Why God makes such a big deal out of vows and oaths (Numbers 30–36)

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In English, we have two kinds of vows or oaths, while in Hebrew, there are three or four different kinds of vows and culturally. The difference between how the Anglosphere and God’s culture as revealed in Torah shows that we don’t think about vows and oaths in the same way. 

There is one general rule regarding vows and oaths, explained in the Torah double portion מַּטּוֹת מַסְעֵי Matot-Massei (Numbers 30–36). I can make a vow or an oath that I will do or not do a particular act, but I cannot take one or ask someone else to make a vow or an oath that will cause either of us to violate the Torah. 

Joshua 9 is an important example of how importance the Torah places on a vow, to the point that even of one of the parties commits fraud to elicit the oath, the other party still must fulfill it. 

Joshua is leading the children of Israel in conquering Canaan and the Gibeonites, who were a Canaanite tribe, disguise themselves as members of a tribe from a distant country and fraudulently convince Joshua to make a peace treaty with them. The Gibeonites went all in to deceive. They were wearing old, worn-out garments and shoes, they were carrying old, moldly food provisions, etc. They really looked the part of distant travelers. Just a few days later, Joshua finds out that the Gibeonites had lied to him about their identity. 

There are disputes in Jewish and Christian circles about whether Joshua had a duty to keep this vow. Some say that Joshua would have been within his rights to have executed the Gibeonites because the covenant was based in deceit. But Joshua did not think this way. For Joshua, since he is the one who made the agreement, and made it in God’s name, therefore held himself and the people of Israel to uphold and follow through with it. 

As an adult man, Joshua had no way to get out of his vow, but as we read in this Torah portion, women can, under certain circumstances, back out of a vow, but only if either her father (if she is unmarried) or her husband (if she is married) annuls it. However, the father or the husband have to accept the penalty for not following through if he steps in and forbids his daughter or wife from following through on the vow. Widows and divorced women do not have this kind of legal protection. If they make vows, they have to fulfill them just as adult men do. 

Don’t make a vow when ‘yes’ or ‘no’ will suffice

“But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment.”

Matthew 12:36 NASB

So it’s important not to make idle words or idle comments.

In Acts 5, we read about an example of a vow based on a lie that caused the deaths of those who made a vow to deceive the Apostles. Ananias and Sapphira made a vow to donate 100% of the proceeds of a piece of land they had owned to give it to the church, but they withheld a portion and did not give 100% of it as they had vowed. The Holy Spirit revealed the lie to the Apostle Peter. They broke their vow and it cost them their life. How important is it to God that we honor our vows? Extremely high, it’s death penalty to fail them. So it’s really critical to not let idle words out of our mouths, because our life on the line. It’s not just our reputation that suffers when we do not keep our vows. It’s our own lives, too.

“But let your statement be, ‘Yes, yes’ or ‘No, no’ [a firm yes or no]; anything more than that comes from the evil one.”

Matthew 5:37, Amplified Bible

Is it illegal to swear? No, of course not. Our bible has lots of examples of swearing by God’s name, that’s nothing problem. It’s illegal to break what you swore. That’s the problem. This is why Messiah Yeshua advises His followers to simply “let your yes be yes” or “your no be no.” Don’t deviate from those things. Because you can’t make heaven do anything. If you tried to make it a swear by heaven, or by God, or by whatever you want to say, all those, if there’s any slight chance of failure, you put your own life on the line. 

So our vows are really important. It’s important we fulfill them, make sure that sure that they work, and they’re consistent.

The caveat: ‘God willing!’

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a town and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.” Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. What is your life? For you are a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes.  Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.” But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. Therefore whoever knows the right thing to do and does not do it—for him it is sin.

James 4:13-17 Tree of Life Version

James advises us to put ourselves in a mental state to understand that we don’t have the power to fulfill what is being asked of us, particularly something that is supposed to happen in the future. Only God gives us the strength to do what we need to do. It’s up to God whether the task is fulfilled or not. 

The loophole: Humility

My son, if you have put up security for your friend, if you committed yourself on behalf of another; you have been snared by the words of your mouth, caught by the words of your own mouth. Do this now, my son, and extricate yourself, since you put yourself in your friend’s power: go, humble yourself, and pester your friend; give your eyes no sleep, give your eyelids no rest; break free, like a gazelle from the [hunter’s] trap, like a bird from the grip of the fowler.

Proverbs 6:1-5 Complete Jewish Bible

I said earlier that women can get out of a vow if their husband or father intervenes on their behalf to release them, but that men do not have this option. The only option men have to be released from a vow is It’s called begging, begging and begging and more begging. You have to get on your hands and knees and bring yourself very low. That’s the only way for a man to get out of a rash vow. The other party to the vow is under no obligation to grant mercy, but this is the only option for a man to be released from a vow he can’t keep. 

