When You Make A Foolish Vow - Part 2 of 2

Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. Shame on you if you fool me once. Shame on me if you fool me twice. Should have known better, but I didn't, and I can't go back. That's the songwriter's take on broken vows. What to do when you've been taken in was the problem Joshua faced with the Gibeonites.

Stay with us. From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is Running to Win with Dr. Erwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. Pastor Lutzer, is it ever okay to break a promise?

Dave, the question that you have asked is more complex than it might appear. The easy answer would be to say, no, you should never break a vow. But even in the Old Testament, there were certain rules.

For example, if a young woman were to marry a man without the parents' permission, the parents had the permission to break the vow. And then, of course, we get into the complicated issue of divorce. Let me just say, as a general principle, we always have to be reminded of Psalm 15, blessed is he who swears to his own hurt and does not change. The message today is going to highlight what happened in the life of Joshua when he made a foolish vow.

He followed through with it, and the consequences were very interesting. I've written a book entitled Making the Best of a Bad Decision. The subtitle says, How to Put Your Regrets Behind You, Embrace Grace, and Move Forward to a Better Future. I wrote this book to help us to understand that God meets us where we are.

All of us have made foolish decisions, some of those decisions more serious than others, but always we must accept God's grace, especially when we have hit a detour in our lives and need to get back to the main road. Now for a gift of any amount, this book can be yours. Here's what you do.

Go to rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. But now let us open our Bibles as we go to the pulpit of Moody Church. The person who says I shouldn't have made this decision, it was a bad decision, it has inconvenienced me, but I'm going to stick with it because integrity matters to God. The vow has been made, I'm going to keep it. You know that Joshua 9, now we're getting to the text. Joshua 9, if you have your Bibles, if you'd find it there, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua 9. Joshua makes a foolish vow. Joshua makes a foolish vow.

Context of the story, here's what happens. God had said in the book of Exodus do not make any vow with the heathen tribes of the land, all right? They must have known that that was one of the things that God had instructed Joshua about. So there's a tribe called the Gibeonites and they think to themselves, wow, Joshua's wiping out all the different tribes and we're next. What we're going to do is to pretend that we are not from the land. We are going to say that we originated from a far country and we're going to come and lie about our origin and identity. We're not going to tell him that we're just a hill or two over from where he is and we're going to trick him into making a treaty with us.

So what do they do? They get some very old sandals, they get moldy bread, they have dusty clothes and they come to Joshua and they say, hey look, when we began this journey our bread was fresh. When we began this journey our sandals were clean and now of course we have come from a very far land. Would you make a treaty with us not to kill us?

Well that's the context of the story. Joshua chapter 9, they are speaking and they say in verse 11, so our elders and all the inhabitants of our country, this is now the Gibeonites who are talking, they said to us, take provisions in your hand for the journey and go meet them and say to them, we are your servants, come now make a covenant with us. Here's our bread, it was still warm when we took it from our houses as our food for the journey on the day we set out to come to you.

But now behold it is dry and crummy, crumbly. These wineskins were new when we filled them and behold they have burst and these garments and sandals of ours are worn out from the very long journey. Please make a covenant with us. Verse 14, so the men took some of their provisions but did not ask counsel from the Lord and Joshua made peace with them and made a covenant with them to let them live and the leaders of the congregation swore to them. Joshua, out of rebellion?

Of course not, he had art for God, he was the great warrior, the great one who trusted God. Just well, we can assess the situation, whatever appears to be right and the way in which things appear to be we can we can trust our judgment. Now think about this, Joshua thought to himself and almost unconsciously so because he wasn't thinking well we don't need God here but just yeah it's reasonable we don't have to seek God over this. Have you ever noticed that things often aren't what they appear to be?

Throughout the years I've sometimes asked couples who were severely mismatched, I don't think I've ever used that phrase before but I think it fits. Did you ever ask counsel of the Lord? Well no we just kind of thought you know he's a Christian and I thought he was a Christian and I thought I blah blah blah blah and and so we just went ahead oh yeah uh-huh so you didn't ask the counsel of the Lord but things are often not what they appear to be. You can't assess these situations on your own only God knows the future infallibly. There's a Christian couple who sought the counsel of the Lord regarding buying a house, it looked as if they were going to buy it, they it met their needs, it was in the right location, it was in the right price range and somebody just bought it out from under their nose as the saying goes.

