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.
Ecclesiastes 5 warns about the words we say in God's presence. Nobody has to make a vow, but delay in paying one puts the speaker among the fools — so is vowing wise at all?
One writer starts further back: the trouble in man and the world begins where God is left out.
The first of rights is that God should have His; all is wrong when God is left out, and this is the root of the misery in man and the world. Yet neither the house of God, nor speaking before Him, nor vows to Him, can rescue anyone from folly or vanity. Hearing from God takes precedence over speaking to Him. The weakness of fallen man follows him everywhere. The only resource for the wise man is to fear God. Without this, religious effort only increases the danger.
Nobody in Israel was ever commanded to vow. The obligation began the moment a person chose to speak.
The Israelites were not told to make vows, but if they made them voluntarily, God said they must carefully perform them. Man is always ready to boast of his strength, without being aware of his own weakness. The law made vows binding, and gave directions for exceptional cases where it was impossible to keep them.
The verse names delay, not refusal, as the failure. One writer explains why by looking at what a sacrifice is.
"When you vow a vow to God, do not delay paying it, for He has no pleasure in fools." The element of sacrifice does not enter into anything that shows compromise. A sacrifice is something offered absolutely, once for all, and if it is a sacrifice it cannot be taken back. It must be free of all entanglements.
Hannah shows how it is done. She prayed for a son, vowed him to God, and then gave the boy up.
She did not selfishly cling to him, nor make a scene at parting with the loved and lovable "son of her vows." She gives him up freely and gladly. Was it not for this very purpose that she waited long and prayed earnestly? She was not one of those who vow and afterwards regret it.
One writer applies the verse to Israel's own promise to obey God.
Israel made a fatal mistake in saying, "We will do." It was taking on a vow they were not able to pay, even if they had been willing. And we know who said, "Better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not pay." At its heart, a vow assumes you are able to fulfil it — and where is man's ability? A bankrupt might as well write a cheque on the bank as a helpless sinner make a vow. A man who makes a vow denies the truth about his own nature and condition.
Jesus later pushed the warning further. One writer traces it, then sets God's promise beside ours.
How much better not to vow at all than to make a promise and not keep it! However, the Lord Jesus, speaking of this law, says, "But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all." Old Testament history proves that man in the flesh is untrustworthy... For even though we intend to act on our promise, we may find ourselves unable to. What a contrast is seen in God's promises — He not only promised but "guaranteed it with an oath," for His promise and His oath are absolute: they cannot be broken.
Only one man ever met this verse's standard without failure.
In the performance of vows, no one had ever fulfilled their obligations and promises to God. So our Lord warned them against taking oaths they could not keep. But He could say, "I will pay my vows to the LORD in the presence of all his people." What vows they were — to glorify God about sin, to seek and to save the lost, to lay the eternal foundations of redemption deep, firm and broad, to bring many to glory. Think what it cost Him to pay these vows. May we adore Him who never made a rash vow, and never broke a single promise He made to His God and Father.
- Free. No one was ever commanded to vow; the whole obligation begins with your own mouth.
- Binding. You cannot quietly take a vow back. A sacrifice is offered once for all.
- Delayed. The verse names delay as the failure. Hannah did the opposite and gave up what she vowed, freely and gladly.
- Bankrupt. A vow assumes you have the strength to pay it, and a fallen man writing that cheque is drawing on an empty account.
- Paid. God's promise and His oath cannot be broken. Christ kept every vow He made, so our confidence rests on His word, not on ours.
Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay.
Ecclesiastes 5 turns from the emptiness of life under the sun to how a person behaves toward God. It watches how he enters God's house, how he speaks there, and what he promises. This verse weighs two options and calls one of them better: silence over a promise you leave unpaid.
One writer sums up the section: God must have what is His, and no religious activity shelters a person from folly.
God must have His rights first. Everything goes wrong when people leave God out. That is the root of the misery in man and the world. Yet neither the house of God, nor words spoken before Him, nor vows made to Him, can rescue anyone from folly or emptiness. Hearing from God comes before speaking to Him... The only resource for the wise man is to fear God. Without this, religious effort only increases the danger.
Every vow assumes something about the person who makes it. One writer tests that assumption against Israel's promise to God: "we will do."
Israel made a fatal mistake in saying, "we will do." They were taking on a vow they were not able to pay, even if they were willing. It is of the very essence of a vow that it assumes you are able to fulfil it — and where is man's ability? A helpless sinner making a vow is like a bankrupt writing a cheque on the bank. A man who makes a vow denies the truth about his nature and condition. He is ruined; what can he do? He is completely without strength, and can neither will nor do anything good.
The law never commanded vows. That is what makes an unpaid vow so serious: the whole thing started as a free choice.
No one had to make a vow: "But if you refrain from vowing, you will not be guilty of sin" (Deuteronomy 23:22). But once a vow was made, the Lord would demand it. A commitment made with God could not be set aside because a man ordered it or changed his mind.
Two examples show both halves of the warning. One man kept a reckless promise. Another tried to slip out of one. Neither escaped.
Jephthah was rash in the vow he made, but he stood to it and bore the consequence. Not so Ananias and Sapphira; but their deception did not shield them from death. We must weigh what we say before God, and never take it back for selfish reasons.
Jephthah led Israel in battle. He promised God whatever came out of his door if he won — and his daughter came out. Ananias and Sapphira sold land, brought part of the money, and claimed it was all of it.
One writer traces the vow back to its root, then says what to do if you have already made a foolish one.
