Guidelines for Religious Life

Transcript

GRS 2-35
5/14/2006
Guidelines for Religious Life
Numbers 28-30
Gil Rugh

We are studying the Book of Numbers together on Sunday night and we are at Chapter 28, so if we turn there in your Bibles, Numbers Chapter 28. We are just following Israel’s history and so we are focusing on the portions of the Old Testament that moved the history along. We did Genesis and the first part of Exodus and then along about Exodus 20, Israel is stopped at Sinai and you have the giving of the law and instructions for the tabernacle and so on. The Book of Leviticus does not move the history along, but it continuous to unfold the laws that will govern Israel’s life as God’s people on earth.

Then we picked up with Numbers, which does begin to move the history along again. Israel leaves Sinai and prepares to go into the Promised Land, but because of disobedience, unbelief, they are consigned of 40 years of wandering in the wilderness and we have but very a brief glimpse of that 40 years of wandering, just a few events have been brought out. Now we are at the end of the wilderness wandering preparing again for going into the land. Preparing again because the first time they sent spies into the land in anticipation of going in, they could not proceed because of unbelief. Now almost 40 years later they are back preparing to cross the land again. They are across on the eastern side of the Jordan from the city of Jericho, in the general vicinity there where the crossing will take place.

We are getting instructions in Chapter 28 and 29 regarding the sacrifices and festivals that are to be characteristic of Israel’s life when they go into the land of Palestine. Now these instructions in Chapters 28 and 29 on the sacrifices and the particular feast times of significant sacrifices have been discussed before, but what is emphasized now is the number of sacrifices that are being offered through the year in Israel’s life. Israel is a nation that God has chosen for himself, so their life is saturated with worship, with times of sacrifice.

Let me just give you a summary, the numbers here indicate that every year the priest will sacrifice 113 bulls, 32 rams, and 1086 lamps, along with that there will be more than a tone of flower and a thousand bottles of oil and wine and that will be part of the sacrificial life of Israel and what happens here beginning with Chapter 28 is you begins untold the different sacrifices, for example, in Chapter 28, the first day verses will deal with the daily sacrifices. Then verses 9 and 10 will deal with the Sabbath sacrifices that are added to the daily sacrifices. Then verses 11-15 will deal with sacrifices that take place on a monthly basis.

Then verses 16-25 will focus on the festival of Feast of Unleavened Bread. Then verses 26-31 you have the Feast of Weeks. You see it is just an ongoing, everyday activity and their sacrifices to be offered everyday and then to that you will have the additional sacrifices that take place on the Sabbath day, to that you are going to add then the sacrifices that will take place on a monthly basis, then you have the particular annual feast and sacrificial events that will take place.

The first 8 verses of Chapter 28 deal with the daily sacrifices and what is being acknowledged here is that God is the provider of everything and they come to Him to present their offerings to acknowledge Him as their God, as their savior and so on. So you will note in verse 3 every day, seven days a week, year around a lamb is offered, one in the morning and one in the evening, two lambs a day, one in the morning and one in the evening and this is really the backbone of Israel’s worship system, unceasing sacrifice. Every morning, every evening, there is a lamb offered and it had to be a lamb unblemished and could not decide well we are going to kill the lamb. So it does not matter if it is perfect since it is being slain as a sacrifice offered to the living God.

It has to be the best of what they have and that ongoing sacrifice is a daily reminder to Israel of their relationship to God and all these sacrifices will be a daily reminder of them of what, the wages of sin is death and these sacrifices are being offered as a substitute if you will for them in every morning, every evening as the priest goes about the sacrificial routine. The people are reminded of their relationship to God based upon the provision of a sacrifice and their behalf with the animal is offered, verse 4, you will offer one lamb in the morning and the other at twilight or between the evenings then with that you offer a Tenth of an ephah of fine flower for a grain offering mixed with a fourth of a hin of beaten oil, so that’s where you get where I told you throughout a year, you have a tone of flowers that will be a part of what is offered and also a thousand bottles of oil and wine according to the instruction that are given.

