ECCLESIASTES 5.1-7

1. Guard your feet [go carefully] when you go into the house of God; and be more ready to hear than to make the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they wrong [do not turn from their evil works].

2. Be not rash with your mouth, and let not your heart be hasty to utter anything before God. For God is in heaven and you upon earth: therefore let your words be few.

3. For a dream comes through a multitude of business, and a fool's voice is known by a multitude of words.

4. When you vow a vow unto God, defer not to pay it, for He has no pleasure in fools; pay that which you has vowed.

5. Better is it that you should not vow, than that you should vow and not pay.

6. Let not your mouth cause your flesh to sin, neither say before the temple messenger that the vow was an error. Why should God be angry at your voice, and destroy the work of your hands?

7. For in the multitude of dreams and many words there are also divers vanities. But fear you God.

As we turn to God, we may have a lot to learn and also unlearn – and the theme continues as Solomon again stresses the need to stop talking and start listening instead.

We need to learn, for example, that true religion is not about rituals and ceremonies, as we may have assumed, or even works of the Mosaic law as some may have been taught. Rather, it is about listening and doing -- learning to live a Godly life and conducting our affairs in the manner that the Bible describes as righteous.

As Solomon observed, it was all too easy for someone to offer a sacrifice at the temple, yet remain an unrepentant sinner – hoping to impress others by his outward show rather than listening, actually hearing the word of God in his heart and changing his ways.

On more than one occasion, Jesus condemns the Pharisees for such religious hypocrisy – for making a show of giving offerings for the poor by announcing it with trumpets (Matthew 6:2), for making lengthy prayers in the hearing by other people out in the streets, rather than in private (Matthew 6:5), yet all the time harboring greed, envy and hatred in their hearts (Matthew 23:27). Although such men were quick to perceive the sins of other people, they were blind to their own (Matthew 7:1-5) – not knowing, as Solomon says, that they do wrong, or evil.

Perhaps this is why Jesus says, Quote: “If you are offering your gift at the altar and remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift” (Matthew 5:23-24).

As we turn to God, then, let us be very cautious. Guard your feet, says Solomon, consider carefully where you are going what you are about. Nobody can impress God or be reconciled to him by grand gestures, so be very wary of making unwise and unnecessary promises, vows and commitments that you may later regret and find it very hard or impossible to live up to. Let us concentrate instead of being ready to hear, on learning and sorting out our lives and personal priorities and responsibilities.

“We are under constant obligations to live to God”, says the Adam Clarke Commentary, and “no vow can make it more so” – adding that: “When in distress and difficulty, men are apt to promise much to God if he will relieve them; but generally forget the vow when the distress or trouble is gone by.

Once again, Solomon’s wise words seem to be echoed by the apostle James, when he also advises those who would serve God, Quote: “ Everyone should be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to become angry, for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires” (James 1:19-20).

Perhaps it is significant that James then counsels those who seek God to make sure that they understand the nature of true religion, saying, Quote: “If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless. Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world (verses 26-27).

Although they may enhance a formal act of public worship, candles and incense, old stone buildings, pious hymns and strange clothes have absolutely nothing to do with the daily and personal practice of true religion.

Indeed, as Jesus makes very clear, the true worshippers of God, the kind that the Father actually seeks (John 4:23), are those who worship him in spirit and truth rather than in buildings -- their bodies made temples through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 3:16). Such worshippers have been enlightened and renewed in their thinking, and no longer conform mindlessly to the pattern of this evil and deluded world (verse 2).

The fool, says Solomon, offers a worthless sacrifice because he carries on doing wrong – but the wise man, on the other hand, says Paul, offers himself as a living sacrifice by doing right (Romans 12:1).

Rash and unwise words are the result of allowing the emotion of the heart to replace rational thinking. Take charge of your emotions, says Solomon, and let not your heart be hasty – especially as the result of dreams, most of which are meaningless.

Although many people regard dreams in a mystical fashion, and although dreams may sometimes be metaphorical of the events of the day and even of troubling personal problems, Solomon seems to be saying that most of them are simply meaningless.

They can however originate from dubious influences -- and Jude describes charismatic false teachers who apparently based their seductive and sexually immoral teachings on dreams, saying, Quote: “These dreamers pollute their own bodies” (Jude, verse 8). Such was their self assurance that these men also criticized those in authority in a bold and abusive manner (verse 10).

Perhaps Paul is also speaking of such men when he says, Quote: “Such a person goes into great detail about what he has seen, and his un-spiritual mind puffs him up with idle notions” (Colossians 2:18).

In brief, Christianity is the ultimate and only true religion, not a sham based on mere mantras and an outward show of trivial rules, rituals, dress codes and dietary differences – but, through personal repentance and a literal begettal and indwelling of the Holy Spirit, the creation and growth of a new person with God’s law written in his heart and an innate desire to love, serve and do what is right and good of his own volition, despite the pulls of human nature, not by constraint or for fear of divine retribution.