Day 66

In my teenage years, when I wanted something from God or got charged up emotionally in church, I would make vows that I had no idea how to fulfil them. I made big vows like asking God to do something for me, and in return, I would buy instruments for the church or pray to God for a chance and promise not to commit a particular sin again. I later realised I was actually trying to manipulate God.

Today’s passage (Chapter 30) about vows is clear. God doesn’t want us making vows simply for the sake of it. Imagine in my naivety, saying I would stop a sin without asking God to help me, just because I wanted to ‘force’ his hands into doing something for me.

The first two chapters in today’s reading talked about sacrifices and festivals expected of God from the Israelites. Again, I thought it was quite a lot, but a commentary I listened to mentioned that the point of the festivals is for the people to intentional about giving things to God and further sit with the weight of sin. When sinning costs us something, we usually consider the weight the next time, as sometimes, we know better, but we still do some wrong things anyway. Speaking about celebrations, including holidays we observe today, the point is to be intentional with remembering why we celebrate, and sometimes we celebrate in ignorance, i.e. lack of understanding of the why. A good example would be the current season of lent. It is not in the bible, but it is a long tradition observed where people have been intentional, 40 days leading up to Easter, starting with Ash Wednesday, representing that people are in an intentional period of repentance. It is similar to what a lot of churches do at the beginning of the new year.

Another good example is Christmas. It is one of the biggest holidays celebrated globally, with a lot of preparations leading up to the day itself. But the reason for the season seems to have been lost in all of these celebrations.