Verse 7 tells that you pour out also a portion of the wine, join with the oil and the flower and along with the lamb to comprise the offering. That goes on every day. Verses 9 and 10 you have additional sacrifices to be offered on every Saturday, every Sabbath day, two additional lambs are to be offered. So keep in mind the daily sacrifices will be offered all the time, so all the other sacrifices we talked about are in addition to the daily sacrifices of a lamb in the morning and the evening along with the flower and oil and wine that are joined with that. So in verse 9, then on the Sabbath day, two male lambs, one-year-old without defect, two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil and its grains offering. This is the burnt offering of every Sabbath.

In addition to the continual burnt offering and its grain offering, in additional to that daily offering going on. In Sabbath day as you are aware is the day of rest in Israel and that is a special day of worship. So in addition to what is offered as part of the daily sacrifice, you have the Sabbath sacrifice. The Sabbath was given to Israel at the time of rest, the special day of worship as a visual testimony of God’s relationship with that nation and Sabbath had particular significance to the nation Israel. These two passages of Scripture, their number we could look at.

Go back to Exodus 31, Exodus 31 verse 13, but as for you, speak to the sons of Israel saying that you shall surely observe My Sabbath, for this is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you. Verse 16, so the sons of Israel shall observe the Sabbath, to celebrate the Sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between Me and the sons of Israel forever. Though, the Sabbath which is the part of the Ten Commandments was part of the Mosaic Covenant and what was tied to God’s relationship to Israel is a sign between God and the sons of Israel, the nation Israel forever.

Turn over to Ezekiel Chapter 20, much later in Israel’s history, about a thousand years have gone by and the Exodus account we just read now to Ezekiel ministry and Ezekiel Chapter 20 verse 12, God says concerning Israel as He talks about what He did for them. Verse 20, He took them out of the land of Egypt. Verse 11, I gave them my statues and informed them of My ordinances. Verse 12, I gave them my Sabbath, not just a weekly Sabbath, but as we will as we move through the feast, these special feast days were also considered Sabbath days, special days of rest and solemn observance to the Lord. I gave them my Sabbath to be assigned between Me and them, that they may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies them, but the house of Israel rebelled against Me in the wilderness. So you came back to Numbers 28 and these particular sacrifices on the weekly Sabbath deal Israel’s attention to the special relationship they had with God for adding to the daily sacrifice.

Verses 11-15 of Numbers 28, now you have monthly sacrifices and at the beginning of each month, there was a major festival that requires special sacrifices. Two bulls, one ram, seven lambs and one goat, in addition to the two lambs of the daily sacrifice. So verse 11, then at the beginning of each month of your month you shall present burnt offering to the Lord, two bulls, one ram, seven male lambs 1-year-old without defect. Then the flower and the oil and the wine also joined in that offering. So now you see you have every day, then at the end of every week with Sabbath you add special, then at the beginning of every month you are adding the additional sacrifices, then in verse 16 and following you have the Passover, where it really then begins the week of the Feast of Unleavened Breads.

So verse 16, then on the 14th day of the first month shall be the Lord’s Passover. On the 15th day of this month, shall be a feast of unleavened bread eaten for seven days, so this is an annual feast obviously you have Passover and then Passover is the first day and that is immediately followed by the week which is the feast of unleavened bread, the instruction concerning that. Passovers held in the first month and that would be Nisan they would call, we have it and that is equivalent to our March and April, as we are aware because we celebrate Easter and that is generally in the time of Passover, what was in our months of March and April in that area and it commemorated the Exodus on Egypt, the Passover obviously when God spare the first born of the Israelites and the blood was placed on the door posts and the destroying angel passed over the house of the Israelites and did not slay the first born in that house, but he did slay the first born in all the Egyptian homes. You have the feast of Passover requiring two bulls, one ram, seven lambs, one goat. Feast of unleavened bread requiring that sacrifice.

Then you come to the Feast of Weeks in verses 26 and following. This is a feat we are aware of by different name, the Feast of Weeks occurs 50 days after the Feast of Unleavened Breads, after seven seeks, I mean. 49 days, the next day you have the Feast of Weeks, that is why it is called the Feast of Weeks, seven weeks later after the Feast of Unleavened Bread and the Greek name for that is Pentecost and so in Acts Chapter 2, on the day of Pentecost, which is Israel, all the Jews that come to Jerusalem for the celebration of the Feast of Weeks for Pentecost, as we would commonly know it because it is New Testament identification, it is also called the day of First Fruits, it markedly end of the barley harvest in Israel, so this is a harvest celebration and you have celebration that’s unfolded here, verse 26 on the day of First Fruits you presented new grain offering to the Lord in you Feast of Weeks, you have a holy convocation, you shall do no laborious work.

