Year 1, Day 145: Numbers 30

Gender in Vows

As we get to the chapter here on vows, there are a few things that jump out at me.  First, the section on male vows is short and sweet.  If a man vows to do something, then he should do it.  There is no back-up plan.  There is no escape route.  He does what he says.

On the other hand, if a young or married woman makes a vow, the bow can be broken if the father or husband denies the vow on the day that he hears about it.  There isn’t really anything that can be said about the differences other than it comes from a patristic nation where things like inheritances and ownership of land passed through the male rather than the female.  Because of this, the man is often considered the “head of household” and with that concept there is a check so that if a married woman or a young girl makes a vow then the head of household has the opportunity to deny the vow.  Essentially, this law honors the cultural understanding that the man is the one responsible for the economic welfare of the family so he gets last say on all matters that might impact the economy of the family.

However, notice that this chapter does say that if a widow makes a vow, it stands.  There is no escape clause for the widow.  Her word is capable of standing for itself because in this case she is the head of the household.

You see, this chapter is not about establishing the dominance of men over women as much as it is about establishing that those that the Bible expects to uphold the needs of the family have the ability to do so.  As we can see in this passage, women who are in a place in their life to be in control of their own things are freely able to make a vow as a man would make.

Keeping Our Word

There is another line of thinking that is much more significant than the “men vs. women” debate.  Here in this passage we are expected to follow through with our word.  In other words, this passage is not just about saying what we mean but it is also about meaning what we say.  Everyone knows that this passage tells us that if we make a promise to God (or anyone else) then we should keep it.

However, what we often forget is that God calls us to not just keep our promises but also to stop and think about our promises before we make them.  We should live our life as though any promise that comes out of our mouth will be fulfilled.  We should be careful when making commitments.  We should be careful when promising things to our children.  We should be careful when declaring things like allegiances.  We should be mindful of the declarations that come out of the mouth!

I think that is a lesson worth gleaning.  Jesus tells us in Matthew 5:37 (and James confirms in James 5:12) that we should avoid oaths and let our yes be yes and our no be no.  We know what it is like to be human.  We know what it is like to have other people say something to us that we expect them to uphold and they don’t.  

If we are willing, we also confess that our tendency is to run our mouth and make bold and grandiose plans and follow through upon so few.  The wisdom of Jesus, James, and this passage is simply that we should stop and think about what we are saying before saying it.  It isn’t that we shouldn’t make plans or share dreams, but we should do it meaningfully.  We should do it with thought, not just with passion.

God is Our Witness

I have one final thought. I hit upon this earlier a bit.  Remember that God expects us to keep our vows, oath, and promises.  What we sometimes forget is that God is a witness for every promise, oath, and vow that we make.  That is why we are to take them seriously.  Other people may not hear us – or if they do they may not know the intent in our hearts.  But God knows both, and He expects us to be people of our word.  If you really think about that, it can be a scary thought.  God expects us to live up to our word so that when we speak about Him people assume that they can trust us.  When we make a promise, God expects it to be kept so that people see us as believably and trustworthy witnesses to Him.

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