When I was a little girl, my mother would say that if she made me a promise, she would do everything in her power to fulfill it. If she thought there was any chance she could not fulfill it, she would not make it. She was even like that about Christmas or birthdays. She would not promise that “Santa would bring a certain gift” or that I would get something for my birthday. Money was tight, and I knew what she could afford was connected to how much I would receive. When I was a child, I was told that Santa was compensated for the gifts I received. They were not free. That certainly kept me from asking for extravagant gifts.
The New Oxford American Dictionary defines “vow” as a “solemn promise”. A vow is a promise made with deep sincerity. It is not something to be taken lightly. My New Analytical Bible says that a vow is, “A promise to God to perform some service for him on condition that he, in return grant a specific favor, such as a safe journey, victory, or offspring”.
We have many examples of vows made in the Old Testament. Hannah vowed to give her son back to God. Samson was born under a Nazarite vow. Jacob made a vow on his return to Isaac’s home. Jephthah vowed that if he won his battle, he would sacrifice the first thing that came out of his house. We know that his daughter was the first out of his house when he returned.
Those men under the Old Law who took the Nazarite vow asked for God’s help, and in return promised to give up eating or drinking anything from the vine, cutting their hair, and to devote themselves completely to the Lord (Numbers 6). They could not make themselves unclean by being close to a dead body. There were things they had to do to purify themselves if such were to happen.
This, of course, applied to the Old Law, but it shows the importance God placed on taking a vow—making a promise to God. There are two passages in God’s law to the Israelites that speak about the seriousness of taking vows. Numbers 30:2 says, “If a man vows a vow to the LORD, or swears an oath to bind himself by a pledge, he shall not break his word. He shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth”. The second is, “If you make a vow to the LORD your God, you shall not delay fulfilling it, for the LORD your God will surely require it of you, and you will be guilty of sin” (Deuteronomy 23:21). Solomon also wrote concerning the vow in Ecclesiastes 5:4-5, “When you vow a vow to God, do not delay paying it, for he has no pleasure in fools. Pay what you owe. It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not pay.”
I realize that all of these passages were specific to the Israelite nation; but the similarity is that they were God’s chosen people, just as Christians are today. Remember what Paul said, “For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope” (Romans 15:4).
Have you ever made a promise to God that if He would make a certain thing happen, you would do certain things for Him in return? Maybe you promised to start attending worship, stop doing something like smoking or drinking, or made some other promise in return for God’s help or blessing? We often make promises to God when we are in trouble or when someone is seriously ill. King David speaks of fulfilling promises when he says, “I will come into your house with burnt offerings; I will perform my vows to you, that which my lips uttered and my mouth promised when I was in trouble” (Psalm 66:13-14).
The importance of fulfilling vows is still evident in the New Testament. Paul made some sort of vow and cut his hair because he had been under a vow. Nothing more is said of this than that he honored whatever vow he had made. He had made some promise to God, and he was in the process of fulfilling that vow.
We shouldn’t bargain with God. God does not work miraculously in our lives today. We cannot expect Him to bring retribution on someone for us. We cannot expect Him to miraculously give a child to a family. God does, however, answer our prayers, but not in a miraculous way. He certainly does not give us what we want because we have made a promise to change our lives in some way, give a large sum of money, or do anything because we get what we want.
If we make a promise to God, we are obligated to fulfill it. For instance, if we ask God to forgive our sins and we promise to work on our sins, we are obligated to fulfill that promise. In asking forgiveness, we are saying to God that we are willing to do what we can to remove those sins from our lives.
There are some 7,400 promises that God has made to us. We most certainly expect that He will fulfill those, so how can we not fulfill those we make to Him?
Sandra Oliver