And verses 18 in connection with the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread, you have a holy convocation, you do no laborious work, so these are additional Sabbath if you will, these particular Feasts Sabbath in Israel. They are bound by the same obligation that the weekly Sabbath was. You are staying from all work and it is a holiday in this context and you have the same sacrifices that were required for the monthly feasts, for the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for the feast of First Fruits or Pentecost as we know it. You see, as we move through this, Israel’s life as a nation is saturated with worship every day and in a special way on the Sabbath day every week and then on the first day of every month you have additional worship that is to be offered, and then with that you have special feasts that are annually observed.

So Israel’s life is saturated and permeated with its worship system, not only daily, but then these special times were everything of you will stacks in the nation, the weekly Sabbath and then the additional first day of every month, then the special feast. So obviously the daily sacrifice didn’t require a cessation of all your activity, but there is a reminder every day. We are involved in the worship of our God. Every week we together stop what we are doing and in the beginning of every month we add that the stopping our normal activity on the seventh day and we stop in the first of the month to observe this, then we have our special feasts that take place throughout the calendar year.

Chapter 29 continues the discussion of feast and the additional feasts that characterize Israel. The first six verses here talk about now in the seventh month on the first day of the month you shall also have a holy convocation, you shall do no laborious work, it shall be a day for blowing of trumpet, you shall offer burnt offering as soothing aroma to the Lord, one bull, one ram, seven lambs, and a goat and so on. Now the first ten days of this month are preparation for the Day of Atonement, so now the whole time is not set aside. The first day is the day observed similar to the observance of the Sabbath day, but you have then a celebration going on over ten days preparing for the Day of Atonement, that is a course of high point in Israel’s life.

Down in verse 7 then, then on the tenth day of the seventh month you shall have a holy convocation, so you have that holy convocation in verses 1 of Chapter 29 on the first day of the month in the seventh month. So this is not just a normal monthly, but this is beginning of a ten-day preparation, so that then on the tenth day of the month, verse 7, you shall have a holy convocation, you humble yourself, you shall not do any work and then the special sacrifices because this is the Day of Atonement. The Yom Kippur, remember the Yom Kippur war in Israel and on this special day when Israel’s attention focused on this celebration and everything in the nation stopped, their enemies took special offer opportunity advantage of the occasion in our recent history. This feast is described in detail in Leviticus 26 and then again in Leviticus Chapter 23, so here we have a summary and the sacrifice involved one bull, one ram, seven lamps, and two goats in addition we remember to the two lambs being sacrificed on that day.

Then you come down to verse 12, then on the fifteenth day of the Sabbath month, you shall have a holy convocation. How did Israel get anything done? I mean, it seems their whole life is saturated with stop days, where they are not allowed to do anything, but remember this is a holy nation. A nation that belongs to God, this is not an interruption of their activities, a remainder of what they really are. Everything else going on is just sustaining them and this is what they really are. They are the peoples that belong to God and God builds this into their lives, so there is almost nonstop remainder, who they are and you have to stop doing everything else and focus on me in these special ways.

So in verse 12 down through verse 38 you have the Feast of Tabernacles, so on the 15th day of the seventh month you will have a holy convocation, you do no work and then you have unfolding here what is going to happen in the days following the beginning day, which is a Sabbath kind of day. It is an eight-day, the Feast of Tabernacles is an eight-day feast and more animals are sacrificed in this particular feast of Israel than any of the others. They are going to sacrifice in this eight-day period 71 bulls, 15 rams, 121 lambs, and 8 goats, so there are a tremendous amount of animals. You see how begins Verse 13 with the first day you present a burnt offering and offering by flower, 13 bulls, 2 rams, 14 male lambs, and then the grain and oil and so on. Then you come down to Verse 17, then on the second day 12 bulls, 2 rams, 14 male lambs, and then additional grain, oil, wine. Then the third day 11 bulls, 2 rams, 14 male lambs.

