Wisdom's Call: 30 Days in the House of LifeSample

WISDOM’S ULTIMATE VOW

Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. Better to approach in obedience than to offer the sacrifice as fools do, for they ignorantly do wrong. Do not be hasty to speak, and do not be impulsive to make a speech before God. God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few. Just as dreams accompany much labor, so also a fool’s voice comes with many words. When you make a vow to God, don’t delay fulfilling it, because he does not delight in fools. Fulfill what you vow. Better that you do not vow than that you vow and not fulfill it. Do not let your mouth bring guilt on you, and do not say in the presence of the messenger that it was a mistake. Why should God be angry with your words and destroy the work of your hands? For many dreams bring futility; so do many words. Therefore, fear God. (Eccl. 5:1–7)

Let your words be few. The 1970s comedian Flip Wilson unknowingly quipped Solomon’s wisdom in modern-day language: “Never write a check that your body can’t cash.”

Though the preacher of Ecclesiastes declares that everything in life is meaningless time and again, God is anything but. We needn’t make extravagant vows or bargain with God over our future plans. We have nothing to bring to a table where God Himself is seated! We are outclassed, outwitted, out-planned, and out of sorts at our limited knowledge compared to His. There is no world in which we can offer God something in exchange for anything we desire, since we come with needful, empty hands. Contrary to every popular movie on the subject, the God of the universe simply doesn’t do bargains.

So he who never makes a vow is better off than he who cannot keep the vows he makes, since the ultimate vow has already been made, and kept, when Christ gave Himself on the cross. His body wrote the cosmic check for us, paid our cosmic debt, kept the vow He made from the foundation of the world—that He would keep a people set apart for Himself, keep them safe through the generations, and fulfill all promises because He knew we could not. Through Christ, all bets are off. We are free to worship in Spirit and truth—no need to “swear oaths,” no need for futile attempts at keeping them, no guilt over forgetting they’ve been made.

It’s done.

In our worship, when we realize we are standing in the very presence of Wisdom, the wisest man advises that we say little and listen much—no vows necessary or even possible from our side of the cross. So we train our tongues to be still just as we would train our hands for battle; it’s a discipline to learn to listen more than we speak.

A wise old owl sat on an oak The more he saw, the less he spoke; The less he spoke the more he heard. Now, wasn’t he a wise old bird?