Throughout Scripture, we repeatedly encounter people making vows before God as a solemn and voluntary promise. Though the Law did not command people to make vows, yet it did regulate them as once made the vow became binding with failure to fulfill it regarded as sin (Deuteronomy 23:21). Accordingly, Scripture consistently cautions that it is better not to vow at all than to make a vow carelessly, falsely, or with impure motives.
“It is better not to make a vow than to make one and not fulfill it.”
Ecclesiastes 5:5 (NIV)
God has given us everything we need since before our birth and continues to provide for us every day. We can’t even walk or breathe without His grace. Then why do we feel the need to make a promise to God to make Him give us what we want? We don’t really think that we are in control of what will happen tomorrow—yet we still continue making vows before God. We make vows as though the future were in our control and we had control over tomorrow. We make empty promises even while knowing that we will not follow them.
Does God even want anything from us?
God does not need anything from us but has always asked for our hearts to be aligned with His. He does not ask to be paid, persuaded, or impressed in return for His unyielding grace that He has poured into our lives. Yet mankind still feels compelled to offer God something tangible. Thus vows then become a substitute for a genuine relationship with God—visible to all, yet ultimately just an empty promise. We make vows thinking that our outward religious practices will help mask the growing distance between us and God.
Hannah’s Desperate Vow
Elkanah, a member of the priestly tribe of Levi, was well acquainted with Israel’s laws and traditions. Each year, he faithfully went to the holy city of Shiloh to worship and to offer sacrifices to the LORD Almighty along with his two wives, Peninnah and Hannah. Although he loved Hannah deeply, it is likely that, because of her barrenness, he married Peninnah, who was able to bear him children.
Hannah was constantly teased by Penniah regarding her barrenness, and although Elkanah tried to comfort her, the social and cultural weight placed on bearing children made her plight worse and one day she reached her breaking point. During one of her visits to Shiloh, she poured out her heart before the altar of the LORD. In her desperation, she made a solemn vow, dedicating her unborn son for the service of the LORD and a life set apart for God as a Nazarite. The LORD had not asked for such a vow, and in His own time, He granted her a son—a gift given by His grace, not because of the vow.
However, when Elkanah and the rest of the family went up to offer the annual sacrifice to the LORD and fulfil their vows, Hannah chose not to go with them. Instead, she told her husband that she would present the boy to the LORD after he was weaned. Perhaps Hannah was having second thoughts about the vow she had made and did not want to go to Shiloh out of guilt. Even if Hannah wanted to give Samuel to the Lord after a few years, why was she not going with her family for the annual trip to Shiloh? Why did she want to wait till the boy was weaned to even offer annual sacrifices to the Lord? Penninah went with Elkanah year after year even when she was weaning her children.
In her mind, she believed that her vow was the reason God had blessed her with a child. But now that her long-awaited child had arrived, she avoided going to Shiloh, the temple of the LORD, because of that guilt. What should have been a joyful moment shared with God instead became a source of guilt to distance her from Him. There were even laws concerning vows married women made to the Lord, for which the ‘release clause’ was that the husband must forbid his wife from fulfilling the vow(Numbers 30). But Elkanah gave Hannah the full freedom to make her decisions and reminded her that may the Lord make good your word. (Dead Sea Scrolls, Septuagint and Syriac replace his with your in verse 23. )
It was only after she dedicated him to the LORD that Hannah went on to have more children. After giving birth to Samuel, her womb was closed again. Only when she trusted the LORD once more and committed her only son into His hands did she experience God’s blessing in its fullness—both in her own life and in the life of Samuel, who grew to become a leader of the nation.
Like Hannah, we often make vows in moments of desperation, only to be weighed down by guilt when we fail to fulfill them. God does not demand such promises from us, yet we corner ourselves with our own commitments and, overwhelmed by guilt, begin to withdraw from Him. When we realise we cannot give what we promised, that guilt deepens, and we slowly distance ourselves from our relationship with God altogether.
