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,” lest you fall into judgment.
But above all...
Think about who is
saying this.
James opens his
epistle by revealing his heart. He considers it the greatest honor to just be
known as a bondservant to his older Brother.
James was
half-brother of Jesus (same mom, different Father).
He grew up with Jesus.
He heard Him talk about normal stuff, like carpentry, and chores, whose turn it
was to fetch the water.
James watched the Omniscient,
ask questions, learn stuff. Heb. 5:8.
At first James (and
his family) couldn’t believe that Jesus was the Messiah.
They watched Him grow
up, without ever sinning. Never disrespected mom and dad. Never coveted
greedily or selfishly. Never lied. Never stole. Never said a sinful word.
He was tempted but
never yielded.
Always honored His
Father.
Even still, the
family didn’t believe Jesus was the Messiah, the Anointed One, the One the
prophets pointed to, the One they prayed for, longed for, believed for...
The sin of familiarity
is strong.
John 7:5, even His
own brothers didn’t believe.
Mark 3:20-21, they
thought He was out of His mind.
However, after He died,
sinlessly and rose victoriously, then, everything changed. Then they believed.
So don’t give up, don’t
get discouraged, keep on believing, and praying and Seed planting. The Seeds
you plant will keep growing, blooming, even after you’re gone.
1 Corinthians 15:7,
after His resurrection, He appeared to James. And to all of them for 40 days providing
many undeniable proofs.
Acts 1:14, His mother
and brothers were among those in one accord in the Upper Room who were all filled
with His Holy Spirit.
James became leader
of the Church. Gal. 2:9, Acts 12:17, 15:19.
James and his brother
Jude both wrote a book of the New Testament.
This James, who wrote
this book, who was nicknamed, Ol’ Camel Knees, because his powerful prayer life
could be seen in his calloused knees.
This James, wrapping
up his epistle, says:
But above
all...
Above all what?
Everything the Holy
Spirit through James said up to this point.
James 1
2-3 Count it all joy when you fall into various trials..
Let
patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and
complete, lacking nothing
5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask
of God, 6 ...in faith
9 Let the lowly glory, 10 and the
rich be humble
12-15 Blessed
is he who endures temptation...
Temptation
never comes from God, but by one’s own lusts from within.
16-18 Every good and perfect gift comes from the Father of Lights
19-20 Be swift
to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.
21 Lay aside
filthiness, receive with meekness the implanted Word.
22-25, Be doers of the Word not hearers only
26, The religion of anyone who does not bridle their tongue is useless.
James 2
1-9 If
you show partiality, you commit sin.
10-12 He
who keeps all the law, but one, is guilty of all.
13, Mercy triumphs over judgement.
14-26, As
the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead.
James 3
2 Anyone,
who does not stumble in word is able to bridle the whole body.
3-6, As
bits for horses and rudders for ships, the tongue turns great things.
Like a spark, the tongue can ignite, a world
of iniquity.
7-12, No
man can tame the tongue, it’s unruly, full of poison, spewing blessing and
cursing. These things ought not so to be.
13 Who is wise
and understanding? Show it by good conduct in the meekness of wisdom.
18 The
fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.
James 4
2...You
have not because you ask not. 3 You ask and do not
receive, because you ask amiss, that you may consume it upon your lusts.
4...Whoever
wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
6...“God
resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
7 Submit
to God. Resist the devil and he will flee.
8 Draw
near to God and He will draw near to you.
10 Humble
yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.
11 Do not speak evil of one another.
13-16, Do not say, “We shall go here or there and do this or that” all such boasting is evil. Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.”
17 Him
who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.
James 5
7 Be
patient like a farmer.
8 ...Establish
your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.
9 Do
not grumble against one another, lest you be condemned.
There. That's the highlights of James. And, after
saying all that, James says, “But above all...
The Holy Spirit
through James repeatedly addressed the power of the tongue.
He will conclude this
chapter and book in verses 13-20 by repeating seven times the most powerful use
of the tongue and its glorious Eternal Outcome.
But first, before
that, above all, He must establish one final guardrail:
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,” lest you fall
into judgment.
James heard this from
his Lord, his Savior, his half-brother:
Jesus,
Matthew
5:33-37
33 “Again you have heard that it was said to those
of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform your
oaths to the Lord.’ 34 But I say to
you, do not swear at all: neither by heaven, for it is God’s
throne; 35 nor by the earth, for it is His footstool;
nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. 36 Nor
shall you swear by your head, because you cannot make one hair white or
black. 37 But let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and
your ‘No,’ ‘No.’ For whatever is more than these is from the evil one.
