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Ecclesiastes, part 16, Worship

Proper Worship

In chapter 5, Koheleth shifts from social and political life to worship, exposing how religious speech itself can become vanity. Ecclesiastes 5:1-3 says,

¹ Guard your steps as you go to the house of God and draw near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools; for they do not know they are doing evil. ² Do not be hasty in word or impulsive in thought to bring up a matter in the presence of God. For God is in heaven and you are on the earth; therefore let your words be few. ³ For the dream comes through much effort and the voice of a fool through many words.

“Guard your steps” signals restraint. Approaching God is not casual or automatic. Koheleth contrasts two ways to approach God: (1) “listen” to receive revelation from God, and (2) “sacrifice of fools,” which is religious activity without revelation or understanding. Whereas most prayer is one-sided with man speaking, prayer ought to be more conversational.

The “sacrifice of fools” is not pagan worship, but misdirected religious zeal—ritual without reverence, ritualistic prayers without understanding, and thinking that what we have to say takes priority over the revelation of God. This is said to be “evil.” So we read in 1 Samuel 15:22,

²² Samuel said, “Has the Lord as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams.

This is repeated later in Hosea 6:6,

⁶ For I delight in loyalty rather than sacrifice, and in the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

In Matthew 9:13 Jesus directly quoted Hosea 6:6 to rebuke religious vanity.

Koheleth also grounds worship in theology: Verse 2 reminds us that “God is in heaven and you are on the earth.” In other words, God is sovereign, humans are finite and earth-bound. The warning is against verbose prayers, impulsive vows, and emotional religious speech or prayer telling God what we want and informing Him of all the things that He has forgotten.

Jesus too warned us of this in Matthew 6:7, 8,

⁷ And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words. ⁸ So do not be like them; for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.

The proverb in verse 3 clarifies the danger: dreams result from mental overload (“much effort”), while foolish speech results from verbal excess. As long as men do the speaking, they cannot hear God’s voice. There is a place for speaking to God, but most of the time ought to be spent listening to Him speak, either directly or indirectly through an inspired preacher. When we listen to inspired preachers or teachers, we are not really listening to the man but to God who speaks through the man. We are then responsible to “chew the cud” (Leviticus 11:3, 4) to transform the “grass” (flesh) into spiritual revelation, allowing us to grow spiritually.

This passage shows that vanity infects religion, not just labor or politics. It shows that God cannot be mastered by words or forced into compliance to man’s will. It shows that reverence requires silence, the ability to hear, and obedience.

Ecclesiastes 5:1–3 teaches that reverent worship requires guarded approach, attentive listening, and restrained speech, warning that excessive religious words and impulsive offerings before God are themselves a form of folly and vanity.

Keeping Your Word

Ecclesiastes 5:4, 5 says,

⁴ 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. ⁵ It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not pay.

A man is only as good as his word. It does not have to be a formal vow, nor does the vow have to be to God alone. If we give our word to anyone, it should be automatically guaranteed. Too often we fail to take our own word seriously, and this is, perhaps, rooted in our own low self-esteem. If we are truly in Christ, and if Christ is the Word (logos), then we should strive to be like Him.

The most significant vow, which they failed to keep, was the Old Covenant, where Israel vowed obedience to God (Exodus 19:8). Because they failed to keep their vow, they were unable to be His people, that is, they did not receive immortality and incorruption. For this reason, God instituted a second covenant (Deuteronomy 29:1) in which He vowed to make them His people by His own power. This covenant was greater because it was extended to all people, not just to Israel (Deuteronomy 29:14, 15).

Whereas men found it impossible to be perfectly obedient, due to the death residing in them, God is abundantly capable of fulfilling His vow.

Ecclesiastes 5:6, 7 continues,

⁶ 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? ⁷ For in many dreams and in many words there is emptiness. Rather, fear God.

Our words are morally binding. Therefore we ought to be careful what we say. Koheleth tells people not to come back later and tell “the messenger of God” (priest) that “it was a mistake.” Numbers 30:2 says,

² If a man makes a vow to the Lord, or takes an oath to bind himself with a binding obligation, he shall not violate his word; he shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth.

Deuteronomy 23:21 tells us that breaking one’s vow is a sin:

²¹ When you make a vow to the Lord your God, you shall not delay to pay it, for it would be sin in you, and the Lord your God will surely require it of you.

What penalty is prescribed for breaking a vow? Leviticus 5:4-6 says,

⁴ Or if a person swears thoughtlessly with his lips to do evil or to do good, in whatever matter a man may speak thoughtlessly with an oath, and it is hidden [alam, “hidden, concealed”] from him, and then he comes to know it, he will be guilty in one of these. ⁵ So it shall be when he becomes guilty in one of these, that he shall confess that in which he has sinned. ⁶ He shall also bring his guilt offering to the Lord for his sin which he has committed, a female from the flock, a lamb or a goat as a sin offering. So the priest shall make atonement on his behalf for his sin.

Impulsive vows can result in having to choose between keeping the vow or doing harm to one’s neighbor. Such vows, though unintentional, are to be confessed as sin, and the penalty is stated in terms of sacrifice. Under the New Covenant, of course, Jesus Christ is our Sacrifice. An example of an impulsive vow which, if kept, would have resulted in sin is seen in Acts 23:12,

¹² When it was day, the Jews formed a conspiracy and bound themselves under an oath, saying that they would neither eat nor drink until they had killed Paul.

Yet from their point of view, their vow was righteous, except that they were unable to carry out their plot, because the Roman soldiers were protecting Paul. Presumably, rather than starve to death, these 40 plotters went to the priest and confessed that they were unable to fulfill their vow, offering a sacrifice for their sin. No doubt they failed to recognize their intent to commit murder as the real sin.

Layers of Power and Accountability

Ecclesiastes 5:8, 9 says,

⁸ If you see oppression of the poor and denial of justice and righteousness in the province [medina, “outlying judgeship”], do not be shocked at the sight; for one official watches over another official, and there are higher officials over them. ⁹ After all, a king who cultivates the field is an advantage to the land.

This is political realism. Injustice is structural, not accidental, power is layered (“official over official”), and responsibility is diffused, making accountability rare. The verse explains why justice so often fails—every level passes blame upward all the way to the king himself.

Koheleth is describing bureaucratic self-preservation without excusing it.

Verse 9 is a proverb whose meaning is obscure today. It probably means that even as kings depend on agriculture from rural areas, so also does a king depend on the judges to administer justice properly. If they fail, it hurts the king’s reputation; if they succeed, it benefits the king’s reputation. This is how the system works “under the sun” (i.e., in the real world).

Ecclesiastes 5:8–9 teaches that injustice is often systemic and sustained by layered authority, urging sober realism about political power, while reminding us that even kings are dependent on economic and judicial realities beyond their control.