In Ecclesiastes 5, Solomon continued his discussion of our need to listen. In this chapter, he applied it to worship. Let’s take a look.
Nuggets
- When we stop listening to God, we start being irreverent and insincere when — if — we worship Him.
- God doesn’t want us to make promises to Him that we aren’t going to keep.
Devotions in The Meaning of Life series
Let's Put It into Context
Here is a running list of what we’ve discussed previously.
Don’t Stop Listening When Worshiping
“Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. Better to approach in obedience than to offer the sacrifice as fools do, for they ignorantly do wrong. Do not be hasty to speak, and do not be impulsive to make a speech before God. God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few. Just as dreams accompany much labor, so also a fool’s voice comes with many words” (Ecc. 5: 1-3 CSB)
When we stop listening to God, we start being irreverent and insincere when — if — we worship Him.
It may generally stem from a carelessness. It isn’t that we don’t give Sovereign God the honor that is due Him. It is a flippancy associated with it.
We have to worship God properly. Clark notes we may come before God with few words, but we need to come in faith and with boldness.
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Hmmm. I don’t know. Am I the only one who is afraid that some are going to think that few words is a pass to coast through worship?
It isn’t. What it means is we can’t listen if we are talking. We need to zip it and let God do the talking.
Then again, I like how Burrell interpreted it. He said that it must “… be with a full intention of the heart and not merely with the outward symbols.”
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If we have our yapper going, we may or may not have our heart involved. We’ve got to get it down to the heart level for it to make an impact on our character.
Let’s read verse 1 again in the New Living Translation. “As you enter the house of God, keep your ears open and your mouth shut. It is evil to make mindless offerings to God” (Ecc. 5: 1 NLT).
The Homilist noted that the person that Solomon was talking here was heading to the temple. So we are talking preparation for worship. It is the time between when our alarm rings and when Pastor Chris says, “Welcome to the service.”
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Getting ready should entail more than eating, putting our clothes on, and curling our hair. We have to prepare our hearts.
We are entering worship for a purpose. That purpose is to meet God there — to spend time with Him.
Yes, to hear His word. To sing songs to Him.
But most importantly — to spend time with Him.
To confess to Him.
The Homilist gave us some verses that showed us what the sacrifices of fools were.
- “And they come to you as people come, and they sit before you as my people, and they hear what you say but they will not do it; for with lustful talk in their mouths they act; their heart is set on their gain” (Ezek. 33: 31 ESV).
- “And the Lord said: ‘Because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men’” (Isa. 29: 13 ESV).
- “The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get’” (Lk. 18: 11-12 ESV).
That is a good list of how not to worship God. It really doesn’t focus on God at all.
God wants us to be docile — teachable. We spent a whole series on that.
Devotions in The Beatitudes Show Us How to be Docile series
We might be shaking our heads why Solomon threw that verse about dreams in there. Bonnet clarified, “The nature and character of God, the promises, Scripture language, are floating before the closed vision of the pietistic dreamer, and his prayers are a jumble of disjointed things.”
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Before you start jumping up and down, think about that. God is a spirit; we are not.
That means God speaks a totally different language than we do. “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words” (Rom. 8: 26 ESV). Strike one.
There is no way this person is going to see God because of a closed vision. We have to open the eyes of our heart. To me, that means we have to trust God on things we may think are impossible. Strike two.
Now, look what a pietistic dreamer this person is. That is someone who thinks they are pious but, news flash, they aren’t. God doesn’t put up with fake believers. Strike three.
Don’t Stop Listening When Making Vows
“When you make a vow to God, don’t delay fulfilling it, because he does not delight in fools. Fulfill what you vow. Better that you do not vow than that you vow and not fulfill it. Do not let your mouth bring guilt on you, and do not say in the presence of the messenger that it was a mistake. Why should God be angry with your words and destroy the work of your hands? For many dreams bring futility; so do many words. Therefore, fear God” (Ecc. 5: 4-7 CSB)
God doesn’t want us to make promises to Him that we aren’t going to keep.
A huge component of Jewish worship was vows. Burrell stated we also make vows. He wrote, “We promise to do certain things: to be faithful to Christ and His Church, to love our fellow-Christians, to obey those who are over us in Christ, etc. These are vows, pledges given to God, and they should be kept as scrupulously as we would keep a business obligation signed with our own hand.”
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Don’t we get into situations where we pray, “Oh, Lord, if You will just get me out of this in one piece, I will do this, that, or the other”? And we may do this consistently. That may be more hit and miss.
The other is something we probably drop right after the words come out of our mouths.
The problem is we made a vow. We made a vow to Sovereign God. We broke a vow we made to Sovereign God.
Yeah, that is a big problem.
Slade contended we probably make more vows to God than we realize. Yeah, we probably do, because we are always getting into some pickle or another.
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What does Solomon say? It is better to keep your mouth shut and not vow than to break your vow.
Bonnet reminded us that “the vow is a form of prayer. It is a prayer with an obligation.” Prayer is a two-way communication with God in which we pour out our soul to Him.
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The obligation kicks it up a notch. Because of that, we shouldn’t make the vows because we are being rash or inconsiderate.
We really shouldn’t make the vows because we are trying to control or manipulate God. That really isn’t going to work well.
Making the Connections
Ooo. Listen to this.
“The character of a man’s step is often an index to the state of his soul. There is the slow step of the dull brain and the quick step of the intensely active; there is the step of the proud and the step of the humble, the thoughtless and the reflective. The soul reveals itself in the gait, beats out its own character in the tread.”
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I know. Right now, part of me is screaming, “But I am walking about as fast as a 100 year old! That isn’t me!”
I also know the pain has dulled my mind. I know the seizures have made it hard to process and think — and write. (Sorry if I am not coherent at times. Or I leave something out, not connect the dots, and make it a mystery.)
But I don’t want that to be an index of the state of my soul. I know this has brought me closer to God because I am clinging to Him.
Still, I can see what is being said here. We can see how people approach life from how they move through it.
What is important in life is character. Our character is visible to others in how we live our lives.
How Do We Apply This?
Burrell said that we need to be deliberate about worship. Short and sweet is fine as long as it is sincere. Bonnet advised against the asking for the same thing in a variety of ways.
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We need to focus on God first in our prayers, and then make our petitions. If we rely on the Spirit to do the talking, we will be talking the same language.
Father God. We worship You as Sovereign God. We see You as holy and pure and want to imitate You in every way. Help us to be like You. Amen.
What do you think?
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