Vow-making was evidently a very common practice in the ancient world. Vows might be made rashly but were always considered binding no matter what. The Mosaic law does not encourage the making of vows but once a vow is made it stipulates that it must be kept (Numbers 30:2). The Israelites could dedicate members of their family, slaves, or themselves to God’s service. Hannah, for example, dedicated her son Samuel to the service of God in the tabernacle (1 Samuel 1:11). However, since only Levites could serve in the tabernacle a person’s vow could be fulfilled by giving an appropriate sum of money. This was something of a gracious concession to what, in the pagan world, was often a sorry situation: a parent rashly dedicates a daughter to some god and there is no way out. While God wants people to hold to their word, he did not want to hold people to such vows, so he allows an amount of money to be paid to the tabernacle instead. The amount required as a substitute for the dedicated person was based on their capacity to do manual labour. While this was an allowance for Israel it is not an allowance for those who have dedicated themselves to Christ. Jesus Christ paid the price for our lives and he wants to get what he paid for. We owe everything to him. But this is not slavery. On the contrary, serving God is true freedom because he doesn’t purchase us to be slaves but to be children of God.
Reflect on how you are fulfilling your promise to serve Jesus.
Read Leviticus 27
