Wednesday. September 6, 2023

For the food and fellowship, we thank you for the body of believers that you have called us into, a family of faith. I'm so grateful that we get to pray for one another, we get to lift each other up to you, our help.

Lord, I pray that as I give the lesson tonight, that you would increase and I would decrease, that I would say what needs to be said and be guided by the Spirit. We thank you for your word and its clarity.

Lord, I pray that I would be clear. We thank you for your goodness to us. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. So this evening I'm going to talk a little bit about promises, oaths, covenants, but I'm only going to touch on these things.

Hopefully this lesson will bring things to your mind because there are so many passages about covenants and oaths and promises and vows. Hopefully in covering this topic, it'll bring to mind things for you and the one that we're looking to and you'll be more mindful of who it is that holds all of this in his hand and what he has done.

So that's my prayer for this evening. So I'm going to start out in Genesis 3 and then hopefully this will unfold in a clear way. But Genesis 3, 1 through 3, this is the fall. It says, now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made.

He said to the woman, did God really say you must not eat from any tree in the garden? The woman said to the serpent, we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say you must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden and you must not touch it or you will die.

A little later it says she took and she ate it. She also gave some to her husband who was with her and he ate it. A little bit later when God finds them, he says, because you have listened to your wife and ate the fruit of the tree about which I commanded you, you must not eat from it.

So a couple of thoughts, where was Eve when the command was given to Adam? It's in chapter two, Genesis chapter two, when God creates them. Eve had not been created yet. So God gives the command to Adam.

We see in the interaction between Eve and the serpent, she doesn't state the command correctly. It's twisted. It's not what God had commanded. She adds an additional command to it. You shall not touch of it.

Now that didn't stop her because not only did she touch it, the rule that she had made, she ate it, the rule that God had set forth. So she broke her made up rule and God's command. She was created as a helper, which included keeping the command, helping her husband to keep the command.

The command was given to him. Eve changed it. Where was Adam? So Eve was not there when the command was given. Where was Adam when she was speaking to the serpent? He was there. It says that he was there with her and then she takes and she gives it to him and he was there.

So he did know the command, but he stayed silent. He did not correct her and he did not stop her. And then he went along with it. Now Eve was deceived, but Adam knowingly went against what God's command was.

So he stayed silent. He joined her in breaking God's command. This is just kind of a side observation, but as married couples, it is possible for God to give one spouse a conviction that he doesn't give to the other spouse.

And that could be the husband or the wife. And that works itself out in different ways. If the husband has a conviction about a certain thing, then he's the one that has to convey that to his wife and do it in such a way that he lives with her in an understanding way.

And if it's the wife that has a certain conviction about it, then they pray about it. And the husband still lives with the wife in an understanding way, looking to scripture to see what scripture says.

Man's fallible, woman is fallible. So sometimes our convictions have to change to come in line with scripture. But it is possible for God to give a command that the other spouse has to submit to. Eve was there as a helper, and she was to submit to the command that God had given to Adam.

And here we see that that didn't happen. And this will come up a little bit later. So in thinking of oaths, there was a command that was given to Adam, and Eve changed it. That was not the command. That was not the agreement.

She changed it, and Adam remained silent. In Leviticus 5 .4, it says, if a person swears, speaking thoughtlessly with his lips to do evil or to do good, whatever it is that a man may pronounce by an oath, and if he is unaware of it, when he realizes it, then he shall be guilty in any of these matters.

So swearing to do something, it's an oath. It's a promise. You are saying, I am going to do this thing. And it says here whether it's good or evil. So even in promising or swearing to do something good, if you don't do that thing, it's breaking that promise or swearing to do something evil.

And so this is kind of like a thoughtless swearing, making an oath. And this will be expounded a little bit later. If you'll turn to Numbers chapter 30. Numbers chapter 30. So in Genesis, Adam was responsible for Eve.

When she sinned, he was responsible. He joined her in it. Numbers chapter 30 says this, looking at, let's start, I believe at 10. Yeah, Numbers 30 .10. If she vowed in her husband's house or bound herself by an agreement with an oath, and her husband heard it and made no response to her and did not overrule her, then all her vows shall stand.

And by every agreement by which she bound herself shall stand. But if her husband truly made them void on the day he heard them, then whatever proceeded from her lips concerning her vows or concerning the agreement binding her, it shall not stand.

Her husband has made them void and the Lord will release her. Every vow and every binding oath to afflict her soul, her husband may confirm it or her husband may make it void. Now her husband makes no response, whatever to her from day to day, then he confirms all her vows or all her agreements that bind her.

