(Ver 1.1)  Today is “Part 10” in a series of lessons on spoken words found in the Bible.  If you have not read this series from the beginning I would suggest that you go and start with “Part 1”.  Truly one of the most important subjects found in the Bible is the power of spoken words.  God clearly created everything that we can see in our world by His spoken words and the Bible says in this same chapter of Genesis 1 that God made man in His image and after His likeness.  So man possesses the same capabilities and characteristics that God possesses in of course a controlled set of circumstances and in a more limited capacity.  In other words we are not going to go out and create any new worlds like God did with just our words.  But, that does not mean we do not control our personal view of this world with our words.  I guess most Christians just ignore verses in the Bible about this subject and refuse to believe them and that is very unfortunate for them, because God’s Words are still true and they work for them or against them whether they understand them or not.  It is very much like the laws of gravity.  I do not fully understand the law of gravity, but I know enough to cooperate with it so that I do not fall off of a cliff and hurt myself.  I could spend a lot of time on this subject and probably will, but today I’m going to start in an O.T. book of the Bible that is not widely taught from by many preachers.  This is the book of Ecclesiastes and we will read in chapter 5.

Ecc 5:1  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.

Here we have a verse that is easily misunderstood and ignored by Christians.  What is the primary subject of this verse?  This verse is primarily about your personal relationship with God.  But, it also has some very important instructions given to us concerning our relationship with God.  Did you notice what this verse says?  It says it is better to listen than to speak when holding a conversation with God.  Why would this be important?  Did you know that you cannot learn anything or even hear anything important if you are the one doing the talking?  You might think that you know something worthy of God’s time and ear, but God clearly says that you do not.  What is the “Sacrifice of Fools”?  If you study the Bible you can see that God says the words that we speak to God in praise are called the sacrifice of our lips to Him (Heb 13:15).  So what is the opposite of the sacrifice of praise to God?  I believe the opposite would be you speaking the words of self-exaltation, or any words promoting something other than God.   In other words stating with your opinion or your personal thoughts and ideas of what the truth is to you, these would be the words of a fool according to God.  That is one of the primary reasons that I do not watch much reality TV on our channels here in America.  These are the words of fools who do not understand that what they are saying is evil.  Isn’t that what God just said in this verse?  Here is a very good definition of what is evil in the eyes of God.  These are people speaking things without any basis of factual information or knowledge of the truth?  These are empty words from people with empty minds.  These are fools in the eyes of God.  God clearly tells us as Christians we should be swift to hear and slow to speak (Jas 1:19).  So this verse has some very important instructions given by the inspiration of God for us and we can learn from them or we can choose to ignore them like many do.  These are strong words from a strong God and it gets even better than that, read this next verse:

Ecc 5:2  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.

Wow, it is so incredible what the Bible says, isn’t it?   God implies that He hears every word that you speak and in fact in previous lessons on this subject you might recall that I taught that we will all give an account for every idle word that we have spoken according to Jesus himself (Mat 12:36).  This verse starts with do not be “rash” with your mouth!  Did you know that you can be rash with your mouth?  In previous lessons on words I taught on the sword of your mouth being able to cut two ways; either blessing someone or cursing someone.  This is the power that you have in your mouth according to the Bible.  You should always speak blessings over your children and encourage them with your words.  There are many children in our world that have never heard their parents say they were proud of them.  There are many children in the world that have never been told that they have great potential to do great things in the world.  These are the children that have been cursed by their parents saying they are stupid, dumb and incapable of anything positive.  These would be examples of “rash” words being spoken in the world.

The next statement in this verse demonstrates an old principle that I have previously taught on in the series.  This part of the verse says let not your heart be hasty to utter, say, speak, declare, etc.!  Wow, again did you understand the connection?  The words that we speak came out of us from the abundance of the understanding in our hearts (spirit) (Mat 12:34).  This is again why it is better to listen to God and allow Him to speak, since His understanding is infinitely greater than yours.  This is a very important principle being given to us.  The words that you speak come from what you have deposited in your spirit.  So if you do not like what you are saying you are in need of a heart transplant, spiritually speaking of course.   Jesus you might recall said “The words that I speak to you, they are spirit…” (John 6:63).  If Jesus’ words were spirit, then guess what your words are also spirit, just understand the difference that many times your words are coming from an ignorant spirit and most definitely are not the words of an unlimited knowing Spirit like God.   I say that but you can change that by learning to speak the written words of God and that makes your words seem wiser even if you do not yet fully understand the full meanings.  Finally this verse again confirms that it is best for us if we let our words be few when speaking to God.  This is always a good idea whenever dealing with anyone in the world.  If you are the one doing all of the talking then you will never learn anything new.  So being a good listener is the key to learning the truth.  I’m going to skip down to verses 4 and 5 for my next point on spoken words:

Ecc 5:4  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.

