Reading: Numbers 28-30, Psalm 49
Oh good, another recounting of the daily, weekly, monthly, and annual sacrifices. I know you are excited. As usual, it is not a matter of coincidence. It may seem repetitive and rather dull to us as modern readers, but the placement of God’s reiterations are intentional and make sense in the story if we pay enough attention. If reading all the festival requirements seems long and dull to you, remember that hyperlinks, footnotes, and even bound books are a conceit of the modern era. For much of the history of these stories, they were written up on a scroll, so putting a reasonable amount of detail in different places made sense. Now let’s look at what has just happened and try to see why this is here.
After years of wandering in the wilderness, in which a whole generation of adults died off and their children grew up, God is about to again call the people to take possession of the the land of Canaan. He has Moses conduct a census, in which we learn that the fighting strength of Israel has not diminished during their forty years in the wilderness and wars against several nations. He establishes succession for Moses as he nears the end of his life. Now, he repeats the some of the the laws in Leviticus. Once again we get the shorthanded version- thank goodness!- meant to stand in the place of the whole.
God is making sure the new generation understands that the covenant arrangement he made with their parents at Sinai is still in force. Their parents did not keep the covenant especially well. Really badly, actually. But God is putting the new generation on the same footing as the old. They have just gotten a new leader commissioned- Joshua- and God is making sure the people understand that the new leadership does not mean new rules. The covenant communicated through Moses is the established covenant with Israel, regardless of who is leading them.
It is also worth reminding ourselves about some of the key features of God’s covenant with Israel which may get passed over easily in the midst of all the sacrificing: these were mandated national parties. One of them is literally a week long national camp out in which everyone eats a lot. God’s laws are not all self-denial and renunciation- there is a good bit of having a great time.
After the recounting of the festival laws, there is a short set of rules about how to deal with vows. This is somewhat difficult for us, because we don’t think of sworn vows the same way as the ancient world did, or even the rather more recent past. In today’s world, a sworn word is considered at best quaint, more likely a joke. But not so long ago, and certainly in the ancient world, for a person to swear something at all was a really big deal- they were staking their reputation, and at times much more, on coming through on their promise. For a person to swear to a god was even more significant. Sworn words were covenants. Unbreakable contracts. To fail to fulfill a sworn promise was extraordinarily dishonorable. The social consequences were similar to today’s financial consequences of total bankruptcy- rebuilding afterward is a difficult and doubtful exercise, because trust has been utterly destroyed.
God is not interested in his people being vow-breakers. God himself is a keeper of promises, even when the other party violates all the conditions of their agreement. He is putting a very high standard before his people to do likewise. That this follows a reminder about the laws in Leviticus shouldn’t pass us by- God swore a vow to Israel, and he will fulfill it. In the upcoming book of Deuteronomy we will see that Israel swears a vow to God, and he expects them to fulfill it.
All that being said, God makes allowance for vows sworn by the young and those under the responsibility of others. Those in authority can void the sworn vows of those under their authority, but only if they do so right away. Also, by doing so they are absorbing the iniquity of those whose vow they are voiding- if there are consequences to such a vow being voided, they are now responsible for them. God makes some allowances, but he takes promises seriously. God does what he says he will do, and he expects his people to do likewise.