What people usually call a vow means pledging yourself, with or without penalties if you break the pledge. In itself it is the fruit of self-confidence and energy in the flesh — two things that mark fallen men, and that God hates... Suppose a man vowed to become an apostle, or to convert many people, or never to marry. Let him confess his sin, and leave himself in God's hand. He has assumed power to be in himself, and it is not there.
One writer carries this verse into the New Testament, and sets our promises beside God's.
How much better not to vow at all than to make a promise and not keep it! When the Lord Jesus spoke about the law of vows, He said not to swear at all (Matthew 5:33-34). Old Testament history proves that man in the flesh cannot be trusted. So the New Testament warns us not to make promises, or even to announce what we are going to do in the future — and that includes the very near future (James 4:13-16). We may fully intend to act on our promise, and still find that we cannot. God's promises are the complete opposite. He not only promised but backed His promise with an oath (Hebrews 6:17). His promise and His oath are absolute: nothing can break them.
That leaves something better than a pledge to offer God.
It is better to tell the Lord that we really love Him and want to please Him, but that we need His help. "It is God who works in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure" (Philippians 2:13).
- Hear first. Listening to God comes before speaking to Him. Without the fear of God, religious words only raise the risk.
- No credit. A vow assumes you can deliver, like a bankrupt writing a cheque. Israel said "we will do" and failed. Silence beats a promise you cannot pay.
- Freely bound. God never asked for vows. But once you made one, He held you to it, and no change of mind cancelled the debt.
- No exit. Jephthah kept a rash vow at terrible cost. Ananias and Sapphira tried to take one back and died. Weigh your words before God, and never take them back for selfish reasons.
- His promise. Have you already made a foolish vow? Confess it and leave yourself in God's hand. Then lean on the promise nothing can break, and on the God who works in you to will and to do.
Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin; neither say thou before the angel, that it was an inadvertence. Wherefore should God be wroth at thy voice, and destroy the work of thy hands?
Ecclesiastes 5 warns about how we behave in God's presence, and this verse is its sharpest edge. What is a vow worth, who is the messenger, and why would God be angry at mere words?
The chapter begins with religious activity, not with obvious sin. One writer traces the trouble further back, and warns that even the right place and the right words cannot protect anyone from folly.
The first of all rights is that God should have His. Everything goes wrong when God is left out, and this is the root of the misery in man and the world. Yet neither the house of God, nor speaking before Him, nor vows to Him, can rescue from folly or vanity. Hearing from God takes precedence over speaking to Him. The weakness of man, fallen as he is, follows him everywhere. The only resource for the wise man is to fear God. Without this, religious effort only increases the danger.
So worship without the fear of God does not make anyone safer. It gives the mouth more chances to sin.
A vow sounds like devotion. But it makes a quiet claim about the person making it, and one writer tests that claim.
It is of the very essence of a vow that it assumes the ability to fulfil; and where is man's ability? A bankrupt might as well write a cheque on the bank as a helpless sinner make a vow. A man who makes a vow denies the truth about his own nature and condition. He is ruined. What can he do? He is completely without strength, and can neither will nor do anything good.
So the mouth leads the whole person into sin. The promise goes further than the person can go.
The verse pictures someone standing before God's messenger and calling a broken vow an oversight. But the person who made the vow never had the last word on it.
A man might regret his promise and let himself off lightly when it came to keeping it. So the valuing of his vow was not left to the one who made it. God Himself, or the priest as His spokesman, settled it all.
So the messenger is the one who speaks for God, and the excuse is made to His face. An unpaid vow was not a private matter to be dropped either. Another writer lists it among the things that made an Israelite unclean.
Why does the warning end so darkly, with God angry and a man's work destroyed? Much depends on who is speaking here, and on the God he can see.
The speaker knows man's casual, anything-goes attitude and his enslaving superstitions, his rash vows and wordy prayers, his shallow reverence and dreamy worship. That worship is dreamy and unreal because it is full of pleading emptiness and worldly business. So he urges the crowd going to the house of God to use few words and slow, solemn steps in their worship and vows. But even then he speaks as a natural man himself. He knows only a God far away, who looks on sinful people on earth with a cold judicial eye, ready to destroy the work of man in wrath.
The verse ends with a man's work swept away by a God he knows only from far off. Careful speech may keep him out of trouble, but it cannot bring him near.
God is still in heaven and man on earth (verse 2), with a vast distance between — a gulf no one has bridged. What is needed is revelation, that which is "above the sun." It brings man to God, gives him peace and assurance, and frees him from fear. The gospel of Jesus Christ is the only provision.
This changes what a promise means for a believer today.
The Old Testament teaches that man is so completely untrustworthy that there is no use making vows. What is the sense, then? Why not do the thing without making a vow? The Lord Jesus confirms this: "Do not take an oath at all." James says the same: "Do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your 'yes' be yes and your 'no' be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation." So there are to be no oaths and no vows. The believer today is under the grace of God.
- Mouth. A rash word is not a small thing. It leads the whole person into sin, and religious surroundings do not soften that.
- Bankruptcy. Every vow claims a power we do not have — a bankrupt writing a cheque on the bank.
- Excuse. Calling a broken promise a mistake settles nothing. The worth of a vow was never yours to decide.
- Distance. The dread behind the verse belongs to a God known only as far off in heaven, watching and ready to judge.
- Gospel. Fewer words do not cross that gulf. God's revelation in Jesus Christ does, and grace takes the place of vowing.