Vows were one character of communion under the law. There were required sacrifices, vowed sacrifices and voluntary sacrifices. In these three ways the worshippers approached the Lord. We have a long chapter of Scripture on the persons who, under the law, were competent to make vows (Num. 30). We have another scripture on the law touching the things that were vowed or devoted (Lev. 27).
The Son of God was the great maker of vows. "Lo, I come" was His language in such a character before the world was, and we know how He fulfilled it. In the day of His sorrow also He made vows. Psalm 22 shows this. He vows to declare God's name to His brethren, and in the midst of the church, or congregation, to sing praise. The first He began to pay immediately on His being delivered from death (John 20:17) and is still fulfilling in all the saints (Rom. 8:15).
The second He will pay in the kingdom when Israel and the nations are gathered and all the offerings shall only be to the Lord God of heaven and earth, according to which He says, "So will I sing praise unto Thy name forever, that I may daily perform My vows" (Psa. 61:8).
And again, "I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all His people, in the courts
of the Lord's house, in the midst of thee, O Jerusalem. Praise ye the Lord" (Psa. 116:18-19). Thus Jesus perfectly fulfilled His vows, the great pattern of paying that which He owed.
But we have some few instances of vows undertaken by others, and paid differently by them, which are lessons of either warning or encouragement to our souls.
Jacob vowed a vow that if the Lord would take care of him in such and such a manner, he would, among other things, make the stone on which he was lying God's house (Gen. 28). When God had accomplished all the desired mercy, Jacob grew slack and is not in that readiness to fulfill his vow that became him (Deut. 23:21; Eccl. 5:4). He lingers about Succoth and Sychem, and the Lord has to stir him up to go to Bethel and there perform the vow of his distressful hour.
Jephthah vowed, as we know, what is commonly called a rash vow, and perhaps so. He was under excitement and his lips spoke too quickly before he had duly counted the cost (Prov. 20:25); when the time of fulfillment comes, he consequently suffers some loss. The honor of performing the vow rather rests on the head of his honored and devoted daughter who in due deliberation of soul will have it accomplished, though against herself, which her too-hasty father had undertaken (Judges 11). It is better to be slow and sure.
Hannah, by a vow, dedicated her child to the Lord. This evidently cost her much; when the child was given to her, prayers and vows, a mother's affections, as well as a suppliant's truth, assail her. She has to meet a conflict of contending emotions. But the right prevails according to her vow and she is rewarded. The Spirit fills her mouth with praise, and the Lord gives her many children in the place of her little Samuel (1 Sam. 1 and 2),
These cases warn and encourage us. Jacob tells us not to delay, but be in haste to do our duty, be it what it may, lest the Lord have to rebuke our lingering. Jephthah warns us to sit down and deliberate with our souls before we undertake great services or sacrifices. Hannah encourages us to be true and devoted to Jesus, because, though this may at first and for a time cause the heart a struggle and a sorrow, blessing will surely be in the end thereof.
We are not to make vows, in the strict sense, as binding our souls to do something or make a sacrifice with certain penalties, because service is now to flow from love, and the sense of liberty, and the sense, too, of our own insufficiency (Matt. 5:34-37; James 5:12).