Poems and Short Features

 

What is an Oath?
 Audio MP3

“The principle on which an oath is held to be binding is incidentally laid down in Hebrews 6:16, viz. as an ultimate appeal to divine authority to ratify an assertion. On the same principle, that oath has always been held most binding which appealed to the highest authority, as regards both individuals and communities. As a consequence of this principle, appeals to God’s name on the one hand, and to heathen deities on the other, are treated in Scripture as tests of allegiance. (Exodus 23:13; 34:6; Deuteronomy 29:12, etc.) So also the sovereign’s name is sometimes used as a form of obligation. (Genesis 42:15; 2 Samuel 11:11; 14:19.) Other forms of oath, serious or frivolous, are mentioned, some of which are condemned by our Lord. (Matthew 5:33-37; 23:16-22; and see James 5:12). There is, however, a world-wide difference between a solemn appeal to God and profane swearing.

The forms of adjuration mentioned in Scripture are:

1. Lifting up the hand. Witnesses laid their hands on the head of the accused. (Genesis 14:22; Leviticus 24:14; Deuteronomy 17:7; Isaiah 3:7.)

2. Putting the hand under the thigh of the person to whom the promise was made. (Genesis 24:2; 47:29.)

3. Oaths were sometimes taken before the altar, or, as some understand the passage, if the persons were not in Jerusalem, in a position looking toward the temple. (1 Kings 8:31; 2 Chronicles 6:22.)

4. Dividing a victim and passing between or distributing the pieces. (Genesis 15:10, 17; Jeremiah 34:18.)

As the sanctity of oaths was carefully inculcated by the law, so the crime of perjury was strongly condemned; and to a false witness the same punishment was assigned which was due for the crime to which he testified. (Exodus 20:7; Leviticus 19:12.)”

—Smith’s Bible Dictionary, William Smith, revised by F.N. and M.A. Peloubet

 

 

 

Zedekiah’s Broken Oath
 Audio MP3

The kingdom of Judah was destroyed when Zedekiah was king. Was Zedekiah worse than the kings of Judah who preceded him? Had not Manasseh filled Jerusalem with innocent blood? (2 Kings 21:16) Had not Jehoiakim cut up the scroll with the words of Jehovah, and burned it? (Jeremiah 36:4,23-24)

To his credit it was Zedekiah who showed mercy to the prophet ­Jeremiah when he commanded that Jeremiah be rescued from a slimy dungeon lest he die (Jeremiah 38:4-18).

Yet in one thing Zedekiah was worse than all who preceded him: The king of Babylon had compelled Zedekiah to swear by God his ­loyalty, yet he rebelled (2 Chronicles 36:11-13).

 

 
 

Why Man Should Not Swear
 Audio MP3


“Ye have heard that it was said to them of old time, 1Thou shalt not for swear thy self, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths: but I say unto you, Swear not at all;
neither by the heaven, for it is the throne of God; nor by the earth, for it is the foot -
stool of his feet; nor 2by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. Neither shalt
thou swear by thy head, for thou canst not make one hair white or black. But let your speech be, Yes means yes; No means no: and what so ever is more than these is of 3the evil one.”—Mat thew 5:33-37
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1. Leviticus 19:12; Numbers 30:2; Deuteronomy 23:21.
2. Or, toward.
3. Or, evil.

 

 

A Seed to Bless the Nations
 Audio MP3

“In thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed” (Acts 3:25). And who is this “seed”? Paul answers, “If ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise” (Galatians 3:29). 

The “seed” gives the blessing; the nations receive the blessing. To suppose the faithful church are to be both part of the seed of promise, and at the same time be blessed by that seed, would be to put them in two places at the same time, and would miss the point of God’s promise. The promise to Abraham, as repeated to Jacob, says: “In thee and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.” The faithful seed are being called “out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation,” in order soon to join with Christ in blessing all the nations out of which they were called. 

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Christian, will you learn--or will your replacement? “I buffet my body, and bring it into bondage: lest by any means, after that I have preached to others, I myself should become disapproved” [Greek: become rejected as a misstruck coin] (1 Corinthians 9:27). “Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay” (Ecclesiastes 5:5). Christian, Will you learn to be kind even to your enemies?