Woe To Your Oath's

i. “To the Jew an oath was absolutely binding, so long as it was a binding oath. Broadly speaking, a binding oath was an oath which definitely and without equivocation employed the name of God; such an oath must be kept, no matter what the cost. Any other oath might be legitimately broken.” (Barclay)

Out of obedience to God’s Word they refused to swear by the name of God (as commanded in Exodus 20:7). Yet they constructed an elaborate system of oaths, some of which were binding and some were not. It was a way of making a promise while keeping fingers crossed behind one’s back.

The altar is the established meeting place between God and man, and our altar is Jesus Himself and His work on the cross.

The purpose of the altar is significant: it sanctified what was put upon it, and it sustained and bore up the sacrifice until it was consumed.

I. JESUS CHRIST IS THE ANTITYPE OF THIS BRAZEN ALTAR (Exodus 27.). 1. The altar typifies our Lord if we consider the use of it. To sanctify that which was put upon it, and to sustain it while the fire was consuming it. Our Lord lifts up our gifts towards heaven. 2. The place of the altar. You saw it the moment you entered the door of the tabernacle. The most prominent thought of the soul is Jesus as Mediator. 3. The form of the altar. It was foursquare; stability and endurance. 4. The materials of which the altar was made. Shittim wood, overlaid with brass; the former represents the incorruptible human character of Jesus: the latter the endurance of Christ.

Exalting Jesus in Matthew Key Questions (Matthew 23:1–28)

We need to avoid the danger of focusing on lighter things while ignoring weightier things. We can unpack this question in two ways.

First, do we justify sin according to our traditions or do we flee sin according to God’s truth? Jesus refers to taking oaths by the sanctuary, the gold of the sanctuary, the altar, etc. He’s referring to rules that had been concocted to allow people to swear by certain things and not be bound or swear by other items and be bound. In essence, people only had to keep a promise under certain circumstances. However, Jesus made it clear that any oath makes one accountable to God, for God owns everything anyway, including the temple. These man-made rules about oaths were, quite simply, an attempt to justify sin. The same thing can happen in our lives when we think, “I suppose that’s technically a sin, but everyone does it, and it doesn’t seem like a big deal, so it’s okay.” Sins like gossip, gluttony, small “white” lies, and materialism might fit in that category for us. We adjust to sin because it’s common to us, instead of fleeing sin because it’s repulsive to God.

Simplicity In Christ

Matthew 5:33–37 LEB

“Again you have heard that it was said to the people of old, ‘Do not swear falsely, but fulfill your oaths to the Lord.’ But I say to you, do not swear at all, either by heaven, because it is the throne of God, or by the earth, because it is the footstool of his feet, or by Jerusalem, because it is the city of the great king. And do not swear by your head, because you are not able to make one hair white or black. But let your statement be ‘Yes, yes; no, no,’ and anything beyond these is from the evil one.

Constant accountability in His presence: recognize that if you have placed your faith in God through the shed blood of Jesus for your sins; you now not only have access to but stand in His presence continually which produces a constant accountability