Ecclesiastes

Ecclesiastes Chapter 5

Fear God

• Ecclesiastes 5:1  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. 

God gave Samuel words that I want to include here:

• 1Samuel 15:22  And Samuel said, Hath 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 hearken than the fat of rams. 

Religious acts of worship do no good and is in vain if our worship is just rituals and we do not take heed to the words of God and live according to His will. I'm thinking God would delight more in spontaneous praise of thanksgiving from the depths of our hearts rather than ritualistic worship where our minds are not even on God but just doing it out of duty.

• Ecclesiastes 5:2  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. 

This is one reason I do not watch political debates. They tend to judge candidates by their ability to say the right things and are quick to answer their opponents. Actually unless God speaks by His Holy Spirit through a person, we are supposed to think before we speak. We are not supposed to be quick thinkers and be hasty with our words. An exception would be in emergency situations where someone's life may be in danger if we don't act fast. God seems to help us in those situations but most of the time, we need to think first before we speak and consider what is right. If we don't know the answer right away, we need to just say, I have to think about that one. At least we are being honest and not trying to put on a show. I enjoy listening to bible teachers that admit they don't know something if they really don't know something when they are teaching. Up front and honest is something I admire in a person.

• Ecclesiastes 5:4  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. 

My dad never made promises. Instead he would always say, If the Lord wills, I will do such and such. We never know what we will do or how we would react in the future.

• Ecclesiastes 5:6  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. 

Some of us take dreams more seriously than others. Some dreams make no sense at all and other dreams may be from God so they need discernment as to what they might mean. I don't try to interpret any dreams I have but just forget them. I figure if God meant to speak to me by dreams, He would confirm it and show me by His Holy Spirit what it meant. We also have to discern someone speaking a prophecy over us, because we are human and make mistakes. We have to discern whether someone is speaking by their own imagination or speaking by the Holy Spirit of God. I believe God loves us enough to allow us time to seek Him and make sure everything said is true. One word from someone's imagination that is not from God can ruin a person's life if they get it wrong. We can be thankful that after Jesus came and the word of God is provided for us in written form, we have something to guide us in the right direction.

Here is what Paul once said:

• Galatians 1:6  I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: 
• 7  Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. 
• 8  But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. 

It's okay to think first and check things out. Just because someone knows how to speak and is good with the comebacks does not make his words true.

• Proverbs 10:19  In the multitude of words there wanteth not sin: but he that refraineth his lips is wise. 

We must not go the other directions and assume good speakers are false because God will speak through faithful preachers who have spent many hours in prayer before Him in order to speak the word of God. We can agree to disagree on some things without one person being a false teacher.

The Vanity of Wealth and Honor

• Ecclesiastes 5:8  If thou seest the oppression of the poor, and violent perverting of judgment and justice in a province, marvel not at the matter: for he that is higher than the highest regardeth; and there be higher than they. 

God sees all injustice and evil works of mankind. He will judge in the latter days. We will all stand before God. No one will get away with anything. What we can do though is repent of sin now and through faith in Jesus, that sin can be put away from us. We can be forgiven and then stand before God just as if we never sinned.

• Ecclesiastes 5:9  Moreover the profit of the earth is for all: the king himself is served by the field. 
• 10  He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abundance with increase: this is also vanity. 
• 11  When goods increase, they are increased that eat them: and what good is there to the owners thereof, saving the beholding of them with their eyes? 
• 12  The sleep of a labouring man is sweet, whether he eat little or much: but the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep. 
• 13  There is a sore evil which I have seen under the sun, namely, riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt. 

Only when Jesus returns and sets up His kingdom will there be plenty for the poor and everything be fair and just. We now have those that rob the poor and neglect them while the rich profits and lives in luxary. Some governments claim to rob the rich by over taxing to give to the poor but it doesn't always go to help the poor. Sometimes that money is spent on things that are evil. There is also a thing called money laundering where they take the money by taxes, give it to a foreign country or an organization and those that receive it, will give a portion back to the politician who works to insure they get the money, thereby making the person rich by robbing tax paying people. God sees all this stuff.

• Ecclesiastes 5:14  But those riches perish by evil travail: and he begetteth a son, and there is nothing in his hand. 
• 15  As he came forth of his mother's womb, naked shall he return to go as he came, and shall take nothing of his labour, which he may carry away in his hand. 

After we leave our present bodies and go into eternity, we take no wealth we accumulated with us.

• Ecclesiastes 5:16  And this also is a sore evil, that in all points as he came, so shall he go: and what profit hath he that hath laboured for the wind? 
• 17  All his days also he eateth in darkness, and he hath much sorrow and wrath with his sickness. 
• 18  Behold that which I have seen: it is good and comely for one to eat and to drink, and to enjoy the good of all his labour that he taketh under the sun all the days of his life, which God giveth him: for it is his portion. 
• 19  Every man also to whom God hath given riches and wealth, and hath given him power to eat thereof, and to take his portion, and to rejoice in his labour; this is the gift of God. 
• 20  For he shall not much remember the days of his life; because God answereth him in the joy of his heart. 

I will sum those last words with the words of Jesus. -DC

• Matthew 6:19  Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: 
• 20  But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: 
• 21  For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. 

Also these words:

• Luke 6:38  Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again. 

Ecclesiastes Chapter 6