Num 30:1+2, Then Moses spoke to the heads of the tribes of the sons of Israel, saying, "This is the word which the Lord has commanded. If a man makes a vow to the Lord, or takes an oath to bind himself with a binding obligation, he shall not violate his word; he shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth. 
This is another one of those chapters that might seem to be out of place within the storyline of the entry of the second generation of Israelites into the Promised Land. It is, as well inserted, between the chapter dealing with the census of the second generation and that generation’s vengeance on the Midianites who had tried to pervert the nation as a whole with its practices of Baal temple prostitution. 
Dr. Allen in his writing concerning the Book of Numbers in the Expositor’s Bible Commentary states the following in dealing with this chapter. Quote, The third part of the legislative “intrusion” of chapters 28-30 deals with the issue of vows. Again, there must have been some purpose for inserting this material in the Book of Numbers at this point. I suggest that these chapters are placed here as guarantors of hope: the very fact that plans are being made for the sacrifices and vows that will be performed in the land are sure indicators that God is going to complete His work for His people. All one needs to do is to prepare for the coming battle. For victory under the Lord is the hope for the people of the second generation. End Quote.
There is great hope in the fact that God chose to insert the detailed chapters concerning those things which the nation needed to take care of when they had settled into the Promised Land. These are things which show that God would make that way before His people. They would have the opportunities to so sacrifice on a daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly basis, as in our previous two weeks readings. In this chapter, there are the detailed instructions as to the vows and the oaths that could be rendered along with the manifest means of being honoring to God in the recourse of freedom from those vows under certain situations. 
In this morning’s chapter, we see that the Lord takes very seriously those vows and oaths which invoke His name. It is not a small nor is it an insignificant thing to say that before God, we are going to do this thing or will try to accomplish that objective. As a matter of fact, whenever we invoke the name of God, we need to take it as seriously as He takes it. That may well be another reason why this chapter could have been included at this point. It gives a means for those who might have mistakenly or forced into making a vow or an oath, the opportunity to have it nullified without sin before the Lord.  
The language used in the Hebrew refers to mankind in the first few verses of this reading. It was not necessarily a matter of the vows of men set against the vows of women at the beginning of this writing. It, therefore, is more accurate to see it in the terms of when a person makes a vow before God, it must be honored and that person needs to do all that was voiced as before the Lord. This distinction is important because that would fully include the vows of both men and women needing to be honored as holy before the throne of God.
Please remember that, at the time of the writing of this Book, the nation of Israel, and, in fact, the whole known world was a male dominated social order. Women had very little rights or power or privilege. Accordingly, as one example of God’s great grace toward women, it took the direct intervention of God to make a case for the daughters of Zelophehad to get an inheritance in their father’s name, as we read in Numbers chapter 27.
In this view, we have another chapter of God making a way for the vows, specifically of women, to be dealt with in case those vows might have been forced upon the woman rather than from her willing submission to the Lord God, Jehovah. It would not have been unusual for women to be subjected to intense pressure which they would otherwise have no recourse to object to or to rebuff against the overwhelming abuse of their social position by others. It was not that God did not take a woman’s vows seriously. He did. It was just that there needed to be a stipulated manner in which a female member of His nation could receive that protection which the society was not willing or ready to offer in that era.
This did not, however, mean that every woman’s vow or oath was invalid or unwanted by God. Neither did it mean that they were just casually set aside because they were voiced by the female gender. As we look back at our first verses, it is very fundamentally stated that when those vows were made with validity and of one’s own free volition, they were absolutely binding and needed to be honored. Any such vow or oath was utterly binding because it was made in the name of the Lord which is always to be seriously regarded with reverence and in utter fealty.
This is so stated for us in Deut 23:21+22. Deut 23:21+22, "When you make a vow to the Lord your God, you shall not delay to pay it, for it would be sin in you, and the Lord your God will surely require it of you. However, if you refrain from vowing, it would not be sin in you. 
When we make a vow before the Lord, when we make that oath, we are completely bound by it. This could be the oath of marriage between a man and a woman before the company of God’s people as witnesses that we will honor and cherish one another as unto the Lord. Or it could be in court when we place our hand on the Bible and make that oath to tell the truth so help us, God. We are absolutely bound by such declarations and vows. 
These are a couple of modern day examples of those oaths and vows that are still made before God. Admittedly, they are often just voiced as habit or custom or ritual with no true understanding by most people as to the full consequences that are placed directly on our heads if we break that oath or vow. Still, they are utterly binding to a Child of God who makes such a public statement of doing something as honoring to God.
In Eccl 5:1-5, we are given some very practical advice concerning our hearts and minds toward invoking anything by the holiness of God. Eccl 5:1-3, Guard your steps as you go to the house of God, and draw near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools; for they do not know they are doing evil. Do not be hasty in word or impulsive in thought to bring up a matter in the presence of God. For God is in heaven and you are on the earth; therefore let your words be few. For the dream comes through much effort, and the voice of a fool through many words. When you make a vow to God, do not be late in paying it, for He takes no delight in fools. Pay what you vow! It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not pay. 
