Oath

1 Samuel 19:22-20:7 – Finally, he himself left for Ramah and went to the great cistern at Seku. And he asked, “Where are Samuel and David?” “Over in Naioth at Ramah,” they said. So Saul went to Naioth at Ramah. But the Spirit of God came even on him, and he walked along prophesying until he came to Naioth. He stripped off his garments, and he too prophesied in Samuel’s presence. He lay naked all that day and all that night. This is why people say, “Is Saul also among the prophets?” Then David fled from Naioth at Ramah and went to Jonathan and asked, “What have I done? What is my crime? How have I wronged your father, that he is trying to kill me?” “Never!” Jonathan replied. “You are not going to die! Look, my father doesn’t do anything, great or small, without letting me know. Why would he hide this from me? It isn’t so!” But David took an oath and said, “Your father knows very well that I have found favor in your eyes, and he has said to himself, ‘Jonathan must not know this or he will be grieved.’ Yet as surely as the Lord lives and as you live, there is only a step between me and death.” Jonathan said to David, “Whatever you want me to do, I’ll do for you.” So David said, “Look, tomorrow is the New Moon feast, and I am supposed to dine with the king; but let me go and hide in the field until the evening of the day after tomorrow. If your father misses me at all, tell him, ‘David earnestly asked my permission to hurry to Bethlehem, his hometown, because an annual sacrifice is being made there for his whole clan.’ If he says, ‘Very well,’ then your servant is safe. But if he loses his temper, you can be sure that he is determined to harm me.

Deuteronomy 6:13 – Fear the Lord your God, serve him only and take your oaths in his name.

1 Samuel 1:3 – Year after year this man went up from his town to worship and sacrifice to the Lord Almighty at Shiloh, where Hophni and Phinehas, the two sons of Eli, were priests of the Lord.

Application:

• ·         In ancient Israel’s world, when people appealed to the gods to affirm and uphold their oaths, they singled out the divine power or powers they most revered. For this reason, to take an oath in the Lord’s name was a key sign of loyalty to and trust in Him and of the rejection of all other gods, even an implicit denial that they amounted to anything or even existed. The Israelites were to swear oaths in no other name.
• ·         The Festival of Tabernacles not only commemorated God’s care for His people during the wilderness journey to Canaan, it also celebrated, with joy and feasting, God’s blessing on the year’s crops.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV