Mas’ei, Journeys, Stages:
B’midbar (Numbers) 30:1 – 36:13
Jeremiah 1:1 – 2:3; 2:4-28; 3:4; 4:1-2
Matthew 5:33-37; James 4:1-12; Philippians 3:7-21
Ever been around a guy who’s so quiet all the time that you wonder what he’s thinking? Did you wonder if he had a problem with being transparent? Maybe his thoughts and feelings were pent up in an unhealthy way. Or could the man be ‘the strong, silent type’?
In the movie “Anne of Green Gables,” an orphan girl is adopted by an elderly couple, the gentleman being a man of few words. Anne grew to deeply love her hard-working and compassionate father, even though he wouldn’t talk much. What kind of guy could her father represent?
Let My Words Be Few
One of my favorite PC&D songs is from the words of a very wise man, Solomon:
Do not be hasty in word or impulsive in thought to bring up a matter in the presence of God. For God is in heaven and you are on the earth; therefore let your words be few. Ecclesiastes 5:2
Loose lips sink ships! Too many words can get you in trouble – hung by the tongue! So ‘let your words be few’.
Know that YHWH hears every word uttered out of our mouths, by which we will have to stand in account before Him one day. The words of our Master Yeshua help me keep my tongue restrained when His Spirit tells me this:
For by your words you will be justified and by your words you will be condemned. Matthew 12:37
By this instruction, Adonai Yeshua expounds on what the wise man Solomon once wrote:
When there are many words, transgression is unavoidable, but he who restrains his lips is wise. Proverbs 10:19
Hang on, there’s more from Sh’lomo! Here’s what it truly means to be ‘cool’:
He who restrains his words has knowledge, and he who has a cool spirit is a man of understanding. Proverbs 17:27
The eldest elder of the council of Jerusalem, in the days of the apostles, had these wise words written to the twelve tribes who are dispersed abroad James 1:1:
This you know, my beloved brethren. But everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger… James 1:19
These wise words are what my Counselor, the Holy Spirit, has spoken to me many times to keep me out of trouble in my life. On the other hand, some of the worst trouble I’ve got myself into is when I’ve spoken too many words in too big of a hurry. It is a key to a good marriage and to any relationship we hold dear. Restraining my tongue and waiting for the Ruach to speak to me has helped me keep shalom and stay productive in life.
The Silent Husband
At the beginning of our Torah portion, the head of a household is instructed how to establish and perform vows; or instead, to nullify vows. His motives for doing so hang on to his love for his God and family and the well-being and fruitfulness of their lives.
Her husband may ratify or veto any vow or sworn oath to deny herself.
But if her husband says nothing to her from day to day, then he is confirming all her vows and all her oaths that are on her. He confirms them by saying nothing to her on the day of his hearing about it. But if he nullifies them after hearing about it, he will bear her guilt. Numbers 30:13-14
So if a husband remains silent on the day that he hears a vow from his wife or his daughter, he confirms the vow by his silence. He can nullify the vow days later, but the husband will then bear her guilt if she does not perform her vow, or if it produces wrong words and actions. He becomes accountable for her vow if he says nothing to nullify it.
The Vow of the Bride of Messiah to the Bridegroom
When did the Bride of the Messiah, Israel, make a vow to her Divine Bridegroom? Let’s look back to Mount Sinai and hear the vow that resonates through the corridors of time:
And Moshe came and told all the words of YHWH to the people, and all the judgments. And all the people answered with one voice and said,
“We will do all the Words which YHWH has spoken.” Exodus 24:3b
On that day, did YHWH annul the vow that He knew His Bride would not keep? The Torah doesn’t say that He did; it is silent on His response to Israel’s vow. The children of Israel had already broken the covenant with Him through the golden calf and other incidents. Moses must have known they would not keep that vow, but would soon break it and bring curses and guilt upon their souls. So why not nullify the vow on that day?
Have you ever wondered why Yeshua rarely spoke but often remained silent before His accusers before He was crucified? Why was He silent, when the ones He poured His whole life into vowed to kill Him? By His words, He could have shut them all down!
For our Messiah to fulfill the mitzvah (commandment) on vows, our Husband had to be silent to bear her iniquity. He could have disannulled her vows and the will of the people to “Crucify Him, crucify Him!” But to fulfill the Torah and to take on our iniquity breaking our vows, He remained silent like a sheep led to the slaughter.
Yah Who saves did nullify His Bride’s broken vows and made a new covenant with Israel by His precious blood, by the redemptive work of the Messiah in His first coming.
In this way, the Messiah, our Elohim, fulfilled this prophecy of David who wrote:
To You silence is praise, O God, in Zion; and to You is a vow paid. To You Who hears prayer, all flesh will come. Things of iniquity, our transgressions, are mightier than I; You atone for them. Psalm 65:1-3
Good News for the Bride!
Three days after His crucifixion, Yeshua arose and commissioned His disciples to proclaim the Good News. In their message, they declared He had nullified and born the guilt of the broken vows of Israel, including their vow to do all the words of the covenant.
How did He do it? He kept silent on the day they vowed to kill Him, thus bearing our guilt, for we all crucified Him through our sins. The Son of God was entirely innocent and not worthy of the consequences of sin. But in our place, our Savior bore the consequences and the shame of breaking our vows by coming as a sheep silent to the slaughter.
On the other hand, Adonai Yeshua has and will forever keep His vows that He has spoken to Abraham and His seed. He cannot break His Word and is trustworthy!
The Good News declares that Yeshua bore the iniquity of His Bride who had broken her vows – that He made atonement for her, covering her. Our Divine Messiah renewed His covenant with Israel. HalleluYah! We can count on Him to keep His promises!
To stay free from binding ourselves to vows we just end up breaking, Adonai Yeshua taught us how to guard our liberty by not swearing, but to just let our ‘yes be yes’ and our ‘no be no’ (Matthew 5:37). In the Messiah, we have freedom from making vows that we would just end up breaking!
So guard the liberty you have in Messiah and be careful making a vow. Let’s keep any vow we may say the best we can, but know that any past broken vows Yeshua atones for when we repent and ask for forgiveness at the foot of the cross.
BaShem Adonai Yeshua HaMashiyach,
In the Name of the Lord, Yeshua the Messiah,
David Klug