Sunday, March 8, 2020 pm
STUDIES IN ECCLESIASTES
(18)
Concerning Vows
Ecclesiastes 5:1-7
a.
This entire section is
about worshipping God (with outlying principles).
Solomon has observed several places where we need to give thought
to God, now he adds the place of worship.
Solomon ought to understand the sacredness of the place we worship God –
He built the temple, blessed it and witnessed God’s presence (1 Kings
5-8, esp. 8:10-13) as it was dedicated.
b.
We need to take
worshipping God seriously -
Under the Old Law, preparation for worship was a serious task.
Priests had to ensure they were clean, offer sacrifices and
follow God’s instructions.
The seriousness of this is illustrated in passages like Leviticus 10:1-3
where Nadab and Abihu are burned to death for offering profane fire.
IF we want our lives to have meaning, worship God properly.
c.
John 4:24 speaks of
worshipping God in spirit and in truth.
We read often about the heart in our worship – Colossians 3:16, 1
Corinthians 11:23-29.
Consider also 1 Corinthians 14:15 – we both sing and pray with the
Spirit and with the understanding.
d.
When we enter the house
of God to worship,
are we prudent (watchful, guarding our steps)?
Another way of saying this is to ask WHY we are here to worship?
WHAT is our attitude?
HOW prepared are we? Our
worship needs to be more than just a ritual that we check off or our
weekly to do list. What
preparations do we make to ensure that we gain what God desires out of
the worship?
Like Ezra, we need to prepare our hearts to seek the Lord (Ezra 7:10 –
also to do it and to teach it).
e.
Draw near to hear rather
than to give the sacrifice of fools (NASB says, “draw near to listen”, KJV, “Be more ready to hear”).
The Bible warns about being more
ready to talk than to listen – James 1:19, Hosea 2:20, “But the Lord
is in His holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before Him.”
Jesus warned about worship designed to be seen by men (Matthew 6:1, 5,
16; 23:1-12, etc.)
As we come to worship God, we realize that FIRST it is about Him!
BUT in the process of worshipping Him, we examine ourselves with
the determination to be pleasing to Him.
That is why our songs need to be meaningful, our prayers appropriate for
the occasion, the lesson truthful and applicable, and others acts
carried out with humble thought.
WHAT is “the sacrifice of fools”?
It could be the one merely going through the motions, or treating
the worship as a checklist.
It could be one who has not prepared himself to be here. It could be the
hypocrite who worships on Sunday and serves the devil the rest of the
week. It could be one who
is giving God his leftovers instead of his best.
It could be the one who intends to show you how much they know
and how wonderful they are (e.g. Luke 18:10-12).
Consider also Samuel confronting King after he failed to
completely destroy the Amalekites.
Samuel said, “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings
and sacrifices, As in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is
better than sacrifice, And to heed than the fat of rams. (1 Samuel
15:22-23)
It could also be one
whose intent is to teach his doctrine rather than God’s.
f.
For they do not know that they do evil
– such may think that what they are doing is acceptable, but it isn’t to
God. Again, he demands our
best and he demands that we respect His pattern.
After all, it is He whom we are worshipping.
Again, Jesus in Matthew 15:8-9 noted that it is vain to worship
God when we are teaching as doctrine the commandments of men.
a.
Simply stated, be
careful what you say.
Make sure what you say and what you commit to is true and thought
through. As we sing to God,
do we genuine mean what is in the songs?
b.
Let not your heart utter
anything hastily before God. Sometimes, when we hear or read
something from God’s word, we know that it applies.
We determine, I need to be doing that (or NOT doing that) and we
commit to changing our lives.
But then as we leave the services, almost immediately, we revert
back to our sinful ways.
We have made a promise to God and broken it almost immediately.
OR, our promise was not genuine, but superficial.
Worship is designed to help us draw closer to God – for that to be, we
cannot just go through the motions or make superficial promises.
More on vows in a moment.
c.
For God is in heaven, and you on earth
– know your place! Psalm
24:3-5. Recall how Jesus
begin the model prayer, “Hallowed be Your name” (Matthew 6:9).
We are to serve God “reverently and with godly fear” (Hebrews
12:28-29).
d.