The fourth day down in verse 23, the fifth day down a verse 26, the sixth day verse 29, the seventh day verse 32, the eighth day verse 35. Now during this eight-day feast, Israel moved out of their normal homes, they have to move out of their normal homes. Keep in mind; these are instructions for when they get into the land. Israel does not have set dwellings now. They are just wandering. They will build booths, so this is called the Feast of Booths, where they would build temporary structures out of branches and leaves and they would live in those for the eight-day feast and it was to serve as a reminder commemorating their journeys in the wilderness following the Exodus.

Turn back to Leviticus 23. We skipped the Book of the Leviticus this time through because Leviticus did not move the history along, they are still parked at Sinai in Leviticus, but in Leviticus Chapter 23, verse 39, on exactly the fifteenth day of the Seventh month, when you have gathered in the crops of the land, you shall celebrate the Feast of the Lord for seven days with a rest on the first day and a rest on the eighth day, so in between they could be doing their activities and their work, but they quit on the first day of the Feast, they quit on the eighth day, it becomes the Sabbath, those two days are observed as Sabbath kind of days. Now on the first day, you shall take for yourselves the foliage of beautiful trees, palm trees, leafy trees, willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before the Lord for Seven days, you shall separate as a Feast of Lord for seven days, perpetual statues.

Verse 42, you shall live in booths for seven days. All the native born in Israel shall live in booths so that your generation will know that I have the sons of Israel live in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt. I am the Lord you God. You see that you have this annual feast, then for a week it will be what? Remember everybody couldn’t carry around a Bible like we do. They couldn’t carry around a written record. So this was the occasion, the ongoing remainder to them and what would you do with your children? Well, here is another example, you are teaching them what? Well we are going to build this hut out here, you go help gather the twigs and the branches and the leafs, why are we doing this? Well we were slaves in Egypt for 400 years, then God brought us out of Egypt, but when we come out of Egypt, we had to travel in the wilderness and we did not have any permanent homes, so wherever we stopped, we would build a temporary home and so an occasion for Israel to be reminded and for this account of God’s delivering them to be constantly impressed on them, passed on from generation to generation to generation, so that they would not forget.

Down in verse 39, you shall present these to the Lord at your appointed times. Your vowed of offering, these are the offerings that associated with special vows that make you freewill offering, your burnt offering, your grain offerings, your drink offerings, your peace offerings. All these that we have just enumerated in preparation for going into the land are to be a reminder, consistent worship is to be characteristic of God’s people and God’s people to commune with him daily, weekly, monthly. It is an ongoing life saturating activity. This is a holy nation, people holy to the Lord and so they are to be characterized by their worship and it is both an individual worship and a corporate worship. They have their own personal sacrifices and offerings. They have the sacrifices and offerings that they joined together as a nation. And that is to be the characteristic of God’s people.

In that sense while we read this and say my goodness! We know, it’s one of these Chapters, you get the Chapter 28, you are a sort of summarized it like we have done, you at 29 and say okay, I got that and see what is in Chapter 30 here, you think I think I can surely jump a little bit, but what we need to grab from this even though we are not going to offer these sacrifices, we say, why God put this in here? I go through this and think why do you repeat it? You know we got lot of this in Leviticus and some of it in Exodus, I mean you know, Lord we could have sort of done a little bit of convincing here, but the Lord has His purpose in putting this here obviously and it is the reminder even to us who are not going to offer the same kind of sacrifices, we are not going to be obligated to the same kind of days, but we are the people required to be characterized by our worship, that is to saturate our lives and that includes individual personal dimensions, that also includes with corporate dimension.

Come over to the Book Hebrews in the New Testament all the way towards the back of our Bibles, the Book of Hebrews Chapter 10. Hebrews Chapter 10 and the whole Book of Hebrews is about worship and contrasting the Old Testament system and what now takes place in the New Testament or under the new covenant and you have the Aaronic priesthood, Levitical priesthood that was implemented under the Mosaic System and now you have the Melchizedekian priesthood, the priesthood of Christ. You have the old covenant, the Mosaic covenant, and you have the new covenant instituted by Christ.

And in Hebrews Chapter 10 he has emphasized the sacrifice of Christ, of course the first nine Chapters have done that, but we would just pick up with Chapter 10 and the contrast going on here. In Verse 4 of Chapter 10, it is impossible for the blood of bulls and gods to take away sins, the people of the old Testament were saved by their sacrifices, they were saved by their faith in God, believing what God had said and they offered those sacrifices as an expression of their faith in him, because if they believed in him, they obeyed him and God saved them on that basis. The basis of the fact he provided the sacrifice in his son that would be the satisfying sacrifice, so he goes on to talk about the coming of Christ.

