Numbers 30

Most broken promises tend to hurt because promises are built on trust--and when that trust is betrayed, it precipitates feelings even ickier than those caused when you suddenly realize you have a spider crawling up your leg. In the movie Hook, directed by Steven Spielberg, Peter Banning (portrayed by the late, great Robin Williams) starts out as an absent-minded, self-absorbed father. He promises to go to his son's baseball game--"My word is my bond" is the aphorism he uses--but instead of leaving right after work, he loiters with his co-workers, playing puerile games with his flip cell phone (complete with retractable antenna). Of course, he ends up missing the whole game.

Later, while the family is on a plane, Banning repeats his "My word is my bond" chestnut to his son, who replies, "Yeah, junk bonds" and proceeds to slam his baseball into the ceiling of the plane, causing the oxygen masks to descend from out of their comfy little receptacles. This sets Banning off (one can easily forget that Williams, with all his comedic gifts, could also act with startling intensity, as evinced in movies such as Good Will Hunting, One Hour Photo, and Insomnia). Yes, the son is written and portrayed as a petulant brat, but Banning did break his promise to his own child, which leads the kid to fall right into the clutches of the depilated Captain Hook.

Numbers 30 basically reinforces and explicates the concept that you should keep your vows and promises. The wrinkle, though, is that husbands, and fathers have the power to nullify vows. I suppose this is beneficial if the wife or daughter makes "a rash promise" (verse 6), releasing her from the "no take-backs" notion that some of us remember (with varying degrees of fondness) from elementary school. Although the men had more power here (as they did in most other societal aspects of ancient Israelite life), they also had, as Spider-Man fans will know, more responsibility. Verse 15 states that if a husband annuls a vow after the fact, "he must bear the consequences of [his wife's] wrongdoing"--which I guess is only fair. Needless to say, each adult in today's society should be responsible for keeping his or her own vows (or refraining from making any rash ones).

I've mentioned this innumerable times before, but I tend to avoid making promises because I fear the consequences if I'm not able to keep them. All too often, I say something like, "I'll try," which must drive Yoda bonkers. (The snarky, querulous part of me sometimes wants to say to those who parrot Yoda's famed maxim, "Well, I can't tell the future, so how can I know ahead of time if I'll 'do' or 'do not'? Do you want me to lie? Every athlete can say before a game that they'll win it, but no one wins 100% of the time.") Some promises, though, I'm very capable of keeping, and trying to weasel my way out of it can be as bad as breaking a promise. Perhaps the best example is promising to obey God and follow His will for me. As a Christian, I should be able to keep that promise with resolute certainty, but I sometimes fear that I'll lapse or screw up somehow. Perhaps I need to realize that yes, I will make mistakes, but that shouldn't stop me from giving my all to devoting my life to Him.