Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Oaths

33 “Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.’

34 But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, 35 or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King.

36 And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black.

37 Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.

Accidentally missed verses 31-32

Not sure whether or not you noticed but two weeks ago we left off on verse 30, and today we’re picking up by starting in verse 33.

Which means I’ve skipped verses 31-32.

Now, I wish I could tell you that I’ve done this for good reason but I can’t.

All I can tell you is that while I was studying these passages I somehow got it in my head that Jesus’ teaching on divorce followed his teaching on oaths, so I began studying and preparing to preach on oaths, and after several hours of work I looked down and realized that verse 38 was not what I expected it to be.

I looked up the page and much to my surprise there was Jesus’ teaching on divorce, just prior to his teaching on oaths.

So at that point rather than waste my initial momentum I decided I would preach on oaths this week and then preach from verses 31-32 during our next time together.

Jesus reforming the teaching of the scribes and Pharisees

So this morning we continue our study of Jesus’ sermon on the mount.

If you’ll remember during our last two times together we looked at Jesus’ explanation, or exposition, of the Law, particularly concerning murder and adultery.

And in both of those teachings we saw Jesus introduce them with these words, “You have heard that it was said...” or “You have heard that it was said to those of old...” and today Jesus continues that pattern here in verse 33 when he says, “Again you have heard that it was said to those of old...”.

The reason I bring this to our attention again is because understanding his introduction is crucial for us to rightly understand what Jesus is about to say in the verses to follow.

When Jesus says to his disciples, “Again you have heard that it was said to those of old...” we should immediately recall that Jesus is speaking here specifically of the teaching that had came from the scribes and Pharisees concerning God’s Law.

Jesus isn’t abolishing or changing God’s law but he instead intends to contrast and ultimately correct the teaching that had come from the religious leaders of their day with his own.

He’s seeking to reform the teaching that had come from the scribes and Pharisees, and point his listeners back to the original intent and principles of the Law.

So when Jesus says, at the beginning of verse 34, “But I say to you..” he’s not bringing a new teaching or departing from law of God but instead intends to help us rightly understand God’s law.

Jesus is gracious to us in that he explains the meaning of God’s law

And I think it would be helpful for us to see here that this is one of the ways Jesus is gracious toward his people.

Jesus, in a very real sense, is angry that the law of God has been obscured by the teachers in Israel.

God’s people have been lead astray and even oppressed by the teachings of the scribes and Pharisees, and Jesus’ aim here is to remove all of the trappings and man made traditions so that his people can be free to keep God’s commandments.

And one of the first steps to being able to obey God’s commands is rightly understanding what it is he’s commanding us to do.

One of the most basic components of preaching is to help the hearers understand the text that’s being taught.

If you can’t understand it, whether rightly or at all, you’ll never be able to obey it.

And Jesus cares enough about his hearers to take the time to explain God’s law to them.

This is grace of God.

He wants you to understand his Word, and a significant part of Jesus’ ministry is helping his hearer’s rightly understand God’s law.

How cruel would it be of a parent to punish their child for disobeying their rules when

You shall not swear falsely

Now, let’s look again at the text starting in verse 33,

33 “Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.’

Oaths

33 “Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.’

34 But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, 35 or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King.

36 And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black.

37 Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.

This particular command to perform what you have sworn to do, or to keep your word, is recorded similarly in where it reads,

This particular text has

Men and Vows

30 Moses spoke to the heads of the tribes of the people of Israel, saying, “This is what the LORD has commanded.

2 If a man vows a vow to the LORD, or swears an oath to bind himself by a pledge, he shall not break his word.

He shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth.

So what we read here in the book of Numbers is almost verbatim of Jesus’ words in verse 33, so the question then becomes what was wrong with what the scribes and Pharisees were teaching with regards to this verse?

But Jesus simply doesn’t say.

And in his immediate context he may not have needed to, likely because his disciples were already intimately acquainted with the popular teachings their day.

Or maybe Matthew leaves out Jesus’ explanation because he assumes the readers of his book are already familiar with what the scribes and Pharisees taught.

Either way what’s missing for us as 21st century readers is historical context.

What wrong teaching concerning oaths and vows is Jesus seeking to correct?

To begin answering that question I want to survey what the Scriptures teach us concerning oaths and vows, because the danger here in this text is for us to read it without consulting the rest of the Old and New Testaments.

For instance, look at the first half of verse 34 again,

What’s missing for us as 21st century readers is historical context.

34 But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all

Many Christians have taken this to mean exactly what it seems to say at face value, which is, “Do not take an oath at all.”

