I’ve been reading straight through the Bible since last
January, and it has been an incredibly eye-opening experience. I never knew I
didn’t know the stuff that I didn’t know. I’ve already read through the New
Testament and am currently in the Psalms, so I only have a little more to go.
In Psalms 15, it talks about what a righteous man is; someone
who is fit to dwell on God’s holy hill. And it mentions that a righteous man in
someone “who swears to his own hurt and does not change” (v. 4). So what does
that mean?
Someone who “swears to his own hurt” does what he says. He
carries out what he has promised to do, even if it comes to his own harm. This
makes me think of Horton the elephant, in Seussical
The Musical. Horton promises a flighty bird that he’ll take care of her egg
for an afternoon because she needs a break. The bird, Maizy, takes advantage of
Horton’s good character and flies away with no intention of coming back. Horton
still protects that egg even though he is faced with hunters, poachers, extreme weather, and then
put in a circus to be gawked at. He maintains throughout the story that he won’t
go back on his word, because, “I meant what I said and I said what I meant, an
elephant’s faithful one hundred percent.” Even though he was ridiculed and
ostracized for taking care of another bird’s egg, he kept his word. As a
Christian, Jesus warns us in Matthew 10:16 “I am sending you out like sheep
among wolves. Therefore be shrewd as snakes and innocent as doves.” There are
people in this world that will take advantage of someone who keeps their word,
so sometimes it is okay to say no. I think as we grow in wisdom in our dance
with the Lord, it becomes easier to discern when we can truly help or when
someone is just trying to take advantage of us.
In Matthew 14, King Herod gave an oath to Herodias’s
daughter that she could have anything that she asked for. When she told him she
wanted the head of John the Baptist, “the King was sorry, but because of his
oaths and his guests he commanded it to be given” (v. 9). To his own hurt of having
a fairly innocent man killed, Herod kept his word. In this instance, we must
learn that it’s never a good idea to be so filled with lust that we promise
anything to our cunning step-daughter.
But anyway, Horton is commendable because he swore to his
own hurt and did not change. He didn’t waiver one bit once he set out to do
what he promised. In Matthew 5:37 Jesus tells us, “Let what you say be simply, ‘Yes’
or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.” If I have to swear up and
down to someone that I will indeed do what they ask, then somewhere along the way
my character has become tainted. It can be a long process to get it back, but
most certainly not impossible with God. And lastly, in James 5:12, “But above
all, my brothers, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other
oath, but let your “yes” be yes and your “no” be “no”, so that you may not fall
under condemnation.”
