NUMBERS 30
Moses spoke the words contained in this chapter “to the heads of the tribes of the children of Israel”. This suggests that God anticipated that the spirit of devotedness, of which vows are expressive, would be found universally amongst His people. We have been considering in the two previous chapters certain things which were obligatory in the service of God, but we come now to movements which are the spontaneous fruit of His grace and love being known in the hearts of His people. They are what we sing of sometimes as “the answering chord to love so rich and free”. God delights in such spiritual movements; they are specially pleasing to Him. But even such movements of heart have to be subject to divine regulation, or they may run off in directions which are not in accord with the will of God.
The whole of this chapter, save one verse, is occupied with the woman who vows. But that one exceptional verse is most important, for I believe it refers typically to Christ. “If a man vow a vow to Jehovah, or swear an oath to bind his soul with a bond, he shall not break his word; according to all that hath gone out of his mouth shall he do” (verse 2). There is nothing contemplated here that has to be prohibited or annulled. In [p. 349] the case of the woman who vows there may be something which is not allowed to stand, as we shall see. But in the man, as seen here, everything stands that goes out of his mouth. It refers to Christ as the One in whom the spirit of a vow has been seen in absolute perfection. He came into the world with those wondrous words upon His lips, “Behold I come, in the volume of the book it is written of me — To do thy good pleasure, my God, is my delight, and thy law is within my heart” (Psalm 40:7,8). The ears prepared (Psalm 40:6) set forth the perfect obedience in which He undertook to do all that was in the will of God, but there was along with this a self-dedication that found delight in doing it, and was in the true spirit of a vow. We may see the difference between obedience and the spirit of a vow when the Lord was twelve years of age. His parents went up to the feast, and completed the days; they did all that obedience required, and the Boy Jesus was with them in this. But having done this they returned, but He remained behind in Jerusalem. There was with Him a devotion to His Father’s business that detained Him; when no legal obligation rested on Him He was moved by a spontaneous spiritual impulse, the true spirit of a vow. His heart found its home in the temple; His delight was there.
Then, again, as the true Hebrew Bondman He fulfilled His full term of service, but, having done so, when He might have gone out free He took up perpetual service on different ground. “But if the bondman shall say distinctly, I love my master, my wife, and my children, I will not go free” (Exodus 21:6). This was no obligation imposed on Him, but it was a bond taken up in the liberty of love, by which He bound Himself, and to which He is held. And we may be assured that He is fully equal to everything that He has undertaken, both in love and in capability, so that [p. 350] it is impossible that any part of it should fail of accomplishment. He could truly have said what another said under circumstances of great sorrow, “I have opened my mouth to Jehovah, and I cannot go back”, but with this great difference that whereas Jephthah vowed rashly, not knowing what would be involved in his vow, the Lord knew perfectly what was involved in His vow, and was prepared to carry it out, whatever the cost.
All that He undertook in His love to the Father He has brought to completion. And all that He has undertaken for the assembly will be carried through without fail, whether it be His delivering Himself up for it, or His sanctifying or purifying it, or His presenting it to Himself glorious. All is viewed in Ephesians 5 as effected by Himself in the devotion of His love. He was pledged to it from the very beginning, and faith’s deepest comfort and joy is the assurance that He will not break His word. However great the cost involved, He will do all that has gone out of His mouth. Hence He is called “Faithful and True” (Revelation 19:11). “If we are unfaithful, he abides faithful, for he cannot deny himself” (2 Timothy 2:13). He is “the holy, the true” (Revelation 3:7); whatever may be the state of an unfaithful church, there is an unalterable steadfastness about everything that has gone out of His mouth, and He will surely do it.
But the woman who vows represents movements of devotedness as found amongst the saints, and it is very comely that there should be movements in us which correspond in measure with those blessed movements which are seen in Christ. But we shall see in the case of the woman that she is normally either “in her father’s house in her youth”, or she has a husband, and her vows only stand as they are allowed by her father or her husband. She may have her vow prohibited or annulled, and this would remind us that some of our vows may not stand. It is most important that any [p. 351] desire or purpose of devotedness which may spring up in our hearts should be ratified by our Father and by our Husband. The daughter under parental care may have reference to the saints in their individual exercises, while the wife would speak of assembly exercises as in relation to Christ as Head. It is, no doubt, possible to devote oneself in a way that springs from a real desire to serve God, but which He may not be pleased to confirm. The confirmation of a vow lies in the support which is given to carry it out. We may want to be devoted in a way of our own selection, and when this is the case there is almost sure to be a subtle element of self-pleasing in it. There may be the thought of being or doing something great. Very often we do not know ourselves, or our true measure as vessels, and the desire to serve has mixed motives behind it. The result is that we attempt what we cannot accomplish, and we serve with effort and not in freedom. Our “vow” is not sanctioned, perhaps because we are not yet spiritually equal to it. Many a devoted servant has to be continually let down by experience of failure, or by the discovery of that in himself which is inconsistent with the place he takes publicly. The Lord may even help us in relation to the truth, or in putting it out, while at the same time He has to put us through discipline which reduces us to the point when He can give us His full support, and we can serve in complete liberty. Our “vow” has to be fashioned into harmony with what is in His mind; He will not always allow it to stand in the form which it took in our minds or hearts. But we learn eventually that a little bit which is consciously supported by the Lord is very much more than what is large and laborious without that support. Our Father or our Husband may sometimes allow things to stand, as Jehovah did with Israel’s vow in Exodus 19, so that we may be disciplined in the course which we [p. 352] take up, and learn needed lessons. In such a case we have really, in the end, to fall back upon our Father or our Husband to get us out of difficulties which we have brought upon ourselves.
