Its been a bit quiet here, not because I’ve had nothing to say, you understand, but because I’ve been putting Ecclesiastes 5v2b into practice: “let your words be few.”
I was surprised to discover last Thursday that I was due to preach in college chapel today on Ecclesiastes 5:1-7 / Acts 20:1-6. Its worth having a look at the rota every now and again.
Obviously because of the admonitions against foolish speech in Ecclesiastes 5 I had to cut all the best gags out of my talk, but here are a few jottings:
In order to keep my words few, I’ve put in lots of God’s.
I had far too many words for the 10 minutes allowed, of course, so there's plenty of exclusive material they didn't get in chapel today here!
Readings: Ecclesiastes 5:1-7 & Acts 20:1-6
Prayer:
May the words of my mouth
And the meditations of our hearts
Be acceptable in your sight, O LORD,
Our rock and our redeemer. (from Psalm 19:14)
Ecclesiastes 5 is not exactly the most encouraging chapter for the preacher:
Ecclesiastes 5v2 - “Let your words be few”.
Perhaps I should stop there?
I was tempted to go and sit down at this point and leave you with a dramatic enacted sign – a piece of prophetic drama like Isaiah going about naked (Is 20:2-4) or Ezekiel acting out the exile (Ez 12:1-7).
I could have avoided the wearisome toil of preparation and all that “vanity and a striving after the wind” but frankly I was too worried about incurring Marion’s wrath.
But what of the possibilities of lectionary preaching?!
Perhaps Acts 20 can come to the rescue?
No doubt Dr Dr Sleeman can tell us the immense potential of a Salvation Geography reading of our verses from Acts, but I'm afraid I couldn't see it.
Acts 20 does at least rehabilitate sermons, if Ecclesiastes 5 has made us suspicious of them.
In Acts 20v2 we find Paul “speaking many words of encouragement”.
And in v7: Paul talked until midnight and as he talked on and on, Eutychus falls into a deep sleep and tumbles out of a window to his death!
Clearly the problem is not words themselves – nor even many words, nor long sermons.
What we need is the right sort of speaking and listening, and the right sort of attitudes.
And Ecclesiastes 5 can help us.
v1 tells us to watch our step.
We are to guard our steps when we go to the “house of God”.
I know there’s no such thing as the house of God today, not like the Jerusalem Temple, anyway.
Or rather Jesus is the House of God
But in 1 Timothy 3, Paul says, “I am writing these things to you so that… you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God.” (vv14-15).
The church is God’s house and there are house rules – we’re to mind our manners.
We are being built, 1 Peter 2, “like living stones… as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”
1 Cor 11:18 warns us against divisions when we come together as a church.
God is everywhere, of course, but Jesus tells us he is specially with us where 2 or 3 gather in his name (Matthew 18:20).
If guarding your steps mattered when you came to the Temple, how much more for us:
“For you have not come to what can be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them…. But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel…. Let us offer God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.” (Heb 12:18-19, 22-24, 28-29)
We’ll want to think about how these verses apply when we’ve come together as a church, when we speak and sing to God,
and how we speak to and about one another in the church, knowing that all our speaking is done in God’s hearing.
v1 tells us that “to draw near to listen is better than to offer the sacrifice of fools”.
“Take care then how you hear.” (Luke 8:18)
“Know this, my beloved brothers:
let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger.” (James 1:19)
“Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices,
as in obeying the voice of the LORD?
Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice,
and to listen than the fat of rams.” (1 Sam 15:22).
The systematicians amongst you may have noticed the false dichotomy in v1.
Better to listen than to offer the sacrifice of fools, but its not just a choice between silent listening or foolish sacrifice.
There is a Third Way.
Rather than offering “the sacrifice of fools”
we are to “continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.”
