God Takes Our Vows Seriously - Jeremiahs 42-46

God Takes Our Vows Seriously

Jeremiah 42:5-6 (ESV)
5 Then they said to Jeremiah, “May the LORD be a true and faithful witness against us if we do not act according to all the word with which the LORD your God sends you to us. 6 Whether it is good or bad, we will obey the voice of the LORD our God to whom we are sending you, that it may be well with us when we obey the voice of the LORD our God.”

Those that were left in the land of Judah came to the prophet Jeremiah and wanted to know what God was going to do with them.   They had seen the devastation of their countrymen and did not want the last of the people who were left in the land, to suffer.  They wanted to obey God at all costs.  Hence the above verses.   On the surface this all sounds so good.  However, what we find out, as we read, they had no intention of obeying God.  God was not at the center of their lives.  In ten days, Jeremiah comes to them to tell them to submit to Babylon’s rule.   They are told by the prophet that “God said” they are to not fear the king of Babylon and they are allow him to rule over them.   This is all rubbish to them.   This was not what they wanted to hear.  So, they rebelled against God by going to Egypt, the very place God told them, through Jeremiah, not to go.   They will die there!  They said that God would be a witness between them about what He says and what they do.  They disobeyed, so God would honor their vow.    We ought to be very carful to tell God we will do something and then not do it.   Probably the equivalent of this story in the New Testament is the story in Acts 5 about Ananias and Sapphira.   

Acts 5:1-2 (ESV)
Ananias and Sapphira
1 But a man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property, 2 and with his wife's knowledge he kept back for himself some of the proceeds and brought only a part of it and laid it at the apostles' feet.

The point of that story is not that they kept back part of the proceeds of the land deal for themselves.  The point of the story is that they lied about it.   They vowed in front of the church that they had sold the land for so much.   God did not need the land.  He did want them to honor their vow.  God takes our word seriously.  We ought not to vow something to God and take it back or not fulfill it.  God honors our vows to Him.