v. 4 They make many promises, take false oaths and make agreements;
therefore lawsuits spring up like poisonous weeds in a plowed field.
‘make many promises’ is two words together, meaning ‘they speak a lot
of declarations’ or ‘they say a lot of things’
agreements: barrett, oath, vow,
this makes me think of all the things that go on today. People seeing
that they are going to file for bankruptcy so they max out their credit
cards. People getting married in haste and then fighting to get out of
it.
No wonder lawsuits like weeds are popping up all over. The field is
plowed, it isn’t a barren field. People are getting married every week
and having very strong and happy marriages, but there are so many false
oaths and junk going on that people have a cynical view of marriage.
When they see young people in love they expect it to expire. When a
husband is a good husband and really *serves* his wife as the bible
says, he is considered a weakling and a wimp. When a wife is submissive
to her husband, she is considered un-enlightened, from some time long
past.
I’m getting hit lately with a message from the latest veggietales
movie-the Sumo of the Opera. I’ve got a list of things a mile long that
I said I’d do and haven’t finished. I don’t know how long it’s going to
take me to work through all of them, but man I hate it that I’ve said
many statements, ‘made many promises’ and here I am not keeping them.
Now in the midst of my plowed field of fruitful and good stuff that
I’ve done, I have all these weeds of things that I said I’d do and
haven’t. I’ve got an injured reputation with those that have only
gotten weeds from the wheat I promised them. Isn’t it the same with all
of us toward God? We say we’ll do all kinds of stuff for Him; usually
we sing it in a song. We make all kinds of commitments, and then don’t
do it.
Maybe I need to look at what I do, and see that coming up with the
idea and the desire to do something, doesn’t even count for 1% of doing
it.
A casting crowns song says “if we are the body, why aren’t His arms
reaching?” Maybe we have gotten to the point of thinking that singing
the worship songs is enough, and that we don’t have to follow through
on commitments that are ‘just part of a song.’ May God have mercy on me
for doing what I have promised, and may He have mercy on all of us for
singing false oaths and making agreements and not doing what we sung we
would do.