28 What Every Christian Should Know About Making Promises (Matthew 5:33-37)

Krisan Marotta: Welcome to the Wednesday in the Word Podcast. I'm Krisan Marotta, and this is my podcast about what the Bible means and how we know. This is the 28th talk in my series on the Gospel of Matthew. Today we're going to study Matthew chapter 5, verses 33 through 37. The lecture notes for today's talk are on the link below this podcast. You can also find those by going directly to wednesdayintheword.com slash Matthew 2.8. You can also find all the previous episodes in this series on wednesdayintheword.com, as your podcast feed might be limited to the last 20 or so episodes. Thank you so much for listening. We're continuing in the Sermon on the Mount. We're in the second major section of this sermon. Just to review, as I outline it, the Sermon on the Mount has four main sections. The first one is the Beatitudes, where Jesus describes those who have saving faith and are going to receive eternal life. That's Matthew 5, verses 1 through 16. The second section is Matthew 5, verses 17 through 48, and here I've argued that Jesus is correcting the understanding of the law and holiness that the Pharisees have taught. The third section is Matthew 6.1 to 7.14, where Jesus warns his listeners to avoid the self-deception of the Pharisees. And then he concludes in Matthew 7, 15 through 29, it's not enough to claim to believe, you must live out your beliefs. The second section of the sermon is called the antithesis. It is so called because Jesus quotes the law and then he says, But I say, and he makes an antithetical statement or an oppositional statement. So we've seen this structure. Jesus introduced this section by saying to enter the kingdom of heaven, your righteousness must surpass that of the scribes and the Pharisees, and then he has been giving examples to explain what he means by that. He's been contrasting the way the Pharisees understand what it means to be blameless under the Old Testament law with what it really takes to be blameless under the Old Testament law. So far, his examples have been murder, adultery, and divorce, and in each case Jesus showed how the Pharisees had trivialized the law and missed the deeper intention of what God had in mind. So they were looking for loopholes, ways to figure out exactly what they could get away with rather than trying to obey the intent of the law. Today Jesus turns to vows. At first glance, it might seem that this passage is kind of irrelevant to us today. The practice of making oaths or vows belonged largely to that time and culture, and it doesn't happen much in modern American culture today, at least not in the same way. So that leaves us with the question of how is this passage applicable to us today? The lesson you often hear taught is that Jesus is saying that we should tell the truth all the time. Let your yes be yes, let your no be no, and don't make any vows. And it's true, being honest is good advice. Some Christians take this passage as forbidding them to swear in a court of law, so they refuse on religious grounds to put their hand on the Bible and swear to tell the whole truth in a courtroom. Many people find it hard to get excited about this passage because making oaths is something we rarely do if we do it at all, and there doesn't seem to be a whole lot to learn from it. And I admit when I first started studying this passage, that's the attitude I approached it with. I was immediately struck with what is there going to be to talk about? Honesty's good, yep, agreed, not much to see here. However, the more I studied, the more I changed my perspective. The more I studied and read, the more I found this a really interesting little section. I think Jesus is dealing with a very important issue, and it's about a lot more than telling the truth and meaning what we say. And I hope I can convince you today that there is something very important to learn from this section. Let me read it for us. This is Matthew five, verses thirty three through thirty seven. Again you have heard that the ancients were told, you shall not make false vows, but you shall fulfill your vows to the Lord. But I say to you, make no oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is the footstool of his feet, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great king, nor shall you make an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black, but let your statement be yes, yes, or no no. Anything beyond these is of evil. Now, as we've looked at each of these examples in this section, our first task is always to go back to the Old Testament and figure out what Jesus is quoting or referring to. So let's start with a quotation from the Old Testament in 533. You shall not make false vows, but you shall fulfill your vows to the Lord. Jesus seems to be combining the language and the ideas from several different places. The language of the first part, you shall not make false vows, comes most directly from Leviticus 1912. And that reads You shall not swear falsely by my name, so as to profane the name of your God, I am the Lord. The second part, you shall fulfill your vows to the Lord, is more literally you shall pay back your vows to the Lord. This language seems most directly related to Psalm fifty verse fourteen. Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving and pay your vows to the Most High. But there are several passages this language could be loosely tied to. For example, Numbers thirty verse two. If a man makes a vow to the Lord or takes an oath to bind himself with a binding obligation, he shall not violate his word, he shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth. Or Jesus could be referring to Deuteronomy twenty three verses twenty one through twenty three. When you make a vow to the Lord your God, you shall not delay to pay it, for it would be sin in you, and the Lord your God will surely require it of you. However, if you refrain from vowing, it would not be sin in you. You shall be careful to perform what goes out from your lips, just as you have voluntarily vowed to the Lord your God what you have promised. Or it could be from Ecclesiastes five verses four and five. When you make a vow to God, do not be late in paying it, for he takes no delight in fools. Pay what you vow. It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not pay. So these are the sorts of passages Jesus has in mind when he says, You have heard the ancients were told, you shall not make false vows, but you shall pay back your vows to the Lord. Over the last few podcasts I've argued that Jesus is not critiquing or correcting the Old Testament in the passages that he quotes. Rather, he is disagreeing with the way the Pharisees have understood these passages. They appeal to these passages in a misleading way to defend their own status as blameless. And I think that's what's going on in this section as well. To figure out what Jesus is talking about here, we're going to need to understand three things. We need to understand the practice of vows that's described in the Old Testament. We need to understand what Jesus says about how the Pharisees are misusing these passages. And then finally we need to understand what Jesus wants us to take away from his words here. So let's start with vows in the Old Testament. We're looking for passages that talk about swearing by something or someone taking an oath, making a vow, that kind of language. And several different practices use this language. I'm going to start with a common one. One common vow is a promise made directly to God, often in connection with a plea for help. The classic example of this kind of promisory vow is from the story of Jacob. Jacob is on the run from his brother Esau. He's on a journey to find a wife. He spends the night in a certain place using a stone for a pillow, and he has a dream about angels going up and down a ladder to heaven. When he wakes up the next morning he makes a vow. This is Genesis chapter twenty eight verses eighteen through twenty two. So early in the morning Jacob took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil on top of it. He called the name of that place Bethel, but the name of the city was Luz at first. Bethel means house of God. Then Jacob made a vow saying, If God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, so that I come again to my father's house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God, and this stone which I have set up for a pillar shall be God's house, and of all that you give me I will give a tenth to you. So Jacob is asking God for protection on this long and difficult journey he's making, and he says if God will keep him safe and return him back to his father safely, then Jacob promises these various acts of religious devotion in response. This is one very common type of vow. Such vows are not always associated with requests, they can be the result of gratitude or thanksgiving for something God has already done. And these sorts of vows became part of the sacrificial system. People would make a vow to give certain offerings at the temple. We see this in Psalm sixty six verses thirteen through fifteen. I will come into your house with burnt offerings, I will perform my vows to you, that which my lips uttered and my mouth promised when I was in trouble. I will offer to you burnt offerings of fattened animals with the smoke of the sacrifice of rams, I will make an offering of bulls and goats, Saleh. So here the psalmist says the offering he is making in the temple is a payment for the vow he made when he was in distress. So during some time of trouble, the psalmist cried out something like Help me, God, and I will bring you offerings. God helped him and now he is paying those vows, he is bringing those offerings. And there are a number of passages that connect making an offering in the temple with paying a vow. The Nazarite vow, which comes from Numbers six, verses one through twenty one, is one of those kinds of vows. Both men and women could make this vow. The vow had a specific time frame and certain restrictions, such as refrain from alcohol, don't cut your hair, and stay away from dead bodies, including your own family. At the end of the time period, the worshiper cut his or her hair and put it on the altar in the fire and made certain offerings. The Nazarite vow was taken voluntarily by someone who wanted to