He confirms them because he made no response to her on the day that he heard them. So we find this interesting in talking about authority or headship or making promises. Here it says that the man and the relationship has the ability to void a vow.

In our culture, that's a no-no. That's something men aren't supposed to do, right? And you hear this different ways. The woman is always right or the man may be the head, but the woman is the neck and she turns the head whichever way wants to go.

But that's not necessarily the case. And I want to be careful. Whenever we talk about roles between husbands and wife, we're not talking about value. We are equal. We're created in God's image. So we're not talking about the value of a woman or the value of a man.

But in the marriage relationship, it's not like a corporation and you have a board and each member has 50 -50 share. Who breaks the tie, right? If there's a disagreement. No, there's a hierarchy just like Christ and the church.

There's a hierarchy. Each person has their opinions and they bring different points of view to the table. But ultimately, we see that the man is responsible for his wife, right? He's responsible to her.

He has authority over her. This is not a value thing. It's his role. Now, this is in our culture, like I said, a big no-no, but there's value to this. What if Adam, on the day that he heard that his wife had made a deal with a serpent, we shall not touch?

He said, no, no, no. That's not what God said. God said this, you shall not eat of it and we're not going to eat of it. We're not going to do that. That's him practicing headship and protecting his wife.

That's what this verse is about in Numbers. It's the husband's role to protect and to provide for his wife. So this is not a negative thing, a domineering, controlling thing. This is a protector role.

Another odd story is in Judges. Judges chapter 11, 29 through 40. So this is an example of a vow made hastily. Starting verse 29, then the spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah and he passed through Gilead and Manasseh and passed through Mitzpah of Gilead and from Mitzpah of Gilead he advanced toward the people of Ammon.

And Jephthah made a vow to the Lord and said, if you will indeed deliver the people of Ammon into my hands, then it will be that whatever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the people of Ammon, will surely be the Lord's and I will offer it up as a burnt offering.

If you know the story continuing on, the first thing to meet him is his daughter. And he had made this vow hastily and he ends up offering his daughter up as a burnt offering. And we think that was a bad thing that he did, but he had made a vow to the Lord.

Now a couple of thoughts on this. This narrative shows the seriousness to which they took vows. I think in our culture we flippantly say things often, which as we read in Leviticus, if you say something flippantly and you do not make good on that, you're held guilty.

And we'll cover that in a minute, but they took it very seriously. But this man was the head. He was the man. And as the head, he made this vow. There was no one there to release him from his vow. And so as men, we have that responsibility to be very careful the promises we make, what we commit to doing, because he was responsible for that.

The other thing I'd point out is he had no control over that situation. He made a vow. He didn't know what was going to come out of the door. He made a vow rashly, not having control over what would happen.

And so you continue on on the outline. We see a little bit of this in the New Testament. I won't go through all of it, but in Matthew 5, Jesus is teaching on this. You've heard it said of old, you shall not swear falsely, but shall perform your oaths to the Lord.

But I say to you, do not swear at all, neither by heaven, for it's God's throne, nor by earth, for it is footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great king. Nor shall you swear by your head, because you cannot make one hair white or black.

But let your yes be yes, and your no be no, for whatever is more than these is from the evil one. And so on this, he's pointing to things. You don't have control over the color of your hair. So don't swear by that.

You are not in control over heaven. That's God's throne. So don't swear by that. And so we see this idea of what do you have authority over? What do you have the authority to make promises on? He says, just let your yes be yes, and your no be no.

We also see this in James chapter 4. Come now, you who say today or tomorrow, we'll go to such and such city. We'll spend a year there, buy and sell and make profit. Whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow, for what is your life?

It is even a vapor that appears for a little time, and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, if the Lord wills, we will live and do this or do that. But now you boast in your arrogance, all such boasting is evil.

And so our trust should be in the Lord. If the Lord wills this, I will do such and such. And so it's elevated to a place of instead of trusting in ourselves and making vows in our own flesh, we trust God who has made promises and does make promises.

So this is kind of talking about vows and oaths. Number two, it says faithfulness and peaceful feet. So this takes a little bit of a turn, but I hope to tie it up in a minute. If you'll look at Ruth chapter 4, most of you know this story.

So we'll go through it. Ruth chapter 4, 7 through 11. Now this was the custom in former times in Israel concerning redeem and redeemer. This was the custom to confirm anything one man took off his sandal and gave it to another.

And this was a confirmation in Israel. Therefore the close relative said to Boaz, buy it for yourself. So he took off his sandal and Boaz said to the elders and all the people, you are witnesses this day that I have bought all that was a limulex and all that was chileans and melons from the hand of Naomi.

