Ecclesiastes 5:4-7

I’m going to read verses 1 through 7 of Ecclesiastes chapter 5, our text verses 4 to 7. Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be more ready to hear than to give the sacrifice of fools, for they consider not that they do evil. Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to hasty to, utter anything before God, for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth. Therefore let thy words be few. For a dream cometh through the multitude of business, and a fool’s voice is known by multitude of words. When thou vows to vow unto God, defer not to pay it, for he hath no pleasure in fools. pay that which thou hast vowed. Better is it that thou shouldest not vow than that thou shouldest vow and not pay. Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin. Neither say thou before the angel that it was an error. Wherefore should God be angry at thy voice and destroy the work. of thy hands. For in the multitude of dreams and many words, there are also diverse vanities, but fear thou God. May God bless to us his sacred and holy word this evening. Sam Levinson, who was a humorist, once told the story about a driver. who put a note under the windshield wiper of a parked car. And the note read, I just smashed into your car. The people who saw the accident are watching me. They think, I’m writing down my name and address and phone number. I’m not good luck. With that, the man got into his own car and drove off, and the eyes of many, he appeared to be doing what was the right and honest thing. He was looking good. But, of course, his real purpose was to get away without having to pay for his accident. Many people do the very same thing when it comes to spiritual matters. They’re all show and no substance. And therefore, they’re all show and no substance. And therefore, therefore, they do. it merely to be seen of men and be thought of as respectable before others. Now, God complained to the Israelites that Judah have not turned unto me with her whole heart, but faintly. Not a true turning. So we find it many times people have praise on their lips, but when it come to their heart, it’s far away. from the Lord God. Multitudes engage in a religion that is cleverly deceptive. It’s all pretend. There’s no reality to their faith. In fact, if you follow them closely, you find that they live just like the worldlings around them. Now, Solomon is concerned to show the meaninglessness of love. life that’s lived under the sun, and by that we mean without reference to God. He’s talked about the various worldly philosophies that people have. And he has demonstrated that true joy and happiness comes through a personal relationship with God. However, as I mentioned last week, Solomon sees an evil. People who engage in religious activity but it’s all ritual and tradition. There’s no substance. There’s no reality to it, and therefore it’s empty. It’s hollow, as we said last week. And therefore, it’s worthless too. He knows that mere religion isn’t the answer. You can be very religious and very ungodly at the same time. Just look at the scribes and the Pharisees in the New Testament. They were very religious, but Jesus called them a bunch of vipers. Certainly, following Satan himself. So the last time we spoke on, as I said, avoiding a hollow religion, but Solomon wants to develop this theme a little further. And tonight he wants to talk about, in our text, vows to God, which is similar to the prayer situation, a little different, but somewhat similar to it. Now let me begin by saying, this you must realize promises made to God are serious business. You can’t read verses four through six without seeing that God takes seriously those who make vows before him. Now, promise breakers abound in the world around you. Whoever first expressed the mischievous notion that laws are made to be broken might have extended it to promises and vials as well, because that’s what we seem to have. Whether we talk about politicians, make all kinds of promises before they get into office and don’t fulfill them, and it would be interesting to know how many promises are made in the day in the United States and are never intended to be kept. Children, make vials sometimes. I remember when we were little, they had this sneaky thing. You could swear to do something, or you could make, you know, vow to do it, promise to do it. As long as you had your fingers crossed behind your back, you were okay. You see, that meant it didn’t count. Sort of like the gold in the temple and, you know, swearing by the gold, but if you swear by the temple, it’s not good enough. If you swear by the gold of the temple, well, that’s going to be binding on you. Jesus saw that as total nonsense. And so, you know, fingers crossed behind your back is total nonsense, too. Businesses violate their promises, their warranties, their contracts all the time. When they sell you the product, they tell you how great the warranty is, but you try to collect on it, and all of a sudden you can’t get them to fulfill their responsibilities and their promises. Perhaps more on a real serious note before us, think about how many men and women take marriage vows and don’t keep them. They promise to life do us part, you know, in sickness and health and so forth, richer or poorer, but then all of a sudden, when three, things don’t go the way they want them to, you know, we’re going to get rid of our mate. We don’t want them anymore. How sad that is. That’s a very prominent thing. Sacred promises before God. Before God, you’re vowing to do these things, as well as the witnesses in the church. Let me narrow down here this situation to perhaps vials that are vows that, are connected with the church and the worship of God in particular. How likely it seems that people promise that they will do something, and when they either do it reluctantly or partially, or they not at all, they resort to all kinds of special pleading in order to get out of keeping their vows or their promises. When it comes to the… the duties of church membership, Christians often carelessly promise to be a living part