Day 156 – Vows

Proverbs 20:25 It is a snare for a man to devote rashly something as holy, and afterward to reconsider his vows.

• God’s names:
• YAHWEH/JEHOVAH – Self-existent, Eternal
• Elohiym – Supreme God
• Yeshuwa/Iesous – Jesus
• Theos – Supreme Divinity
• Kurios – Supreme Authority, Lord
• Soter – Savior

• God’s character:
• Promise Keeper

How often have you promised you would do something and failed to do it? People make promises every day. Some are made in haste and quickly forgotten. Some are made with good intention, fully intending to keep the promise. Some people always follow through with their promises — they become a person people trust.

Solomon told the people to be careful about the vows they made because the vow was sacred. It was the same as telling YAHWEH they would be faithful to honor their vow. Vows in most cases were unbreakable. Therefore, Solomon told the people to be aware of what they said because YAHWEH would hold them accountable to their vows.

Numbers 30:1 Then Moses spoke to the heads of the tribes concerning the children of Israel, saying, “This is the thing which YAHWEH has commanded: 2 If a man makes a vow to YAHWEH, or swears an oath to bind himself by some agreement, he will not break his word; he will do according to everything that proceeds out of his mouth. 3 Or if a woman makes a vow to YAHWEH, and binds herself by some agreement while in her father’s house in her youth, 4 and her father hears her vow and the agreement by which she has bound herself, and her father holds his peace, then all her vows will stand, and every agreement with which she has bound herself will stand. 5 But if her father overrules her on the day that he hears, then none of her vows nor her agreements by which she has bound herself will stand; and YAHWEH will release her, because her father overruled her. 6 If indeed she takes a husband, while bound by her vows or by a rash utterance from her lips by which she bound herself, 7 and her husband hears it, and makes no response to her on the day that he hears, then her vows will stand, and her agreements by which she bound herself will stand. 8 But if her husband overrules her on the day that he hears it, he will make void her vow which she took and what she uttered with her lips, by which she bound herself, and YAHWEH will release her. 9 Also any vow of a widow or a divorced woman, by which she has bound herself, will stand against her. 10 If she vowed in her husband’s house, or bound herself by an agreement with an oath, 11 and her husband heard it, and made no response to her and did not overrule her, then all her vows will stand, and every agreement by which she bound herself will stand. 12 But if her husband truly made them void on the day he heard them, then whatever proceeded from her lips concerning her vows or concerning the agreement binding her, it will not stand; her husband has made them void, and YAHWEH will release her. 13 Every vow and every binding oath to afflict her soul, her husband may confirm it, or her husband may make it void. 14 Now if her husband makes no response whatever to her from day to day, then he confirms all her vows or all the agreements that bind her; he confirms them, because he made no response to her on the day that he heard them. 15 But if he does make them void after he has heard them, then he will bear her guilt.”

 16 These are the statutes which YAHWEH commanded Moses, between a man and his wife, and between a father and his daughter in her youth in her father’s house.

A vow was sacred and Solomon knew that every vow he made to YAHWEH he needed to keep. If he didn’t, YAHWEH would hold him accountable.

Christians make vows, promises, to be faithful to their spouse on the day they marry. People don’t consider the marriage vow to be one-hundred-percent binding. Yet, Yeshuwa does. In the vow, the minister says: Whatsoever Elohiym hath joined together, let not man put asunder. However, just as in the world, divorce runs high in the church. People are more apt to dismiss a hasty promise to a friend when something comes up, or they fail to remember what they promised. They don’t realize that a promise is a promise and the person they made the promise to expects them to keep the promise. Yeshuwa expects the promise to be kept also.

Many Christians believe that once Yeshuwa died on the cross, they were no longer subject to the Law. However, that is not the case, even Paul kept the Law. He knew how sacred the vow made to Yeshuwa was and kept his vows. When a person made a vow and it represented a certain number of days, the person shaved their heads as a sign they had made a vow and when the vow was fulfilled, they shaved their head again.

Acts 21:16 Also some of the disciples from Caesarea went with us and brought with them a certain Mnason of Cyprus, an early disciple, with whom we were to lodge. 17 And when we had come to Jerusalem, the brethren received us gladly. 18 On the following day Paul went in with us to James, and all the elders were present. 19 When he had greeted them, he told in detail those things which Theos had done among the Gentiles through his ministry. 20 And when they heard it, they glorified Kurios. And they said to him, “You see, brother, how many myriads of Jews there are who have believed, and they are all zealous for the law; 21 but they have been informed about you that you teach all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, saying that they ought not to circumcise their children nor to walk according to the customs. 22 What then? The assembly must certainly meet, for they will hear that you have come. 23 Therefore, do what we tell you: We have four men who have taken a vow. 24 Take them and be purified with them and pay their expenses so that they may shave their heads, and that all may know that those things of which they were informed concerning you are nothing, but that you yourself also walk orderly and keep the law.

YAHWEH is the promise keeper. He never failed to keep His promises to His people. His Word is His promise to you and me.

1 Kings 8:56 “Blessed be YAHWEH, who has given rest to His people Israel, according to all that He promised. There has not failed one word of all His good promise, which He promised through His servant Moses.

2 Peter 3:3 Knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, 4 and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.” 5 For this they willfully forget: that by the word of Theos the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water, 6 by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water. 7 But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. 8 But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with Kurios one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 9 Kurios is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is long suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

Theos keeps His promises — all of them. He did not void any of them. People look at what He promised and don’t see results. They scoff at everything His Word says, not realizing His infinite patience. Look at yourself. When did you accept Yeshuwa as Soter and Kurios? Yeshuwa is patient. If He wasn’t, nobody would believe He could save anyone.

Isaiah 55:6 Seek YAHWEH while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near. 7 Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to YAHWEH, and He will have mercy on him; and to our Elohiym, for He will abundantly pardon. 8 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” says YAHWEH. 9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts. 10 For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and do not return there, but water the earth, and make it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, 11 so will My word be that goes forth from My mouth; it will not return to Me void, but it will accomplish what I please, and it will prosper in the thing for which I sent it.

If Yeshuwa can keep His promise to you, you should keep your promises to each other.

Let’s pray: Father, help me keep the promises I make because they honor You. Don’t let me see that what I say is meaningless, because nothing is meaningless with You. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.

Copyright © 24 June 2026 by Valerie Routhieaux