It is sad to be in the place of a “widow” or one “divorced” who has nobody to confirm her vow or to annul it. The effect is that her vow stands, not for but “against her” (verse 9). A “widow” represents the assembly as having lost the sense of Christ’s headship after having it, and in such a position all her vows “stand against her”. It is a, serious thing to form purposes at a distance from Christ, and in ignorance of His mind. The assembly, as holding Christ as Head, and remaining true to her wifely place, would surely never think of making a vow, or entertaining a purpose that would be in any way divergent from His mind. But, alas! the assembly, as in responsibility here, has not maintained this position. The Lord’s words to the assemblies in Revelation 2, Revelation 3 make this very clear. The assembly in Ephesus had left her first love; she had got away in heart from her Husband; and if not quite in the place of a “widow” she was on the way to it. What He spoke of in Revelation 2:2,3 was, no doubt, somewhat on the line of a “vow”, but it had so little value in His sight now that she had left her first love that if He came to her as unrepentant it could only be to remove her lamp out of its place. This would be to disown her publicly, and put her in the place of a divorced woman. Indeed this would seem to be the position reached in Thyatira, because the Lord addresses a remnant there, and to do so is as much as to say that there is so much unfaithfulness in the public body that He had to disown it. It is very solemn when Christ has to disown what has professed to be His; He speaks of some whom He will have to deny. It is evident that, in such a position, any “vows” that are made will “stand against”
[p. 353] those that make them. They could not possibly do otherwise. One of the most solemn things in the history of Christendom is that many vows have been made which have been supposed to indicate a desire to be or do something for Christ or for God which will be found to “stand against” those who have made them. How many have made vows who did not know the value or peace of accomplished redemption, or their place in Christ. Such vows could only be fleshly and legal, and they will stand against those who have made them for they will never be able to carry them out. A vow made in ignorance of what is really pleasing to God can never be acceptable.
But while we beware of vows which our Father and Husband do not confirm and establish, and while we fully recognise the valuelessness of vows made when the “widow” or “divorced” condition is present, we must not overlook the spiritual value of a true “vow”. Paul says of the assemblies of Macedonia that “they gave themselves first to the Lord, and to us by God’s will” (2 Corinthians 8:5). That was a true “vow” — a collective dedication that went even beyond the hopes of the apostle. The presenting to God of our bodies a living sacrifice, spoken of in Romans 12:1, is the normal result of the compassions of God being known in an effective way in the soul. And in no saint has the spirit of a “vow” been more fully seen than in the apostle Paul. “For the love of the Christ constrains us, having judged this: that one died for all, then all have died; and he died for all, that they who live should no longer live to themselves, but to him who died for them and has been raised” (2 Corinthians 5:14, 15). He could say that Timothy had been thoroughly acquainted with his “purpose” — that inward, steadfast bent of mind that would not be turned aside by any obstacle within or around, and which would answer in a Christian to the “vow” of Numbers 30. And Paul would have us all to be similarly set, having before us the great thoughts of God as to His people. No doubt Numbers 30: has “the land” in view, and purpose in the hearts of His people to be definitely for Him in occupying it. And this is in the mind of Paul when he says, “but one thing — forgetting the things behind, and stretching out to the things before, I pursue, looking towards the goal, for the prize of the calling on high of God in Christ Jesus”. He would have similar purpose of heart to be in us all. “As many therefore as are perfect, let us be thus minded; and if ye are any otherwise minded, this also God shall reveal to you” (Philippians 3:13 - 15).
Vows in Scripture generally refer to something which the heart proposes to offer to God in special recognition of some favour from Him. So that the sacrifice of peace-offering might be a vow (Leviticus 7:16), in which case it would minister to the communion or fellowship of saints, as bringing in something that becomes the substance of common joy to “all that are clean”. This enables us to see the force of such scriptures as “I will pay my vows before them that fear him” (Psalm 22:25). “I will perform my vows unto Jehovah, yea, before All his people” (Psalm 116:14,18). Energetic movements of heart Godward at the present time should always have His assembly in view, for it is pre-eminently the place where He is served, answering to the place where He set His Name of old. A vow that does not in some way enrich the communion of the assembly has not matured properly. Hence the psalmist said, “I will go into thy house with burnt-offerings: I will perform my vows to thee, which my lips have uttered, and my mouth hath spoken, when I was in trouble” (Psalm 66:13,14). Spiritual movements in the hearts of God’s people are not to be dissipated vaguely in any direction that we think proper; they are to result in offerings in His [p. 355] house, and thus, as brought to a common centre, they swell the volume of sweet odour which ascends to Him. It is not for us to talk about our vows, but to see that the saints gain something from them. The saints do not know what has gone on in secret between our souls and God, but they have part in the result when it comes out in the assembly.
Being “in trouble” has a very happy result when it leads to “vows” being uttered. We ought not to need “trouble” to prompt us to vow, but often this is the case. How often there is little thought of what is due from us personally to God until some “trouble” makes us realise how dependent we are on Him; and then the thought springs up in the heart that if He will only bring us through, or out of, our difficulties, we will bring something to Him that we have hitherto neglected to bring. How many have uttered such vows! And it is good when God gets something as a result of our being “in trouble”, though this is hardly the highest form that a vow can take.