Contracts: Scriptures Illustrative of the Binding Force of

If you buy a Hebrew servant, he is to serve you for six years. But in the seventh year, he shall go free without paying anything. …

And the LORD said to Moses,

“If someone sins and acts unfaithfully against the LORD by deceiving his neighbor in regard to a deposit or security entrusted to him or stolen, or if he extorts his neighbor

…once he has sinned and becomes guilty, he must return what he has stolen or taken by extortion, or the deposit entrusted to him, or the lost property he found, …

But the people of Gibeon, having heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and Ai, …

And Joshua made a treaty of peace with them to let them live, and the leaders of the congregation swore an oath to them.

Three days after they had made the treaty with the Gibeonites, the Israelites learned that they were neighbors, living among them.

But the Israelites did not attack them, because the leaders of the congregation had sworn an oath to them by the LORD, the God of Israel. And the whole congregation grumbled against the leaders. …

“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. …

Brothers, let me put this in human terms. Even a human covenant, once it is ratified, cannot be canceled or amended.