To Oath or Not to Oath: That is the Question

Lets start by reading a story from God's Word about a man named Jephthah. (I'm not quite sure what his mother was thinking.) He was a judge of Israel during the time of, you got it, the Judges. He makes a somewhat foolish oath to God, and you'll see what happens.

CLICK HERE to read the story (Judges 11:30-40). In a nutshell, this guy named Jephthah is fighting against the children of Ammon. He isn't doing so well, so he decides he'll ask God for help. (Good so far.) To make God hear his prayer better, he decides he'll try to bribe God. He says that if God allows him to win this battle, that he will sacrifice whoever comes out of his house first. So, God hears him, and lets him win. He goes back to his house as happy as can be, but when he gets there, his daughter comes running out of the door dancing and playing her little timbrels. Uh-oh. He rips his clothes off and weeps before God. He wants to take his oath back but doesn't think he can. He knows what he needs to do. He tells his daughter this, and as you can image, she is not too impressed. She tells him to give her two months so that she can have some time to take-in her last bit of life. Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick. Two months pass, she comes back to her father, and he accomplishes the task in which he had vowed to do.

That is a sad story. Because this guy didn't think his oath out, his daughter ends up being killed for something that she had nothing to do with. All she did was come out to congratulate her father on a battle well fought. The craziest thing about this is that if he would have just known the law a bit better, he would have known this little tad of information that could have saved his daughter's life. It is found in Leviticus 5:4-6. It says that if you make a foolish oath without realizing what is truly in store for you, than all you have to do is repent of it and give a sin offering, and it will be forgotten. He didn't know the laws of God, and because of his lack of knowledge, it cost him is daughter.

Jesus spoke about oaths in Matthew 5:33-37. He said, "Again, ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths: But I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God's throne: Nor by the earth; for it is his footstool: neither by Jerusalem; for it is the city of the great King. Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black. But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil."

Jesus gives what would be looked at as great advice to the world. However, is Jesus not God? So when he says things like "Swear not at all" it is the same as when He gave us the commandments. When Jesus, God made manifest in the flesh, says in His perfect, holy, inerrant Word the four words, "Swear not at all" He means exactly what He says.

You know what drives me absolutely nutty? When I hear someone say "God as my witness... Yadda, yadda, yadda." It simply makes me go bonkers. Ugh... Just thinking about it is going to make me go into a fit. Breath... Okay, I think I'll be alright. Back to the point. YOU DON'T MAKE AN OATH IN THE NAME OF GOD. Let me ask you a question. Where does God the Father live? A very basic question. He lives in Heaven. Okay? Jesus said "swear not by heaven." How do you go about justifying that? Don't think to hard, because you absolutely, positively cannot. Christ continues, "swear not by earth". We shouldn't make a vow to the earth. Next, don't make an oath to Jerusalem. Come to think of it, I've never heard anyone make an oath to Jerusalem. I doubt you have either, but what that means is to swear to your government. Jerusalem was the city in which the people Jesus was talking to lived. Therefore, He was warning not to swear to the government. However, if you do hear anyone shout out, "In the name of Jerusalem... Yadda, Yadda, Yadda" please let me know. Lastly, Jesus commands that we not make an oath to your head. Yourself. We shouldn't be promising things to ourselves that we cannot keep. Like He said, you can't change your physical characteristics. Why lie to yourself?

Reading this passage in context (the way you always should), what type of oath is Jesus speaking about? I believe He is referring to what I call a "Jephthah" oath. When Jephtah made his deadly oath to God, he probably didn't do the greatest job at really thinking it through. He just wanted the victory of the battle, he didn't really want to sacrifice his daughter. He never thought of what he was really saying. I think that's what Jesus is trying to tell us. Think before you speak. He goes on to say that oaths are unnecessary. As peculiar Christians, every word that comes out of our mouth should, unlike the world, be true. "Let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay." When you say I will be there... guess what? You need be there. I have gotten into the habit of saying "Lord willing... Yadda, Yadda, Yadda." God could decide to take me home before I am able to fulfill the commitment. So saying "Lord willing" will prevent me from lying. God obviously didn't want me to do whatever it was that I was planning on doing. If he takes me, I'll be fine with that.

The basic line is this: TELL THE TRUTH. All the time. Every day. As long as your yea is yea, and your nay is nay, I think you'll be on the right track. Let your communication, the words which come out of your mouth, always be truthful.