of the congregation so that among the membership we sometimes find a lack of commitment to the Bible reading that they should be doing, to prayer, to giving to the church, to keeping the Sabbath day to attending faithfully the public worship services of the church. Such commitments sometimes people take very lightly. People join the church and then, you know, eventually you don’t see them for a while. You’re saying, well, what happened to these people? You know, contacting them, and I don’t know how many people eventually I had to cut off the church from the church. because at one time they came regularly and then all of a sudden they quit coming. And then, you know, as a pastor, you visit them, you try to get them to come and they have other programs, other things they’re doing, and they have, for a time, it seems that they believe, for a time they showed an interest in spiritual things and then they fell away. And so the church has to deal with that. So even in the Christian realm, those who profess to be Christian, there are many who don’t take their church file seriously. When they, you know, join the church, they become part of the church, that they’re going to commit to being there and working with the other people in the church and, you know, helping one another in spiritual matters. So, promise breakers abound in the world around you. not only just in the secular world, but even in the Christian realm, we see this as the case. Now, your voluntary vows to God are to be taken seriously. Your vows or promises are not to be undertaken lightly. Solomon focus here on voluntary vows. These are solemn vows made before God. Old Testament, believers often made these vows in connection with temple worship. Even today, Christians may make vows. You remember that Paul made a vow in the New Testament with regard to his work and, you know, the cutting of his hair, and he took sort of like a Nazarite vow, it would seem to me. Such a solemn transaction should not be done. without much prayer and consideration. Making a solemn promise before God should only be done in situations that are really vitally important. What I’m saying is we don’t do this lightly, and it shouldn’t be common in our day. It should be rare that we would make such vows before God. The Bible does not tell the New Testament of Christian he can’t make vows. There’s a few vows that Paul makes in various epistles that he writes, but they’re not something that should be done carelessly, lightly, or commonly. Let’s think carefully about what we’re doing. The marriage vow is one that we should be making, and I think that’s an important vow. that should be made for as Christians. We should be careful to do those things. But in making vows, many people look on their own weaknesses and they’re looking to God for help, and if God will help me, I’ll do this. We see that happening a lot. But vows aren’t like prayer. We’re to pray without ceasing. We’re not to make vows without ceasing. We should be very… special. They should be very special, as I said in rare. Now vows can take on a number of forms when you find them in scripture in various places. Let me suggest one that stands out to my mind, and that is Hannah in the Book of 1st Samuel, Chapter 1. If you turn there with me, verses 9 through 11. 1st. Samuel, chapter 1. verses 9 through 11 and then we’ll pick up with verse 20 but first 9 through 11 so hannah rose up after they had eaten in shiloh and after they had drunk now Eli the priest sat upon a seat by a post of the temple of the Lord and she was in bitterness of soul and prayed under the Lord and wept sore and she vowed a vowed a vowed a vowed said, O Lord of hosts, if thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of thine handmaid, and remember me and not forget thine handmaid, but will give unto thine handmaid a man-child, then I will give him unto the Lord all the days of his life, and there shall no razor come upon his head. And it came to pass, oh, let me, jump to verse 20 now. Wherefore it came to pass when the time was come about after Hannah had conceived that she bear a son and called his name Samuel saying, because I have asked him of the Lord. And the man Alcana in all his house went up to offer under the Lord the yearly sacrifice and his vow. But Hannah, went not up. For she said under her husband, I will not rise up, or I will not go up until the child be weaned. And then I will bring him that he may appear before the Lord and abide there abide forever. And Alcon our husband sit under her, do what seemeth thee good. Terry thou tarry thou, Terry, until thou have weaned him, only the Lord establish his word. So the woman abode and gave her son suck until she weaned him. And when she had weaned him, she took him up with her, with three bullocks and one eff of flour and a bottle of wine and brought him onto the house of the Lord in Shiloh. and their child was young. And they slew a bullock and brought the child to Eli. And she said, O my Lord, as thy soul liveth, my Lord, I am the woman that stood by thee here praying unto the Lord. For this child I prayed, and the Lord hath given me my petition, which I ask of him. Therefore, also, I have lent him to the Lord, as long as he liveth, he shall be lent to the Lord, and he worshipped the Lord there. The godly Hannah, of course, was childless, and her husband O’Connor loves her very dearly. But his other wife, Panina, intimidated her, and insulted her because of her barrenness. So she goes to the tabernacle. She prays before God, and she makes a vow. If you give me a man, I’ll give him back to you, and you can serve the Lord. Now, they are of the Levite tribe, and therefore he would certainly be able to do that. And so we see the passage here where she brings him, even at a young age, she keeps her vile. As soon as she gets the child, and weans him, and he’s no longer breastfeeding, so to speak, he’s ready to be eat regular food. She can drop him off, and he can work with Eli. And he does. For the rest of his days, he serves the Lord. I had Russell read Jonah chapter 2. You might wonder why I had him read