Dave's Diary

Daily Readings: Judges 11 and Psalm 35

Charles Spurgeon’s commentary on Jephthah’s vow in Judges 11 is very helpful. He writes:

 “He had made a rash vow, and such things are much better broken than kept. If a man makes a vow to commit a crime his vow to do so is in itself a sin, and the carrying out of his vow will be doubly sinful. If a man’s vowing to do a thing made it necessary and right for him to do it, then the whole moral law might be suspended by the mere act of vowing, for a man might vow to steal, to commit adultery, or to murder, and then say, ‘I was right in all those acts, because I vowed to do them.’ This is self-evidently absurd, and to admit such a principle would be to destroy all morality.” 

Lord deliver me from loose, unthoughful, foolish promises that will bring harm upon myself or others. Help me to be brave enough to own up to my own foolishness, and rather to ask humbly for forgiveness and release when I have bound myself by my rash and ill-considered promises. Set me free from my own folly Lord, I pray. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.