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...but fear thou God

Ecclesiastes 5:2-7 Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God: for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few. 3 For a dream cometh through the multitude of business; and a fool's voice is known by multitude of words. 4 When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it; for he hath no pleasure in fools: pay that which thou hast vowed. 5 Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay. 6 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 thine hands? 7 For in the multitude of dreams and many words there are also divers vanities: but fear thou God.

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King Solomon, in the book of Ecclesiastes, shares with us many truths of life – all of which revolve around the vanity of life without God in the center. In Ecc 5:2-7, we are told to not be rash with our mouths for a fool’s voice is known by the multitude of words. Also, Proverbs 10:19 tells us that there is no “lack” of sin in the multitude of words. This is wise counsel for all of us today.

Solomon also speaks to making promises (especially to God). Promises are most often empty and are made in the heat of the moment or are a result of our pride in which we say to God, or some other person, I will do this or that. Words spoken in this way are empty – they are vanity (which means emptiness). Unfortunately, in today’s society, such words are the norm. Jesus, in Matthew 5:37 told us to let our “yes be yes” and our “no be no” which means we are to keep our word – even though our culture is one in which everyone looks for the “loophole”.

If we have made a vow to God – “God, if you give me this job I promise I’ll give $xx.xx dollars to the church”, or “God, if you get me out of this I promise I’ll never do it again”, or “God, if you heal my child I promise I’ll go to church every Sunday” ...do we hear how empty these things are if we don’t follow through? It’s he same result when we make these “promises” to people.

Solomon tells us what we should do instead of making empty promises and not keeping our word in Ecc 5:7: he begins with “but” which always means the opposite of the previous conversation, so instead of empty words we are to fear God. All of our lives will be vanity without fearing God – reverencing Him, standing in awe of Him, seeing His great and unconditional love for us, and yes...knowing that He has the power to not only give life but to take it. We must be prepared to stand face to face before His throne at any time and the only way to do that is by having God’s Son, Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, for none of us are righteous on our own! All of us have vanity in our lives.

Pray with me that our words be few and only of God and that we fear Him and love Him more...

posted by Pastor Jim @ 7:37 AM