Well God what's it? You know I mean we sought your counsel this house was perfect for us somebody else buys it. Six months later a wall in the basement of that house collapsed. They began to think you know what maybe God was looking out for us. You know you seek God's counsel and he'll look out for you.

He really will. So they sought the counsel of the Lord not they didn't. Now to their everlasting credit did Joshua say well you know we can break this treaty because after all it was made under false pretenses. They lied to us they lied in terms of what the way in which they came to us they lied with reference to what they said to us.

We don't have to keep this treaty. Blessed is he who swears to his own hurt and does not change. The text is open it says later on verse 18 but the people of Israel did not attack them because the leaders of the congregation had sworn to them by the Lord God the God of Israel. Then all the congregation murmured against their leaders but all the leaders said to the congregation we have sworn to them by the Lord the God of Israel and now we may not touch them.

This we will do to them let them live lest wrath be upon us because of the oath that we swore to them. Blessed is he who swears to his own hurt and does not change. This is a series of messages entitled making the best of a bad decision and I'm telling you today that God is bigger than our messes. Our blunders do not confuse him. Our foolishness does not confound him and our regrets do not limit him.

God says I'm going to make the best out of a bad decision out of a foolish vow. How did Israel benefit as a result of this? How did God come through in light of the decision that they should not have made? Two ways first Israel had help in the temple. You'll notice it's in verse 23 Joshua is speaking to them and he's condemning them for their deceit which is only proper. Verse 22 I'll pick it up there Joshua summoned them and he said to them why did you deceive us saying we are very far from you when you dwell among us.

Now therefore you are cursed and some of you shall never be anything but servants cutters of wood drawers of water for the house of my God. So all throughout the generations after that I mean we're talking hundreds of years Israel used the Gibeonites as servants for the temple of God. The Gibeonites also profited because there's no question in my mind that some of them came to saving faith in Jehovah as a result of this because later on you find that they become temple servants in the book of Ezra and when you get to Nehemiah you discover that they are helping build the wall next to so-and-so is this Gibeonite the Bible says. So Israel had help didn't justify the foolishness of the vow what it showed is that God picked up the pieces and God blessed Israel as a result of their integrity but second not only that it is because of this foolish vow that the people of Israel were willing to keep that God gave them one of the greatest displays of his power that has ever been written upon the pages of this good book the Bible.

Awesome. Tenth chapter what happens is there's some kings who hear about the vow of the Gibeonites and they say we'd better take on these Gibeonites let's get a coalition of kings together let's go fight against them because they are in league with Joshua. So this whole company gathers together and what happens Joshua has to defend these people because you know he said he made a treaty and his word is his word though he was deceived into it his word is his word what happens Joshua goes to fight and one of the greatest miracles in all the Bible happened at Gibeon. You'll notice it says in verse 12 of chapter 10 at that time Joshua spoke to the Lord in the day when the Lord gave the Amorites over to the sons of Israel and he said in the sight of Israel son stand thou still at Gibeon and moon in the valley of Agilent and the sun stood still and the moon stopped until the nation took vengeance on their enemies.

Isn't this written in the book of Jasher we don't have that book but there were many books that circulated back in those times the sun stopped in the midst of the heaven and did not hurry to set for about a whole day there has been no day like it before nor since when the Lord obeyed the voice of a man for the Lord God fought for Israel. God says Joshua I'm going to do the greatest miracle recorded in scripture apart from the miracles of Jesus and the resurrection and I'm going to give you that ability because of your integrity sticking with a vow that really you should not have made. Israel saw the blessing of God and the power of God in the midst of living with a foolish vow. God blesses those who swear to their own hurt and do not change who don't say yeah but conditions of change yeah but but but no you said it do it trust God for it. You say well pastor Luther what is the bottom line?

Well first of all obviously God hears and honors those who keep their commitments in the midst of hardship in the midst of regret and suffering his grace comes his grace comes to us. You say yeah but what about that couple that you began this message with some of you are still thinking about them. Are they married? Teenagers getting married in the backseat of a car for reasons that are less than noble are they married? Marriage is not only a religious event it is based not just on religion or Christianity it is a creation ordinance that's why it applies to all kinds of people whether they are Christian or not that's why people all over the world for the most part believe in marriage. So marriage is not just religious it is also civil and that's why when you get a marriage license you don't come to the church and get the marriage license do you?

