CRITICAL NOTES.—
Ecclesiastes 5:6. Before the angel] The representative of God in the Temple, i.e., the priest. Or it may be taken literally, as expressing the early belief of mankind that angels are invisible witnesses to our conduct, especially in God’s house. (1 Corinthians 11:10).
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Ecclesiastes 5:4-7
RELIGIOUS TRIFLERS
There are some who do not distinctly oppose religion. They regard it, in some sense, necessary to them, and therefore observe its outward forms. But they are lacking in depth and serious purpose. They are but religious triflers. We have here the chief features of their character.
I. They are Forward in Offers of Service. (Ecclesiastes 5:4.) Reference is here made to vows, which easily enhance a man’s reputation for piety; and which fools, without due consideration, are ever ready to make. Want of seriousness leads to this irreverent trifling. Of these thoughtless religionists, we are taught,
1. That they are ever ready to make promises of stricter and more enlarged service. They would not lag behind the most ardent piety, and therefore declare their willingness to increase the bonds of obligation. In the time of peril, or when they desire some special good, they are ready to make the most solemn vows. But,
2. They fail when the demand of duty is made. In the powerful feelings of the time the largest promises are made, but they fail to fulfil their pious resolutions. They do not pay their vows. This arises
(1) From indolence and lack of spiritual vigour. They have not sufficient moral strength to carry on their purpose to the right issue. They have no abiding principle—hence energy fails. It sometimes arises
(2) From avarice. They soon discover that in an unguarded moment they promised too much, and imagine that God can be put off with less. The strong feeling has cooled, and the sober fact of duty affrights them.
3. They are in a worse moral position than if the offer of service had never been made. (Ecclesiastes 5:5.) To have omitted to vow at all was no sin. God is satisfied with a steady service, an even, constant devotion. But to over-estimate our moral strength only lands us upon new difficulties.
II. They are the Victims of Unreality.
1. They are deceived by words. (Ecclesiastes 5:7.) They mistake words for things, the symbol of thought for the substance of it. Words are easily uttered, but when they are unreal, they lead the soul into a snare. How many are the victims of mere phrases!
2. They are morally corrupted by words. (Ecclesiastes 5:6.) The mouth brings sin upon the flesh. The tongue has corrupted the whole man. Language reacts upon thought and feeling, and the habit of uttering hollow words only deepens the vain shadow in which such are walking.
3. They are altogether the slaves of imagination. (Ecclesiastes 5:7.) Their words are but the flimsy and vanishing elements of a dream. Men of dreamy minds are unfit for the sober, and often prosaical, duties of life.
III. They are Cunning to Invent Excuses. When the hour arrives for performing the vow, they are ready with plausible excuses.
1. The plea of infirmity. They urge that the vow was, after all, a mistake. It was simply “an error.” (Ecclesiastes 5:6.) The service was never really intended, but thoughtlessly promised in some sudden rush of feeling. Thus they excuse their forwardness and disown the obligation.
2. They are bold enough to urge their plea before the representatives of God. They say it before “the angel.” (Ecclesiastes 5:6.) They enter the place of the holy, and before God’s appointed witnesses dare to present the plea of infirmity. They try to pass off a culpable rashness for a mere error.
IV. They are Exposed to the Divine Judgment.
1. They provoke the anger of God. He is the God of truth, and can have no pleasure in those whose words are unreal, and whose whole life is a delusion. The religious trifler misuses the gift of speech, employing it in sophistry and evasion. Hence he provokes eternal justice. God is angry at his voice. (Ecclesiastes 5:6.)
2. Their conduct brings its own punishment. Such conduct must issue in the complete loss of their work. God will destroy it. (Ecclesiastes 5:6.) Offended justice will reject their impertinent offers of service, and punishment fall upon those deceivers who profane holy things to serve the base uses of hypocrisy.
3. Their punishment can only be averted by the fear of God. (Ecclesiastes 5:7.) This is the very soul of reverence. The fools—the solemn triflers in the sanctuary of God—must learn this fear, which is “the beginning of wisdom.” They must return to seriousness, truth, and reality. They must learn to respect the morality of words—the sacred proprieties of speech. All falsehood and unreality must be destroyed before life can be placed upon a permanent and safe foundation.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Ecclesiastes 5:4. If Christians make voluntary vows at all, it should be with clear warrant from the Word, for purposes obviously attainable, and for limited periods of time. The man who vows to offer a certain prayer at a given hour for all his remaining life, may find it perfectly convenient for the next six months, but not for the next six years. The man who vows to pious uses half the income of the year may be safe, whereas the Jephthah who rashly devotes contingencies over which he has no control may pierce himself through with many sorrows. And whilst every believer feels it his reasonable service to present himself to God a living sacrifice, those who wish to walk in the liberty of sonship, will seek to make their dedication, as a child is devoted to his parents, not so much in the stringent precision of a legal document as in the daily forthgoings of a filial mind [Dr. J. Hamilton].
Promises to God should be prudently made, sincerely intended, and speedily fulfilled.
It is safest to allow the standing motives for duty their full operation. The seeking after a new stimulus may expose our piety to peril.
The contemplation of human folly, by the wise, raises the most loathsome images in the mind; how much more with him who is Infinite Wisdom!
Seek to maintain thy baptismal vows, wherein thou hast vows enough [Lange].
Frames of feeling and good words are but, at best, rudimentary virtue, until they are consummated in accomplished duty.
Ecclesiastes 5:5. It is better to be slow in vowing than to be slow in paying. It is better to deliberate, and to hold long in suspense our doubtful resolution, than to be free and easy in our words, but hard and difficult in our works [Jermin].
By insincerity, or by some rash attempt to attain superior virtue, a man but injures his moral strength, and lowers himself to a position of less advantage.
Better to be satisfied with the ordinary lines of duty, than to run the risk of failure by attempting a more ambitious virtue.
The want of prudence is dangerous to every degree of goodness. Sobriety of mind and sincerity are the only solid foundations for a true life.
Some men cannot be restrained from placing themselves in positions where their folly is rendered conspicuous.
The Lord Jesus has often some severe tests for hasty disciples. How many does the profession of His religion place in a most serious spiritual position; showing them the rising path, yet exposing them to the risk of falling into the greatest depths! Better to remain in darkness, than to neglect to perform our day’s-work while we have the light.
Ecclesiastes 5:6. The mouth causeth the flesh to sin when it promises what the flesh neither can nor will perform [Hansen].
A rash and ungovernable tongue can bring the whole body into bondage.
If we are not careful, our own words may become to us a delusion and a snare.
The tongue so far controls the whole man that, when it is tamed, he may be considered to have well nigh attained perfection.
Some are bold enough to utter the most hollow excuses before the messengers of God, as if they could thus compound for sin.
We must be careful what we reckon as sins of ignorance, lest our sin should remain and we be exposed to judgment.
Nothing in the religious character but what is based upon sincerity and truth can abide. All else shall be swept away by the Divine judgments, as the mountain torrent destroys the foundations of sand.
Ecclesiastes 5:7. The fear of God is the best remedy against rashness. It instructs us in the lessons of prudence, and keeps alive in us a sense of the danger of insincerity.
The abuse of language has diversified sadly the vanities of life. “Dreams and many words” have led to serious evils. The interests of religious truth have suffered much from the vain imaginations of men—dreamy speculations, and from mere wordy disputes.
The fear of God imparts true sobriety to the religious life, delivering it from vain and fruitless distractions, and empty efforts. The Great Teacher was frequent in censuring those who took up religion too lightly, and who made promises which they were likely to break.