In Verse 10, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all, those priests stand daily. Verse 11, offering time after time the same sacrifice of which could not nerve take away sins that it could remind the people the wages of sin is death. Your only hope is you cast yourself in faith on the mercy of God, but he offering one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God, verse 14 for by one offering, he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. In verse 18 after saying, I will remember their sins no more; now where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer any offering for sin. There has been a final sacrifice, I do not need to be reminded every day, every day, every day, because one sacrifice is cleansed me from all my sins.

Verse 19, therefore brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus and you know our worship is still going on by a new living way, which he inaugurated for us through the veil that is to play his flesh. He has opened the way, remember the veil that separated the holy place form the holy of holies and priest, the high priest could only go into the holy of holies once a year, but now the veil was split into two with the death of Christ and now we have access, so he inaugurated it for us. We have confidence to enter the holy place.

Verse 21, since we have a great high priest, a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near. So now we are invited to come into the very presence of God in full assurance of faith, the full assurance that faith has given us having our hearts sprinkled cleaned from an evil conscience, our bodies washed with pure water, let the soul pass the confection of our hope without laboring for he who promised his faithful. Let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together as this is the habit of some, but encouraging one another and all the more you see the days were on you. You see that we personally, but we corporately joined together in the presence of God and in our worship. So in that sense we are learning from the Old Testament.

The provision of God for them, for their personal worship of Him, for their corporate worship of Him and now we are the people of God, we are not Israel, we are the Church, we are not coming with animal sacrifices, but we are coming on the basis of the sacrifice that has been offered and we come individually and we come corporately and some who professed to be believer, some are get confused on this. And I think they do not have to assemble themselves together and they just meet together in their home with their family or whatever and they fail to understand there is the individual worship. But there is the corporate worship that we are not to be forsaking or assembling together and already as the writer of Hebrew noted as he s the practice of some, but it is not what is to be done and that we will look on and you will hear somebody will say look all that matters is I have been redeemed, I am a priest, I can come into the presence of God, but it just is an all about I, it is also about we, and it is not just about we, but it is about I, me. So there is the personal, there is the corporate, just as there was in Israel in the Old Testament. And we come with our sacrifices, they are not animal sacrifices.

You are in the Book of Hebrews. Turn over to Chapter 13, verse 15 see to it that no one comes short to the grace of God. I mean we are right now on Chapter 12, good. Chapter 13, verse 15 through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God. Those days what he is talked about, we have a high priest, we can come with confidence, so we come before a thrown of grace and we have accessed beyond the curtain because he has opened the way through the veil into the very presence of God by his sacrifice. Now we have sacrifices to offer. Let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is the Fruit of Lips and very pictures, it is the picture, it is the calves of our lips and in other words our lips are like the calves that we were sacrificed and we give thanks to his name and as we will use our lips to give thanks to his name, that is a sacrifice of praise to him, a sacrifice that is offered to him, that is pleasing to him and then do not neglect doing good and sharing for with such sacrifices. God is pleased, so now what we are doing with our bodies as those who have been redeemed is presented to him as a sacrifice.

Romans Chapter 12, verse 1, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God on the basis of what God has done for us in mercy and grace and the giving of his son to redeem us. I beseech you what, to present your bodies, living and holy sacrifices. A sacrifice acceptable to God and this is reasonable your spiritual service of worship that my body and all I do with it is offered as a sacrifice to him. So we do not have the animal sacrifices of the Old Testament that are part of our worship, but we are the peoples who are offering him sacrifices all the time and what we are doing with these bodies. What we are saying with our lips, with our doing good to others, with our sharing and fellowship and these are sacrifices that are pleasing to God.

Back up to the Book of Philippians, Chapter 4, the Apostle Paul, we remember is in prison when he writes the letter to the Philippians, it is one of the prison Epistles written by Paul while he was in prison and he has dependent on another people and so he is thankful in Verse 18, Philippians 4, I have received everything in full and having abundance, I am amply supplied, having received from Epaphroditus what you send a fragrant aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well pleasing to God. This in a gift to him to help meet his physical needs. Also the most important thing about what you said was not that it met my needs. The most important thing was you offered a sacrifice to God that was pleasing to him. I am thankful for what you have done for me, but you will understand why is it more significant to that, that it was an offering that you gave to God, that pleased him. A fragrant aroma drawn from the picture of the sacrifices in the Old Testament, where you know they offered that sacrifices and burnt it on the altar, that rose up and God was pleased with their expression of faith and obeying him.

