18. Vows Made Before God

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Hymns: 414 Is Your All On the Altar 372 More Holiness Give Me 387 I Need Thee Every Hour

Study of the Book of Ecclesiastes

(Remember Now Thy Creator)

– Vows Made Before God

Ecclesiastes 5:4-7

 

4 When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it; for he hath no pleasure in fools: pay that which thou hast vowed. 5 Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay. 6 Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin; neither say thou before the angel, that it was an error: wherefore should God be angry at thy voice, and destroy the work of thine hands? 7 For in the multitude of dreams and many words there are also divers vanities: but fear thou God.

 

OUTLINE

  • Defer Not to Pay It (v4-5)
  • A Sin Not to Pay It (v6)
  • Fear God and Pay it (v7)

 

INTRODUCTION

At the heat of the World War on 11 March 1942, the Japanese army swept into the Philippines taking down island after island and surrender seemed inevitable. There was a soldier who declared to his comrades fighting the war as he stepped into an escape boat bound for Australia. He says, “I shall return”.

He arrived at the port of Adelaide nine days later. The 62 year-old military statesman made his closing remarks with the sentence, “I came through and I shall return”.

A little over two-and-a-half-years later on October 20, 1944, he stood once again on Philippines soil after landing safely at Leyte Island. This is what he said, “This is the voice of freedom. General MacArthur speaking. People of the Phlippines: I HAVE RETURNED!”

MacArthur kept his word. His word was as good as his bond. Regardless of the odds against him, the author Charles Swindoll in a devotion entitled, “Keeping Your Word”, wrote, “including the pressures and power of enemy strategy, he as bound and determined to make his promise good. This rare breed is almost extinct. Whether an executive or an apprentice, a student or a teacher, a blue- or white-collar worker, a Christian or a pagan – rare indeed are those who keep their tord. The prevalence of the problem has caused the coining of terms painfully familiar to us in our era: credibility gap. To say that something is “credible” is to say it is “capable of being believed, trustworthy.” To refer to a “gap” in such suggest a “breach or a reason for doubt.”

He added further, “Jurors often have reason to doubt the testimony of a witness on the stand. Parents, likewise, have reason at times to doubt their children’s word (and vice-versa)…” The list goes on.

He asked in the devotion, “Question: Judging yourself on this matter of keeping your word. Are you bridging or widening the credibility gap?” Scriptures tells us that we are to keep our word, whenever you make a promise be sure to honour it.

You recall our study of the Book of Ecclesiastes brings us to the sanctuary of God when men worship God. He tells us the profit of coming to God’s house and imbibing the wisdom of God’s Word and receiving God’s blessing. For the first time, Solomon directs us away from life under the sun and tells us of worship, life above the sun when men would commune with His Creator, remember and bless His Holy Name.

You recall, the three thoughts:

  • Prepare Yourself (v1a)
  • Be Ready to Hear (v1b)
  • Be Not Rash With Your Mouth (v2-3)

Come with a heart prepared to listen to the voice of God speaking to you. He speaks to us through His Word in the hymns that we sing, the Word of God read and meditated, the Word of God exhorted. Humble yourself before God, be ready to hear, be ready to obey the instructions that God will give you for your spiritual well-being.

Ecclesiastes 5:2 Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God: for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few. 3 For a dream cometh through the multitude of business; and a fool’s voice is known by multitude of words.

Solomon furthers develop how we are to approach God in His house in verses 4-7 when he speaks of the vows uttered before God.

  • Defer Not to Pay It (v4-5)
  • A Sin Not to Pay It (v6)
  • Fear God and Pay it (v7)

 

(1) Defer Not to Pay It (v4-5)

4 When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it; for he hath no pleasure in fools: pay that which thou hast vowed. 5 Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay.

Bill Baldwin explains well, “In Israel, a man might come into the temple and make a vow. For example, he might say, “Lord, if you heal my son, I will give to you 30 percent of the year’s harvest instead of the usual 10.” You can see how tempting such transactions might be. You can see how tempting such transactions might be. After all, life is dreadfully uncertain, as the Preacher has constantly told us. So the temptation is to bargain with God to see if you can get a better deal. So the Preacher says, if you make such a vow, be sure to pay it in the congregation of God’s people if God should grant your request. It is better not to vow at all and just suffer the futility of life under the sun than to vow and not pay.[1]

Vows to God are the devotional equivalent of oaths, & must be treated with equal seriousness. It could be the marriage vow or even a vow of celibacy.

