September 16 Daily Discovery - Read Ecclesiastes Chapter 5

This passage below is from the King James Version (ekjv.org).  

Remarks from the Berean Fellowship follow the passage below.

[1] 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.
[2] 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.
[3] For a dream cometh through the multitude of business; and a fool's voice is known by multitude of words.
[4] 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.
[5] Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay.
[6] Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin; neither say thou before the angel, that it was an error: wherefore should God be angry at thy voice, and destroy the work of thine hands?
[7] For in the multitude of dreams and many words there are also divers vanities: but fear thou God.
[8] If thou seest the oppression of the poor, and violent perverting of judgment and justice in a province, marvel not at the matter: for he that is higher than the highest regardeth; and there be higher than they.
[9] Moreover the profit of the earth is for all: the king himself is served by the field.
[10] He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abundance with increase: this is also vanity.
[11] When goods increase, they are increased that eat them: and what good is there to the owners thereof, saving the beholding of them with their eyes?
[12] The sleep of a labouring man is sweet, whether he eat little or much: but the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep.
[13] There is a sore evil which I have seen under the sun, namely, riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt.
[14] But those riches perish by evil travail: and he begetteth a son, and there is nothing in his hand.
[15] 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.
[16] And this also is a sore evil, that in all points as he came, so shall he go: and what profit hath he that hath laboured for the wind?
[17] All his days also he eateth in darkness, and he hath much sorrow and wrath with his sickness.
[18] Behold that which I have seen: it is good and comely for one to eat and to drink, and to enjoy the good of all his labour that he taketh under the sun all the days of his life, which God giveth him: for it is his portion.
[19] Every man also to whom God hath given riches and wealth, and hath given him power to eat thereof, and to take his portion, and to rejoice in his labour; this is the gift of God.
[20] For he shall not much remember the days of his life; because God answereth him in the joy of his heart.

Watch Your Mouth!

[6] Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin;

I was born in Texas in 1962. In many ways I had the typical parents. Things such as being seen without being heard, remove your hat when you enter the room, being polite and having good table manners were expected. From my perspective,  smoking drinking and cursing were things that adults could do but children better not. I did hear my parents say things that I would be terrified to say myself.

I would get my mouth washed out with soap or my speech at least sternly corrected if I were to use a slang word for something that was considered a curse word: like shoot or dang or gosh. I would hear this warning, "Watch your mouth!"

Solomon's warning to not let your mouth get you into trouble was more solemn than what I have just rehearsed.

Do What you Say you're Going to Do

Solomon warned when you go to worship to the house of god it's better to go there to listen than it is to talk. If you make a promise to God (a vow) you better keep it.

I remember my dad repeating this to me: a man is as good as his word. For much of my time while living with my parents my father was a carpenter or general contractor. I remember several times being able to go with him when he was to meet somebody on a new job site. They would meet and shake hands and my dad would walk off the property and scribble some notes in his little spiral bound notebook that he carried in his shirt pocket. I think he used a number two pencil and he would always lick the tip of it as he was writing.  I don't know why .. I don't know what good that did but he would do it. Sometimes he would use a slide rule to make some calculations then he would meet with the man that was hiring him again before we left and tell him how much it would cost and they would shake hands on it and that was it. Their word and a handshake was the contract. My daddy was far from perfect but he was an honest hard-working man and he was a man of his word.

Yes indeed, those were the good old days.

Jas. 1:26

If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain.

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Continue Your Search

Do you see any: Commands to Obey, Warnings to Heed, Promises to Claim, Examples to Follow, Vices to Avoid, Praises to Emulate, Prayers to Use, Principles by which to Live, Questions to Ask or Actions to Take?

See: Berean Fellowship Bible Study Method