binding her, IT SHALL NOT STAND; her husband has made them void, and the LORD will forgive her.  Every vow and every binding oath to afflict her soul, her husband MAY confirm it, OR her husband MAY make it void.  BUT if her husband makes no response whatever to her FROM DAY TO DAY, then he confirms all her vows or all the agreements that bind her; he confirms them, BECAUSE he made no response to her ON THE DAY that he heard them (verses 10-14).

  

God has made the husband to be the head of his wife ((I Corinthians 11:3).  He has also made the husband to be responsible for the vows of his wife all the years of their marriage. 

 

It is not uncommon for a woman to return to the home of her father in the event of a separation or death of the husband, and if she becomes subject to paternal jurisdiction, and obliged to act with paternal consent, the law would still apply as it did with her father before she married, and also with her husband during the years of their marriage.

 

But if she lives alone she is responsible to fulfill her vows ((verse 9). 

 

This we have already seen to be true in this chapter regarding the responsibility of the father for the rash vows of his daughter, and the husband for his wife. 

 

God makes very clear that a vow may be annulled by the father when she is living at home, and may be annulled by her husband after she is married.

 

verse 15, “But if he does make them void after he has heard them, THEN HE SHALL BEAR HER GUILT!”

 

If the husband tacitly consented to the vow in the beginning, and later on forbade her to fulfill it, then the guilt rests upon him.

 

A father and husband MUST NOT take this God-given responsibility lightly, but seriously obey these Scriptures.

 

GOD-GIVEN RESPONSIBILITY

 

Notice that in the case of his wife or the daughter, mentioned here in Numbers 30, a vow may be annulled AT THE TIME WHEN THE RESPONSIBLE PARTY HEARS OF IT.  A vow does not have to be annulled at the time it is taken, BUT AT THE TIME WHEN IT IS HEARD by the responsible party whose God-given right is to make the decision whether that vow is binding.

 

Now notice verse 13 especially.  “Every vow ... HER HUSBAND may establish it, or her husband may make it void.” Notice! In God’s sight it is the man’s responsibility to establish or to rescind his wife’s vows.

 

It is also the father’s responsibility to establish or to rescind his daughter’s vows. 

 

THE VOW OF A SON

 

Since the question of taking a vow involves the matter of responsibility, and since God is no respecter of persons, it is also the responsibility of the father to disannul or to approve his son’s vows as well as those of his daughter. Only when a boy reaches maturity does he become solely responsible for his own vows. 

 

CAN A VOW BE RESCINDED LATER?

 

In the last portion of verse 14 God again makes it the man’s responsibility to CONFIRM his wife’s vows. Many husbands, of course, do not recognize their responsibility.  They have never been taught their responsibility in the matter of vows.  Let us suppose, for example, that a husband who knew nothing about God’s command in Numbers 30 REGARDING HIS WIFE’S VOWS, at the time she made it, A FOOLISH VOW.  He disapproved of it even though he did not know that he could rescind it.  Later the knowledge of the truth comes to him.  God opens his mind to see that it was his responsibility to rescind his wife’s vow at the time she took it.  Can he, at this later time, rescind it? 

 

The answer is YES!  Since it was his conviction that his wife’s vow was foolish but he did not know he could annul it, then he may at that later date annul it once the knowledge of the truth is come.  HE ACTUALLY DID SO IN PRINCIPLE WHEN HE FIRST HEARD IT.  HE IS NOW MERELY CONFIRMING IT!  But if he approved of his wife’s vow at first HE CANNOT LATER CHANGE HIS MIND!  His wife’s vow is binding. 

 

MINISTERS’ RESPONSIBILITY

 

Jesus gave his ministers the authority to bind and to loose.  This power includes the matter of deciding whether marriage VOWS are binding.  Notice Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 18:18, “Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

 

Not only has God made it a responsibility of a husband or a father to make binding decisions in matters of vows, but God also makes it a ministerial responsibility.  The true ministers of God are called Elders.  They are called Elders because they are SPIRITUALLY MATURE. Most people are not spiritually mature.  They are babes – not spiritually qualified to decide whether vows are binding.  In many cases they cannot even discern if their vow is foolish or wise.  God, then, makes it a ministerial responsibility to determine for those who are spiritually immature whether or  not their vows are binding.

 

An example, back in the early 60s I had to use this authority several times with a young man who continued to vow he would never eat again.

 

Even in the Old Testament the responsibility to make binding decisions in matters of vows was vested in the Elders and leaders of the community. Notice this in Deuteronomy 17:8-11, “If a matter arises which is too hard for you to judge, between degrees of bloodguiltness, between one judgment or another, or between one punishment or another, matters of controversy within your gates, then you shall arise and go up to the place which the LORD your God chooses, and you shall come to the priests, the Levites, and to the judge there in those days, and enquire of them; they shall pronounce upon you the sentence of judgment.  You shall do according to the sentence which they pronounce upon you in that place which the LORD chooses.  And you shall be careful to do according to all they that they order you.  According to the sentence of the law in which they instruct you, according to the judgment which they shall tell you, YOU SHALL DO; You shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left from the sentence which they pronounce upon you.”

 

God determines right from wrong.  God reveals to His true and faithful ministers, through examples in the Bible, when vows – or any controversy – are binding.  God, who is in heaven, has made it the responsibility of His ministers to make decisions for the people according to His law and the examples of Scriptures. 

 

Notice verse 11 especially.  It is the responsibility of the leaders, the ministers, to act as God’s servants and agents in determining whether vows are binding.  If the ministers have determined that a vow is NOT BINDING, God then holds them – the ministers – responsible for having made that decision. The people are free from that responsibility.  