Back up to the Book of Romans, I just quoted a few Romans Chapter 12, go to Romans Chapter 15. Apostle saw everything in his life, everything he did, everything he said, all of his ministry has something offered as a sacrifice to the Lord. And in Romans, Chapter 15, verse 16 we talked about the grace that was given me from God and the God saving him and placing him as an Apostle to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the gentiles, ministering as a priest, the gospel of God, so here he says I am giving out the gospel and that is my priestly ministry, I am standing between God and fallen man. What the priest did in the Old Testament hat he stood between God and man. Now I am like a priest, I am God’s representative and I have God’s truth, God’s gospel and I am giving it out to last men and women, so I am ministering as a priest, the gospel of God.

Note this, so that my offering of the gentiles may become expectable sanctified by the Holy Spirit. He is the Apostle of the gentiles and as these gentiles responded the gospel, they are the offering I am giving to God. This converse, this gentile, who come to believe as I as God’s representative give out the gospel. What a privilege? Well, we have been entrusted with that gospel and I shared with somebody and I am acting as a priest representing the living God. We do not have the order of priest between us as believers. We have one high priest, but you understand the unregenerate person has no relationship with God. We stand as God’s representative and then in that sense we are acting as a priest between them and God because they do not belong to God.

Even the prayers of the wicked are an abomination to God. Book of Proverbs tells us, but we stand as a priest giving them God’s truth so that they might hear and be save by God’s grace and thus become an acceptable sacrifice something that I am offering up to God, that what we say with our lips, what we do with our bodies, our involvement in one another’s life are evangelism, all these things are part now of the sacrifices that we are offered. So you see our lives are permeated again. This is what life for us is all about. We are like the Israelites, we are doing a variety of things that put food on the table, to pay the bills, to live if you will, that life for us is about our God, so it was with Israel, they did it on unique, it’s what makes us unique as the people of God.

Come back to Book of Numbers, tragic that people call to live in this kind of relationship with the sovereign God would be plotting along every day and just you know down and gloomy and wondering why do I do this, what is the purpose, what is, you know and says look I am doing this for the Lord, whatever you do, do it just under the Lord. I mean, something the Lord is given me opportunity to honor him with to give him as a sacrifice. And so our life is lived in a totally different realm if you will, then the lies of the people of this world, that is to prepare Israel from going into the land.

Now Chapter 30, we just summarize this Chapter rather quickly, it is about vows and guidelines on vows and part of the worship in Israel, they would have vows, when they make special commitments to the Lord, may be a vow to do something or to abstain from something for a certain period of time. Often this was associated with the offering of a certain sacrifice. Their vow offerings, vowed with offerings. Chapter 30 emphasizes the importance of keeping the vows that you make, verse 2, if a man makes a vow to the Lord, who takes an oath to bind himself with the binding obligation, he shall not violate his word, should do all the procedure out of a smile, and take careful consideration before you make the vow, but you once make to the Lord, you are obligated to fulfill it. So don’t vow what you may not be able to see through because you have no choice, but to see it through once you make such a commitment.

Now we go on to take about special parameters for women in the making of vows, women were able to make vows, but under certain conditions there were not free to make their own vows. A young woman living in the home of her parents was under the authority of her father, so her ability to make vows was limited by the authority of the father. A married woman is under the authority of her husband and her authority to make vows was limited by the authority of her husband, so verse 3, also if a woman makes a vow to the Lord and binds herself by an obligation in her father’s house in her youth. Her father hears her vow and her obligation by which he is bound herself. Her father says nothing, then her vows will stand and every obligation which is bound herself.