We worship God, of course, with our lips and our lives:
“Do not neglect to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.” (Hebrews 13:15-16)
“The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” (Psalm 51:17)
“I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” (Romans 12:1)
Those of us who are prone to engage our mouths before our brains would do well to heed the admonition of v2:
We are not to be rash with our mouths,
nor let our hearts be hasty to utter a word before God,
v2, “for [because] God is in heaven and you are on earth.”
In other words, we are to know our place! : “God is in heaven and you are on earth.”
That’s one reason why we are to “do all things without grumbling or questioning.” (Philippians 2:14)
After all: “Our God is in the heavens; he does what pleases him.” (Ps 115:3)
He wants it this way!
Next time you find something to grumble about,
just remember that your loving heavenly Father is the King of the Universe and you’re not – and it’s a good job.
The All Wise God thought it’d be best this way,
and who are we to argue with him?
Does God need our advice?
“My thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,
declares the LORD.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Is 55:8-9)
“Who are you, O man, to answer back to God?
Will what is moulded say to its moulder, “Why have you made me like this?”
Has the potter no right over the clay…?” (Romans 9:20-21)
Therefore, v3, we are to let our words be few.
“The more words the more vanity,
and what is the advantage to man?” (Ecclesiastes 6:11)
So: “… when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do,
for they think that they will be heard for their many words.
Do not be like them,
for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.” (Matthew 6:6-7)
We can’t inform, impress or manipulate our heavenly Father with our words.
Don’t be like the self-satisfied Pharisee who trusted in himself that he was righteous and treated others with contempt.
Our prayers are not for us to tell God how marvellous we are, or how much better than everyone else we are.
Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled (Luke 18:9).
Perhaps the ambition and arrogance of youth make many of us especially prone to foolish talk about the future.
We need to be careful of great boasts:
“… the tongue is [such a small part of the body but]… it boasts of great things.
How great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire!
And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness.
The tongue is set among [the parts of our body] …
staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life,
and set on fire by hell….
no human being can tame the tongue.
It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.
With it we bless our Lord and Father,
and with it we curse people who are made in the in the likeness of God.
From the same mouth come blessing and cursing.
My brothers, these things ought not to be so.” (James 3:5-10)
Remember you don’t know the future:
“The words of a wise man’s mouth win him favour,
but the lips of a fool consume him.
The beginning of the words of his mouth is foolishness,
and the end of his talk is evil madness.
A fool multiplies words, though no man knows what is to be,
and who can tell what will be after him?” (Ecclesiastes 10:12-14)
“Come now, you who say,
“Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit
– yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring.
What is your life?
For you are a mist [perhaps we might say “a foggy vapour”]
that appears for a time and then vanishes.
Instead you ought to say,
“If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”
As it is, you boast in your arrogance.
All such boasting is evil.” (James 4:13-15)
We might like to check out some of our songs for excessively bold claims about how godly we’re going to be, as all our days we sing this song of gladness (or whatever)!
Or what about how we speak to and about others in the church:
We need to be careful not to despise those who don’t live up to the very high standards we have for them.
Don’t scorn those whose faults you don’t think you’ll fall into.
Perhaps you’re tempted to be dismissive of the ministries of others without knowing all the facts, and while making all sorts of allowances for yourself in other ways?
“… how can you say to your brother,
“Let me take a speck out of your eye”,
when there is a log in your own eye?” (Matthew 7:4)
“Who are you to pass judgements on the servant of another?
It is before his own master that he stands or falls.
And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand….
Why do you pass judgement on your brother?
Or you, why do you despise your brother?
For we will all stand before the judgement seat of God.” (Romans 14:4, 10)
“Do not rebuke an older man but encourage him as you would a father.” (1 Timothy 5:1)
We need to be careful that all our talk is appropriate for us as God’s children:
“Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths,
but only such as is good for building up,
as fits the occasion,
that it may give grace to those who hear.” (Ephesians 4:29)
“… sexual immorality and all impurity and covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among the saints.
Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place,
but instead let there be thanksgiving.” (Ephesians 5:4-5)
The final verse of Ecclesiastes tells us that “God will bring every deed into judgement”, including “every secret thing” (12:14).
