This brief section has what we may term a dispensational bearing. It
applies specially to Israel, and treats of the question of vows and
bonds. The man and the woman stand in marked contrast in relation to this
subject. “If a man vow a vow unto the Lord, or swear an oath to bind his
soul with a bond; he shall not break his word, he shall do according to
all that proceedeth out of his mouth.” (Ver. 2.)
In reference to the woman, the case was different. “If a woman also vow
a vow unto the Lord, and bind herself by a bond, being in her father’s
house in her youth; and her father hear her vow, and her bond wherewith
she hath bound her soul, and her father shall hold his peace at her:
then all her vows shall stand, and every bond wherewith she hath bound
her soul shall stand. But if her father disallow her in the day that he
heareth; not any of her vows, or of her bonds wherewith she hath bound
her soul, shall stand: and the Lord shall forgive her, because her father
disallowed her.” (Ver. 3-5.) The same thing applied in the case of a
wife. Her husband could either confirm or annul all her vows and bonds.
Such was the law with regard to vows. There was no relief for the man.
He was bound to go right through with whatever had proceeded out of his
mouth. Whatever he undertook to do, he was solemnly and irreversibly held
to it. There was no back door, as we say—no way of getting out of it.
Now, we know who, in perfect grace, took this position, and voluntarily
bound Himself to accomplish the will of God, whatever that will might be.
We know who it is that says, “I will pay My vows unto the Lord now in the
presence of all His people.” “The Man Christ Jesus,” who, having taken
the vows upon Him, discharged them perfectly to the glory of God and the
eternal blessing of His people. There was no escape for Him. We hear Him
exclaiming, in the deep anguish of His soul, in the garden of Gethsemane,
“If it be possible, let this cup pass from Me.” But it was not possible.
He had undertaken the work of man’s salvation, and He had to go through
the deep and dark waters of death, judgment, and wrath, and perfectly
meet all the consequences of man’s condition. He had a baptism to be
baptized with, and was straitened until it was accomplished. In other
words, He had to die, in order that, by death, He might open the pent-up
floodgates, and allow the mighty tide of divine and everlasting love to
flow down to His people. All praise and adoration be to His peerless name
forever!
Thus much as to the man and his vows and bonds. In the case of the woman,
whether as the daughter or the wife, we have the nation of Israel, and
that in two ways, namely, under government and under grace. Looked at
from a governmental point of view, Jehovah, who is at once the Father and
the Husband, has held His peace at her, so that her vows and bonds are
allowed to stand; and she is, to this day, suffering the consequences,
and made to feel the force of those words, “Better that thou shouldest
not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay.”
But on the other hand, as viewed from the blessed stand-point of grace,
the Father and the Husband has taken all upon Himself, so that she shall
be forgiven and brought into the fullness of blessing by and by, not on
the ground of accomplished vows and ratified bonds, but on the ground of
sovereign grace and mercy, through the blood of the everlasting covenant.
How precious to find Christ every where! He is the centre and foundation,
the beginning and the end, of all the ways of God. May our hearts be
ever filled with Him; may our lips and lives speak His praise; may we,
constrained by His love, live to His glory all our days upon earth, and
then go home to be with Himself forever, to go no more out.
We have here given what we believe to be the primary thought of this
chapter. That it may be applied, in a secondary way, to individuals, we
do not by any means question; and further, that, like all Scripture, it
has been written for our learning, we most thankfully own. It must ever
be the delight of the devout Christian to study all the ways of God,
whether in grace or government—His ways with Israel, His ways with the
Church, His ways with all, His ways with each. Oh to pursue this study
with an enlarged heart and an enlightened understanding!