Samson’s Nazarite Vow
Perhaps Hannah was recalling the story of Samson and how he was born to a barren woman like herself when she made her vow. Like Samuel, Samson was another leader of the Israel, long before his time. His mother was also barren, and one day the angel of the LORD appeared to her to announce Samson’s birth. The Angel instructed that Samson was to be raised as a Nazarite, set apart for God from birth, with specific restrictions: he was not to cut his hair, drink wine or any fermented drink, eat anything derived from grapes, or come into contact with anything unclean, especially dead bodies.
…‘You will become pregnant and have a son. Now then, drink no wine or other fermented drink and do not eat anything unclean, because the boy will be a Nazirite of God from the womb until the day of his death.’
Judges13:7 (NIV)
However, Samson grew up to be arrogant, driven by the desires of his own heart, and he gradually broke every vow his parents had made. He assumed he was special and believed he could act as he pleased. Unlike Samuel, he did not become a faithful leader of the nation, but instead lived a life of self-indulgence, and his arrogance ultimately led to his downfall. When the Spirit of the LORD departed from Him, he was captured by the Philistines and had his eyes gouged out. Although he was later able to take revenge on his captors, his life was never truly set apart as the LORD had commanded his parents.
His confidence in his strength and in the special vow made him feel superior, and even as he drifted away from God, he remained convinced that his relationship with Him was intact. Similarly, the Pharisees grew distant from God because of the confidence they placed in their vows. Their assurance did not arise from intimacy with God, but from their oaths, vows, and religious commitments to the extent they could not even recognise the messiah when He was among their midst.
Instead of drawing us nearer, our vows can give us a false sense of security, convincing us that all is well even as our hearts drift away. We begin to trust our promises rather than God Himself, our commitments rather than understanding the plans that He has for us. Without realising it, we start growing distant from God while remaining convinced that our relationship with Him is intact.
Jephthah’s Hasty Vow
Jephthah was a mighty warrior who went to war against the Ammonites. The LORD was with him and he was able to lead his men to victory in many battles. However, one day before going into battle, he made a rash vow to the LORD. He declared that if God gave him victory over the Ammonites, he would offer as a burnt offering whoever came out of his house to greet him on his return. As usual, Jephthah won like he had been doing before because it was the LORD’s will, not because of his vow.
When Jephthah returned to his home in Mizpah, who should come out to meet him but his daughter, dancing to the sound of timbrels! She was an only child. Except for her he had neither son nor daughter.
Judges 11:34 (NIV)
Jephthah was devastated, but after a period of mourning, he carried out the vow he had made and sacrificed his daughter. God had not asked him to make any vow, yet in the heat of the moment he chose to make one—and then followed through on it without ever consulting the LORD. Jephthah’s sacrifice became a tragic precedent. In later generations, many kings began sacrificing their firstborn children in an attempt to please God, believing such acts would secure victory in battle. Israel, influenced by this mindset, adopted this pagan practice. In the end, the people came to believe that the vow itself brought victory, rather than recognising that it was God who had poured out His grace.
Such vows are not only harmful to us, but they stand against God’s will. They can turn into practices that later generations follow blindly, making us complicit in leading others away from God as well. Rather than making vows shaped by the pagan traditions around us, we must come to God simply and humbly, asking for His will to be accomplished in our lives.
Should we make Vows Today
Jesus gives a clear answer: we do not need to make vows, pledges, or religious commitments. In His teaching on oaths, He shows that vows, when misused, do not draw us closer to God but often push us away. “All you need to say is simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one” (Matthew 5:37, NIV). Whether through confidence in kept vows, guilt over broken ones, or promises made without truly knowing God, the result is the same. Like Samson, vows can give us false assurance; like Hannah, they can lead to guilt and withdrawal from God; and like Jephthah, they can even lead us to accomplish the opposite of God’s will, mistaking reckless devotion for obedience. In each case, trust shifts from God to the vow itself, and intimacy with Him is quietly replaced by self-reliance.
Jesus wants us to be honest and surrender ourselves rather than trying to control the future. We are not to attach God’s name to promises He never asked us to make, nor to say “God willing” while continuing to pursue the desires of our own hearts. We should rely solely on God’s grace and depend on Him today, not make commitments about tomorrow. God doesn’t seek our vows but desires our hearts. When our vows replace genuine repentance and trust, they create a false sense of closeness without bringing any change in our lives.
The Jordan Valley 
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