Scripture gives us warning concerning such promises that we make.

Leviticus 27:2 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When a man shall make a singular vow, the persons shall be for the LORD by thy estimation.

Barnes observed, “The vow of a person was perhaps most frequently made in cases of illness or danger, under the impulse of religions feeling, either in the way of thankfulness for blessings received, or of supplication for something desired. A man might dedicate himself, his wife, his child, or his bondservant. This might have been an old custom; but the Law ordained that he who had taken such a vow should pay a sum of money to the sanctuary, determined according to the age and sex of the person.”

Numbers 30:2 If a man vow a vow unto the LORD, or swear an oath to bind his soul with a bond; he shall not break his word, he shall do according to all that proceedeth out of his mouth.

Deuteronomy 23:21-23 When thou shalt vow a vow unto the LORD thy God, thou shalt not slack to pay it: for the LORD thy God will surely require it of thee; and it would be sin in thee. 22 But if thou shalt forbear to vow, it shall be no sin in thee. 23 That which is gone out of thy lips thou shalt keep and perform; even a freewill offering, according as thou hast vowed unto the LORD thy God, which thou hast promised with thy mouth.

Ephesians 4:25 Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another.

Psalm 15:1-2 A Psalm of David. LORD, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? who shall dwell in thy holy hill? 2 He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart.

 He tells us that when we would vow, let us be ready to pay it. If not, do now vow. Solomon is telling us that we are not to be rash or hasty to make promises before God for that matter to make promises if we are not going to fulfil them.

There are legitimate causes when solemn sacred oaths or vows are taken. An oath is a statement made calling God to witness to the truth of that statement, and invoking a curse from God if, in fact, you’re not telling the truth. When you go into court, and you put your hand on a Bible, and say, “I swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me God.”

When you get married, you say, “Before God and these witnesses, I take you,” and you are invoking God as a witness to a lifelong vow that you are making. There is a place for oaths.

1 Corinthians 7:39 “The wife is bound by the law as long as her husband liveth; but if her husband be dead, she is at liberty to be married to whom she will; only in the Lord.”

The Pledge

Wilt thou have this woman to be thy wedded wife, to live together after God’s ordinance in the holy estate of matrimony? Wilt thou love her, comfort her, honour, and keep her in sickness and in health; and, forsaking all other, keep thee only unto her, so long as ye both shall live?

Wilt thou have this man to thy wedded husband, to live together after God’s ordinance in the holy estate of matrimony? Wilt thou obey him, and serve him, love, honour, and keep him in sickness and in health; and, forsaking all other, keep thee only unto him, so long as ye both shall live?

The Vows

I, _______________, take thee, _________________, to be my wedded wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish till death do us part, according to God’s holy ordinance; and thereto I pledge you my word.

 

I, _____________, take thee, _________________, to be my wedded husband, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love, to cherish and to obey, till death do us part, according to God’s holy ordinance; and thereto I pledge you my word.

Exchange of Rings

With this ring I thee wed, with my body I thee honour, and with all my worldly goods I thee endow: In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

We are to take time to consider if it is the will of God for a marriage partner before taking a vow for a life-long commitment as husband and wife – 5 Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay.

– for he hath no pleasure in fools: pay that which thou hast vowed.

Joseph Benson observed well, “In hypocritical and perfidious persons, who, when they are in distress, make liberal vows, and when the danger is past, neglect and break them. He calls them fools, because it is the highest folly, as to think of mocking or deceiving the all-seeing and almighty God: so also to despise and provoke him. Better is it that thou shouldest not vow — For this would be no sin, because men are free to make such vows, or not to make them, as they think best; but, having made them, they cannot forbear to pay them, without sin.[2]

 

(2) A Sin Not to Pay It (v6)

6 Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin; neither say thou before the angel, that it was an error: wherefore should God be angry at thy voice, and destroy the work of thine hands?

 In Jesus’s time, oaths have become frivolous, an idle and unnecessary swearing.

Matthew 5:33-37 Again, ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths: 34 But I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God’s throne: 35 Nor by the earth; for it is his footstool: neither by Jerusalem; for it is the city of the great King. 36 Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black. 37 But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.

The Pharisees developed a complicated series of rulings on oaths, which were of two kinds, a positive oath was a promise to do something and a negative oath was the promise not to do something. And in order to make oaths less binding, there was an increasing tendency to try to find loopholes in one’s oath including swearing by less sacred things like the earth, Jerusalem, even one’s head, which led to the devaluation of oath. Because these are creatures and therefore not to be sworn by and none of these can be a judge anyway even if we swear falsely. Therefore Jesus is establishing a different standard of speech, one not based on oaths but on simple integrity – let your yes be yes and your no be no.

The Pharisees stressed that this command required an external refraining from swearing falsely in social, and civil, and legal situations. And Jesus says, this commandment means much more than that. This commandment is spiritual. It extends to the heart. This commandment is more than merely external. It is internal. It has to do with all of our truthfulness before the living God.

A simple “yes” or “no” is enough for a trustworthy person. And swearing by something with the intent to deceive can only have one source, the evil one, Satan.

We may put it as a reference to the 3rd commandment of taking the name of God in vain. Jesus was trying to address this problem of lying when the people would say things and not follow through.

Life becomes chaotic because men could not rely on one another’s words and statements. Jesus is advocating truthful honest speech that is true to the heart.

You will notice, Jesus pointing out, that the whole purpose of God’s law is that we may learn the fear of God and realize that we are sinners and guilty before God that we may repent of our sins and come to God.

This morning our study of the Life of Joseph brings us to Genesis 44 where we see God working in the heart of Judah concerning the lie that he and the other brothers told to their father that Joseph has died from an animal wound when they threw him in the pit and sold him to Egypt. Their lie did not weigh well in their conscience. They were guilty all these years and the incident of the silver cup found in Benjamin exposed their guilty conscience for selling their brother Joseph and how Joseph observed a change in the heart of Judah. God in a way work a work of grace to “corner” them into living straight and right before God. By Judah’s willingness to be a slave on behalf of his brother Benjamin indeed showed there was a change.

Joseph Benson commented well, “Christ may be meant, the Angel of the covenant, as he is called Malachi 3:1; who, even in these ancient times, acted as God’s messenger, appearing and speaking to the patriarchs and prophets in his Father’s name; and who was, and, according to his promise, is, in an especial manner, present in all religious assemblies, observing the whole conduct of all that worship in them. And this title may be given to the priest here, because the vow made to God was to be paid to the priest, as one standing and acting in God’s name and stead; and it belonged to him, as God’s angel or ambassador, to discharge persons from their vows when there was just occasion. It was an error — I did unadvisedly in making such a vow. Wherefore should God be angry — Why wilt thou provoke God to anger by these frivolous excuses? And destroy the work of thy hands — Blast all thy labours, and particularly that work or enterprise for the success whereof thou didst make these vows.”[3]

 

(3) Fear God and Pay It (v7)

7 For in the multitude of dreams and many words there are also divers vanities: but fear thou God.

The essence of the law is the holiness of God that by it, man may realize that he is guilty before God.

Exodus 20:20 And Moses said unto the people, Fear not: for God is come to prove you, and that his fear may be before your faces, that ye sin not.

Romans 3:19-20 Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. 20 Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

Joseph Benson said well, “There is a great deal of folly, as in a multitude of dreams, which for the most part are vain and insignificant, so also in many words, especially in making many vows, whereby a man is exposed to many snares and temptations. But fear thou God — Fear the wrath of God, and therefore be sparing in making vows, and just in performing them.”

 

CONCLUSION

Let us be not be hasty or rash be making vows before God. May we be ready to pay the vows that we make to the glory and honour of His Name! Amen.

[1] http://bettercovenant.org/ecclesiastes/ecc_5_1-9.htm

[2] http://www.studylight.org/commentaries/rbc/ecclesiastes-5.html

[3] Ibid.