Remember that “whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in private rooms shall be proclaimed on the housetops.” (Luke 12:3)
So, in the church there’s to be no gossip, no slander, no back-biting. no critical spirit.
Sunday lunch and the college coffee break are not designed for well-honed sermon reviews.
As Mother might have said:
“If you can’t say something good, don’t say anything at all”.
“When words are many, transgression is not lacking,
but whoever restrains his lips is prudent.” (Proverbs 10:19)
“Whoever keeps his mouth and his tongue keeps himself out of trouble.” (Proverbs 21:23)
“Whoever restrains his words has knowledge, and he who has a cool spirit is a man of understanding.” (Proverbs 17:27)
Here’s a good proverb to remember (especially perhaps in Biblical Languages classes):
“Even a fool who keeps silent is considered wise; when he closes his lips, he is deemed intelligent.” (Proverbs 17:28)
– I guess you just have to work on a deep expression and a sagacious nod!
Iv v4 our passage focuses explicitly on how we make vows:
The wife and I were discussing this passage over our cocoa last week when I pointed out its irrelevance:
“You know all this vow stuff, well, I don’t know how many of us are in the habit of making vows.”, I said, “I mean, I don’t think I’ve ever made any vows, have you?”
Mrs Lloyd smiled tolerantly and said, “Well, what about when I married you?”
11 months on and I’d forgotten the whole thing!
So (if you’re married) how are you doing on your marriage vows?
Remember your promises:
to love, comfort, honour and protect your husband or wife,
forsaking all others,
being faithful to your husband or wife as long as you both shall live? (Common Worship: Pastoral Services p106)
Or what about the promises made at your baptism?
To reject the devil and all rebellion against God,
to renounce the deceit and corruption of evil,
to repent of your sins,
to turn to Christ as Saviour,
to submit to him as Lord?
Are you fighting valiantly as a disciple of Christ, against sin, the world and the devil,
remaining faithful to him to the end? (Common Worship, p353f)
Perhaps promises you made as parents or godparents?
(see Common Worship, p352f)
Is it time for a Reformation of family worship or to buy another improving gift?
And many of us will make vows at our ordination.
For the Anglicans amongst us:
http://www.cofe.anglican.org/worship/liturgy/commonworship/texts/ordinal/deacons.html
and:
http://www.cofe.anglican.org/worship/liturgy/commonworship/texts/ordinal/priests.html
We will promise, with the help of God:
to be diligent in prayer, in reading Holy Scripture, and in all studies that will deepen our faith and fit us to bear witness to the truth of the gospel;
to strive to make the love of Christ known through word and example, and have a particular care for those in need; to be a faithful servant in the household of God, after the example of Christ, who came not to be served but to serve;
to endeavour to fashion our own lives and that of your household according to the way of Christ, that we may be a pattern and example to Christ’s people;
to work with our fellow servants in the gospel for the sake of the kingdom of God;
to accept the discipline of this Church and give due respect to those in authority;
in the strength of the Holy Spirit, continually to stir up the gift of God that is in us, to grow in holiness and grace. (The Ordination of Deacons)
We’ll promise: “… in public prayer and administration of the sacraments, … [to] use only the forms of service which are authorized or allowed by Canon.” (The Declaration of Assent, Common Worship, p.xi, also in Canon C15 Of the Declaration of Assent, The Canons of the Church of England, 6th edition, Church House Publishing, 2000, p99)
And say: “I do swear by Almighty God that I will pay true and canonical obedience to the Lord Bishop of [this diocese] and his successors in all things lawful and honest: So help me God.” (The Canons of the Church of England, 6th edition, Church House Publishing, 2000, Canon C14 Of the Oaths of Obedience, p98)
In other words, I will obey the canons if the Bishop tells me to (as long as they don’t make any unlawful or dishonest ones).
So it might be a good idea to have a look at the Canons!
According to v5: “It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not pay.”