You go to the state and then you have that marriage license signed it's a public event that is known in the community that's really what marriage is. You say well then you can just blow off those vows and simply say well you know I was tricked into it. No those vows are important and if you're a person of integrity what you will do then is follow through and be married properly that's what should be done in a case like that. You say well can marriage vows ever be broken you said that they were unconditional. Well I guess they can be because people are breaking their marriage vows all the time aren't they? Isn't adultery one of our great sins in the land where people stand at the altar and swear their allegiance to one woman and then find someone at work who is more attractive and who understands them better? Isn't that happening all the time? That's a breaking of the marriage vow. A man abusing his wife that's breaking the vow isn't it wasn't part of the agreement that you would protect her and care about her and cherish her. I have to tell you that there is nothing that causes us as staff here at Moody Church as pastoral staff more agony more discussion sometimes even disagreement over the matter of divorce and especially the even more difficult problem of remarriage because what we try to do on the one hand is to affirm with confidence and strength that marriage is holy that marriage is special in God's sight that that the vows are unconditional we hang on to that and then we also recognize that the Bible does say that because of the hardness of your heart there are various things that sometimes break the marriage vow and sometimes sometimes remarriage we believe is even possible but it's a difficult difficult issue and many evangelicals many fine leaders don't see eye to eye on it because they see the need to hold high marriage so just to just to summarize what we do as a staff is we want to hold high this side of the equation that it's unconditional it's holy on the other side we also have to take into account that because of the hardness of heart and we try to walk and navigate between those two tensions if I can put it that way but God honors those who do commit and keep their commitments you say well what about God himself does he keep his commitments and the answer of course is yes in fact here's something interesting that really should be explored and can be when we speak about salvation God has many promises that he throws out there and they are conditional but the good news is is that if you meet the condition you become part of an unconditional covenant that will guarantee your way all the way to heaven isn't it blessed Jesus said for example in John chapter 10 my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me and I give on to them eternal life and they shall never perish neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand my father who gave them to me is greater than all and no man can pluck them out of my father's hand I and my father are one God says it's hands in harmony my hands the father's hands no one can pluck them out of my hands you become a sheep you trust Christ as Savior you belong to the right sheepfold not trying to climb up into the sheepfold by some alien way and God will guide you all the way to the pearly gates he'll discipline you for your sin he'll work with you in your need he'll bring you along but in the end everyone whom the father has given to the son will arrive in heaven for his glory and honor and I say that because we serve a God who has integrity we serve a God who has integrity do you agree with that or am I all alone up here it is that meanwhile he helps us even in the midst of foolish vows he's there he's bigger than the mistake you brought with you today father we ask in the name of Jesus that you will help us to cleave to you the Lord God thank you for the way in which you helped Joshua thank you for the way in which you displayed grace in his life and power we praise you and we ask in the name of Jesus that those who perhaps are in relationships that they should have never entered those who are living with foolish decisions and vows and commitments grant them wisdom help them to understand that you are there for us even in our great need we pray in Jesus name amen amen well this is pastor luther aren't you glad that God is with us in the decisions that we make and sometimes we make foolish decisions I've written a book entitled making the best of a bad decision and I speak about various decisions that have been made by the way the worst decision ever made was not made by you thankfully it was made by Adam and Eve but I show that there are foolish decisions when it comes to choosing the second best decisions regarding marriage decisions regarding such things as our vocation all of these are covered in the book with the intention of helping all of us to see that God meets us where we are and grants us grace now for a gift of any amount this book can be yours and we make it available to you to help you in your spiritual journey here is what you do go to rtwoffer.com or you can call us at 1-888-218-9337 now perhaps I said that too quickly you haven't had an opportunity to pick up a pen or a pencil so I'm going to be giving you that contact info again but from my heart to yours I want to thank you so much for those of you who are a part of the running to win family you support this ministry and you've probably heard me say before that we are in more than 20 different countries in four different languages and are expanding this ministry and for that we are deeply grateful and I know that many of you are a part of this ministry but here's how you can contact us go to rtwoffer.com or you can call us at 1-888-218-9337 ask for the book making the best of a bad decision I think it'll be a tremendous encouragement to you and to other people whom you know need to have this message of hope very quickly again rtwoffer.com or you can pick up the phone right now and call us at 1-888-218-9337 thank you so much for listening you can write to us at running to win 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard Chicago Illinois 60614 when we send sexually we do great damage to ourselves our partners and our futures that's what King David found out and it's what we'll all learn about on our next broadcast plan to join us for a message on when you make a selfish choice for pastor Erwin Lutzer this is Dave McAllister running to win is sponsored by the Moody Church