In 2 Samuel, we learn about the vow Absalom claimed to have made to God and shared with his father:
At the end of four years, Absalom said to the king, “Let me go to Hebron and fulfill a vow I made to the Lord. While your servant was living at Geshur in Aram, I made this vow: ‘If the Lord takes me back to Jerusalem, I will worship the Lord in Hebron. The king said to him, “Go in peace.” So he went to Hebron.
I want us to focus on the genuineness of Absalom’s vow. While Absalom frames his request to go to Hebron as a fulfillment of a vow to God, it is revealed shortly after that his true intention was to organize a rebellion against his father. We cannot be certain whether Absalom genuinely made the vow or if he fabricated it as an excuse to justify his journey to Hebron. Either way, it seems that Absalom did not worship God when he arrived. Instead, he assembled an army and began organizing his rebellion against his father and God’s anointed – King David.
What can we learn from this vow?
If we give Absalom the benefit of the doubt and assume he truly made the vow and even intended to keep it, his vow teaches us the importance of carefully examining the truth of our motives in our hearts. Jeremiah tells us The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? (Jeremiah 17). We must carefully guard our hearts to protect them from evil desires. The only way to do this, as James tells us, is to be truly honest with ourselves when we examine our hearts in light of the Word of God. We cannot allow Satan to use our own hearts against us.
But, most scholars believe that Absalom’s vow was not genuine. It seems he used it as a pretext to leave and begin his rebellion. In other words, he lied to his father. In Psalm 44, the sons of Korah write: “Would not God discover this? For he knows the secrets of the heart.” While Absalom may have deceived his father, he certainly did not deceive God.
The lesson is clear: Do not make insincere vows, and do not use them to hide your true intentions. God knows your heart and your real motives. Be honest with yourself, because while you may deceive yourself or others, you will never be able to deceive God. #KeepYourWord
Adonai's Appeal 