Tues.’s Devo - Vows

Read: Numbers 30:1-31:54; Luke 4:1-30; Psalm 63:1-11; Proverbs 11:20-21
Many people make vows to the Lord without even knowing it. All it takes to make a vow is to speak out a statement. We all make rash promises and say things we don’t mean. We are held to them if we don’t break them the same way we made them - by speaking.
God told the children of Israel if they made a vow and either their husband or their father heard it and didn’t agree to it, he could release them from it. Or, he could remain silent and she or he was bound to keep it.
Before we are saved we make many foolish vows but our new husband, Jesus, releases us from most of them. It uses the example of woman because we are the bride of Christ. If a woman is divorced or a widow whatever vow she makes stands. This is talking about a person who has either rejected Jesus or has no god.
God sent the Israelites after the Midanites and killed their five kings as well as Balaam because he had turned the Israelites away from the Lord that caused the plague. They burned all their towns and took their women and much plunder.
After the barrel, they were to cleanse themselves as well as their weapons before they could come back into the camp. God didn’t want any of the blood of the enemy in the camp. The plunder was divided among the people.
In Luke, Jesus went from being commissioned by God in front of the people to the wilderness to be tempted. He had a battle to win over temptation. Satan began by questioning Jesus’ identity. He would say, “IF you are the son of God.” Satan challenges our identity first. Next, the devil tempted him in every promise God had given him. The temptation was to get it all before he went to the cross. That is always the devil’s temptation to get God’s promises before it is time.
After beating the devil at his game, Jesus began his ministry full of the Holy Spirit. He went to his home town where he read from Isaiah proclaiming his purpose. His hometown rejected him because they could not see him as anyone but what he was as a child. They were also incensed that he would choose to use the examples of Gentile people that God visited like the widow of Zarephath and the Syrian, Naaman. Jesus was speaking prophetically of the day he would lay the Jews aside and choose the Gentiles.
Lord, open our eyes to the schemes of the devil. May we not fall into temptation, but deliver us from evil.