 

In like manner God holds the husband responsible for determining his wife’s vow.  His wife is free of responsibility when once the husband has made rendered a decision.  It is the husband whom God holds responsible.  Or in the case of children, it is the father whom God holds responsible.  The children are free from responsibility once the parent has exercised his responsibility.

 

The reason God makes certain people responsible for others in matters of vows is due to this important fact: most people are not spiritually mature to know when to vow and when not to vow.  It is to safeguard them that God makes parents responsible for children, husbands responsible for wives, and God’s true and faithful ministers for God’s Church.  God makes it the responsibility of those who are spiritually more mature to judge matters for those who are spiritually less mature. 

 

Some of you may have taken vows.  Are those vows binding?  Here are some examples which show how God judges the taking of vows. 

 

SPECIFIC EXAMPLES

 

Let us suppose that before you became converted you vowed to give your tithe to a Church which you later found was not God’s Church.  Is that vow binding? Think about it.  The tithe is God’s.  It belongs to Him.  God has turned His tithe over for the work of His ministers in His Church.  Any false Church which masquerades as the True Church of God and requires the tithe of its people is fraudulently obtained and not binding.  Tithes should be paid to God through His true called representatives. 

 

But suppose you vow to donate a certain sum of money, as an offering, to a youth center.  Is such a vow binding?  There is nothing directly stated in the Bible forbidding the building of youth centers.  Your donation may do some good for young boys and girls who might otherwise become delinquents.  Perhaps now that you understand more of the truth you would not have made the donation in the first place, but since your vow was not in itself sin, you are bound to keep your vow.  (Compare this with the principle in Psalm 15:4, last part.)  Now let us take another example. 

 

A young man finds that the fellows with whom he has kept company drink beer to excess.  After becoming interested in religion he decides he will never again touch beer.  He makes a vow to that effect.  Is such a vow binding?  If the young fellow is away from home, earning his own living and is responsible directly to himself, that vow is binding. Of course, if he were a young fellow at home and his father was responsible for the family, then it could become his father’s decision to rescind the vow, But if the father did not disagree when hearing of it, that vow would become binding. 

 

Now another person, as some have in past times, may take a vow never to touch any alcoholic beverages at any time.  This person may have heard his minister state that “wine is a sin”!  According to the teaching of the Bible, wine is not a sin.  The WRONG USE of wine IS A SIN.  Jesus used wine at the Passover.  The true New Testament Church always uses wine at the Passover service.  Since it is a spiritual requirement that we should take a little wine in remembrance of Christ’s blood shed for our sins, the person taking a foolish vow never to touch alcoholic beverages IS NOT REQUIRED BY GOD TO KEEP THAT VOW.  God’s ministry has the power to rescind such a vow since the ministers are spiritually mature enough to know what God requires.  The person taking such a vow was misled by spiritual immaturity. He did not know what God required.  He thought that any use of alcoholic beverages was a sin.  That was a mistake.  God can forgive his rash vow.

 

Here is another common example.  With more zeal than wisdom, some men and women vow never to cut their hair again. Let us take the case of a woman who vows never again to cut her hair. Is such a vow binding?  Let us suppose this woman is married to a CONVERTED man.  If her husband does not disapprove of her vow, that vow is binding.  If her husband disapproves, it is not binding.  But it happens in many cases that women are married to UNCONVERTED husbands.  If her unconverted husband when he hears of the vow doesn’t disapprove, it becomes binding.  Now suppose the woman were living alone.  According to Numbers 30 she is held responsible for her vow.  The vow is binding.  There is no commandment in the Bible which REQUIRES a woman to cut her hair.  God’s ministers then have no authority to rescind her vow.

 

Now suppose a man vows never to cut his hair and beard.  Is such a vow binding?  Notice the example that the apostle Paul gives us in the New Testament.“Does not even nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a dishonor to him. But if a woman has long hair it is a glory to her; for her hair is given to her for a covering” (I Corinthians 11:14-15). 

 

Here is the New Testament teaching.  It is proper for a woman to have long hair, but is a DISHONOR (‘SHAME’ KJV) for a man to have long hair. In speaking of those who wear long hair, Paul states: “But if anyone seems to be contentious, we have no such custom, nor do the Churches of God” (verse 16). It is a dishonor or shame to any man and a reproach to God before the world.  It therefore is the responsibility of God’s ministers who are spiritually mature to rescind the vow of any man who has vowed never to cut his hair and beard.  This man’s vow is not binding in God’s sight.  In Old Testament times, men of course  were permitted to wear long hair under certain circumstances (Numbers 6).  In the New Testament according to Acts 18:18, the Jewish man Aquila wore long hair for a temporary period of time.  The Jews in New Testament times WERE ALLOWED to continue certain of the temporary customs of the laws of Moses.  Apart from this one particular permission granted to the Jews for a limited period of time, the Church of God has no such custom.  Men are not to wear long hair today. 

 

UNDERSTANDING OF VOWS VERY IMPORTANT

 

It is very important that we understand the subject of vowing.  God does not require us to take a vow.  It is far better not to vow than to vow and not perform it.  Most people make rash vows.  They are not mature enough to know what kind of vow is a wise vow.  Since God does not require a vow, God’s ministers today can never recommend that you take a vow.  But if you have taken a vow and your vow is binding, YOU MUST PERFORM IT!    

 

There is the tendency in human nature to forget in health and security the vows that were made in sickness and danger; but God’s law remains, whatever a man has promised unto God, that he must fulfill.

 

There is the sacred duty of keeping one’s word!  To honor the promises we make is to be developing the very character of God for He watches over every promise He has made to perform it, and so are we to do, if we are to grow in the grace and knowledge of God and become partakers of His Divine Nature ((II Peter 1:4;3:18).