consecrate themselves to the Lord. It could be as thanksgiving for the recovery of an illness. It could be done out of gratitude for the birth of a child or thanksgiving for God's rescue in a time of trouble or something like that. All of these kinds of vows then are examples of paying back a promise that was made to God. Usually the worshiper vowed or promised to do something, which often included making an offering in the temple, and he vowed or promised in response to something God has already done or is being asked to do. We see another kind of vow in a story from 1 Samuel 19 and 20. At this time, Saul is King of Israel. Saul is extremely jealous of David, who the prophet Samuel has anointed to be the next king of Israel. Jonathan is the son of King Saul, but he is also David's best friend. In 1 Samuel 19, Saul tells his son Jonathan to have David killed. Jonathan pleads with his father not to do this evil thing, not to have David killed, and he reminds Saul that he will be sinning by shedding innocent blood. Saul then responds, and this is 1 Samuel nineteen six, and Saul listened to the voice of Jonathan. Saul swore, as the Lord lives, he shall not be put to death. You could also translate that Saul vowed, as the Lord lives, he shall not be put to death. Later on, however, Saul seeks to have David killed again. David tells Jonathan about the plot against his life, and at first Jonathan doesn't believe it. He says, My father swore to me, he told me that he would not do this, and if he was planning to take your life, then he would have told me. David insists that the plot against him is true, and then David says in first Samuel twenty verse three, but David vowed again, saying, Your father knows well that I have found favor in your eyes, and he thinks, Do not let Jonathan know this lest he be grieved, but truly, as the Lord lives and as your soul lives, there is but a step between me and death. Jonathan believes David, he says he will go back to Saul to see what he can learn about the plot, and then we pick up again in twenty verse twelve and thirteen. And Jonathan said to David, The Lord, the God of Israel, be witness, when I have sounded out my father about this time tomorrow or the third day, behold, if he is well disposed toward David, shall I not then send and disclose it to you? But should it please my father to do you harm, the Lord do so to Jonathan and more also, if I do not disclose it to you and send you away that you may go in safety. May the Lord be with you as he has been with my father. We see several different vows in the story. We see one from Saul, we see one from David, and we see two from Jonathan. Let's talk about David's vow first. In twenty three, David vows truly as the Lord lives and as your soul lives, Saul is trying to kill me. This is an oath like what we might say in a court of law. David is swearing that he is telling the truth. He is a witness to Saul's attempts to kill him, and he is not lying, and he invokes the name of God as he makes his oath. As certainly as God lives, I am telling the truth, and as certainly as your soul, Jonathan, your soul lives, I am telling the truth. And these sorts of oaths are very common, where you invoke the name of God to swear that you are telling the truth. Saul's vow in nineteen six is a little different. In nineteen six, Saul vows as the Lord lives, David will not be put to death. Saul's vow is a promise to Jonathan. Saul is telling Jonathan, I heard you, I agree with you, you're right, I will not have David put to death, and he invokes the name of God to establish the certainty of his promise. Now we know that Saul did not keep that promise, and ultimately he tried to kill David again. We can't exactly say that Saul lied here because when he made the vow, he probably meant it. He probably intended to keep it, but he broke his vow. He invoked the name of God when he made this promise to Jonathan, but even so he went back on his vow. Jonathan makes a similar sort of vow. He also makes a promise to David. In twenty twelve, Jonathan says, The Lord God of Israel be my witness, and in twenty thirteen Jonathan says, May the Lord do so to me and more if it's true that Saul wants to kill you and I fail to warn you. Jonathan is promising David that he will find out whether or not Saul is trying to kill David, and that he, Jonathan, will faithfully report back to David what he finds out. He says explicitly in this vow what is implied by the other vows. Scholars call this swearing to his own hurt. He is vowing, may God do terrible things to me if I break this promise. If I don't tell you that Saul is after you, then may God do even worse things to me. That's the sort of vow he's taking. Both Saul and Jonathan are making the sorts of vows we see frequently in the Old Testament. It was common for one person to make promises to another. And when they made those promises, they sometimes invoked God as a witness as to whether or not they would keep their promises. So they are either implicitly or explicitly calling on God to punish them if they break their word. And we could look at a lot of these. There's a number of them. For instance, let's look at Genesis twenty four one through four. Now