How many times in your life have you said “YAHWEH if you get me out of this situation that I will live for you? Or I’ll pray more? Or I’ll read the Bible more? If you give me a better job, or if you heal me or my family of this disease; Or you will stop doing a sin that you know is wrong?” And then as soon as YAHWEH delivers you from the situation that you begged Him to get you out of, you quickly forget; and then go right back to sinning or don’t fulfill the vow that you promised? Is this a sin? Does YAHWEH expect you to fulfill your end of the bargain with the words that proceeded from your lips?
Ecclesiastes 5:4-6
“When you make a VOW to ELOHIM, do not delay to pay it, for He takes no pleasure in fools. Pay that which you have VOWED. It is better not to vow than to vow and not pay. Do not all your mouth to cause your flesh to sin, nor say before the messenger of ELOHIM that it was a mistake. Why should ELOHIM be wroth at your voice and destroy the work of your hands?
Mathew 5:33-35
“Again, you heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform your oaths to YAHWEH.’ But I say to you, do not swear falsely at all, neither by the heavens, because it is ELOHIM’s throne; nor by the earth, for it is His footstool; not by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King; nor swear by your head, because you are not able to make on hair white or black. But let your word ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and Your ‘No’ be ‘No.’ and what goes beyond these is from the wicked one.”
If you are going to do something then simply do it. If you say “yes” then do not make excuses or justify and try to back out of it; and if you say “no” then let it be “no”, because YESHUA says anything else is from Satan. So do not even swear or make a vow at all because if you do then you are expected to perform it, which is why YESHUA says do not even swear falsely at all, especially if you never really intended on keeping it.
Deuteronomy 23:21-23
“When you make a vow to YAHWEH your ELOHIM, do not delay to pay it, for YAHWEH your ELOHIM is certainly requiring it of you, and it shall be sin in you. BUT WHEN YOU ABSTAIN FROM VOWING, IT IS NOT SIN IN YOU (As YESHUA said don’t swear falsely at all) That which has gone from your lips you shall guard and do, for you VOLUNTARILY vowed to YAHWEH your ELOHIM what you have promised with your mouth.”
A good example of this is found in Judges with a man named Yiphtah, who made a vow. Some people read this and thing YAHWEH is unjust without understanding the two scriptures that we just read above.
Judges 11:30-36
“And Yiphtah MADE A VOW to YAHWEH, and said, “if you give the children of Ammon into my hands, then it shall be that whatever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, shall belong to YAHEWH, and I shall offer it up as a burnt offering.” Yiphtah then passed on toward the children of Ammon to fight against them, and YAHEWH gave them into his hands. And he smote them from Aro’er as for as minnith, twenty cities, and Abel Keramim, with a very great smiting. Thus the children of Ammon were humbled before the children of Yisra’el. And Yiphtah came to his house at Mitspah, and saw his daughter coming out to meet him with timbrels and dancing. Now except for her he had neither son nor daughter. And it came to be, when he saw her, that he tore his garments, and said, “Oh my daughter! You have brought me very low, and you are among those who trouble me! And I, I have given my word to YAHWEH, and I am unable to turn back. And she said to him, “My dad, if you have given your word to YAHWEH, do to me according what has gone out of your mouth, because YAHWEH has taken vengeance for you upon your enemies, the children of Ammon.”
As we see Yiphtah voluntarily offered from his own mouth this vow, YAHWEH did not command him to do it and even though his daughter walked out of the house, his only daughter he had to offer her up. Many believers today would look for an excuse to get out of the situation and act like they never made the vow. Yiphtah and his daughter knew that he had to perform what he spoke.
Genesis 28:20-23
“And Jacob made a VOW, saying, “Seeing ELOHIM is with me, and has kept me in this way that I am going, and has given me bread to eat and a garment to put on-when I have returned to my dad’s house in peace, and YAHWEH shall be my ELOHIM, then this stone which I have placed as a standing column shall be ELOHIM’s house, and of all that You give me, I shall certainly give a tenth to You.”
Jubilees 31:26-29
“And in the morning Jacob told his dad Isaac the VOW which he had vowed to YAHWEH, and the vision which he had seen, and that he had built an altar, and that everything was ready for the slaughtering to be made before YAHWEH as he had vowed, and that he had come to set him on a donkey.” And Isaac said to Jacob his son, “I am not able to go with you for I am old and not able to bear the way. Go in peace, my son. For I am one hundred and sixty-five years this day. I am no longer able to journey; set your mother on a donkey and let her go with you. And I k now, my son, that you have come because of me, and may this day be blessed on which you have seen me alive, and I also have seen you, my son. May you prosper and FULFIL the VOW which you vowed; AND DO NOT PUT OFF YOUR VOW; for you will be called in account for the vow. Now therefore hurry to perform it, and may He be pleased who has made all things, to whom you vowed the vow.”
Zechariah 5:3
“And he said to me, “This is the curse that goes forth over the face of all the earth: ‘everyone who is stealing shall be cut off,’ on the one side, according to it and, ‘everyone who has SWORN FALSELY shall be cut off,’ on the other side, according to it.”
Psalms 66:13-14
“I enter Your house with burnt offerings; I COMPLETE MY VOWS TO YOU, THAT WHICH MY LIPS HAVE UTTERED AND MY MOUTH SPOKE IN DISTRESS.”
As we see from scripture that making a vow to YAHWEH is a serious issue and as Isaac told his son Jacob hurry and do the vow because you will be called in account for the vow. You can’t just hide or think that YAHWEH will forget what you have spoken. If you have promised to give your life to YAHWEH or any vow that you have vowed to Him and have not done it, repent and cry out to Him for forgiveness, and make sure from then on that you do as YESHUA says and do not swear falsely at all.
May YAHWEH bless you all in YESHUA’s Name