Matthew 5:33-37
“Again you have
heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall
perform to the Lord what you have sworn.’ But
I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the
throne of God, or by the earth, for it is his footstool,
or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. And
do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black.
Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than
this comes from evil.”
These
are not the suggestions of a man these are commands from the Creator of all
that has been made, the Lord Jesus Christ.
In the Old Testament we have examples of oaths that were permitted, as
is the case found in Exodus 22:11, and this example in Numbers 5:19, “Then the priest shall make her take an oath, saying, ‘If no man has
lain with you, and if you have not turned aside to uncleanness while you were
under your husband's authority, be free from this water of bitterness that
brings the curse.”
We
also find the oath of allegiance to the king in 2 King 11:4-6, “But in the seventh
year Jehoiada sent and brought the captains of the Carites and of the guards,
and had them come to him in the house of the Lord.
And he made a covenant with them and put them under oath in the house of the Lord, and he showed them the king's son. And he
commanded them, “This is the thing that you shall do: one third of you, those
who come off duty on the Sabbath and guard the king's house (another third
being at the gate Sur and a third at the gate behind the guards) shall guard
the palace.” We also have
examples of oaths in the covenant between Isaac and Abimelech found in Genesis
26:26-31, “When
Abimelech went to him from Gerar with Ahuzzath his adviser and Phicol the
commander of his army, Isaac said to them, “Why have you come to me, seeing
that you hate me and have sent me away from you?” They said, “We see plainly
that the Lord has been with you. So we said, let
there be a sworn pact between us, between you and us, and let us make a
covenant with you, that you will do us no harm, just as we have not touched you
and have done to you nothing but good and have sent you away in peace. You are
now the blessed of the Lord.” So he made them a
feast, and they ate and drank. In the morning they rose early and exchanged
oaths. And Isaac sent them on their way, and they departed from him in peace.”
So
you may be somewhat confused by Jesus’ statement of not making an oath, in that
we as a people when called to a court of law are ask to swear to tell the
truth, the whole truth, so help me God, and many place their hand on a
Bible. When we enter into many offices
of government or the military we are ask to take an oath to support the Constitution
of the United States of America, and sadly many have little or no knowledge of
what they are making a vow to do. The
question must be asked; are we ignoring the commandments of our Lord when we
engage in the above oaths?
In
my HCSB study Bible on page 1620-21, in the footnotes the writers gave this
information: Oaths to the lord (i.e., “I swear to God”)
were considered binding, but since Jews avoided use of God’s personal name and
instead used reverent substitutions, clever liars could take an oath that
seemed to appeal to God without technically doing so (Mt. 23:16-22). Jesus taught that swearing oaths is wrong
since oaths call for the destruction of an objects or person if the oath is
broken. Thus, swearing by heaven … earth … Jerusalem, or
even one’s own head is inappropriate
because it implies that we have the authority to destroy things over which God
alone has authority. Swearing against
God or His belongings aligns us with the evil
one who attempted to assume God’s position as Ruler of the universe.
As
followers of Christ, we must do as He taught us to do, “Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this
comes from evil.”
From
the Back Porch,
Bob
Rice
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