Is Your Relationship with God Too Casual? (Ecclesiastes 5-6)
Do you treat God's presence with the weight it deserves? Ecclesiastes 5 calls us to guard our steps, speak with care, and honor Him with reverent obedience.
Ecclesiastes 5-6
Today's Scripture Passage
A Few Thoughts to Consider
How do you approach God?
It feels like church culture tends to shift from one extreme to the other. While many Western churches in previous generations erred on the side of stuffy fundamentalism that made God feel unapproachable, many churches today err on the side of “buddy Christianity,” where God is viewed no higher than a casual acquaintance. A good luck charm or “mouse in the pocket” to talk to when times are hard. But we do ourselves a disservice and God a great injustice when we swing too far in either direction. Ecclesiastes 5:1-7 offers a warning to those who swing too far in the casual direction. The preacher says,
1 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. 2 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. 3 Just as dreams accompany much labor, so also a fool’s voice comes with many words. 4 When you make a vow to God, don’t delay fulfilling it, because he does not delight in fools. Fulfill what you vow. 5 Better that you do not vow than that you vow and not fulfill it. 6 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? 7 For many dreams bring futility; so do many words. Therefore, fear God.
The Hebrew word (Shamar), translated as “guard,” means to keep, watch, or preserve. The house of God was the temple, and to offer a “sacrifice as fools do” was to speak too quickly when the proper response was silent reverence. Jerry Shepherd writes, “While operating with speed and haste can sometimes be good, that principle never applies to speaking in the divine presence.”[1]
The key part of this passage is verse 4. Making vows was a serious matter in Israelite culture, as these were considered unbreakable (Think of the story of Jephthah in Judges 11). Deuteronomy 23:21-23 says, “If you make a vow to the Lord your God, do not be slow to keep it, because he will require it of you, and it will be counted against you as sin. But if you refrain from making a vow, it will not be counted against you as sin. Be careful to do whatever comes from your lips, because you have freely vowed what you promised to the Lord your God.” And Proverbs 20:25 says, “It is a trap for anyone to dedicate something rashly and later to reconsider his vows.”
In Isaiah 6, we’re given an excellent example of the proper awe of God we should have. Isaiah says, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Armies; his glory fills the whole earth.” He then says, “Woe is me for I am ruined because I am a man of unclean lips and live among a people of unclean lips, and because my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Armies.”
As Iain Provan writes, “Holiness is in fact understood throughout the Bible in terms of a mysterious power that is dangerous, unapproachable, and fearsome.”[2] Nadab and Abihu died for offering unholy fire before the Lord (Lev. 10:1–3). Many in Beth Shemesh died for looking into the ark of the covenant (1 Sam. 6:19–20). And in Exodus 19, the Israelites trembled at Mount Sinai as God revealed himself in a storm, knowing that touching the mountain meant death.
God wants us to approach him but to do so with reverence.