Abraham was old, well advanced in years, and the Lord had blessed Abraham in all things, and Abraham said to his servant, the oldest of his household, who had charge of all that he had, put your hand under my thigh, that I may make you swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and the god of earth, that you will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites among whom I dwell, but will go to my country and to my kindred and take a wife for my son Isaac. So here Abraham makes his servant swear by the Lord that he will find Isaac a wife from among his relatives. Saul makes David take a similar kind of vow, this is in first Samuel twenty four, verses twenty and twenty two. This is Saul speaking to David. And now behold I know that you shall surely be king, and that the kingdom of Israel shall be established in your hand. Swear to me therefore by the Lord that you will not cut off my offspring after me, and that you will not destroy my name out of my father's house. And David swore this to Saul. Then Saul went home, but David and his men went up to the stronghold. Again we see Saul asking David to make a promise with God as his witness, and in all these cases, one person is making a promise to a second person about what he intends to do in the future, and he swears by God that he will keep his promise. We even see God Himself making these promises and swearing by himself. Perhaps the most famous is in Genesis twenty two verses fifteen through eighteen. And the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven and said, By myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven, and as the sand that is on the seashore, and your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice. So we see God swearing by himself, and you may recall the book of Hebrews makes an interesting comment about this vow. Hebrews six thirteen through eighteen says this for when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, saying, Surely I will bless you and multiply you. And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise. For people swear by something greater than themselves, and in all their disputes an oath is final for confirmation. So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his promise, he guaranteed it with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. The author of Hebrews here has captured an important aspect about these sorts of vows. People swear by God because they need to swear by something greater than themselves, and that settles the issue. When one person gives such an oath, it's final. It's a guarantee and a confirmation, and nothing more need to be said. If I merely make a promise on my own, you might wonder why should you be inclined to believe me? What guarantee do you have that I will keep my word? But if I invoke someone greater than myself, why? My promise carries more weight. If I call on God to act as a witness between us that I will keep my promise, then I am making myself vulnerable to God's judgment should I break that promise. So to sum up then we've seen three sorts of vows in the Old Testament. First, there is a vow directly to God that you will make some sort of temple offering or perform some act of religious devotion should God help you in times of trouble or in grateful response to something God has already done for you. Second, there is an oath that I am not lying. My testimony is true, and I am not lying as God is my witness. And third, there is a promise one person makes to another about how they will act in the future, and they call on God to be their witness and their judge. So now let's turn to the New Testament. And what do we see about vows in the New Testament? One thing we immediately notice is that we have examples of the apostle Paul making the kinds of oaths we find in the Old Testament. We see Paul calling on God as witness that he is telling the truth. For example, Galatians 1 twenty, in what I am writing to you before God I do not lie. Second Corinthians 1 twenty three, but I call on God to witness against me, it was to spare you that I refrained from coming again to Corinth. And there are a number of places where Paul does this. I gave you two, but we could look at several others. Paul rather frequently and commonly calls on God as a witness that he is telling the truth, and he is not afraid to do so. We also see him participating in other kinds of vows. Paul appears to have taken the Nazarite vow, or at least something like it. Paul made some sort of vow which included not cutting his hair, and then at the end of that time period he cuts his hair. This is Acts eighteen, eighteen. After this, Paul stayed many days longer and then took leave of the brothers and set sail for Syria, and with him Priscilla and Aquila. At Centria, not sure how you pronounce that, he had cut his hair, for he was under a vow. And in Acts twenty one we have this story about Paul in Jerusalem. Paul is visiting the apostles in Jerusalem. Many Jews are not happy with Paul because he is now a follower of Jesus and he is inviting Gentiles to follow Jesus as well. Many Jews have accused Paul of teaching Jews to abandon their Jewish ways. So James and the elders ask Paul to