Notice that it is often wise to let our words be few in the presence of the Lord. That is not in terms of worship and praise, but in view of man’s sense of pride and haughtiness. Often, we will make rash statements to impress others with our empty boasting and swaggering self-aggrandizement. 
Or, in our suffering and our stress and our predicaments, we will try to make bargains with God in order to get ourselves out from under the stress, etc. Do not be hasty in word or impulsive in thought to bring up a matter in the presence of God. For God is in heaven and you are on the earth; therefore let your words be few.
As well, we are instructed that if we do make such a vow or oath, we need to follow through on it. When you make a vow to God, do not be late in paying it, for He takes no delight in fools. Pay what you vow! It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not pay. It is imperative that we follow through with that which we promise before God. He is not to be taken lightly and His reputation and nobility is to be respected and honored above all else. No matter what we have promised Him, it is our duty and obligation to follow through to the utmost. That is why it would be better to not make those vows or oaths hastily in the first place. To do so is to act the fool with our rash words and ideas that God does not really take into account that which we speak before Him or to which we attach His name.
Dr. Allen brings forth some clarity to this as will be detailed by the very words of Our Lord Jesus Christ, as well as from several of the Apostles in the following observation. Quote, We may well presume that in the centuries leading up to the NT, the legal decisions on the subject of vows became even more complex. The words of the Lord Jesus to avoid the complications of these oaths are quite liberating. (Matt 5:33-37, "Again, you have heard that the ancients were told, 'You shall not make false vows, but shall fulfill your vows to the Lord.' "But I say to you, make no oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is the footstool of His feet, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. "Nor shall you make an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. "But let your statement be, 'Yes, yes' or 'No, no'; and anything beyond these is of evil.) For after a while serious language about holy things would be used in the most trivializing manner possible. So Jesus foreswore oaths and vows altogether for His young disciples. He urged them to let their words speak for themselves, apart from the calling of heaven and earth to witness. Actually, this is great grace on His part. End quote. 
    	What was a common practice in the words of vows and oaths and the severity with which the Lord was to be honored has become a pitfall for those with whom it became merely habitual and mundane wording after the fashion of the day. To swear by the holy name of God is no longer seen as binding and upright. It has become melded into all that is of this earth, obscured with the dust and deceit and less than honorable schemes and audacity of mankind.
	Jesus, in Matt 23:16-22, pointed this out in His day as He dealt with the scribes and the Pharisees who were using these very vows and oaths as a means of deluding the people whom they were supposed to be teaching and helping. Matt 23:16-22, "Woe to you, blind guides, who say, 'Whoever swears by the temple, that is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple, he is obligated.' "You fools and blind men; which is more important, the gold, or the temple that sanctified the gold? "And, 'Whoever swears by the altar, that is nothing, but whoever swears by the offering upon it, he is obligated.' "You blind men, which is more important, the offering or the altar that sanctifies the offering? "Therefore he who swears by the altar, swears both by the altar and by everything on it. "And he who swears by the temple, swears both by the temple and by Him who dwells within it. "And he who swears by heaven, swears both by the throne of God and by Him who sits upon it. 
    	Brother James, in James 5:12, continued this admonition to not put ourselves under the binding and retraining yolk of an oath or vow before God, using His name to give some sort of validity to our words or our intentions. James 5:12, But above all, my brethren, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath; but let your yes be yes, and your no, no; so that you may not fall under judgment.
The Name of The Lord is not to be made into a means of common usage for the sake of bending others to our way of thinking or in terms of trying to convince them of our best intentions. God and the name of God is to be constantly considered with reverent adoration and with awe. To invoke His name is never to be done lightly or for any purpose of ordinariness! When we speak the name of Jesus, when we mention the name of the Lord, when we pronounce the name of God, we are to do so with veneration, with amazement, with worship, with adoration, and with absolute respect. 
	Our words, as indicated by Our Lord Jesus Christ and by James, should stand by themselves. When we say we are going to do something, we should do it because we are Christ’s own people, not because we need to attach some oath or vow. Our lives belong to Him and we are to live in full accordance with that reality. Our testimony is that what we say, who we are, and what we do, all is in full accordance with the fact that we are seeking to honor and to please the Lord.
	This is especially true of us in our dealings with one another, as declared by the Apostle Paul in Col 3:8-11. Col 3:8-11, But now you also, put them all aside: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices, and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him — a renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and freeman, but Christ is all, and in all. 
	…but Christ is all, and in all. There is no reason to use His name, or the name of the Lord, or Heaven, or any other holy element in order to validate that which we say and do. All that we are is of Him and unto Him. Because He is holy, we are to be holy and our speech is to reflect Him. It is also to reveal our intense honor and our awe and our reverence for Our Lord God Almighty, Creator of Heaven and earth and the source and essence of our everything! So be it!
	Then Moses spoke to the heads of the tribes of the sons of Israel, saying, "This is the word which the Lord has commanded. If a man makes a vow to the Lord, or takes an oath to bind himself with a binding obligation, he shall not violate his word; he shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth. Amen. 

	This morning’s benediction is Ps 113:1+2. Praise the Lord! Praise, O servants of the Lord. Praise the name of the Lord. Blessed be the name of the Lord From this time forth and forever. Amen.