When we understand what Jesus is saying in this portion of his teaching/torah, it makes sense it would follow after the portion on breaking the covenant relationship of marriage. The connections are there when we understand the original contextual meaning of what is being said.
I would also imagine, of all the teaching found here in Matthew 5, this one is likely taken most lightly – its not something we consider to be significant. However, to God, it was seen as very significant.
Verse 33
You have heard it was said to those of old you do not swear falsely … In Leviticus 5, YHWH/God tells Moses, if someone sins and commits a faithless act against Adonai by … stop and recognize, whatever he is about to say is considered an act against God … by dealing falsely with his neighbor in a matter of deposit or pledge of hands, or robbery or extortion, or has found what was lost and lied about it, swearing falsely. All those God considers as acts against him. To swear falsely takes us back up a few verses to the teaching/torah about bringing our kohen/gift to the altar (click back a few blogs).
In Leviticus 19, we find several teachings/torahs in regard to how we are to treat others. Among these are famous ones like honor mother and father, no idols, no stealing, etc. Here we are also told not to swear falsely by God’s Name – so profaning the Name of God.
In Numbers 30 there is an entire outline on oaths.
In Jeremiah 7 we see the flow of what Jesus is teaching here, “Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery and swear falsely, and offer incense to Baal and walk after other gods whom you have not known – and then come and stand before Me in this house that bears My name, saying, ‘We are saved!’ – so that you may keep doing all these abominations?
I think we can get the drift of exactly how God feels about all these things, and why he considers swearing falsely as an act against himself.
You will pay to the Lord your oaths … In Deuteronomy 29, the scene is all of Israel is standing before God … note who all of Israel is – the heads of your tribes, your elders, your officials, all the men of Israel, your children, your wives, and the outsider within your camp – has crossed over into the covenant with God.
God is cutting this covenant with them and giving his oath, that he will be their God. God specifically states, not with you alone am I cutting this covenant and this oath, but with whomever is standing here with us today, before God and with whomever is not here with us today. Interesting the specifics provided isn’t it? So this covenant isn’t just with Israel, it’s with the outsider within the camp – later known as a Gentile. And it isn’t just with those who were “there back then” it is also with those who are not there.
Reading things like this in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament makes me wonder, just when was such a division made between Gentile and Jew. God tends to make it clear he sees anyone who wants to walk in his ways and have him as their one God as a part of Israel. There are times when an Israelite is defined exclusively by bloodlines but not all the time.
He goes on to say, anyone who hears the words of this oath and in his heart considers himself blessed, thinking “Peace/Shalom will be mine, even though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart’ – God will be unwilling to forgive him. So all the oath that is is written in this scroll will settle on him and God will blot out his name from under the heavens. We can see where James got ‘may not fall under judgement.’
In James 5, he finishes this statement with not to swear falsely so that you may not fall under judgment.
The secret things belong to God but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever – in order to do all the words of the Torah.
Keep reading in Deuteronomy 30, the vocabulary is the same vocabulary used in what we call the New Testament.
Verses 33-36
And/But I/Jesus tell you:
- do not swear at all
- not by heaven, for it is the throne of God (Isaiah 66)
- not by earth, for it is the footstool of his feet (Isaiah 66)
- not by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King (Psalm 48)
- not by your head, for you cannot make a single hair white or black
I think he has made him self clear – just don’t do it – it seems his point is the ramifications of swearing falsely are so significant, just don’t swear so you don’t have to be concerned with it ever happening.
When Jesus says this, he is right in line with what we find in the Torah of Deuteronomy 23, if you make a vow to God, he will require it of you and you will be guilty of sin. If you refrain from making an oath, you will not have sin on you, so be careful what passes from your lips.
Verse 37
Let your yes be yes and your no be no … Yet, once again, Jesus is stepping us up a notch. He says, you shouldn’t have to swear you will do something, you should just do it. You shouldn’t have to say you won’t do something, just don’t do it. It’s as simple as Yes or No. And when you say something, people shouldn’t need you to swear you are going to keep your word, they should already know you will.
Today, we might refer to this as having integrity. If people can’t trust what you are saying and know you will always be honest, then you have no integrity.
The same root word is used here as the word repetitions we will see later in Matthew 5 – chatter, long winded, utter empty words, repeating the same things over and over, stammering.
Jesus doesn’t stop there, he says, anything more than your yes being yes and no being no is from the evil one. In the Jewish wording, lashon horah a literal translation would not be from the evil one but evil speech. The same wording was used back in verse 11 – all kinds of lashon horah against you.
CalltoCeaseFire 