prove that he is not hostile to Judaism. They want Paul to do something to demonstrate that he has not abandoned his Jewishness. The apostles tell Paul that they have four men under a vow and the time for their vow is ending. It's time for them to go to the temple and make their offerings to pay their vow, and the elders ask Paul to go with them and make the same offerings. We find this in Acts twenty one verses twenty two through twenty four. What then is to be done? They will certainly hear that you have come. Do therefore what we tell you. We have four men who are under a vow. Take these men and purify yourself along with them and pay their expenses so that they may shave their heads. Thus all will know that there is nothing in what they have been told about you, but that you yourself also live in observance of the law. So Paul agrees, he purifies himself, and he gives offerings in the temple. So we have two examples of Paul participating in religious vows, and we've got his writing where he is not afraid to swear by God that he is not lying. That suggests that Paul does not think that Jesus forbids taking vows or making oaths. Since I believe Paul accurately understood the teaching of Jesus, this makes me think right from the beginning that Jesus is not setting out in Matthew five to forbid all kinds of vows. But it's going to take some thinking to figure out what Jesus is saying. So far what we've learned then is there were three different kinds of vows in the Old Testament, and that in the New Testament we see Paul making at least two of those kinds of vows. Let me read the passage again, Matthew five thirty three through thirty seven. Again you have heard that the ancients were told you shall not make false vows, but shall fulfill your vows to the Lord. But I say to you, make no oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is the footstool of his feet, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great king, nor shall you make an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black, but let your statement be yes, yes, or no no, anything beyond these is of evil. Now, as I've been arguing throughout this section, when Jesus says you have heard it said, he's pointing to the teaching of the Pharisees. He's saying, You've heard the Pharisees tell you this. When the Pharisees try to justify themselves as blameless under the law, they tell you this. Now in this case, they're talking about how to make your vows. And in each of these, Jesus is not directly talking about the Old Testament teaching on vows. He's talking about the way the Pharisees use and apply the Old Testament laws. We know something about what the Pharisees taught about vows. Later in Matthew 23, Matthew tells us something about their views and the language is similar. In this section, Jesus is prescribing a series of woes on the Pharisees, and in that list of seven or so woes he says this. This is Matthew twenty three verses sixteen through twenty two. Woe to you, blind guides, who say if anyone swears by the temple, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath. You blind fools, for which is greater the gold or the temple that has made the gold sacred? And you say, If anyone swears by the altar it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gift that is on the altar, he is bound by his oath. You blind men, for which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred. So whoever swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it, and whoever swears by the temple swears by it and by him who dwells in it, and whoever swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who sits upon it. So here Jesus is speaking directly to the practice of the Pharisees, and he's telling us something about how they handled oaths. The scribes and the Pharisees often dealt with the question exactly what does the law require? How do I know whether or not I am blameless in terms of the requirements of the law? Here we're looking at this promise type of vow. One person is making a promise to someone about his future actions, but the person making the vow, making the promise, has broken his word and not done what he said. Yet he made a vow. How do we sort that out legally in terms of the Old Testament? Well, the scribes and the Pharisees look at the situation and they made up these rules. They said, Well, you know, he swore by the temple, but not the gold of the temple, so he's still righteous. In terms of the law, he can still consider himself blameless, even though he broke his promise, because he swore by the temple, not the gold. Similarly, if he swore by the altar, well, he's not really obligated to keep that promise, and he can still consider himself blameless under the law, but if he swore by the offering on that altar, well then he is obligated to keep that promise and he's guilty of lawbreaking. Or he swore by heaven, but not God, not using the name of God, so he's still righteous even if he breaks that vow. We have historical evidence that this was a topic of debate and discussion among the Pharisees. An entire book of the Mishnah is devoted to this topic of vows and when you can break them. The Mishnah is the book where they collected