There’s many Old
Testament Scriptures referring to what Jesus is talking about, but here’s a
couple:
Numbers
30:2. If a man
makes a vow to the Lord, or swears an oath to bind himself by
some agreement, he shall not break his word; he shall do according to all
that proceeds out of his mouth.
Deuteronomy
23:23. That
which has gone from your lips you shall keep and perform, for you voluntarily
vowed to the Lord your God what you have promised with your mouth.
But now, Jesus, and
James, say don’t swear at all, don’t make oaths, just be true to your word. Let
your let your “Yes” be “Yes,” and your “No,” “No,”.
Lest you
fall into judgment.
For whatever is more than
these is from the evil one.
Swearing an oath is a
powerful and dangerous thing. Jesus, and James, command we avoid it altogether.
Now, let’s look at
three examples to confirm the wisdom of their words:
Zedekiah’s broken
oath
Joshua’s mistaken
oath
Jephthah’s foolish
oath
This
past Sunday we looked at an example of this in Ezekiel 17.
Zedekiah’s broken oath
Ezekiel 17
Because of Judah’s
ongoing idolatry, God allowed Babylon to conquer them.
King Nebuchadnezzar of
Babylon made a covenant with Zedekiah and set him as king of Judah.
Zedekiah swore an
oath by God to abide by the terms of the covenant. But he broke the covenant
and tried to get Egypt to help him break the yoke of Babylon.
(Side note: We
don’t have time to go into detail now, but this is an eerie foreshadowing of
the oaths being sworn with Iran).
So, God said about
Zedekiah:
Will he
prosper? Will he who does such things escape? Can he break a covenant and still
be delivered? Ezekiel 17:15.
The questions were
rhetorical.
The answers were obvious.
The Lord takes oaths seriously,
and personal, saying: Since Zedekiah despised My oath, and My
covenant and committed treason against Me, his
men will be killed, and he will die in captivity in Babylon. Ezekiel 17:16-21.
Zedekiah and his men
tried to escape during the final siege in 586 BC, but they were caught and his
men were killed. Zedekiah’s sons were slain before his eyes, then his eyes were
taken and he was led in chains to Babylon where he remained captive until the
day he died. Just as the Lord had said.
2
Chronicles 36:12-13. But
Zedekiah did what was evil in the sight of the LORD his God, and he refused to
humble himself when the prophet Jeremiah spoke to him directly from the LORD. He
also rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar, even though he had taken an oath
of loyalty in God’s name. Zedekiah was a hard and stubborn man, refusing to
turn to the LORD, the God of Israel.
Zedekiah’s broken
oath caused him to fall into judgement
If we say we’ll pray,
but don’t, are we breaking an oath? Are we a no show for the appointment we
said we’d have with God?
Joshua’s mistaken oath
Joshua 9:10-27
2 Samual 21
Go back about 800
years from Zedekiah to around 1,400 BC and meet the Gibeonites.
Joshua was leading
Israel victoriously through the promise land. They had conquered Jericho and
Ai, and the next target was likely Gibeon.
So, Gibeon dressed up
in old clothes and took old moldy bread and wineskins and went to Joshua
looking worn and weary and humble.
They said they were
from a land far, far, away, and when they heard of how God was with Israel, they
traveled all this way just to say they wanted to be their servants, their allies.
So, without asking
counsel of the Lord, they believed them and made a covenant with them and the
rulers of Israel swore an oath to the Gibeonites.
Then, three days
later they discovered that the Gibeonites deceived them.
They couldn’t destroy
them because of the oath. So, they made them their servants. The Gibeonites honored
the arrangement.
But when five kings in
the area heard about Gibeon joining Joshua, they joined forces against them.
Gibeon sent word to
Joshua. Hurry come and save your servants!
So, Joshua and his
men, true to their oath, went to fight for, those they would be fighting
against, had it not been for being tricked.
But God honored their
integrity and told Joshua, not to be afraid, for He would fight for them.
After having marched
all night, they routed the enemy, chased them and killed them with a great
slaughter. As the five kings armies fled, the Lord cast large hailstones from
heaven and more died by the hailstones than the sword.
Then Joshua said,
“Sun,
stand still over Gibeon;
And Moon, in the Valley of Aijalon.”
13 So the sun stood still,
And the moon stopped,
Till the people had revenge
Upon their enemies.
Is this
not written in the Book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in the
midst of heaven, and did not hasten to go down for about a
whole day. 14 And there has been no day
like that, before it or after it, that the Lord heeded the voice
of a man; for the Lord fought for Israel.
Joshua 10:12-14..
God dropped hail bombs
and stopped the sun, to honor those who honored their word.
