Vows

Passage: Numbers 30

A few passages in Numbers address the matter of making vows before God. Numbers 6:1-21, for example, presents detailed instruction for how to make a Nazirite vow. Numbers 30 follows up with a sort of “vows escape clause” for certain people. Specifically, this chapter gives a set of provisos for women who have made vows that the significant men in their lives disagree with.

What’s initially striking about the passage is its unapologetic gender bias. I make no pretense of defending this: the Hebrew and Greco-Roman cultures in which our Scriptures were recorded were heavily male-centric. Within those cultures women were seen either as the property, or at least the unmitigated subordinates, of their fathers or husbands. It should be noted that in both the Hebrew and Greek Testaments women fare much better than in the literature and practice of most other ancient cultures. That being said, we can’t get around this fact: Numbers 30 says men can follow through with their vows regardless of what anyone else says, while women have to check with either their fathers or husbands to make sure what they’ve vowed to do is okay.

Once we get past that, there’s an important principle at work here - a principle that is transferable to our context. God invites his people to take vows of action or abstinence as a sign of commitment during different seasons of their lives. But God recognizes that these vows may have a profound impact not only on the ones making their vows, but also on the important people in their lives. So God says, “After you’ve made a vow, check in with the people closest to you. If they object to the terms of the vow, they have a right to tell you to relinquish it.” God gives significant others veto power, even over a vow made before God.

So doing, God acknowledges that his people have multiple obligations. God demands that his people live out the commitments they’ve made.

Let’s say, for example, that a woman comes home ad tells her husband, “I’m going to take a vow of chastity to honor God.” This would have implications for their marriage. God gives the husband in the situation the right to say, “No, you have an obligation to me that overrides your sense of conviction to take that vow.” Alternately, let’s say a man comes home to his wife and kids and says, “I’m going to take a vow of poverty, quit my job and sell our stuff – to honor God, of course.” Here too, the people to whom the husband has made a commitment have a God-given right to say, “Not so fast. Your obligation to us overrides your sense of conviction in this situation.”

God both invites people to make radical commitments to him, but also holds people accountable to other commitments they’ve made. We live out our faith in community – the communities of our marriages, families, and churches. In Numbers 30 God presents a clear imperative for listening not just to the voice of our own convictions but to the counsel of the people God has placed in close relationship with us. If God is talking to you, trust that he’s also talking to the people with whom you’re closely connected. Listen to them when they encourage you to go ahead and act on a conviction; but listen closely when they say, “Slow down!” or even, “No way!”