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Vows and oaths are not identical or synonymous in Torah. There are two kinds of vows, either of prohibition or of obligation. For example, you can take a vow to prohibit yourself from eating apples. That’s a vow of prohibition. An example of a vow of obligation would be if you dedicate your entire apple harvest give to the church. In both cases, you have elevated a particular thing as separated and holy to God.
If a man violates his vow, there are consequences as though you had broken a law of the written Torah. If a woman violates a vow, there are some extenuation circumstances. If an unmarried woman makes a vow and her father hears of it, he can veto it and she doesn’t bear any punishment. If, on the other hand, the father hears of the vow and he doesn’t speak up, then she is obligated to it and the father would get in trouble if he later reneges on it.
It’s similar to the vows of married women, only it’s their husband, not their father who can over rule or affirm her vow.
In the late first century A.D., Rabbi Akiva loosened the rules regarding vows.
In the late first century AD, Rabbi Akiva used a powerful story from his own personal life, that was later recorded in the Talmud in Tractate Kesuvos 63a on how rash vows can be annulled. The story goes that Akiva attracted the attention of a beautiful, wealthy young girl and they wanted to marry but her father made a vow that he would utterly disown her if they married. Well, they got married and shortly thereafter, Akiva went away to study Torah and his wife stayed behind to work to make money to send to him so he could study full time.
Once the father heard that his daughter had married Akiva against his wishes, he threw her out of his house, cut her out of his will and gave her no money or financial support.
Akiva excelled in his rabbinic studies and became a renown sage and rabbi in his own right. After 20+ years, Akiva’s father in law began to regret his rash vow and decided he needed to find a distinguished rabbi to help him out of his vow so he could reunite with his daughter.
The father meets with Rabbi Akiva when he came to his town. The father in law did not recognise Akiva after all these years and he pour out his heart to Akiva, explaining the vow he had made against his daughter.
Akiva asked the man if when he was angry at his daughter for marrying that guy he thought was a good for nothing, if he had known that his son in law would redeem himself and become a respectable person, would he still have disavowed her then from his family? The father said no, if he had known that his son in law would work hard and become a valuable member of the community, he would not have disowned his daughter for marrying him. This is how Akiva annulled his father in law’s vow.
You can say he had a conflict of interest in annulling his father in laws’ vow, as his wife had suffered 20+ years of great financial hardship and distress over her exile from her family, but Rabbi Akiva is teaching a deep lesson about forgiveness and reconciliation.
If after reading this, you follow our Messiah Yeshua’s advice — to let your yes be yes and your no be no (Matt. 5:33–37) — this is very good.
Vengeance against Midian for luring Israel into false worship
“Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Take full vengeance for the sons of Israel on the Midianites; afterward you will be gathered to your people.” Moses spoke to the people, saying, “Arm men from among you for the war, that they may go against Midian to execute the LORD’S vengeance on Midian. “A thousand from each tribe of all the tribes of Israel you shall send to the war.””
Numbers 31:1–4 NASB
We see in this reading that the Israelites go to war against Midian. The sons of Israel go all the way from the land of Ammon on the other side of the Jordan back to Midian to go to war against the Midianites.
It’s recorded that not only did they conquer the people of Midian but they also had killed Bilaam the prophet. Instead of going back to Aram after his curses against Israel didn’t happen, he went Midian. I guess he wanted to see if his advise to Balak get Israel to curse themselves with idolatrous behavior, so he was killed in the battle.
“The sons of Israel captured the women of Midian and their little ones; and all their cattle and all their flocks and all their goods they plundered. Then they burned all their cities where they lived and all their camps with fire. They took all the spoil and all the prey, both of man and of beast.”
Numbers 31:9–11 NASB
We read that in the aftermath of the battle that the army of Israel saved all the women as well as the young men, but Moses overruled this.
“And Moses said to them, “Have you spared all the women? “Behold, these caused the sons of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to trespass against the LORD in the matter of Peor, so the plague was among the congregation of the LORD.”
Numbers 31:15–16 NASB
These women were not innocent noncombatants, they were actually the primary combatants in the spiritual war that caused the men of Israel had sinned against God at Baal Peor.
“Then Eleazar the priest said to the men of war who had gone to battle, “This is the statute of the law which the LORD has commanded Moses: only the gold and the silver, the bronze, the iron, the tin and the lead, everything that can stand the fire, you shall pass through the fire, and it shall be clean, but it shall be purified with water for impurity. But whatever cannot stand the fire you shall pass through the water.”
Numbers 31:21–23 NASB
This text is the text we look to for the rules of koshering items that we obtain from unknown sources, such as cast iron pans, etc.
When your spiritual well runs dry
Now let’s go to the parallel reading (haftarah) for Matot-Massei, recorded in Jeremiah 1:1–3:4.
“Now the word of the LORD came to me saying, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, And before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations.””
Jeremiah 1:4–5 NASB
Just as God knew who Jeremiah was in the womb before he was born, God also knew the tribe of Judah and all the descendants before they were born and had plans for them to be a light to the nations.
Next, let’s go to Jeremiah 2:4-19. We are told that when our nation faces a calamity, the knee-jerk reaction is to ask God why the calamity has come up us. We instinctually know that when things such as drought, tornadoes, etc. happen, is to inquire of God.
But in this reading, the priests pretend to know God but don’t really know Him and the judges, who are supposed to know the law and how to return to God when the laws are broken, don’t really know God. The prophets tell the people lies about God’s will and plans and aren’t helpful, either.
When you live in a nation where the priests, judges and prophets don’t know God, you can live in a nation with lots of wealth and prosperity but that wealth and power will not protect the people when the coffers are not refilled, the wealth and prosperity are spent and overspent and not replenished. The nation descends in to poverty, through inflation, or profligate spending or a combination of both.
Unrepentant nations can clean themselves up on the outside and have the appearance of righteousness, but they are actually dirty on the inside. God warns Judah, through the prophet Jeremiah, that they made their bed and now they can lay in it.
Summary: Tammy