No Trifling with God

Spurgeon, Charles Haddon

Judges 11:34-40

And Jephthah came to Mizpeh to his house, and, behold, his daughter came out to meet him with tambourines and with dances…

"We have opened our mouth unto the Lord." It is not what we promised the Church, though in becoming members of it we have promised to fulfil the mutual duties of Christians. It was not what we promised to the minister, though, in the very fact of becoming members of a Church of which he is the pastor we have a Christian duty towards him. It was not what we promised one another, though we all owe something to each other. But we have opened our mouth to the Lord. If a man must trifle, let him trifle with men, but not with God. If promises to men may be lightly broken — and they should not be — yet let us not trifle with promises made to God. And if solemn declarations ever can be forgotten — which they should not be — yet not solemn declarations made to God. Beware, oh! beware of anything like levity in entering into covenant with the Most High.

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