Ecc 5:5  Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay.

These are very important concepts to learn from concerning your spoken words.  God is giving us a very specific principle in these two verses.  What is that principle?  It is to say what you mean and then for you to literally do what you say!  In other words don’t tell someone I’ll meet you at 2:00 in the board room and never show up.  What does that make you if you say one thing and then do something else?  It is called being a liar and that is not a positive characteristic for anyone in the eyes of God.  In these two verses it very clearly says that it is better for you to not say anything than it is for you to say something and to never do it.  The example given is clearly about your money.  If you tell God you are going to give Him something and then you never do it then you have made yourself a fool in the eyes of God.  This is a very important life lesson.  I worked with a man who would tell people I’ll have that for you tomorrow and something would always happen and he never could fulfill what he promised.  The character of that man was now in question by everyone and everyone soon learned that you could not depend on anything that he said.  People need to be able to place their confidence in your spoken words.  If God said “I will do this for you” and then never did it, what would that make God’s character like?  That would not be good for God’s reputation would it?  If you cannot backup your words with your actions then you need to shut up and stay quiet.  It is much better to be perceived as an ignorant man then it is to open your mouth and prove it to everyone.  Here is another verse that speaks to us along these lines of our actions

1Jn 4:20  If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?

Is God talking about your words and your actions in this verse?  You bet He is!  If a man says “I love you God” but yet treats everyone in the world with contempt, God says that man is a liar.  A liar is someone who speaks words and then does not follow through with the effort to make them happen or to display them to others.  There is a direct connection between your words and your actions so learn the lesson of God and see what He says.  You should learn from God’s Word that He is faithful to perform what He has promised because God’s character is never in question.

Ecc 5:6  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?

Here we have another verse that declares the importance of your words.  Did you know your mouth is what causes your flesh to sin?  If you did not know this then you just learned something very important today.  Your mouth is connected to your spirit and your spirit is the eternal part of you that will be judged someday by God.  God does not judge your flesh, get it?  Did you know that you are not a body?  Your body is the flesh and bone house of your spirit so your flesh is not responsible for your sin, you are!   Here we have a principle being given to us and it has far reaching consequences.  How are people saved?  This is not a trick question, but one that most Christians cannot answer correctly.  People are saved by their words that they speak.  If you read Romans 10 you will see the connection between your words and salvation.  If you confess the “Lord Jesus” with your mouth and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dean, you shall be saved!  Here is the heart and mouth connection being given to us again in relationship to being saved.  So what is the opposite of being saved?  It still involves a heart and mouth connection but it is the complete opposite of those words found in Romans 10.  Instead of Jesus being your Lord, you think that you are the lord of your life and do not require anyone else.  So you think wrong and speak wrong and thus are not saved.  People like this are deceived by Satan who is really in control of their lives and he is their lord whether they believe it or not.

If you have been reading my series of lessons on angels you already understand a little bit about the importance of words spoken and angels doing, working or being sent by God to help you.  So what is the connection of this verse with the previous two about vowing to God?  Why does it say you are speaking to your angel?  Have you ever seen an angel and have you talked with one?  Most of us have not so this verse implies that angels are listening to your words the same as God is listening to your words.  So you cannot say “I vow to God” and then say “Oh, I made a mistake” and expect God or the angels to help you.  If you say something you always have the choice of whether or not you will do it.  God will not force you to do anything.  However, this verse in context with the others that we just read about words clearly tells us that your voice can cause God to become very angry with you and He can “destroy” the work of your hands.  The work of your hands is the job that you do to make money, your business, your employer, your income producer, etc.   God can bless this or God can cause it to fail and it is clearly linked to your mouth in determining which one God will do.  If you do not understand this you need to study the Bible a lot more and learn how to be blessed by God.

So today I took you through 5 or 6 verses found in Ecclesiastes about spoken words and their connection to your relationship with God as well as showing you the need to aligning your words to your actions for the continued blessings of God to come upon you and overtake you.  What you say has more bearings on what you get out of life than anything else that you do here.  Learn today to be quick to hear from God and slow to speak so that you can continue to learn from Him.  Let your words be few in general to everyone, unless you are told to speak to people and say something from God like I was today.  I pray that you will continue in the Word of God and continue to be led by the Spirit of God in everything that you do.  God Bless!

If you would like to continue reading this series of lesson on spoken words in the Bible you can continue with “Part 11“.