the oral traditions and teachings of the Pharisees. And the Mishnah says if you swear by heaven and earth, well that's not binding. If you swear by God's name, that is binding. Some rabbis said if you swear by the life of your head, it's not binding, others said, Oh, well, maybe it is. But if you swear by the name of God, you're stuck. Because not keeping a vow sworn by the name of God is clearly breaking the law. But these other things you can kind of skate by and still consider yourself a lawkeeper. And the Pharisees quote the passages that say you must pay back your vow to the Lord. That's the key. If you make a commitment invoking the name of the Lord, then you must keep it because the law says you must keep your vows in the name of the Lord. But what if you don't use the name of the Lord? What if you swear by heaven or by Jerusalem, or by the temple, or by the hairs on your head? Well, now there was a debate. How do you apply those? And how do you know if you're still obligated to keep the promise? That's the kind of situation Jesus is speaking to, and he is challenging their approach. The Pharisees are starting from the premise. Let's figure out exactly and precisely what the rules are so we know what we can get away with. We want to know the rules so that we can keep our behavior within the rules, and we know when we can legally break a promise. And Jesus says, You're missing the point. The Old Testament was not laying out a checklist for you to follow. The Old Testament is calling you to something more. Okay, now we get to the hardest question. What point is Jesus making? What is that greater truth that the Pharisees have missed? Well, some scholars think the main point is that we should be straightforward and honest in all our speech. Don't try to get out of your commitments through trickery or rhetoric or parsing the language. Just say what you mean and mean what you say. And they would argue the focus is on how we treat other people, we should tell the truth, we should not be manipulative, and we should not make a promise that we don't intend to keep. Well, that is certainly true, and it has a certain relevance to this passage. However, I think, like the other examples we've seen so far, Jesus is primarily concerned with how we deal with God. The way we treat other people is important, but I think in this context, it's important because the way we're treating other people reflects what we think about God and how we're relating to Him. In all the examples we've looked at so far, another person is involved. We've seen there is you listeners, there is the person you've treated badly, and there is God. We make these sorts of vows when we're trying to convince someone else that we're good for it. That other person can trust us because we swear to God. So loan me money and of course I'll pay you back. What, you don't trust me? Of course I'm good for it, I swear to God I'll pay you back. You may not find me trustworthy, but I'm appealing to someone greater than myself to ensure that I am trustworthy. I'm appealing to God to judge me. Well, that kind of vow or promise is all fine and good if I, the promise maker, really take God seriously. But what if all I really care about is convincing you to give me the money? Judgment someday by some God somewhere, that's abstract, that's far away. My need for money, that's today, that's present. Plus maybe I'll trick you and only swear by heaven I won't use the Lord's name, but I'll use heaven and that will suggest that I'm using the Lord's name, and that will convince you to loan me the money, but I'll have a loophole should I be unable to pay you back. So I can use this vow as a means to manipulate you and convince you to loan me the money. Well, I would argue that's the situation we see going on here, and it is a violation of the third commandment. Exodus twenty seven says You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. Now some people think that to take God's name in vain means using profanity, and that's what I was taught as a child in Sunday school, but I don't think that's what this commandment is about. To take God's name in vain is to use God's name in a way that sounds like I mean it, but I don't mean it. The classic example of that today is how politicians suddenly become religious when they're running for office. Their internal polling tells them that if they want to win enough votes, they have to have the religious demographic, and suddenly they start telling everyone how really actually they're very privately religious people. They think we don't know that they're not religious. They think we don't know that they only want our vote. I would say that's a case of taking the Lord's name in vain. It sounds like the speaker is serious about God. He's making a claim that he's serious about God, but in fact he really wants something else, and he trusts something else. It's easy to imagine a case where someone would swear by the name of God only to get whatever thing they want, only to convince someone else to vote for them or to lend them money or to believe their side of an argument or something. In that case, I'm using the name of God to accomplish my own selfish and worldly