Don’t make any vows that you wont or cant keep.
The messenger in v6 is the Temple Enforcer – the Priest or Levite or their representative - who comes to chase up that vow you made (c.f. Malachi 2:7).
The messenger is not going to be very impressed with:
“Oh, I’m sorry – my vow was a mistake” – and neither is God.
Maybe we’ve tried to excuse ourselves before now by saying:
“Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it”.
I imagine God would be even less impressed by vows made with your fingers crossed.
Don’t risk the anger of God by the promises you make (v6b).
“It is a snare to say rashly, “It is holy”, and only to reflect after making vows.” (Proverbs 20:25)
If you wanted to build a tower you’d sit down and count the cost and work out whether you had enough to complete it, wouldn’t you?
Otherwise you’d start the foundation and not be able to finish, and make yourself a laughing stock (Luke 14:28-30).
The one “who swears to his own hurt and does not change” is the one who can sojourn in the LORD’s tent and dwell on his holy hill (Ps 15:4).
[Well, my words have already been a few too many]
The conclusion of our passage is the same as the conclusion to the book of Ecclesiastes as a whole: “God is the one you must fear.” (v7; c.f. Ecclesiastes 12:13f; c.f. Luke 12:4-5)
We are to work out our salvation with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12)
And that will involve the sanctification of our speaking.
Silence.
Prayer.
* * *
Some other notes:
I’m giving the English verse numbers, the Hebrew verse numbers are one behind in this section.
V1 implies that going to church is not synonymous with being on the right track: especially then, one must watch one’s step.
On sacrifices see Is 1:11-20.
The mistake (v6), segagah, claimed to be an unintentional / inadvertent sin, a sin without knowledge or intention (see Num 15:22-31 c.f. Lev 4:2ff)
On rash oaths - Lev 5:4
Almighty God not All-matey-God
The people’s words to Moses about hearing God’s word: Dt 5:27
The commandment to hear God’s word: Is 34:1
The sacrifice here is the zebah, the peace offering, which is in part consumed by those participating in the sacrificial celebration (Ex 18:12; Dt 12:6-7). There may be some idea of the sacrificial banquet degenerating into foolishness?
The harlot of Proverbs 7:14 offers sacrifices and pays vows
On keeping your vows: Dt 23:21-23
On watching the feet etc. - Prov 1:15; 19:2b; 25:17; 4:27
On sacrifices: See Prov 15:8; 21:3, 27; Hos 6:6; Amos 5:22-24
Job’s promise of silence (Job 40:3-5)
“nothings”, habalim, frequently in the OT = idols
Many of us will be professional talkers.
Direct commands in this passage:
(1) Guard your steps when you go to the house of God (v1)
(2) Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God (v2)
(3) Let your words be few (v2)
(4) When you vow a vow to God, do not delay paying it… Pay what you vow (v4)
(5) Let not your mouth lead you into sin and do not say to the messenger that it was a mistake (v6)
Surely one of the main applications of these verses from Ecclesiastes is that our sermons shouldn’t just stumble from one lame gag to another.
It would be foolish to preach preoccupied with what other people might think of you.
Foolish to fear men, rather than God in your preaching.
Even if you can dazzle the congregation with your erudition and eloquence, and have everyone rolling in the aisles, it would be foolish to think that you could impress God.
This particular sermon has risked being more of a warning than an example and if you haven’t found it terribly amusing so far that’s because I’ve left out all my most brilliantly witty material.
In order to let my words be few, I thought I’d confine myself largely to pointing to some other passages of Scripture than shed light on our reading from Ecclesiastes.
* * *
Adam was meant guard the garden-sanctuary (Gen 2:8) and the priests were meant to guard the Temple (Num 18:7). The teacher tells us that when we come to the house of God we’re to guard ourselves.
Jesus fulfilled his vow “not my will, but yours be done”.
Jesus has the words of eternal life (John 6:68). The words he has spoken to us are spirit and life (John 6:63).
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