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It is Wednesday July 30, 2008 and today we are continuing our studies on the book of Ecclesiastes. Please read Chapters 5-8 in your Bible or Click Here to read. Cut & Paste to yoyr browser: biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ecclesiates%205-8&version=9

Today we will read and learn about cautions against hasty vows; the emptiness of riches; the encouragement of wisdom and goodness; and respect for rulers. Today's message focuses on the importance of realizing that hypocrisy is an insult to God, as well as spiritually self-destructive.

The Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream in which Solomon asked for wisdom. (See II Chronicles 1:7-11). Yet, we have no record that Solomon ever copied the Law by his own hand, as God had instructed Israel's kings to do, and he also broke all of the laws specifically given to kings (See Deuteronomy 17:14-20). As the years passed, he searched for satisfaction everywhere except from the Lord and His Word where it should have. Years later Solomon discovered that the rich and poor were equally obsessed with such fruitless endeavors and the only way to be fruitful is to have the Lord in their lives. 

Solomon's thoughts then turned from the secular to the religious life, and he noted that many attended the House of God offering insincere prayers and making vows that were never kept. "Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be more ready to hear, than to give the sacrifice of fools: for they consider not that they do evil. 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." (Ecclesiastes 5:1-2). " 

The word hypocrisy means to falsely claim of having admirable principles, beliefs, or feelings toward God. It may seem as if God did not hear the groanings of the innocent or see the hypocrisy of the evildoers who intrude into the sanctuary of God. "All this have I seen, and applied my heart unto every work that is done under the sun: there is a time wherein one man ruleth over another to his own hurt. And so I saw the wicked buried, who had come and gone from the place of the holy, and they were forgotten in the city where they had so done: this is also vanity." (8:9-10). However, He knew exactly what was going on and always has a meaning for allowing affliction to happen in our lives.

Often God does not immediately intervene or bring His judgment. Not only during life, but even in death itself, the wicked are often praised and buried with all the inappropriate recognition of their popularity. Yet, with all the flare, visibility, and demonstrations of these external appearances which are carried on even to the grave, they failed to deceive either God or a person who has spiritual and biblical knowledge. "When I applied mine heart to know wisdom, and to see the business that is done upon the earth: (for also there is that neither day nor night seeth sleep with his eyes:). Then I beheld all the work of God, that a man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun: because though a man labour to seek it out, yet he shall not find it; yea farther; though a wise man think to know it, yet shall he not be able to find it." (8:16-17).

The Psalmist reminds us, "Fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity. For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb. Trust in the LORD, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. Delight thyself also in the LORD: and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart." (37:1-4).

While the course of life seems to run smoothly for those who live for the world instead of God the sinner begins to imagine that God is indifferent and not necessary. Even Christians, ignorant of God's Word, are staggered by the delay of Divine justice to inflict penalty for the wicked sins of mankind, but the judgment which God's Law attaches to sin is not an empty threat. "Let him that is taught in the word communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things. Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting." (Galatians 6:6-7).

The seemingly successful course of sin will have an end, for none have final success. "There is a sore evil which I have seen under the sun, namely, riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt. But those riches perish by evil travail: and he begetteth a son, and there is nothing in his hand. As he came forth of his mother's womb, naked shall he return to go as he came, and shall take nothing of his labour, which he may carry away in his hand." (5:13-15)

In today's reading Jesus Christ is revealed as the One who expects us to keep our vows made to Him. (Ecclesiastes 5:4). "But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil." (Matthew 5:37).

Enjoy the rest of your day!
God Bless,
Christina

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