Moreover, Ruth the Moabitess, the widow of Melon, I have acquired as my wife to perpetuate the name of the dead through this inheritance, that the name of the dead may not be cut off and from his position at the gate, you are witnesses this day.

And all the people who were at the gate and the elders said, we are witnesses. The Lord make the woman who is coming to your house like Rachel and Leah, the two built the house of Israel and may you prosper in Ephrath and be famous in Bethlehem.

I always thought this a little bit strange, like why are we taking shoes off as a promise, promissory note for the wives or for the land? Like I promised to do this, here's my shoe, right? So, sorry, my shoe got caught.

Earlier in Deuteronomy, and I'll read this for you, Deuteronomy 25, five through 10. If brothers dwell together and one of them dies and has no son, the widow of the dead man shall not be married to a stranger outside the family.

Her husband's brother shall go into her and take her as a wife and perform the duty of a husband's brother to her. And it shall be that the firstborn son, which he bears will succeed to the name of his dead brother, that his name may not be blotted out of the Israel.

So this is the same type of language, carrying on a name, their name may not be blotted out. Verse seven, but if the man does not take, does not want to take his brother's wife, then let his brother's wife go up to the gate of the elders and say, my husband's brother refuses to raise up a name to his brothers in Israel.

He will not perform the duty of my husband's brother. Then the elders of the city shall call to him and speak to him. But if he stands firm and says, I do not want to take her, then the brother's wife shall come to him in the presence of the elders, remove his sandal from his foot, spit in his face and answer and say, so shall it be done to the man who will not build up his brother's house.

And his name shall be called in Israel, the house of him who had his sandal removed. What is that talking about? So another reference, and we're just going to pocket this talk about shoes for a minute, but another reference is in Psalm 60 verse eight.

He's talking about Edom and he says just in a verse here, he says, over Edom, I will throw my sandal. And this is God speaking about Edom. So why is God using the same language about Edom? There's a translation here in the NET.

It says the point of the metaphor is not altogether clear. Some interpret it as meaning taking possession of, I will take possession of Edom. Another interpretation, they take one of the words to mean something different.

So they understand it as a master throwing his sandal, his dirty sandal to a servant to shake the dust off of it. Now we have references of like that in the New Testament, right? So Old Testament passages talking about faithfulness.

If a man is not faithful, his sandal be removed. You might get spit in your face. You might have violence done to you. How does the New Testament treat this? Well, in Matthew 10, Jesus is speaking and starting in verse 11, it says, now, whatever city or town you enter, inquire who in it is worthy and stay there till you go out.

And when you go into a household, greet it. If the household is worthy, let your peace come upon it. If it is not worthy, let your peace return to you and whoever will not receive you nor hear your words, when you depart from that house or city, shake off the dust from your feet.

So here we have this idea of shaking the dust off our feet tied to peace. And it's interesting when he goes through the armor of God, the gospel of peace is tied to having your shoes shod with the gospel of peace.

He goes through all of those. I'd like to tie these two together. In Malachi 2, 16, it says, for the Lord God of Israel says that he hates divorce for it covers one's garment with violence, says the Lord of hosts.

Therefore, take heed to your spirit that you do not deal treacherously. It's all those passages like in Ruth and in Deuteronomy. If the man would not fulfill his responsibility, violence would be done to him versus the faithful are said to have peace, to bring peace, to have their feet shod with the gospel of peace.

So then the last point on vows, and then I'll tie this together. I have broken covenants. So another type of promise or vow is covenants. And here we talk about the unfaithful bride. So when God made a covenant with Abraham about your descendants will number the stars of the sky, he makes that covenant with him.

And then the way that he does this is he has Abraham bring all these animals. They cut these animals in half. And then God puts Abraham to sleep. Now what traditionally is done is both parties of the covenant would walk between the two halves of the animals together.

And what they're saying is whatever is done to these animals, if we break the covenant, let that be done to us. But God puts Abraham to sleep and he goes through by himself, taking upon himself the responsibilities of the covenant.

If you look at Jeremiah 31, 31 through 32, he says this, behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers.

And that day I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant, which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the Lord. So here we see God claiming to be the husband of Israel.

And she has been unfaithful. She has broken the covenant with her husband. Now remember in Malachi, the Lord hates divorce. It brings violence upon the one that was unfaithful. And we see that with Israel later on.

Another verse is Hebrews in the New Testament, Hebrews 8, talking about the new covenant. It's not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers and the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they did not continue in my covenant and I disregarded them, says the Lord, because they were unfaithful.

So we have all these different types of promises. We have these covenants. We have this reference to men being able to void vows that their wives have made. And then we get to the new covenant. We get to Jesus and we get to Christ, where all of the promises are yes and amen.

