God made a covenant with Israel
that they will be His very own possession, His kingdom of priests,
if they will obey Him and keep His covenant. Moses brought the
message to the people and they answered:
'They all responded together. "We
will certainly do everything the Lord asks of us." Exodus 19:8
Without wavering and without
thinking it through, they agreed to follow God and to obey Him. It
is lovely when you think about it, but the problem is that they
were not sincere and they didn't obey Him going forward. In fact
they frequently overstepped the boundaries set for them and it cost
them dearly.
Making a rash promise to God is a
common theme in the Bible and the Lord warns us against it. Don't
do it, let your yes be yes and your no be no. Don't make promises
to God. Because if you do, God expects you to keep them.
For example one of Israel's judges,
Jephtah made a rash vow to God. He promised God that if God will
give him victory over the Ammonites he will sacrifice the first
thing that came out of his house when he returned to the Lord as a
burnt offering. Unfortunately for Jephtah, the first thing that
greeted him when he came back from the battle was his daughter, his
only child. How sad! He didn't have to make a vow to God,
God would have helped him even if he didn't. But now he did make
such a rash vow and how he regretted it!
Have you made a promise to God? Or
have you made a commitment to Him? And if you did, are you keeping
to it or are you bargaining with Him when it becomes
uncomfortable?
I once made a promise to God. I was
doing a Service year of Christ and I promised that I would read my
Bible and spend time with Him every morning and every evening
before I went to bed, for that whole year. Now it was very easy at
the beginning. During our 12 weeks of training we had scheduled
times with God. So it was very easy to keep to my promise because
it was scheduled into our program. But once we started to move out
and to travel the whole country proclaiming His Name to all the
schools we went to, it became increasingly difficult for me. It
wasn't as easy as before, because now I had to get up earlier as
the rest, to read my Bible. I also had to stay up later than the
others to read my Bible even if we returned home at midnight after
a hectic day of ministering to others. It was very difficult for
me. God never told me to make the promise, but once I did, He
expected me to keep it. I had a reverent fear of the Lord and I did
keep to the promise, but it was very difficult and I was sorry that
I made it.
We need to keep to our end of the
'bargain'. We are treading on dangerous ground if we make rash
promises to God. Don't do it. But if you want to, think of the
consequences and stick to it, God will certainly bless you for it.
But at the end of the day, rather spend time with God because you
want to and not because you made a promise, or rather trust God
than making a promises trying to 'twist His arm' to do something
for you in return. Rather treat God as Holy, because He is!
Forgive us Lord if we make rash
promises to You and then do not keep it. Please forgive us. Rather
help us to trust in You. Amen