Theological term
Oath
4 sermons · All terms
The Lawful Use of Vows in Israel
Leviticus 27 addresses the Israelite practice of making vows to God — acts of religious zeal, often rash or imprudent, by which persons consecrated people, animals, houses, or land to the Lord. The chapter does not license vow-breaking but rather underscores the gravity of vowing by legislating a costly redemption mechanism, warning the would-be vower to count the cost before speaking. The sermon situates the passage within the 1689 LBCF chapter 23 framework distinguishing oaths from vows, then draws three applications against popish monastical vows, Protestant legalistic vows, and pietistic circumventions of God's law — all forms of man-made religion condemned repeatedly in Scripture.
The Third Commandment
The Third Commandment — 'You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain' (Deuteronomy 5:11) — grounds its prohibition and its positive demands in the theological weight of the divine name itself: God's name is the vehicle by which He reveals His nature, being, and attributes to His creatures, so every misuse is a direct offense against God. The sermon works through five concrete violations (blasphemy, false oaths, magic and sorcery, misapplication of providence, and misinterpretation of Scripture) before turning to the positive duties of reverent use, worshipful fear, and a sincere profession of faith matched by answerable conduct. Throughout, the law-gospel distinction is maintained: no sinner is accepted by God on the basis of keeping this commandment, but on the basis of Christ's perfect obedience rendered in the sinner's place; those united to Christ by grace through faith are then pointed back to the law as a rule of grateful living.
Joshua 9
Joshua 9 records the deception of the Gibeonites and Israel's failure to seek divine counsel before entering a covenant of peace with them. The chapter's key verse — 'they did not ask counsel of the Lord' (v. 14) — exposes how even a sophisticated ruse of moldy bread and worn sandals can succeed against God's people when they trust their own discernment rather than inquiring of God. The sermon traces four movements in the narrative: the coalition of Canaanite kings, the Gibeonites' elaborate deception, Israel's indiscretion, and Joshua's subsequent investigation of the Gibeonites. The application is threefold: seek God's counsel in weighty decisions, verify the claims of those you deal with, and maintain faithfulness to oaths even when they were entered into wrongly.
The Third Commandment: Oath-Taking
Jesus' instruction in Matthew 5:33–37 is not a universal prohibition against oath-taking but a condemnation of the Pharisaic practice of swearing by created things — heaven, earth, Jerusalem, one's own head — as a device to lend apparent solemnity to speech while evading accountability to God. The sermon exposes this abuse by tracing the Old Testament's positive teaching on oaths, demonstrating from Christ's own submission to adjuration in Matthew 26 and from Paul's sworn affirmations that lawful oath-taking remains valid. The corrective Jesus offers is the kingdom ethic of simple truthfulness: the citizen of Christ's kingdom needs no oath to be believed, because his yes is yes and his no is no, and any compulsion to pad speech beyond this reveals the depraved bent traced ultimately to the father of lies. The Sermon on the Mount, rightly understood, drives the hearer to the cross, where Christ — who honored every commandment and swore to his own hurt — provides the righteousness no oath-keeper can supply for himself.