- It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not pay. Let not your mouth lead you into sin, and do not say before the messenger that it was a mistake. Why should God be angry at your voice and destroy the work of your hands? -
Why would anyone want to take a vow that they had no intention to pay? Doing so just discredits their word.
Who wants to be known as untrustworthy?
Well, some people don’t care. They want the deal today and are willing to cash in on whatever good will you have towards them.
These people go from social circle to social circle until that group turns them out, and they move onto the next “sucker.”
The truth is these people are few; they also get found out quickly.
What’s my point? There not really the person you need to be worried about. They’re dangerous, but an oddity.
The real person to be worried about is the man or woman who makes a vow not from certainty but from pride.
They promise the world on a silver platter, believing themselves able to accomplish impossible tasks, perhaps even from a place of ignorance of their own abilities.
They make too many promises, spread themselves thin, and feel the judgement of their peers come crashing down.
Their excuse in that moment? All of them. Everything they can throw, along with the kitchen sink, how what happened was beyond their control.
Why are these people so dangerous? Why are they so plentiful? Why can’t we just promise what we are capable of?
Because we all are this person. We all overestimate ourselves and make promises to one another beyond our reach.
Yes, we are all also the man who trades in on their “reputation,” but that man is simply rarer to act, typically from cowardice.
The price to be him is too great.
The man who promises from pride has fewer consequences to face, and therefore becomes our constant companion, as do all the “minor” sins.
Your excuses before the messenger don’t work. He comes for what is owed, finds it not available, and returns to his master to inform him of the misdeed.
The last part of this verse is strange. In all my failings in this area, never has God peered through the clouds above and smote me for my unfounded vow.
He comes to me in consequences of lost reputation, lost business, and lost trust. I see the work on the horizon that was my mine, fade from existence, and another man worthy of it take it.
What are we to do? How can we avoid the fate of our words filling God with wrath?
To some extent, we can’t. We are all sinners, and as such it is our fate to lead God to judge our sin.
But, as those saved and washed by the blood, we can recognize our mistake and beg for forgiveness. When the messenger comes, we can apologize, and make amends.
Atonement comes our way through the Son.
Pride, conquers only temporarily.
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