So I'd like to say that number one, Jesus is the promise keeper. So we see several places in the Bible where it says that the Lord has sworn. Psalm 132, the Lord has sworn in truth to David, he will not turn from it.

I will set upon your throne the fruit of your body. So God swears, God makes an oath and he says that he will keep it. Psalm 116, 14 through 19, I will pay my vows to the Lord now in the presence of all his people.

Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. Oh Lord, truly I am your servant. I am your servant, the son of your maidservant. You have loosed my bonds. I will offer to you the sacrifices of thanksgiving.

And I will call upon the name of the Lord. Listen to this. I will pay my vows to the Lord now in the presence of all his people in the courts of the Lord's house in the midst of you, oh Jerusalem, praise the Lord.

This is a reference to Jesus keeping his vows, praising God in the presence of his people in the midst of Jerusalem. Hebrews 6, it says for when God made a promise to Abraham, because he could not swear by anyone greater, he swore by himself saying, surely blessing, I will bless you and multiplying, I will multiply you.

So God swears by himself. Just like we cannot swear on things we have no control over, God is sovereign over everything. Everything that he promises will come to pass. Jesus is our promised protector.

So the first Adam, when he fell, he did not avoid the vow that she had made. He stayed silent. He fell with her and then he blamed her, the woman that you gave me. The second Adam does not blame his bride.

He lays down his life and in rising again, he voids any of those false vows that were made. He's our protector. He keeps the covenant himself. Just as he passed between the two halves of the animals, Jesus was the sacrifice on the cross, laying down his life, taking the punishment that we deserved, just like he's promised to take the punishment that Abraham deserved.

He nullifies our faulty vows. We're under his headship as the bride of Christ. And I think we could easily think of times where we made hasty vows or we promised to do something. I'll pray for you. I'll pray for you.

And then you don't. But we're under the headship of Christ, the bridegroom. Now we should, when we say we're going to do something, we should do that thing, but he is a good God and a gracious God. And when we fall short, he makes the difference.

He is our providential provider. And I think these are just quick references. In Genesis, who was it that provided the covering? They tried to do fig leaves, but he provided skin covering. John 3 .16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son.

Abraham, when he's on the mountain and is getting ready to sacrifice his son, there's a ram that's provided providentially. Isaiah 61 .10, I will rejoice greatly in the Lord. My soul shall exalt in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation.

He has covered me with the robe of righteousness as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with jewels. He is the prince of peace. Again, how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who proclaims peace, who brings glad tidings of good things, who proclaims salvation.

So it's speaking about Jesus here, and peace and salvation are tied to feet again. He's tied to Melchizedek, who is the king of Salem, the king of peace. Melchizedek brings bread and wine. He's the king of the most high God.

And then God says in Hebrew 7, for this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the most high God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, to whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all, first being translated king of righteousness, and then also king of Salem, meaning king of peace.

Jesus is called the prince of peace in Isaiah 9 .6. So he is our prince of peace. And in the last reference here, and you've got notes there for Christ of the covenant. I'd encourage you to go through those notes at home.

There's a reference in Matthew and in Mark that I didn't really understand for a long time. So they come out to John the Baptist, and he's out there baptizing people. Jesus says about John the Baptist, assuredly I say to you, among those born to women, there is none risen, one greater than John the Baptist.

But he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. So John the Baptist is the last prophet of the old covenant. He's the last prophet. And he speaks here whenever Jesus comes, one is coming whom I'm not worthy to undo the strap of his sandal.

And I said, what is he talking about there? I'd never, I'm not worthy to carry his sandal. And in looking about the kinsman redeemer, John the Baptist is saying, I have nothing to lay at his feet. There's no charge to give him.

He was the faithful bridegroom. Israel was unfaithful. And Jesus, who is faithful to the bridegroom, as a faithful bridegroom, is faithful to his bride. And so we're seeing a handing off of, he's not unfaithful to his people.

And Paul says in Romans, has God been unfaithful to the Jews? No, he is not. Not all Israel is Israel. Christ is perfectly faithful. He kept the old covenant and he institutes the new covenant. So I'd encourage you to look through Christ of the covenant, that last point there, number three, because not only did he make the covenant, he is our covenant.

And I found that very encouraging. Let's pray. God, we thank you so much for your word. We thank you for your faithfulness, for your goodness. We ask that as we look at our responsibilities as mothers and fathers, as siblings, we pray that we would put all of our hope and trust in you.

For we know we will fall short, but we know that you keep your promises, that you are faithful, and you've been very good to us. We thank you for saving us. And we pray for those in our family that are not saved, that you would do the same for them.

In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.