Even though Israel didn’t
seek the Lord and mistakenly entered covenant with the Gibeonites, they were
still bound by their oath.
Even several
generations later, God remembered and considered this covenant still valid.
2 Samuel
21:
When David was king there
was severe famine in the land.
The Lord said it was because
when King Saul was alive, he broke the Gibeonite covenant by slaughtering many
of them.
To end the famine,
King David asked the Gibeonites what he could do for them.
They asked for the
execution of seven of Saul's male descendants.
Their request was
granted.
The famine ended.
The covenant was
restored and the Gibeonites, eventually helped King Solomon build the temple
and aided Nehemiah in rebuilding Jerusalem's walls after the Babylonian exile.
Then, finally, there’s
Jephthah.
Jephthah’s foolish oath
Judges 11:30-40
Jephtha was the son
of a prostitute. His brothers disowned him because of it.
But God looks on the
heart and calls him a mighty man of valor. Judges 11:1.
While on his way to
battle Israel’s enemies, the Ammonites, he made a vow to the Lord, and said: If
You will deliver the people of Ammon into my hands, then whatever comes
out of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace, shall be
the Lord’s, and I will offer it up as a burnt offering. Judges
11:30-31.
Jephtha defeated the
Ammonites with a very great slaughter. Judges 11:32-33.
When Jephtha returned
home, his daughter, his only child, ran out to meet him with singing and
dancing.
Jephthah was broken.
He told her his vow and said, I have given my word to the Lord, and I cannot
go back on it. Judges 11:34-35.
His amazing daughter
said: My father, if you have given your word to
the Lord, do to me according to what has gone out of your mouth...” Then,
she asked for two months to wander the mountains with her friends and bewail
her virginity. Judges 11:36-37.
So, she went and bewailed
her virginity and returned after two months, and he carried out his vow. She
knew no man. Judges 11:38-39.
Wait! Did Jephthah
offer his own daughter as a sacrifice to God?
That question is
highly debated, but wouldn’t be, if we follow some basic rules of Biblical
interpretation.
1.
Big
picture. The best commentary
on the Bible is the Bible.
2.
Context.
3.
Original
text. It was Divinely
inspired, not our multiple English translations.
4.
Character
of God.
Scripture says Jephthah’s
daughter bewailed her virginity, not her death, not her shortened life. When
she returned Jephthah carried out his vow and she never knew a man. She
never got married, she never got pregnant, she never had children to carry her
father’s legacy. Judges 11:39.
The Bible calls
Jephthah a man of valor in Judges 11:1, and then, he is honored in the New
Testament Hall of Faith in Hebrews 11:32, alongside Sampson, David and Samuel.
If Jephthah killed
his own daughter, he should’ve been stoned to death, not honored, according to the
Law of Moses which explicitly forbids offering human sacrifices. Leviticus
18:21, 20:2, Deuteronomy 12;31.
The Character of God takes
no pleasure in sacrifices or burnt offerings (Psalm 51:6) or in death, not even
the wicked. Ezekiel 33:11.
The original text brings
clarity that the English translations do not give.
Judges 11:31 ...whatever
comes out of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the
people of Ammon, shall surely be the Lord’s, and I will offer it up as a burnt offering.
“and I
will offer it up” begins
with the Hebrew letter, Vav.
וְהַעֲלִיתִ֖הוּ
(wə·ha·‘ă·lî·ṯi·hū)
and I will offer it up
Vav
Vav at the beginning of
a word is a conjunction like “and” however it can also mean, “or”, depending
on context.
Context is king in
Biblical interpretation and considering the whole context of the Word of God, Jephthah
vowed that whatever or whomever (the original word could mean either) came out
of his house first would be the Lord’s or offered up as a burnt offering.
Hope that answers
your question.
Now, let’s wrap up
our Bible Study.
Zedekiah broke the
oath that was within God’s will.
However, Joshua, honored
the oath that was made by mistake, and Jephthah fulfilled his oath, even though
it was made foolishly.
The Lord condemned
double minded Zedekiah, but honored Joshua and Jephthah who swore to their own
hurt and did not change. Psalm 15:1-4.
Jesus tells us out of
the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.
If Jesus is
abundantly in our heart, there’s no need to overcompensate with oaths.
Let’s pray.
Lord
Jesus, thank You for these examples showing why making oaths is not a great
idea. Please help us to be people of Your Word, speaking Truth in Love, letting
our yes be yes and our no, no. Use us to be soul winners and disciple makers.
Thank
You.
We love
You, forever.
Amen.
Prayer
Requests:
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5:12
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James 5:12
This was
feed for you to read. Now it’s Seed for you to sow.
Thank you for sharing.
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