Morning Devotion - Eccl 5

Read Ecclesiastes 5

5:1-7 is the central passage in the middle of three cycles in this book, the cycle that addresses futility and work. This center passage seems to come upon us very abruptly, and then abruptly it leaves us. At the very center of the center is verse 4:

When you vow a vow to God, do not delay paying it, for he has no pleasure in fools. Pay what you vow.

Prior to this particular verse is a section about worship, many words , much work, and dreams (5:1-3), and after this center of the center these same topics return (5:5-7) before an abrupt switch to other matters.

What was the worship vow that verse 4 refers to? Today we use the English word vow to mean a solemn promise. There is something more in the Old Testament practice of making and paying vows. A vow was a conditional promise. "If, Lord, you grant me this earnest request, then I will give you thus and such." In the event that the Lord was not pleased to give the thing asked for in the "if" part of the vow, then there was no obligation on the part of the worshiper to perform the payment obligation. But if the Lord did what was requested, only a fool would then try to wiggle out of what was promised. The Old Testament worshiper, aware of the provisions in the law of God regarding making and paying vows, was here solemnly instructed to pay what he had vowed.

This worship practice of vows is not found as a part of the order of New Testament worship. We make solemn promises to God in a variety of contexts, and of course we need to keep our word to the Lord, but we do not have a worship practice of making conditional promises. As with the practice of making animal sacrifices, the practice of conditional vows came to an end in the grand fulfillment of one great vow - one vow in which all Old Testament vow making and vow keeping found its fulfillment. Christ made this vow especially on the cross, when he quoted the opening of Psalm 22, a vow psalm that describes in alarmingly prophetic detail not only the sufferings of the cross, but also the extravagance of the worshiper's promise to God. No mere David could bring to the Lord the praise of the nations, including both those who had already gone to the dust of the earth and those who had not yet been born. But this is precisely what Christ has promised to do. He was heard on the cross when He made supplication for deliverance, and He will most certainly pay what He has vowed. The perfected church is the payment of the Lord's promise. The resurrection is the proof that the final Vow Maker was heard. In accord with the center of the center of this book, we can know with certainty that He will surely pay what He has vowed. This is our great assurance that we will be fully sanctified and glorified together with the whole body of Christ.

What does all of this have to with futility and work? The work that is the ultimate fulfillment of the ultimate vow is not our work, but the work of Christ, the ultimate Worshiper of the Father. All our work is a striving after the wind in this futile world, but His work is sure and eternal. When our work is connected to His work, then our labor is in the Lord, and that labor will last. It is not in vain.

Even a powerful king may give in to the temptation to oppress the poor (5:8). And even those who have unusual abundance still face the loss of it all in death (5:15). We should enjoy the fleeting pleasures of this fleeting world as a gift from God, who keeps us occupied with simple joys that perish (5:20). Yet there is some work that will last, and will be established forever in the heavens. It is the work of our Messiah King, who made the ultimate vow, and who will one day deliver the Kingdom to the Father, as the final payment of the final vow. The One who will bring every deed into judgment (12:14) will Himself most certainly pay what He has vowed in the great Assembly of God's heavenly saints (Psalm 22:25).