Ecclesiastes 5:4-7

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When you make a vow to God, do not be late in paying it, for He takes no delight in fools. Pay what you vow! It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not pay. Do not let your speech cause you to sin and do not say in the presence of the messenger of God that it was a mistake. Why should God be angry on account of your voice and destroy the work of your hands? For in many dreams and in many words there is emptiness. Rather, fear God.

These verses look at making and keeping vows.

The word VOW in the Hebrew is NA-DAR and in its simplest sense means to make a promise to take something you possess and give it to God.

But as we examine the word it becomes more involved.

1. The direction of NA-DAR is always to God. Other words are used to describe a promise to give something to another person.

2. The making of a vow was not a spiritual requirement of the OT Law. Hence it was something done purely out of one's freewill and desire.

3. It was verbally made. The one who made the vow would do so to God in words, out loud in prayer which was the common for prayer in the Ancient World.

4. The thing vowed or promised could be a sacrifice or something material as in an offering, but it could also be a promise of one's self to serve.

5. Whatever was promised had to be owed by the person making the vow. It had to be clean in that it was not something that was illegally or immorally gained (the wages of a prostitute could not be vowed).

6. The MA of the one making the vow was important, it was to be an attitude of devotion and joy. God did not demand vows and in Psalm 50:9-13 makes it clear that vows do not supply to God something He lacks.

7. Vows have been called supererogatory acts of love and devotion to God.

8. Once a vow was made, out of one's free will, there was a demand that it be paid.

Ecclesiastes 5:4-5

When you make a vow to God, do not be late in paying it, for He takes no delight in fools. Pay what you vow! It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not pay.

We have already seen in v 1 that the sacrifice of fools is their empty and meaningless words.

Here the empty words comprise a vow, a promise made during worship that is not kept.

In the CA we do not have vows such as believers in the age of Israel.

We do, however, see in the NT Scriptures those who made vows.

In Acts 18:18 we have Paul at the end of his second missionary journey shaving his head as part of the keeping of a vow. This was the beginning of some bad decisions for Paul as he began to try to win over the Jews who had rejected him.

In Acts 21:23-24 we have four men who had shaved their heads as part of a vow made to God.

In both these cases we have an attempt to bring the Nazerite vow of the O.T. into the C.A. as a sign of devotion and dedication .

This was not proper and as a result these vows created great problem in the church.

In another place in Acts we have some people making a vow to give something to the church.

Turn to Acts 4:36-37 Barnabas had a piece of land, sold it, and gave the money to the Jerusalem church. This was at a time in which there was great need among the believers and Barnabus, of his own free will, chose to do this.

So he decided, or vowed to do this, and did it.

NEXT CHAPTER: Ananias and Sapphira.

Read Acts 5:1-11

The difference we see between the vow of Barnabas and the vow of Ananias and Sapphira is the difference that is made in Eccl. 5.

Ananias and Sapphira made a promise out of their free will but then decided to default on their vow. Added to this was the lies that they told.

Acts 5:33, Peter called this lying to the Holy Spirit.

So we can see that whether in the age of Israel or in the C.A., when we make a promise to God to give Him something we must follow through.

WHAT IS THE GREATEST VOW WE CAN MAKE TO GOD TODAY?

Romans 12:1 I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service.

We are to give God ourselves.

1. We are to freely do this: Paul urges us, not commands us.

2. We are to be motivated by God's mercy: The principle of mercy, as well as grace, is God's justice satisfied at the cross and at confession and our point of contact being God's love for us as believers.

3. The sacrifice is to be living and holy: In contrast to the slain sacrifices in the O.T.

4. The sacrifice is not to propitiate God: He is already satisfied with the sacrifice of His Son. Therefore, this sacrifice will be acceptable or well-pleasing to Him.

5. It is our spiritual service to do this: Again, indicating our free will. The phrase used here can also be translated logical or reasonable service. This giving of ourselves to God who has saved us makes sense.

6. And how do we do this? We present ourselves to God.

PRESENT is the Greek word PARISTJMI and, in its simplest form, means to take a stand along side.

It its used, however, for a sacrifice or the giving of something by way of a vow.

Luke 2:22 And when the days for their purification according to the law of Moses were completed, they )Mary and Joseph) brought Him (Jesus) up to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord.

Even here we can see that we are never called upon to do that which Jesus has not done first. He was presented to the Lord as a baby by His earthly parents and continued to do so His entire life.

We see four decisions of presentation with Jesus Christ.

1. To be born, as we decide to be born again

2. To make God's business and Word His highest priority.

Luke 2:49 When Jesus was twelve He remained in Jerusalem at the Temple: And He said to them, Why is it that you were looking for Me? Did you not know that I had to be in My Father's house?

Luke 2:52 And Jesus kept increasing in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.

3. When He was thirty He presented Himself for Public ministry and was baptized by John: and God declared that This was His beloved Son in whom He was well pleased.

4. Then in the garden He made the final decision to go to Cross. Setting His Father's will above His own.

Jesus Christ, in His humanity, lived Romans 12:1. He made the vows and He kept them by the power of the Holy Spirit and the power of the Word.

We PRESENT ourselves to God.

In Romans, the word PARISTEIMI is most often translated YIELD.

Romans 6:13 Do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.

Romans 6:16 Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness?

