Reverent Religion

Ecclesiastes 5:1-7

Main Idea: Proper fear of God causes us to rightly relate to Him, guard our hearts, and in all of life worship Jesus as Lord.

As you look at our text today, you will see both paragraphs mirror each other. You will see a positive exhortation (v. 1; 4-5), negative exhortation (v. 2; 6), and a parable (v. 3; 7). Verse 1 and 7 frame up our whole passage and everything in the middle and help us answer the question, how do you approach God?

I. Religious Ritual (v. 1-3)

Ecclesiastes 5:1-3: “Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. To draw near to listen is better than to offer the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they are doing evil. Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven and you are on earth. Therefore let your words be few. For a dream comes with much business, and a fool’s voice with many words.”

Understanding Our Identity (v. 1)

Understanding our identity in light of God’s identity calls us to listen first by the very nature of our relationship. This is a call for us to both think about what we are doing, and who we are doing it to. This type of listening is active. It implies hearing and obeying.

Our listening, how well we listen, and who we listen to as authority will directly impact our spiritual lives. Listening leads to understanding. Truly understanding leads to transformation. For God’s word to change you you need to understand it. Which means we need to listen.

“The ear is the Christian's primary sense organ. Listening to what God has said is our main spiritual discipline. […] When it comes to relating to God, we are out of order as far as using our sense organs goes. The things we see and the things we can touch dominate the way we perceive reality: We are fundamentally active creatures. We are what we do. But Ecclesiastes says that we become more human when we are what we receive. Life is a gift, and God's Word is the most precious of gifts, to be honored and loved and treasured above all others. Ecclesiastes is one long meditation on the need to use our ears for God's Word alongside our eyes in God's world.”
~David Gibson, Living Life Backwards

This is also why the church in the protestant tradition has centered corporate worship on the preaching of the word of God. Although other elements such as singing, praying, and taking communion are vital as well, listening is at the heart and center of our worship.

Understanding Our Actions (v. 2)

While the overarching theme may be to listen. This does not imply that we are to sit and do nothing either. If this was even possible. The preacher says “When” and not “if” you go to the house of God. There is a right assumption that all people must do something, the question for us is what, or better still who, are our actions our actions rooted in? Are they in ourselves, our peers, our cultural, political figures, media, or God.

“The sacrifice of fools indicates those who take part in religious ceremony and observances and who look to that participation in order to justify themselves as being close to God and good among people. But it isn’t sacrifice but mercy that God calls us to (Ps. 51:16-17)”
~Zack Eswine, Recovering Eden

Understanding Our “Dreams” (v. 3)

If you follow the preacher’s logic he creates a broad and all encompassing picture of human life. He is saying who you are (identity) affects who you listen to, who you listen to affects what you do, and what you do affects what you “dream” about or love. This circular pattern does seem accurate as we look at our own lives, doesn’t it?

II. Reverent Approach (v. 4-6)

Ecclesiastes 5:4-6: “When you vow a vow to God, do not delay paying it, for he has no pleasure in fools. Pay what you vow. It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not pay. Let not your mouth lead you into sin, and do not say before the messenger that it was a mistake. Why should God be angry at your voice and destroy the work of your hands?”

We live in a world filled with lies, broken promises, and unkept vows. For the Christian, this ought to both grieve and challenge us. We ought to be a people slow to make promises as if we have ultimate authority, and quick to fulfill the ones we do make. As we worship God for who he is, we can practice restraint while we practice reverence.

Matthew 5:37: “Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.”

III. Considering Christ (v. 7)

Ecclesiastes 5:7: “For when dreams increase and words grow many, there is vanity; but God is the one you must fear.”

Circling back to our initial question: How do you approach God? In what seems like an unlikely possibility Jesus gives us an option to consider: Himself.

John 10:30 “I and the Father are one.”
John 14:6 “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
John 14:10–11: “I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.”
John 14:26: “The Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.”
John 19:30: “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.”
John 21:19 “Follow me”

“The fear of the Lord is the only fear that imparts strength [...] Those who fear God are simultaneously humbled and strengthened before his beauty and magnificence. [...] All of us are temperamentally inclined to lean one way or another. Some are natural rhinos: strong and thick-skinned, but not gentle. Others are more like deer:sweet and gentle, to be sure, but nervous and flighty. The fear of the Lord corrects and beautifies both temperaments, giving believers a gentle strength. It makes them – like Christ – simultaneously lamblike and lionlike.”
~Michael Reeves, Rejoice & Tremble

Psalm 130:3-4 “If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared.”