that passage of scripture about him being swallowed up by the great fish and he’s in the belly of the fish in that chapter because of his disobedience. But while he’s in the belly of the fish, the scripture tells us he made a vow before God. Now we’re not told what the vow was. But it seems to be this. At first, you recall, he refused to go to Nineveh and preach the word of God as God commanded him. He says, but I will sacrifice unto thee the voice of thanksgiving, I will pay that I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord Jonah 2.9. And God caused the fish to vomit Jonah up. And when the Lord came the second time to Jonah and said to him, I want you to go to Nineveh what happened? He went to Nineveh. I take it that he made a vow. If you let me go, if you send me a second time, I will go. And I think that’s what the vow was about. And he fulfills the vow. So your vow promises are not to be undertaken lightly. If we do those things, we should keep them before God. Now you’re given vows here, rules for vows. here. First of all, let me suggest you from verse 2, if I could back up to what we talked about last week a moment. Verse 2, the Bible says, be not rash with thy mouth and let not thy heart be aces you to utter anything before God. Now this was said in reference to prayer, but let me say it also applies very directly here to vows. We should not make vows rashly. We should be very careful about this. For in the moment of crisis, you may utter all kinds of things. Instead of a vow being helpful to you, to your spiritual development, it may be a detriment to you and put you at odds with God and break fellowship with God if you don’t keep it. In the book of judges, you remember one of the deliverers of Israel, Jephta, made a solemn vow before God, but it was a rash vow. End. he was on the eve of battle that he made it in judges 11 30 and 31 if thou shall without fail deliver the children of amman into my hand then it shall be that whatsoever cometh forth of thy doors of thine house to meet me when i return in peace from the children of amman shall surely be the lords and i will offer it up for a burnt sacrifice. The only problem was his only child, his daughter was the one that met him when he got to the door of his house. It wasn’t an animal that came up to him, but it was his own daughter came out to see him. He didn’t anticipate this. It was sort of a rash vial. And in the end, I believe he did sacrifice his daughter unto the Lord. which was a foolish vow, and by sacrificing his daughter, he had compounded the evil that he engaged in in this case. When you think about Herod’s vow in the New Testament, he made a vow to the daughter of his new wife, because of the dance she had done, up to half the kingdom. I’ll give you a wife. I’ll give you a whatever you want. And, of course, her mother, having a grudge against John the Baptist, who said, it’s not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife, urged her to ask for John the Baptist head on a platter. Well, he fulfilled that vile. He shouldn’t have fulfilled that vile. It would have been better if he had broken that vial. But it was a rash vile, too. Soldiers in trenches. And the heat of battle sometimes make all kinds of vows. We talked, you know, about prayers last week, and I’ll talk about vows this week, but they may say, well, I’ll enter in the ministry. Did they ever consider if they’re gifted for the ministry? Where they should be in the ministry or not? Somehow or other we skip over that part. What about the qualifications for this office? Now, because God does not require a vial. it is voluntary. Too many vials, however, are only made in an attempt to bargain with God in some fashion. Thus they are often made rashly without due consideration. When I think about it, you know, think about the vows of celibacy that a Roman Catholic priest takes and how it has led to a torrent of sin. within that denomination, that religion, because of the sexual burning of the priest and they get involved in sexual. How much better it would be to be converted like Luther and take a wife, which I believe he took a wife who was also a nun at the time, after she was converted, the two of them married. He was a priest, and she was a nun, if I’m not mistaken. And they married one another. And that was best for him. Now your vows must be kept. Verse four, When thou makest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it, for if no pleasure in fools, pay that which thou hast vow. If you don’t keep your vow, you’re a fool. This is a man who lacks spiritual wisdom. Because God takes our vows at face value. He takes them seriously. We can’t treat them lightly when we make such vows before God. He’s not going to tolerate some kind of pious language that we use in making a vow, and then it’s just smokescreen for a deceitful heart. God is not a God with whom you mess around. It’s better not to make a vow at all than the promise and not deliver. verse 5. Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than the thou shouldest vow and not pay. You didn’t have to do it. You did it. You better pay it. It’s three times now. He’s told us in these two verses, you better pay the vow that you’ve made. It’s all too easy to make big promises in the flush of some sentimental moment. and allow your mouth then to cause you to sin. You can’t wiggle out of a solemn vow. You know, people make a promise they’re going to go to the dentist, you know, a certain time, and they make an appointment, and then they call up and say, hey, I want to cancel that and change it to another date or whatever it is. And that’s pretty much acceptable practice, as long as we notify them ahead of time about it. But when you deal with them, God, you can’t do it like that. You can’t treat him like the dentist. Now, when you make the vow here, and he talks about before the angel, in verse 6, you see that? Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin, neither say thou before the angel, that it was an error. Now, there’s a lot of confusion about the word angel here, but you have to understand that the word Angel means messenger. Sometimes it’s a heavenly messenger, one of the holy angels of God, but sometimes it’s a human messenger. It’s the messenger that God sends who gives out the message of God. In other words, this would be the priest in this case. The Old Testament priest is being spoken of here in this passage of scripture. In fact, he’s called the messenger of God. in Malachi to seven. Remember the word angel in the book of Revelation when Christ has the seven stars in his hand? What are they? They are the messengers, the angels of the churches, the pastors, if you would, of the churches. So sometimes the word angel has the idea of human messenger, not necessarily heavenly messenger. We have to look at the context. but because the priest was the one at the tabernacle or the temple that you would make the vow before, he would be sort of like in the place of God taking your vow and taking it seriously. Then you make it before him. And I think that’s the idea of the text of Scripture. And then he would try to see that it’s properly discharged by you. Solomon says here, then, don’t go back to the priest and tell him now it was all big mistake and you didn’t mean it. I think that’s what his thinking is here. You are accountable. You’re a complete fool to act like that. It demonstrates a shallowness to your religion. So you must realize promises made to God are serious business. Secondly, tonight, you are making promises before an awesome God. You’ll notice the latter part here of verse 6. Wherefore should God be angry at thy voice and destroy the work of thine hands? Verse 7. For in the multitude of dreams in many words there are also diverse vanities, but fear thou God. We have to keep our love to God, our vows to God, out of love for God. I mean, if we make empty promises and they are foolishly made here, they have little substance to them. It’s like having a multitude of dreams that are not interconnected at all. They’re just stream of thought. That’s all they are. A fool was known for as much speaking. And you’re just, you’re speaking, but you don’t mean it. But the crucial point here is the character of God and your personal relationship with God. Do you fear God? Because if you love God, you’re going to keep your vials. You’ve made the vial, you’ll keep it. At first glance, it may seem harsh that God would hold people to their vials, some of which are made hastily and foolish. We’re so used to broken promises among human beings that I think sometimes we think that, well, God will pass this over. He won’t be upset about this. We shrug it off. Maybe we grumble a little bit, but we shrug it off. A society often takes for granted that promises are easily made and easily broken. God is not like that. You don’t make promises before God lightly. As a believer, you want to do the will of God. You want to please. God. And you should desire to fulfill then your vows before God. You fear the Lord, you keep the vow. Your relationship with God is not a matter of external rituals. It’s not a matter of tradition and forms, but of heart commitment. Are you committed to the Lord? Are you in fellowship with the Lord? Then you keep your vow. You don’t want to disappoint God. You fear the Lord with a godly fear. You have a reverence for him. We should keep that in mind. You keep your vows out of respect for God. And you realize God is an awesome being here, as the scripture tells us here in verses 6 and 7, if you, you know, if God is angry at your voice, he could destroy the works of your hands. You need to fear him. All the shepherms are, words that men use and their excuses that they make God does not put up with. Do you remember in the New Testament Ananias and Safira? They made a vow before the church and before God. And recall that they promised God and did another. God treated it very so seriously and destroyed their works. He actually took their lives. Their deaths by the direct hand of God, he struck them dead. Stan is a monument in the New Testament age about the impossibility of lying to God and you better take your oath seriously. Because you didn’t take that oath just before the church, you took it before God as well. So when they had secretly attempted to keep back a portion of the money from the proceeds of the land that they had sold, God struck them down. When Féor vowed to let the people of God go, and then he reneged on the promise when God took away the plague that was heavy upon him, what did God do? He increased the intensity of the plagues they follow. He eventually was destroyed by God. Formalistic religion, vows that mock God are not what true faith is all about. It’s all vanity. His favorite word, this book, is vanity. So let me conclude tonight by saying this. The driver who put that meaningless note under the car windshield after running into it was being deceitful. He wanted the fool everybody was watching him. You can never fool God. So we shouldn’t even try. He’s an awesome being. He doesn’t take lightly fools. True religion is serious stuff. So we’re going to make a solemn vow before God or a promise here. Keep it. To the best of your ability. Now obviously, if we don’t, we’re sinning against God. If we make a rash vow, a foolish vow itself, then we need to repent of that vow. Because sometimes fulfilling the vow is worse than keeping it. But in both cases, you’re sinning both ways. So you need to say, I’ve sinned by foolishly making this vow, and I’m sinning now by not keeping it as I said I would, but I believe this is what is best and would be right in your sight that it wouldn’t keep the vow that was made so rationally and foolishly. Thus, this This passage is a call to what I will call realistic religion. Let’s be serious. Let’s be people that don’t play games with God because that’s dangerous activity. So Solomon here is urging us to be faithful to the Lord, develop a good relationship with the Lord, and be careful about our prayers. Don’t be foolishly speaking. And then be careful about, especially about your vows, too, because they can lead to all kinds of problems. Let’s close with it.