As if taking an oath or making a vow is somehow evil in and of itself, or at the very least that we shouldn’t take an oath or pronounce a vow because “anything more” than simply saying ‘yes’ or ‘no’ “comes from evil.”

I mean look at what Jesus says in verse 37,

37 Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.

As if the word ‘more’ must mean to take an oath or make a vow, but I believe that such an interpretation is short sighted and that it fails to take into consideration at least two things 1) the whole counsel of God and 2) the historical context of Jesus’ day.

So rather than telling you never to promise anything to anyone ever again, I want us to do some due diligence by searching the Scriptures a little further, and consulting the historical context of first century Israel, and I think after we do, the meaning of this text will quickly come into view.

Surveying the OT concerning vows

So let’s start by jumping around the Bible to get a feel for what it teaches concerning oaths and vows.

We’ve already looked at but let’s look at it again,

30 Moses spoke to the heads of the tribes of the people of Israel, saying, “This is what the LORD has commanded.

2 If a man vows a vow to the LORD, or swears an oath to bind himself by a pledge, he shall not break his word.

He shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth.

What’s implied or assumed here in Numbers chapter 30 is this, that there will be times that you may make a vow unto the Lord, and that, if you do, then these are the guideline that you must follow, which is “not to break [your] word.” or to “do according to all that proceeds out of [your] mouth.”

Moreover, if you read the rest of the chapter you’ll find that it’s dedicated exclusively to how vows are to be regulated within the home.

In short, there’s an assumption within Scripture that there are times and circumstances when an oath or a vow is appropriate.

If we turn back to the book of Exodus chapter 24 we read that when the people of Israel came out of Egypt, God gave them laws and statutes to follow, and after hearing God's words they make a covenant with God that, "all that the Lord has spoken we will do."

In fact, if you read all of verse 7 there in chapter 24 it says,

7 Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it in the hearing of the people.

And they said, “All that the LORD has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.”

A covenant is a pledge or promise made by one or more parties, and in this case God promises to bless Israel if they’re obedient to his commands, and the people of Israel promise to keep all the words that the Lord had spoken to them.

The OT is rife with oaths and pledges, and even God as the writer of Hebrews says in 6:13 swore by himself,

13 For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, 14 saying, “Surely I will bless you and multiply you.”

The entire Bible is made up of covenants, for instance, when we celebrate the Lord’s Supper we’re, as Jesus put it, celebrating the “new covenant”.

And finally, I’ll point out two last Scriptures before we move on, lest you think oaths and vows are merely a thing of the OT.

Listen to as it records a portion of the Apostle Paul’s journey through a town called Cenchreae,

18 After this, Paul stayed many days longer and then took leave of the brothers and set sail for Syria, and with him Priscilla and Aquila.

At Cenchreae he had cut his hair, for he was under a vow.

and in the Book of John writes this,

5 And the angel whom I saw standing on the sea and on the land raised his right hand to heaven 6 and swore by him who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and what is in it, the earth and what is in it, and the sea and what is in it, that there would be no more delay,

So when we survey the Bible as a whole oaths and vows appear to be quite typical of God’s people, even expected.

That’s not to say they’re to be taken lightly, but that making a promise or taking an oath is considered serious business, something that has consequences if not upheld.

In light of this it seems strange that Jesus would abolish the OT’s teaching regarding oaths, and it seems strange that if Jesus did intend to ban the practice of making vows then why do we see the Apostle Paul still performing them himself.

So when we survey the Bible as a whole oaths and vows appear to be quite typical of God’s people, even expected.

That’s not to say they’re to be taken lightly, but that making a promise or taking an oath is considered serious business, something that has consequences if not upheld.

In light of the testimony of Scripture, it seems strange that Jesus would abolish the OT’s teaching regarding oaths, and it seems strange that if Jesus did intend to ban the practice of making vows then why do we see the Apostle Paul still performing them himself in the book of Acts.

Historical Context

Now the second item we need to take into consideration is the historical context of Jesus’ day, and I think this will prove most helpful.

Extrabiblical literature indicates that many rabbis did not consider it a sin to break a vow if it was not made explicitly in the name of God.

Oaths made in the name of heaven or even the gold of the temple were not regarded as ultimately binding … this led to people making oaths by persons or objects other than God to give them an out in case they did not keep their word.”

(Tabletalk, October 2012) So, in short, the “Jewish leaders [had] invented a system by which they could determine whether a vow had to be kept [or not].”

(Tabletalk, October 2012).

The "men of old", as Jesus called them, had created a loophole within Israel's understanding of oaths.

They basically said that if you swore by anything other than God himself then that oath or vow was not considered ultimately binding, effectively nullifying the law of God.