Written contracts vs. verbal vows

But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. Now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven shone around him. And falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” And he said, “Who are you, Lord?” And he said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.” The men who were traveling with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one. Saul rose from the ground, and although his eyes were opened, he saw nothing. So they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. And for three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank.

Acts 9:1-9 ESV

Another type of vow to discuss is what we would call a written contract. Recall that the Apostle Paul, when he was still known as Saul of Tarsus, had a written contract with the Sanhedrin to visit different places and arrest Jews who had committed themselves to Messiah Yeshua to face trial and possible execution in Jerusalem. 

Just as with verbal vows, failing to fulfill your side of a written agreement could cost your life. How did the Messiah Himself save Saul from this vow, this duty he volunteered to do? In a manner of speaking, Saul died on the road to Damascus. He was struggling physically with the blindness, and brought him to the lowest point he ever experienced in his life. Saul was fasting, not eating, not drinking and constantly praying, for several days, begging Yeshua’s forgiveness. Saul has come to the realization that his actions directly resulted in the deaths of many innocent people. 

Saul’s confrontation with Yeshua on the Road to Damascus, did cost Saul his life, not physically, but spiritually. From this point on, he is no longer Saul, but Paul. He also severed his connection and his position with the Sanhedrin. He had to give up his old way of life and committed himself wholeheartedly to the Messiah he had just been persecuting. That was the price Paul paid to be released from his vow to the Sanhedrin. 

A war against Midian? 

In Numbers 30, Moses teaches the children of Israel about the seriousness of making vows. The chapter ends, stating, 

“These are the statutes which the Lord commanded Moses concerning a man and his wife, a father and his daughter, in her youth, while in her father’s house.” (Numbers 30:17, Judaica Press) 

And then we start with Numbers 31, which seems to take off on a weird, unrelated tangent when God tells Moses to send 12,000 Israelites, 1,000 from each tribe to go to war against the Midianites, on God’s behalf. 

Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Take vengeance on the Midianites for the sons of Israel; afterward you will be gathered to your people.” So Moses spoke to the people, saying, “Arm men from among you for the war, so that they may go against Midian to execute the Lord’s vengeance on Midian.

Numbers 31:1-4 NASB

This seems like a complete tangent, unrelated to the prior chapter, but it’s not. This story gives an example of a practical application of what Moses had just taught them in the prior chapter.

The children of Israel had made a contractural agreement with God at Mt. Sinai, they agreed to do whatever God asked of them.

Just after they had escaped from Egypt through the Red Sea, the army of Amalek attacked the children of Israel in an unprovoked attack. After God gave them victory over the Amalekite army, God instructed them to completely wipe out the descendants of Amalek, including, men, women and children, even the animals were to be slaughtered and destroyed. 

We find out later that King Saul had the chance to do this and disobeyed God. Rather than killing everything, he kept some of the cattle and even saved the life of the king of Amalek. King Saul lost the kingdom because of his disobedience in this case. 

We see a similar pattern when the children of Israel go to attack Midian. It does seem a little unusual for God to tell them to attack Midian at this point, they were nowhere near the Midianite territory at this point, they were already far to the north, so these 12,000 men had to back track down to the south to go to war in a territory that God did not promise to them. This is not a battle to gain territory. This is God’s vengeance against Midian for going along with Bilaam and Balak’s conspiracy against the nation of Israel. They are sent to destroy and then evacuate. They are not going to take over the territory of Midian for themselves. 

So, the Israelite army go to battle, kill all the fighting age men and bring everything else back, because it’s not in human nature to kill people who aren’t attacking you, but remember, ancient war was brutal. All war is brutal but war in ancient times was even more brutal than modern warfare. In antiquity, war meant killing everything because everything can kill you. 

Now, what was the purpose of allowing the young girls to live, after killing the men, adult women and little boys? How will these young girls grow up? What will their place be in Israelite society when they reach adulthood? For most of them, they will end up getting married and raise families. But doesn’t this contradict the Torah? There are passages in the Torah forbidding marriages between Israelites and non-israelites. There’s also the events in the early chapters of the book of Ezra where they are commanded to divorce their foreign pagan wives and send their children away, too, which seems quite harsh. 

The great King Solomon, discusses this topic in more metaphorical terms. He presents a character, called “Wisdom” which is personified as a woman, as a wife. Proverbs emphasizes the value and importance of wisdom. Wisdom is something to be pursued, treasured, and lauded. You are to become attached to wisdom and grow in wisdom your entire life. 