purposes, and that's what I think it means to take the name of God in vain. The commandment against swearing falsely in Leviticus nineteen twelve gives a very similar rationale. You shall not swear by my name falsely, and so profane the name of your God. I am the Lord. If you swear by the name of the Lord and you break your vow, that means you really don't take God seriously. If you're willing to break a vow to God, you must not care about how he's going to react. And when you break your vow, you're profaning his name. You are treating God who is holy and mighty and above all as if he were something common. You're profaning his name because you're acting as if he is no big deal. And it's no big deal to break a promise to the author and creator of the universe who holds your eternal destiny in his hands and who will be your judge. You're acting as if it's no big deal to promise your creator and your divine judge something and then say, eh, no, I don't think I will. That profanes his name. That treats him as if he were nothing, that treats him as if he were common. So I see Leviticus 1912 and Exodus twenty-seven as speaking to the same idea. It is using God's name in a way that suggests that you take him seriously, but in fact is very worldly, self-serving, and unbelieving. And that fundamental truth, I think, is the very truth the Pharisees were ignoring. They know the rules that say you are not to swear falsely by the name of God, so they say, okay, when I want to swear falsely, I'll just have to swear by something else. I won't use God's name, so I have a back door. I have a loophole out of the promise. I'll say something that suggests I'm swearing by God, like heaven or the temple or Jerusalem, but I'll have a loophole to get out. The purpose for them in taking the vow in the first place is to accomplish their own selfish goals. They take the vow to persuade you to trust them. They take the vow to suggest that they're swearing by God, but they just say by heaven, by Jerusalem, by the temple, clearly implying they're calling on the God of heaven or calling on the God who sits in the temple in Jerusalem, but yet when they break their vow, they can say, Well, you know, I didn't use the name of the Lord. So my understanding then is this. Jesus is charging the Pharisees with taking the name of the Lord in vain, even though they don't actually say the words the name of the Lord. He charges them as doing this because their goals are worldly. Their goals are selfish. They want to convince someone else to do something for them. They trivialize the very serious act of making a vow or a promise. They don't see themselves as making a commitment before the author and creator of the universe, and they are using religious sounding language to accomplish their own selfish purposes. I'm going to read the passage one more time, keep that in mind as I read it. Again you have heard that the ancients were told you shall not make false vows, but you shall fulfill your vows to the Lord. But I say to you, make no oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is the footstool of his feet, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great king. Nor shall you make an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black, but let your statement be yes, yes, or no no, anything beyond these is of evil. Okay, we've still got another question to solve. If I'm right about this, we have to figure out what Jesus means in five hundred thirty four when he says make no oath at all. Remember he's speaking to a situation where the Pharisees are making judgments on which vows are obligatory and which vows aren't. They are debating and decreeing and making rules about which vows can be legally broken and which vows must be kept. The Pharisees are inclined to justify themselves as blameless under the law, even though they have broken their promises because they didn't use a particular kind of language. They didn't use the magic words in the name of the Lord. Jesus is saying don't follow the Pharisees in this kind of thinking. It is better not to make a vow at all than to take vows like they do. I don't think Jesus is speaking to someone who wishes to take a Nazarite vow. I don't think he's speaking to someone who says, as God is my witness, I'm telling the truth. Nothing in what he says here would preclude those kinds of vows, and in fact we see Paul participating in precisely those kinds of vows. In speaking to the logic and the rationale of the Pharisees, Jesus is not suggesting, I don't think, that there's anything wrong with what Paul did. Nor am I inclined to think he's forbidding promissory vows. I don't think Jesus would find fault with Jonathan for vowing to David that he will find out what Saul is up to and report back. All the evidence we have about the nature of Jonathan's faith and beliefs tells us that Jonathan cares very much what the Lord thinks. David knows Jonathan to be serious about his relationship with God and he knows that he can trust Jonathan, is serious about taking this action. We know that Paul wrote to Philemon, urging him to accept the return of his runaway slave Anisimus as a fellow believer in Christ. If Philemon had written back