Numbers 5-8

Where is our sense of sacredness for the vow in our modern world? We look for the loop hole in the contract, marriages are treated like juvenile high school break ups, legitimate debts are abandoned, citizenship is forgotten.

I find it striking that the initial texts in Numbers that are laying a foundation for society for this burgeoning nation, so much attention is given to vows. Without vows, there is no bond for the communities that comprise a society to remain in tact. Paul in Ephesians 4 speaks of the bond of peace. I know I reference this text often but because it is central to our Christian ethic. When we hear the word bond, we think of super glue, mighty putty, gorilla glue...but Paul is not speaking of adhesion, although that concept has some relevance but not as strong as the actual meaning. Paul is speaking of the bonds of imprisonment. In fact, many Biblical scholars believe that his letter to the church at Ephesus, as indicated by the Open Bible Expanded Edition, was a part of his "Prison Epistles" written during his first imprisonment in Rome in AD 60-62 along with his letters of Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon. He is saying that we are no more free to walk away from our vow of peace among the family God, that is inherent in our vow of devotion to Christ, than he is free to just walk away from his prison in Rome. Even here in the first century, Paul is demanding that Christians not forsake the sacredness of vows.

Are there any vows that you have forsaken? Then find a spiritual leader who can walk you through a redemptive journey of restoration. You say, "Fred, I don't need the help of a spiritual leader, Jesus is my High Priest." I would say to you, "Yes He is but not at the exclusion of The Church that He Himself established." I find it terribly curious that people who profess faith in Christ disregard, and in some cases have a disdain, for His Church. No honest and thorough reading of Scripture in its entirety can lead to any other conclusion than a vow of devotion to Christ encompasses as well a vow of devotion to a local family of believers...held together in the bonds of peace.

What vows have you forsaken...what vows do you need to make anew or possibly for the first time...we like to say that as Christians, we are children of promise, may we not forget that this not only means that we are the benefactor of God's promises to us but also expected by Him to be a maker of our own promises where mandated by Scripture...and keep them.

Pastor Fred