So in other words, the one with authority over her is her father. She is living in his home. If she makes the vow and he is aware of that vow and doesn’t say anything, then the vow goes in force and is binding from that point. Now he can’t change his mind either because she is bound by. But verse 5, if her father should forbid her on the day he hears of it, none of her vows or obligation which is bound herself shall stand. The Lord will forgive her because her father has forbidden her, so she may have had good intentions, but there is an authority over her and she is not free to make a vow outside of his authority and this keeps things from happening because this kept, for example, a young woman at home for making a vow and telling her father that she did not have to obey him in this case because of her vow to the Lord supersedes his authority. So the authority structures that God has put in place are binding and we see this in the New Testament where the Jews has thought that they get around their obligation to Lord because they made certain vows then. They didn’t have to take care of their parents because they made a vow committing their material possessions to the Lord, so they couldn’t use them to support their parents, and you say you just are trying to nullify the word of God by you empty traditions. So here you have guideline clearly set.

And then verse 6, you have in the context of marriage and again a married woman is under the authority of her husband. Verses 6 to 8, so she makes a vow, but her husband is aware of her making the vow, who becomes aware of it and then says no, then her vow is not in force because she does not have the authority to make a commitment a vow to the Lord that her husband would not approve. You can’t get around the authority that God has established at this point, but if her husband has sensed to that vow, then that vow is in force and he is obligated of course to allow her to see it through. Now verse 9 you have a widow or divorced woman, then she has a freedom that the others don’t. The vow of a widow or divorced woman, everything by which she has bound herself shall stand against her; however, if she vowed in her husband’s house or vowed herself by an obligation with those and her husband heard it, so the restriction would be if a woman did something and her husband overruled it, then if she is widowed or divorced, we can’t say that vow is enforce, again that would rule out any kind of conflict there. That authority was in place when the vow was taken, so the vow is not in existence because it was cancelled by the greater authority, the authority of the husband in this case, we talk about one who becomes widowed or so, that is the context of the vows.

Down through the rest of the section, verse 13, every vow, every binding oath to humble herself, her husband may confirm it or her husband may know it. But if her husband indeed says nothing to her from day to day, then he confirms all her vows or obligations which are honor, he has confirmed them because he said nothing to her on the day when he heard it, became aware of it, but if he knows them after he has heard of them, then he shall bear her guilt. In other words, he can’t overrule in these cases. A wife can’t go out and commit herself to a vow and her husband not when he becomes aware of it, he has the authority to nullify it, just keeping the order going in Israel and again come to the New Testament, Matthew Chapter 15. You know when we were kids and I assume kids till do it in one way or another. You know the thing when we were kids if you crossed your fingers, did not count, so you know anything, when you friends will say, oh, I am going to do this, so why I have my fingers crossed, it doesn’t count.

Well, you know the Jews, if the grown up kids and that is what I referred in Matthew Chapter 15, look at verse 3. Why do you yourselves transverse the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? God set on your father and mother, He will speak to both father and mother to put to death, but you say whoever says to his father and mother whatever I have that will be helped you, has been given to God. He is not the honored father and mother because of course you are oaths to God supersede you oath to physical people, by this you invalidated the word of God for the sake of your tradition. You hypocrites, rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you, “these person honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.” In vain to their worship, we teaching his doctrines the precepts of man, then similar section what we saw in Matthew 7 and I studied together this morning.

Again, you can use your vows to the Lord to nullify the word of God and here the example with parents, but same idea with the authority that the father had over the daughter; the husband had over the wife, the vow is conditioned by that. Other than that, the vow is obligatory. You come to the New Testament, there are warnings about vows because they had degenerated and being corrupted as much of the rest of the instruction God had given to them. There was nothing wrong with the instructions God had given, but the way that Israel and their unbelief had added to and taken away, they had corrupted much of the intent. You are in Matthew, back up to Chapter 5, verse 33, you have heard that the ancients were told that you shall not make false vows, but you shall fulfill your vows to the Lord, but I said you make no oath at all, either by heaven for it is a thrown of God or by earth for it is the footstool of his feet or by Jerusalem it is a city of the king, you shall not make an oath by your head nor by, because you can’t make one hair white or black, like you statement be yes, yes or no, no, beyond this anything is evil.