and said, As God is my witness, I grant Anisimus his freedom, and I will not treat him harshly, I don't think Jesus or Paul would have any problem with that. Describing their serious intent in terms of their serious relationship to God would have been common practice. The problem starts arising in the specific kinds of vows the Pharisees were concerned with. They are starting from the premise which vows can I break? That's like asking, how hard can I hit my brother and get away with it? Well you're missing the point. You're not supposed to hit your brother and vows are not supposed to be broken. Legally breaking your vows is an oxymoron. If you suspect you can't keep your vow, then you have no business making it. And if you suspect you can't keep your vow, you certainly have no business invoking the name of God or heaven or the temple or anything else in order to persuade someone else to believe you. If you can't keep it, don't intend to keep it, then you shouldn't make any vows at all. Instead, you should say what you mean and mean what you say. Let your yes be yes and your no be no. More significantly, the issue is not how and when and under what circumstances should we make or not make vows, the issue is this third commandment. The real underlying issue is treating God cavalierly. How can you call yourself righteous and blameless when you're using the name of God to get your own selfish way and accomplish your own selfish purpose? Jesus is appealing to that general principle of not taking the Lord's name in vain. He's saying Saying, don't talk about God as if he matters to you when in fact you don't care what he values and you only want to accomplish your own worldly ends. Now you may be thinking, okay, yep, never done that, not a problem. But stop and think how tempting it is to use God in this way. One of my pastor friends talks about this as the temptation of playing the pastor card. He got stopped for a traffic ticket or something, and he was quite tempted to say, Oh, officer, I'm a pastor, to persuade the police officer that he really wasn't speeding, when in fact he was, but he wants the officer to say, You're one of the good guys, you're a pastor, so I won't write you a ticket. Anytime we're tempted to trot out our religious pedigree to try to get out of a jam or get our way, we're skating kind of close to this issue. The third commandment is not specifically about how we make promises to people, it's fundamentally about how we relate to God and how our understanding of God affects how we treat others. We live in a fallen sinful world. We live in a world filled with tragedy, bitterness, frustration, and despair. We would like things to go well for us, and sometimes playing the God card or playing the pasture card or the religious card can pay off. Sometimes our religious posturing can smooth the path for us. It can make people trust us or see us in a certain way that pays off for us. And Jesus is warning against that temptation of using God's name to accomplish a selfish end. That's taking God's name in vain. It's forgetting who is really in charge and what is really important. So as I understand it, Jesus' fundamental complaint against the Pharisees is that they have misunderstood the importance and the scope of the third commandment about taking the Lord's name in vain. What you and I have to come to terms with is that God is really there. He really is the author and creator of the universe. He really does hold our eternal destiny in his hands, and he has something to say about how we act, what we think, what we value, and what kind of promises we make. The question should never be, how can I use God to get this world to pay off for me? The question is, where do I stand before the God who is my judge and my Savior? So I would paraphrase this section like this. You've heard that your forefathers were told not to make false vows and to fulfill their vows to the Lord. But I say to you, don't be like the Pharisees who swear by heaven or earth or Jerusalem as if they are promising before God to keep the vow, but then they break it. It is better not to make any vow at all than to make a vow you intend to break. God sees your heart and knows your intentions, regardless of whether you swear by the temple or by his name. Instead, only make promises you intend to keep. Making a promise you intend to break is evil. Thank you for listening to Wednesday in the Word, the podcast that explains not only what a passage means, but also shows you how to figure it out. You can hear all the episodes in this series on my website by going to wednesdayintheword.com slash Matthew. There's no charge, no spam, and no ads. It's all free to help you improve your study skills and understanding of scripture. If you've been blessed by this podcast, please subscribe, leave a positive rating or review wherever you listen, and most importantly, tell a friend what you learned and where you learned it. A big thank you to Reggie Coates for the use of his beautiful song Tenacious as our theme song. You can listen to more of Reggie's music on heartfeltmusic.org. Thank you for joining me today. I'm Krisan Marotta, and I'll see you next week at Wednesday in the Word.