Ecc. 5:1-9 - The Folly of False Religion
Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 5 viewsNotes
Transcript
Intro:
Intro:
(Read verses 1-9 in entirety).
Solomon in this text is dealing with one’s approach to God — worship, outlook on life, fear of the Lord or lack thereof, etc.
What we’re going to see is the negative examples of those who do not have the proper attitude toward worship, their outlook on life, or fear of the Lord, and Solomon rightly condemns that behavior in this text.
Text:
Text:
V. 1 - KJV says “Keep thy foot.” We might say “watch your step.” The application is pretty obvious that Solomon is saying we need to be careful in worship.
Not only in the sense of worshipping the right way and in the right attitude (John 4:24), but also respecting the seriousness of the occasion.
Reverence for worship is a very important topic — You can also read about it in the book of Malachi.
Mal. 1:8 -
And when you offer the blind as a sacrifice, Is it not evil? And when you offer the lame and sick, Is it not evil? Offer it then to your governor! Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you favorably?” Says the Lord of hosts.
I will say that people tend to go too far in one direction or the other on this sometimes.
On the one hand, reverence does not mean that you have to be stodgy or stoic or somber.
… That you can never have a smile on your face, or express joy, or humor or anything like that …
The worship service as a whole is not a funeral service.
(Now there’s one big exception to that and that is that during the Lord’s Supper, it is very similar to a funeral service because we’re remember the Lord’s sacrifice in what He did for us, and that we put OUR sinful self to death when we became Christians and that was only possible because what Jesus did for us).
Therefore, in my opinion, you could definitely argue for a somber atmosphere in that moment and I believe that would be right — And we need to be careful not to lose that — It used to be said that during the Lord’s Supper “you could hear a pin drop.” We need to be careful not to be laughing or chatting with our neighbor or filling out checks/etc.)
So with that, let me get to the other end of the pendulum …
Reverence does mean you treat worship with seriousness and respect for God. (not flippantly or profanely [making something out to be trivial that God says is serious business])
Heb. 12:28 talks about serving God with reverence and godly fear, and verse 29 goes on to say “for our God is a consuming fire.”
So that is really important.
There are some cultural things that come into play here, I think, because what is considered respectful/disrespectful varies greatly from culture to culture, and even from state to state. (Romans 14 I think applies here).
We had a guy back in Louisiana who was super strict about his own personal dress code in regard to worship, was always extremely serious, etc.
I had to be very careful around him because he was one who you never knew how he would respond to a joke, so I usually didn’t around him.
He actually was a very good member of the congregation — He wasn’t trying to cause problems or anything — He was just different.
I did make a joke from something I read in Song of Solomon one time and it highly offended him.
I didn’t mean anything by it, but it still highly offended him, so guess what I did? (I went to him and I apologized, and it took some time, but he forgave me and we moved on).
We have to bear with one another on stuff like this — And when in doubt, it never hurts to err on the side of caution.
We should never be purposely or openly disrespectful to God or one another in worship.
I think Eph. 5:21 is appropriate here - “submitting to one another in the fear of God.”
V. 2 - Notice Solomon’s reasoning for all of this — “For God is in heaven and you on earth.”
There is a God, and we’re not Him! (That’s a fairly famous saying, and it’s true).
Therefore, we must respect what HE has ordained for our lives, not what WE ordain for ourselves.
Therefore Solomon says, “Do not be rash with your mouth, and let not your heart utter anything hastily (too quickly) before God … Therefore let your words be few.”
The Bible says quite a bit about making rash vows before God, being flippant with our lips, or giving just “lip service” to God and then doing whatever we want.
Num. 30:2 -
If a man makes a vow to the Lord, or swears an oath to bind himself by some agreement, he shall not break his word; he shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth.
Deut. 23:21 -
“When you make a vow to the Lord your God, you shall not delay to pay it; for the Lord your God will surely require it of you, and it would be sin to you.
Deut. 23:23 -
That which has gone from your lips you shall keep and perform, for you voluntarily vowed to the Lord your God what you have promised with your mouth.
(And what we’re about to read in the next couple verses).
There’s an infamous example of a guy who made a brash vow in the book of Judges (ch. 11) - Jephthah (vowing that the first thing that came through his door he would sacrifice to God).
Not going to get into that debate!
But that story does show us how serious this is.
V. 3 - This is still in the context of what we’ve been talking about and will talk about for a few more verses: foolishness in worship, in vows, etc.
It seems slightly out of place, but it isn’t — I think it’s more of a side note before Solomon keeps talking about what he already covered.
Solomon is saying that people dream (and the implication is inappropriate dreaming, not a good kind of dreaming) along with much activity (again, in the context, BAD activity) — In other words, their thoughts and actions that consume them during the day can come out in their dreams at night as well.
(And we could get into a study of the subliminal mind and what-not — but we’re not going to) …
Solomon also says, “And a fool’s voice is known by his man words.”
Some people just don’t know when to be quiet! (We come across people like that all the time, and it’s foolishness — We have to learn when to bite our tongues!)
“Answer a fool according to his folly, or DON’T answer a fool according to his folly.”
We have to try to tame our tongues, although no man’s tongue is fully tamed (James chapter 3)
I think also of what Jesus says about “vain repetitions” here as well - Matt. 6:7
And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words.
VS. 4-5 — Again, same thing that Solomon has been saying.
V. 6 - “Error” here in the Hebrew means “an inadvertent mistake” - a sin of ignorance.
That’s actually what Hebrews 9:7 is talking about when it says “the errors of the people” (KJV). (See NKJV below)
But into the second part the high priest went alone once a year, not without blood, which he offered for himself and for the people’s sins committed in ignorance;
The Bible talks about how to handle sins of ignorance — There were certain kinds of sacrifices that were needed for sins of ignorance.
But here in Ecclesiastes, Solomon basically says, “Come on, man, you’re really going to claim ignorance on this? You know better! You can’t just make a vow to God and not keep it!”
In other words, this is common sense — Nobody can honestly say he was ignorant of the fact that he isn’t allowed to break a vow to God.
It’s obvious! To break a vow to God is the highest form of dishonesty (or lowest — despicable — I guess!)
The second half of the verse asks the question, essentially — “Why should you be destroyed for a sin so foolish?”
V. 7 - Think an overactive imagination and sense of curiosity that leads one to sin.
“Curiosity killed the cat!”
This reminds me of Prov. 6:18 — the fact that God hates “a heart that devises wicked plans” and “feet that are swift in running to evil.”
The multitude of dreams and many words is vanity — We need to fear God.
These next couple verses are included in the section “The folly of false religion” in the lectureship book, and for the life of me I’m trying to figure out why!
But I’ll go ahead and cover them now.
V. 8 - This is what Solomon already covered in chapters 3 and 4, and he continues those thoughts here.
Solomon says these things should not be a surprise to us.
And then he gives the reason — basically: back room deals, government officials having each others’ backs, etc.
V. 9 - There’s some difficulty in translation in this verse.
I’ve looked at different possible meanings.
To me, the one that makes the most sense is this — That even the king is dependent on the food that comes from the land, so don’t oppress the people too much, or you’ll ruin your work force and you’ll starve!
The point being, that even the oppression that Solomon has witnessed has its limitations.
Conclusion:
Conclusion:
Next time we will get into the folly of idolizing riches, and the importance of contentment.
(But next week - Singing night).