So just like we saw in Mark 7 in our study earlier today by Jesus statements he made all foods holy, so here he nullifies the impact of the vow. Your words are to be good and say I am going to meet you tomorrow at ten and I will bring the tools I borrowed from you. I swear I will, why you have to swear? My words are to be good, my yes are to be yes, my now are be no. And that is what binds me and I don’t have any control over things. If I get hit by a car tonight, I am in the hospital in a coma; I can’t bring your tools tomorrow. So my yes is yes to the best of my knowledge, the best of my ability, hence the point here I can’t change things. They even color hair on those days, but you know we are talking about true color here, white and black and can’t make your hair; we can’t change the color of your hair. I don’t have control over things out of my control, so my yes is yes, my no is no and you take it that way. If I make an appointment for you for a lunch on Thursday and again I get hit by a car on the way of my lunch and I don’t show up, you don’t say you didn’t keep your word. You understand that, I intended to in to the best of my ability, I would have, but I couldn’t. And now if I swear to it and have a vow, I guess we will have wheeled in the cart that is what we know in James says the same thing.

James Chapter 5, verse 12, so do not swear either by heaven or by earth or with any other oaths, but your yes is to be yes and your no is to be no. You may not fall under judgment, so generally we don’t. Now this always becomes a question, we are going to go into any depth on this, but what about when you go to the court and you say, you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing, but the truth, so help you God. So we take those kinds of oaths, but it doesn’t seem that particularly what is in view, but that bothers your conscience and you thing that isn’t violation here. There are occasions when you see the Apostle Paul does take an oath. Jesus himself does respond to owe when he is confronted with that, but there I can tell you to the best of ability, I am going to tell you the truth. That’s what I am saying by that oath. You know, God’s going to tell the truth, now for us we assume people are liars and you will lie unless you put under oath. But Christ believes that is not the case, right? So I need you to swear that you will do what you say, I know, you are the lawyer, your word is good.

You say you will do it, you won’t do it, You won’t tell me, you won’t do it and then go out and do it behind my back and I do not need an oath from you because your word is good, that is the whole point here. You fairly cannot take an oath and understanding is you can affirm your word in the court. To me, that it would be an area of liberty, somewhat I have been able to read and study on this. Most words I guess would not forbid, every oath in every kind of situation, but it shouldn’t be a part of our life. Our word is good. We operate on that and so that is the parameters of oath in Israel, oath will be part of Israel’s life and they will make special vows of commitment. They will make Nazirite as commitment, and Sampson and the hair won’t be cut and so on, often that usually made for a period of time, some of those like though presents to be a life time vow that he was bound by. Someone else could do it for a certain period of time and they were obligated to fulfill that, all this remember is in preparation for Israel going into the Land and now we have to do something.

We are not going to go into the next Chapter, but we have got something of the guidelines for their religious life in the land and their vows would often be in that context while they are part of sacrificial things of the previous two Chapters, but what’s going to happen next is God tells Moses you have one other jobs to do before you die. I want you to wipe out the unregenerate people of this region. What we are doing is preparing to go into the land, so we are going to kill all those who could be our enemies and all our enemies and that will mean when we cross the Jordan, we don’t have to be worried about our backs because we are going to wipe out the Moabites and all their allies and every man, woman and child with an exception, certain route will be preserved and then some of the land will be divided up there according to the request of certain tribes and we will pray pretty much for what is going to take for Moses to go up and die and Israel to experience finally the fulfillment of promises to go into the land, conquer it and inhabit it as God’s people.

Let’s pray together. Thank you Lord that you are true to your word. Thank you that you are a God who desires our worship, who provided for Israel to have a relationship with you to walk in faith, to experience cleansing and forgiveness by believing in you as their God in the provision you would make for them, the ongoing daily, weekly, monthly and annual expressions of their faith and there worship. Lord, we thank you that as the church from Jesus Christ, we are your people today and fertilize to have to a have a relationship of greater intimacy because of the high priest that we have, who has made possible by his death, our access into your very presence. Lord, how important it is that out lives be characterized by holiness that we recognize that all that we are and all that we do is to be a sacrifice offered to you.

You might be pleased and honored, and glorify, and praised. Lord I will pray that, that will impact us in all that we do and all of our activities, every day of the week. We are never anything less than the people of the living God. We are functioning as his servants who are about his work, who are doing his will. Thank you that we are privileged to serve as priests bringing the truth of the gospel to the laws. Lord, may we stand as strong and bright testimonies to who you are and the power of your salvation, in the midst of the darkness of this world. Thank you for your truth. Thank you for the presence of your spirit in our lives to enable us to sustain us that we might enjoy you every moment of every day. We will praise you in Christ’s name, amen.