Therefore, let your
words be few
– Proverbs 10:19, In the multitude of words sin is not lacking, But
he who restrains his lips is wise.
Proverbs 17:27, He who has knowledge spares his words, And a
man of understanding is of a calm spirit.
We ALL need to listen! Even if you are privileged to lead and thereby
teach – ARE YOU LISTENING?
Also consider that God doesn’t care how eloquent we are or how wordy we
can be in our prayers, songs and sermons (this is not to say that being
flippant or ill prepared is acceptable) – He cares about the substance
and that it is genuine.
e.
For a dream comes
through much activity and a fool’s voice is known by his many words.
The idea presented by many here is that often our dreams are the
product of too much going on or a busy mind (I think of one who is
overwhelmed and exhausted, but when he goes to sleep he dreams about
being ill-prepared for what must be done the next day), he might wake up
exhausted, or lose sleep because of his dreams that have no bearing on
reality.
Similarly, one who is ALWAYS talking rarely
says anything of real substance. NOTE:
The description of a dream serves as an illustration of the one who will
NOT stop talking.
a.
In these verses Solomon
speaks about the seriousness of vows that we make to him and to others.
This accords with God’s word about such things.
Moses told the children of Israel virtually the same thing said
in this text. Deuteronomy
23:21-23 (also Numbers 30:2).
Jesus didn’t use that language but He said something equally
relevant, Matthew 5:33-37 where he summarized, “Let your ‘yes’ be ‘yes’
and your ‘no’ ‘no’”, for whatever is more than these is from the evil
one.
Vows are a serious thing. A
society that takes oaths and vows lightly is doomed for many problems.
Consider important vows we take – when we obey the gospel, it is
a vow to put God first; and in marriage we exchange vows in the presence
of God – that is why it is for life!
It is truly sad that for many, their word is not their bond – they look
for legal loopholes or excuses to get out of their promises.
With Christians this ought not be so!
b.
When you make a vow to
God, do not delay to pay it, for He has no pleasure in fools.
Pay what you vowed.
It is one thing to make vows to other men (which you should also
keep, because God hears it and knows what you said), but to make a
promise to God and then break it.
Did you really mean it when you made the promise?
Will you KEEP your word, even if it hurts (cf. Psalm 15:1-5, esp.
4)?
Jesus would further castigate the
corruption of the hypocritical Pharisees and scribes for their
deliberate deceit based upon the wording they used – Matthew 23:16-22.
IN CONTEXT OF WORSHIP – as already noted, do we ever make promises to
God as we worship Him – (e.g. “That was a great point that I need to
work on”, “God forgive me because I am guilty of that and will do
better”, etc.) only to break it over and over again?
God notices when we do that.
c.
Better not to vow, than to vow and not pay
– there is no sin in not
making a vow that you cannot or do not intend to keep.
This tells us about how serious
it is when we make promises to others.
d.
Do not let your mouth
cause your flesh to sin…
- Don’t let God be angry with your excuses.
On more than one occasion we find God rejecting worship because of the
way it was offered – rashly and hypocritically.
Consider Isaiah 1:10-17 where He wanted nothing to do with their
sacrifices.
Also Laodicea in Revelation 3:15-16 – they were lukewarm and sickening
to the Lord. He would rather
they we cold than lukewarm.
e.
In the multitude of
dreams and many words there is vanity.
Self-explanatory based upon what we had talked about.
f.
One might ask, “But what
if I cannot keep a vow?”
That is a challenge and we must weigh what God says.
If the vow was made rashly, and we CAN keep it, even though it
has a tremendous cost, we must keep it. Such
will teach you to not make rash vows in the future.
Perhaps circumstances keep you from it, or there is a realization it is
harmful. God knows your
heart and motives (and so do you).
You must consider that even as you repent and ask God to forgive
you for your failings in this.
Solomon concludes this section by simply saying, “But fear God.”
That really is the answer.
Understand, when we make vows to God and break them, what are we
really saying about Him? We do not fear Him as we ought to.
If we find that to be our plight, let us repent and resolve that
as we move forward we WILL keep Him commandments, just as we promised we
would do. Think about it!