Numbers 30-:2-3

 

In Chapter 30:2-3,of Numbers, Yahweh has Moses lay out the consequences of vowing something to God. My stance is that people should move with hesitation, deliberating carefully

about what and to what degree they pledge to God, if they should pledge anything to God, or if they posses the faithfulness, the will and consistency to meet and maintain what they promised God.

A person should deliver or strive mightily to deliver unto God what they promised to share with God. People should tread light here, not because it is an inherently bad idea to make vows to God, but because we may not be resolved or disciplined enough over a lifetime to fulfill our pledge, our promise.

God will not be pleased if we do not fulfill our pledge. I believe that God would not mind at all that we only promise what we can deliver, or must promise to do our best. Breaking a promise made to God is serious business. Look before one leaps, I recommend.

On the other hand, inherent in our very existence as rational beings with a soul, God wants of us or demands of us a pledge of some kind of devotion, service to and loyalty rendered unto God as the price of residing in God’s moral universe, as our share of the bargain, our personal and collective fulfilling of the covenant between humans and God that exists, whether any of us wish to abide by it or not, an obligation God imposes upon us in exchange for the gift of life, the free gift of divine grace, the gift of being spiritually, materially, morally, emotionally, intellectually and socially provided for by God.

This natural and supernatural vow which God obliges us to make (Refusing to make this commitment, or even try minimally to honor it is to reject God and God’s covenant with Adam and Eve and all their descendants. We are refuse to make that vow or honor that vow, but we are not free from divine justice, being sent to hell or Purgatory for 3,000 years, say for siding with Satan and Lera, vowing our allegiance to them.

We all serve either the Light Couple or the Dark Couple, whether we deliberately, explicitly make such a pledge or not, or even are aware of our divine requirement to make such a pledge, and then to live up to it. To make no such vow, or refuse to make such a vow, or cynically make such a vow, while knowing one is lying, facile and betraying God, God reads all hearts and such infidelity shall not go unavenged.

So, make the minimal vow necessary—and be faithful to it through out your life, as much as a depraved sinner like you and me can commit to and perform favorably towards—demanded of each of us by the Divine Couple, but think long and hard about vowing beyond that, and, if one does make so overt, extraordinary vow to serve the Divine Couple, then one had better well do one’s best to fulfill it.

Here is what Moses told the Israelites, as translated in my The New American Bible: “Moses said to the heads of the Israelite tribes, ‘This is what the Lord has commanded. When a man makes a vow to the Lord or binds himself under oath to a pledge* (*30, 3: A vow . . . a pledge: here the former signifies the doing of some good deed, in particular the offering of some sacrifice; the latter signifies the abstaining from some licit action or pleasure; cf 14.) of abstinence, he shall not violate his word, but must fulfill exactly the promise he has uttered.”

My response: Moses and the Lord are letting God’s people know that God detests a liar, a poser, a giver of quick, easy assurances of mutual covenant and vow, all the while knowing one will not keep one’s word, nor intends to. Those who play games with God will be discovered and punished immediately or sooner or later. It is just best to cease these deadly games.

Gentle means of self-mortification or asceticism are reasonable and healthy, advise Roman Catholic theologians online, as long as it does not veer over into self-harm (whipping one’s own back for example) and is conducted with reverent prayer at the same time.

In the biblical footnote, the pundit differentiates between a vow to do a good deed, and a pledge to deny the self some licit action or pleasure.

Here is the same passages from the Holy Bible (KJV)—Numbers 30:1-2: “And Moses spake unto the heads of the tribes concerning the children of Israel, saying, This is the thing which the Lord hath commanded.

If a man vow a vow unto the Lord, or swear an oath to bind his soul with a bond, he shall not break his word, he shall do according to all that proceedeth out of his mouth.””

My response: I just love this Elizabethan Age vernacular/religious English dialect. Notice that letting easy false words and empty reassurances proceed to God from one’s lips are verbal insults to God which Yahweh commands the promiser not to do, or cease doing posthaste. To swear an oath to God is to bind one’s soul to God, and that is a most serious promise, not to be lightly pledged, or treacherously disregarded when it is inconvenient.