{"id":9193,"date":"2022-07-24T00:00:43","date_gmt":"2022-07-23T14:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/?p=9193"},"modified":"2022-07-25T08:24:20","modified_gmt":"2022-07-24T22:24:20","slug":"9193","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/2022\/07\/24\/9193\/","title":{"rendered":"Watch What You Say"},"content":{"rendered":"

Matthew 5:33-37\u00a033<\/sup>Again you have heard that it was said to those long ago, “You shall not swear falsely, but shall fulfill to the Lord your oath.”\u00a034<\/sup>But I say to you, do not swear an oath at all, either by heaven because it is the throne of God, 35<\/sup>or by the earth because it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem because it is the city of the great King. 36<\/sup>And do not swear an oath by your head because you cannot make one hair white or black. 37<\/sup>Let your word be “Yes” or “No”; anything beyond this is from evil.<\/em><\/p>\n

Jesus continues again<\/em> the pattern started in verse 21 by quoting a command the people knew followed by his deeper interpretation of the ideas behind the command. Jesus moves beyond the Old Testament command and sets a higher standard for his disciples in God\u2019s kingdom. There is no exact command in the Old Testament that matches what Jesus says but rather a combination of Leviticus 19:12, Numbers 30:2, and Deuteronomy 23:21. A possible background verse is Exodus 20:7 and the commandment not to misuse the name of the Lord. An oath<\/em> is a statement or assertion that often appeals to a person or thing as certification of the truth of the promise. Sometimes consequences are stated as part of the oath if people do not do what they promise (Ruth 1:17; 1 Samuel 3:17; 14:44; 2 Chronicles 15:15).<\/p>\n

In verse 34, Jesus\u2019 shows that at stake is one\u2019s integrity and the reliability of one\u2019s word. Swear<\/em> does not refer to saying bad words but to affirming the statement a person makes is true. Swearing an oath involves calling upon another object greater than oneself to confirm the sincerity of the oath. The implication is that if a person breaks the oath, something bad will happen such as judgment. Jesus emphasizes this command by adding at all<\/em>. There is to be no exception for disciples who should have no need to swear an oath in order to be trusted. Jesus expects a greater righteousness from his followers (5:20). He modeled this when he refused to swear an oath at his trial in 26:63-64.<\/p>\n

Jesus gives four examples of swearing followed by reasons not to swear by these. Oaths were common in Judaism of the time. The Jewish document called the Mishnah<\/em>, which records the teachings of many rabbis, had a tractate on oaths. In this document, an elaborate hierarchy for oaths is described. Swearing by some of the lower items made the oath seem less binding.\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

In the first example, Jesus says not to swear by heaven<\/em>. Jews avoided saying the name of God lest they somehow break the third commandment in Exodus 20:7. They would often substitute something else for God in their oaths so they would be less bound by the oath since it did not mention God. Jesus shows that swearing by heaven is actually not a safe substitute for God because heaven is God\u2019s throne<\/em>. The second example, swearing by the earth<\/em>, distances someone\u2019s oath even further from God and could be considered less binding and \u201csafer\u201d if the oath was broken. However, Jesus still links the earth to God because it is his footstool<\/em>. In these two examples, Jesus is referencing Isaiah 66:1 where God says, \u201cHeaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool.\u201d Swearing by Jerusalem<\/em> is also a problem because it is the city of the Great King<\/em>. Jerusalem was God\u2019s city and the temple his throne. From there, God rules the world as the Great King<\/em> (Psalm 48:1-2).<\/p>\n

In the fourth example, the focus shifts from God to the person who swears the oath. No one can change the color of one\u2019s hair. We should not read into this statement modern ideas of hair coloring, which can be easily done at a local salon. Although there is evidence of people trying to dye hair in Egypt of that time, it was beyond imagination for people to think of changing their hair color. God is the only one who can perform a miracle like this. Even the hairs of a person\u2019s head are important to God (10:30).<\/p>\n

Verse 37 \u00a0restates the key point of verse 34. Jesus\u2019 simple answer to swearing is do not do it at all! A person\u2019s word should be able to stand alone without the need to swear an oath. The word of a follower of Jesus must be reliable because we follow the One who is the Truth (John 14:6). Anything more<\/em> means adding something to our yes or no (see Proverbs 20:25). The evil one<\/em> can refer to either something evil or Satan. James 5:12 may reflect on this teaching.<\/p>\n

For older posts, click\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Matthew 5:33-37\u00a033Again you have heard that it was said to those long ago, “You shall not swear falsely, but shall fulfill to the Lord your oath.”\u00a034But I say to you, do not swear an oath at all, either by heaven because it is the throne of God, 35or by the earth because it is his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotions","post-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9193"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9193\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9211,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9193\/revisions\/9211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}