We have freewill and have a choice to whom or what we will yield or present ourselves.

As with the OT vow, the choice is ours, it is a supererogatory act on the part of our volition s. We are encouraged even motivated to do this but not commanded to do so.

In Romans 12:1 PARAISTEIMI is an infinitive that sees this vow on our part as being a result of other things in our souls.

As with the O.T. vow we should have an attitude of devotion and joy in presenting ourselves to God.

As with the O.T. vow, whatever is presented must be pure, clean. In Romans 12:1 we are to present ourselves as a holy sacrifice.

Hence, before we present ourselves we must confess our sins and look to the work of Christ by faith.

Comes after confession, not before, not during.

Once we present ourselves, just like with the O.T. vow, we are fools to not fulfill the vow.

And as fools, and we are fools because we do take our lives away from God, we are carnal, out of fellowship, and back in the flesh.

Let's consider what specifically we can offer to God when we present ourselves as living and holy sacrifices.

Hebrews 13:15 Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name.

We offer a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving

Hebrews 13:16 And do not neglect doing good and sharing; for with such sacrifices God is pleased.
Our mutual helpfulness with other believers is a pleasing sacrifice to God.

Philippians 4:18 But I have received everything in full, and have an abundance; I am amply supplied, having received from Epaphroditus what you have sent, a fragrant aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well-pleasing to God.

Although the one receiving the gift was Paul, it was a sacrifice well pleasing to God.

Philippians 2:17 But even if I am being poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice and share my joy with you all.

The death of a believer in service to the faith is a sacrifice acceptable to God.

Romans 12:1 I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.

We present ourselves, we make ourselves available to God for His use, this is well-pleasing to God.

Before we go back to Eccl. 5 let's briefly examine what it means to present of yield ourselves to God.

1. It means to take our stand along side of God. Not God conforming to us, but us to Him.

2. When we stand alongside someone we are identifying ourselves with Him, we are then not claiming any merit, any value of works as we present ourselves to God, but we are identifying ourselves with Him.

3. There was a military aspect to this term that look at a recruit presenting himself to his commander. To present one's self under orders.

4. Another military aspect of this word means to surrender. And when the defeated troop surrenders he does one thing, throws up his hands and gives up. That is what we do, we give up the flesh, putting up our hands in the presence of God.

5. It had a legal meaning as one stood before a judge and we do stand before God, the all righteous judge, but His justice was satisfied by Jesus Christ.

6. It had a meaning within the court of a king for a minister or official who stood beside and waited to do the king's business. This required patience and we present ourselves to God and then wait upon Him and His perfect timing.

7. And it was also used for friends who stand along side each other. And God loves us and we can be friends of God and stand with Him in friendship.

Ecclesiastes 5:6,7

Do not let your speech cause you to sin and do not say in the presence of the messenger of God that it was a mistake. Why should God be angry on account of your voice and destroy the work of your hands? For in many dreams and in many words there is emptiness. Rather, fear God.

While we may mentally vacillate on paying a vow to God, the believer here makes a decision not to pay it and expresses that to the messenger.

This decision and declaration locks the worshipper into sin. Prior to this point, he had an option. Now the option not to pay the vow is taken.

With that decision and declaration, there has to be some rationalizing. "It was a mistake, I didn't mean it, I was only kidding, I wasn't serious."

SO HERE WE HAVE AN ADDITIONAL PROBLEM. Not only has he decided not to pay what was promised, but he refuses to recognize this non-payment as sin. So it goes unconfessed and when sin goes unconfessed it becomes very easy to fall into that sin again.

1. When we confess are forgiven of sin, both known and unknown.

2. If we fail to confess a known sin, we remain carnal.

3. If we rationalize a sin as not being a sin and it goes unconfessed, we are still carnal

4. The more we rationalize and make excuses for sins the easier it becomes to sin those sins

5. This is the principle of sin lying at the door . . .

Genesis 4:6-8

v 6 Then the Lord said to Cain, Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen?

He was feeling sorry for self, and accusing God of being unfair. this was the way he was excusing what he had done.

v 7 If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it.

To master it is not some system of self discipline. The Hebrew word RULE or MASTER here is MAS-HAL and means to set something as an all important feature.

The all important feature here is to recognize sin as sin and not rationalize a bunch of excuses.

v 8 And Cain told Abel his brother. And it came about when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him.

In I John 3:12 we read: Cain, who was of the evil one, and slew his brother. And for what reason did he slay him? Because his deeds were evil, and his brother's were righteous.

The word SLEW is SFAZW and is found only here and in Revelation. It is a technical word meaning to slay as a sacrifice, to make a blood offering.

Principle: In rationalizing and excusing his sin, Cain came to the point of evil and sacrificed his own brother.

The most dangerous thing we can do with sin is to rationalize it. Now we will sin, but when we do, confess it. Recognize sin for what it is, it is sin and must be confessed.

If we rationalize sin we will go from sin to evil which is right in the middle of Satan's plan for the believer.

Do not let your speech cause you to sin and do not say in the presence of the messenger \of God that it was a mistake. Why should God be angry on account of your voice and destroy the work of your hands?

The potential for chastisement (divine discipline) is stated here also.

Why should God be angry with you on account of your declaration not to pay the vow? He will destroy the works of your hands.

The cost of not paying the vow may become much more costly than if we had paid it.

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