There is another character, which is wickedness, also personified as a woman, but wickedness is personified as a harlot. Solomon compares and contrasts these two types of women through his writings. 

Solomon tells us that a righteous man who wants to be wise will seek after wisdom, and he will seek a wife who is wise. 

Character matters more than DNA

Now, going back to these young Midianite girls. They are taken from Midian to be raised up to be wholesome, wise women. They will be re-educated in the ways of God. Even though they were born into a pagan enviroment, they will be fully integrated into the tribes of Israel. 

It wasn’t just young girls who were integrated and absorbed into Israel. We read in the Tanak about a man, a very wise and noble man, who was not born an Israelite, yet ended up appointing as a leader of one of the leading tribes of the entire nation, and that’s Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite. The Kenizzites were not a tribe in Israel, yet he ends up as the leader of the tribe of Judah. He’s a prominent player, he’s in charge of the entire tribe. 

Is God looking at ethnicity and race here? Is that what God cares about most? Well, Caleb, of all the people that Moses brought out of Egypt, amongst him and Joshua, they are the only two men who are actually worth much. So really, the moral caliber of the person is what God looks upon, not their DNA.

So, whether it’s Caleb the Kenizzite, who becomes the Prince of the Tribe of Judah or these young midianite girls, God looks at character. God did not tell Caleb that since he was not a born Israelite that he could not be a leader of the people. Quite the opposite. That’s pretty impressive, it’s a picture of adoption. Because one’s background is one thing, but it’s not who you are. Your character is who you are. 

These young girls, grew up completely absorbed into the nation of Israel, learning their culture and slowly forgetting the culture they were initially born into. When they became adults, they vowed themselves in marriage to Israelite men and raised their children as Israelites.  

In Jeremiah 1–10, he talks about the trustworthiness of the people of Israel. The problem is that their words say one thing, but their actions don’t match. So God tells Jeremiah if you can find one human being in the entire city of Jerusalem who is a trustworthy or honest human being that He will spare the whole city. The problem is that He searched the entire city and didn’t find one. 

God is teaching Jeremiah that to be trustworthy is to do what you say you will do. 

What does Manasseh have to do with it?!

Now the sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad had a very large number of livestock. So when they saw the land of Jazer and the land of Gilead, that [a]it was indeed a place suitable for livestock, the sons of Gad and the sons of Reuben came and spoke to Moses, Eleazar the priest, and to the leaders of the congregation, saying,

“Ataroth, Dibon, Jazer, Nimrah, Heshbon, Elealeh, Sebam, Nebo, and Beon, the land which the Lord conquered before the congregation of Israel, is a land for livestock, and your servants have livestock.”

And they said, “If we have found favor in your sight, let this land be given to your servants as our property; do not take us across the Jordan.

Numbers 32:1-5 NASB

The leaders of the tribes of Gad and Reuben approach Moses and ask to be allowed to settle themselves on the east side of the Jordan. Moses gets upset at this and only after Gad and Reuben promised fight along side the rest of Israel to conquer the promised land did Moses acquiesces to their request but Moses adds something to the agreement. 

So Moses gave to them, to the sons of Gad, the sons of Reuben, and to the half-tribe of Joseph’s son Manasseh, the kingdom of Sihon, king of the Amorites and the kingdom of Og, the king of Bashan, the land with its cities with their territories, the cities of the surrounding land.

Numbers 32:33 NASB

Did the leaves of Manasseh approach Moses? No. Did they asked for this territory? No. They were not even part of the conversation. So, one has to wonder what is Moses doing? Why would be split the tribe of Manasseh in half and plant them on both sides of the Jordan River with one half in the Promised Land and the other half outside it?

What’s up Moses’ sleeve here? Well, the clue is in the name and history of the tribe of Manasseh itself. The tribe of Manasseh is descended from Joseph’s first born son, whose  name means “God made me forget.” Joseph wanted to forget his past and start his life over again as a man without a history. 

So, by placing half of the tribe of Manasseh on either side of the Jordan, the name of this tribe is a reminder to the tribes of Gad and Reuben of their vow. Rather than forgetting who they are, planting the tribe of Manasseh with them is a reminder of who they are and their vow to fight side by side with their brothers to take possession of the Promised Land. 

Just as Joseph didn’t really forget who he was and who is family were, his son Manasseh, would be a reminder to the people of Gad and Reuben who they were and their duties to the rest of their family. 

