Leviticus 27:1-2 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When a man shall make a singular vow, the persons shall be for the LORD by thy estimation.
Have you ever made a promise you couldn’t keep? It is kind of a bad feeling. Sometimes our mouths can get us into trouble. Sometimes our mouths make promises our hands can’t keep. Leviticus 27 is all about making and keeping your word, from the context of the children of Israel making vows to God. Oftentimes people make such vows when they are emotionally charged, whether with joy, fear, or sorrow.
Leviticus 27:1 says, “And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When a man shall make a singular vow, the persons shall be for the LORD by thy estimation.” “Singular” means “extraordinary” or “beyond one’s power.” So, this is an extraordinary vow one makes to God. It could be a promise regarding another person, an animal, property, or produce. Basically what follows is that if you make that kind of singular promise, you need to value that. You find the word “value” or “estimation.” God says much about this.
In verse 10, for instance, he says, “He shall not alter it, nor change it, a good for a bad, or a bad for a good: and if he shall at all change beast for beast, then it and the exchange thereof shall be holy.” The bottom line is that we are to esteem, estimate, and value our lives. Let me apply this in three ways for Americans right now.
First, value what you have. Don’t be careless with what you have; it is a gift from God, a stewardship from God. Three years ago our family was in New Mexico when our truck was stolen. We got our truck back, but it was roughed up quite a bit and all our possessions that had been in the truck had been stolen. Now we are fine and we have been blessed by our generous church and by a number of friends who were very good to us. But just last week, I was asking my wife, “Hey, where is that jacket? I like that jacket.” She said, “You lost it in Albuquerque.” That is our code for “it was stolen.” So, value what you have.
Sometimes we don’t value what we have until we no longer have it. Why wait until it’s gone? Whether you are making a sacred vow to God or you are giving your word to other people, you need to consider what it is that you have and value that. You are not being generous if you don’t even know what you have. If you are giving things away without any kind of regard whatever, that is not being generous; it is being careless.
Second, value what you say. What you say is not cheap. What you say will not be cheap to others if it is not cheap to you. If you value the truth, civility, and other people, then you need to value what you say.
Third, value what you give. If a person made a vow to God, God took what that person said seriously. Certainly we should take our words as seriously as God does.
So, value your possessions, your words, and what you give. There is a story in the New Testament about Jesus when He observed a widow putting in a mite, just a little bit, into the temple offering. A mite was not a lot of money, but Jesus said that she had given more than all the other people because it was everything she had. You can never give more than one hundred percent.
Every day we are given life, and we are to esteem and value it as the gift that God has given. Value what you have, value what you say, and value what you give.