Cities of refuge, a vow to the rule of the Law

God commands the Israelites to set up six Levite cities of refuge, three on each side of the Jordan. These are established as places where man slayers can run so he can have his case heard in a court of law. If he killed somebody, either intentionally, or by accident, he has to get himself to one of these three cities of refuge. The Levites then investigate and ascertain whether he killed someone on accident or on purpose. If the killing was accidental, then the manslayer has to live in the city of refuge until the current high priest dies, because even if he killed a person by accident. Only after the death of the high priest can he return home. Someone’s blood has to atone for the innocent blood that was shed. If the manslayer is guilty of murder, then his blood is shed. If he killed accidentally, then the death of the high priest, however many years later that death happens, atones for the death of the innocent person. 

Where is the manslayer  placing his trust as he flees to one of these cities? He is trusting in the rule of law. He is trusting that the Levites who rule these cities will not simply throw him outside the gates and leave him to deal with the avenger without a fair trial. He is trusting that the people inside the city are trustworthy. Even the most blood thirsty serial killer is having to exercise trust that he will have a chance at a fair trial. He has to trust that even if the people in the city think he’s guilty, they will not do anything until a trial takes place and his guilt is proven.

So, if the manslayer was innocent of murder, and he is living out his sentence in the city of refuge and 10 years later, the high priest dies? Now, he has to trust that the Levite leadership will let him leave and that those who would want him dead will not kill him. He has to trust that the avenger of blood will acknowledge that he paid for his crime and will not pursue vengeance. 

Even the worst of the worst should be treated properly under the rule of law. 

Zelopahad’s daughters 

Here we have an example where the five daughters of an Israelite named Zelophahad established a case law regarding inheritance rights in Israel. Their father died without a male heir and they asked if they could inherit their father’s estate equally between them. Moses presented their case to God and God agreed to allow them to inherit their father’s property, rather than it being disbursed among their uncles, with one very important provision. 

They had to promise to marry within their tribe, regardless of whether they were madly in love with a man from a different tribe, they had to decide that their inheritance was more important than their infatuation and agree to marry only within their tribe. And the tribal leaders had to have faith that the daughters, as well as any other Israelite women in the future who would find themselves in a similar situation would be faithful to this law and not deviate or find loopholes to avoid fulfilling these guidelines. 

In Jeremiah 2, God speaks with frustration over the actions of the people of Judah and Israel. Their lack of trustworthiness was devastating to their societies, and he compares them to two sisters. The sister who is called Israel is the personification of the 10 Northern Tribes, which were corrupt, evil, wicked, anything that was bad they would do. Israel was completely wicked. They worship their ba’als, they committed fornication and adultery without any sense of shame. 

However the other sister, Judah, was also wicked. There was no real difference, except there was a profound difference between these two nations. The difference is that Judah lies about her wickedness. Israel, on the other hand, did not lie about her actions. They purposefully rejected God and did not care about God’s laws, God’s rules or what God thought of them. They were not hypocrites. They were nasty and evil but they didn’t cover it up or pretend to be something they were not. 

This is why God through the prophet Jeremiah said that Israel was more righteous than Judah. The people of Judah followed God publicly but followed the ba’als on the side. They tried to hide their worship of the ba’als but one can’t hid anything from God. The people in Israel were more honest than the people of Judah, even though both were very wicked. For the people in Israel, even though they had corrupted themselves completely by worshiping false gods, they said what they meant and meant what they said. They had were not interested in being in covenant with God, they preferred to deal with the ba’als. 

The people of Judah pretended to love God and love Him alone while worshipping the ba’als on the side. 

God respected Israel’s honesty even in the midst of their corruption more than He respected the lip service of the people of Judah.  You can either be honest yet corrupt, like Israel or you can be dishonest and corrupt, like Judah. Judah did not keep their vow to God. They did not follow through on their agreement. 

This show us how important our words and actions are to God, even in our wickedness. 

We see here that although by Jeremiah’s time, the people of Israel had been wiped out, God promises to bring them back. Judah, on the other hand, He is preparing to punish for their wickedness, dishonesty and corruption. God is preparing to punish the people of Judah with such harshness, that He warns the people of the tribe of Benjamin in Jeremiah 6:1-3 to flee from the Judean territory to avoid the wrath to come. He wants to make sure that Judah bears the full brunt of their punishment. 

Just like parents don’t expect their children to be perfect, but they can’t help fix a problem if the child lies about the problem. Once you admit to the problem, you can move forward and remedy the situation. Continuing to lie about it will not help, it only makes it worse. Admit your sin first, be honest, and now we can grow and move past it. Honesty matters, be truthful about who and what you are. Then God can help you repent, move forward and fix whatever problems have come up as a consequence of your behavior. 

Summary: Tammy