FEAR THOU GOD
An exposition ofEcclesiastes 5:1–7, preached at the PCC evening service on 24 August 2001

The book of Ecclesiastes is often very difficult to interpret because it is notonly profoundly philosophical, but it is written in Hebrew poetry rather thanprose. It is probably for this reason that many critics of this book haveaccused the author of being a fatalistic sceptic. And some even go so far assaying that this book should not be in the biblical Canon.

However, I believe that if you read this book carefully, you will see thatSolomon is not in fact a fatalist or a sceptic. In fact, he is one who hasthought about life carefully, and is deeply concerned that the vast majority ofmankind is fooling themselves as to the significance of their lives,—that is,the significance of their lives when lived without God. Which is why we saythat the theme of this book is that if all that there is to life is what we maysee under the sun, then life is utterly meaningless.

Solomon is convinced that life is not meaningless. He is convinced that thereis a God who will judge every one of us for every aspect of our lives. But heknows that not all his readers have an equally deep sense of conviction. Manyof his potential readers would go about their lives without regards for God.These are the atheists: those who either do not believe in the existence of Godor do not care if God exists. These would eat and drink, and work, and marryand have children, and die like anyone else. If they have any thought of God,they would quickly brush it aside, and they would live as if God does notexist. Well, Solomon, in the book of Ecclesiastes, seeks to shock them to theirsenses to realise that their lives are utterly meaningless. But many of hisother potential readers have rather different philosophies of life. These wouldbelieve that God exists. And they would live religious lives. But their conceptof God is too low, so that we may say that they are outwardly religious but notspiritual.

This is the group of people that Solomon is addressing in our text in chapter5. And to this group of people, Solomon has a word of admonition, which may besummarised in these three words: “fear thou God” (v. 7).

What Does it Mean to Fear God?

Well, to fear God does not mean that we should be afraid of God as man aresometimes frightened of snakes, of height, or of ghost (even though ghosts donot exist). These are irrational fears. We cannot be taught or called to fearanything in this way. But Solomon calls us to fear God. In other words, we canbe taught and called to fear God. What this means is that fearing God is notjust founded in our emotions, but in our intellect—in our understanding of whoGod is.

Let me illustrate what I mean. There are many people who are afraid of cats.There is even a term for it. It is called “ailurophobia.” Now, many people areafraid of cats because they were scratched by a cat when they were young. Butthe vast majority of ailurophobic sufferers were never scratched by cats. Theyare simply afraid of them. There may be some of us in this congregation who areailurophobic. You ask them for the reason why they are afraid, and they willsay: “I don’t know. I am just afraid of them.” Well, that fear is an irrationalfear. You can’t really teach someone, or call upon someone, to be afraid ofcats.

On the other hand, you can teach someone to be afraid of, say, a hot iron. Mywife used to be unable to do any ironing until way after the children sleep,because the children will want to pull the hot iron down to play. They had nofear of the hot iron. Well, one day it happened. My son was scotched by the hotiron. And since then, my wife had no problem doing ironing when he is awake.You see, he had learnt to fear the hot iron. And it is not an irrational fear.He does need to fear the hot iron when he is near it. Now, at this point oftime, he is too young to use the iron, so it is good that he be afraid of theiron and stay far away from it. Now, when he gets a bit older, we will have toteach him: You don’t have to be afraid of the iron; you need to know how tohandle it. In a certain sense, he needs to learn how to respect it.

God, of course, cannot be compared to a hot iron, though the Bible does use themetaphor of fire to describe God. But the fear of God is akin to the kind offear that a growing child should have for a hot iron. Just as the fear of hotirons is based on knowledge, so the fear God must be based on knowledge. Justas a child can be taught to fear the hot iron, so we can be taught to fear God.Just as there is a place for a child to be afraid of the hot iron when he doesnot know how to handle it, so there is a place for men to be afraid of Godunless they approach Him according to the means He has appointed.

But the question is: Why should God be feared? Solomon gives us three reasonsin our text.

God is Infinitely Holy

First, we must fear God because He is an infinitely holy God. Solomon brings usto understand this fact without even mentioning the word “holiness.” He says inverse 1: “Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God….”

An outwardly religious person, we must remember, has no fear of God, though hehas a form of religion. Notice how Solomon immediately confronts him to paymore attention to his heart when he attends to the religious services. So hewarns him: “Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God.” That is to say:mind your steps or guard your steps when you go into the house of God. Solomonis not, of course, concerned about the physical steps in entering the house ofGod. He is concerned, rather, about the attitude by which the worshipperapproaches God. He urges him to be mindful and submissive as he attends toworship. In other words, he must come to worship God with a reverent frame ofmind. Why so? Because God is a holy God.

Today this call to come for worship with a reverent frame of mind goes to ustoo. We must realise that whenever we come to church to worship God, that it isnot an ordinary meeting or gathering. It is a gathering in the name of the LordJesus Christ, for the stated purpose of worshipping the Living and True God.For us to come into the worship hall the same way as we would go into a concerthall or a cinema is simply not right. And it shows, rather, a lack of reverencefor God.

Solomon continues: “… and be more ready to hear, than to give the sacrifice offools: for they consider not that they do evil.”

All through the history of the Church, from the days of Moses to the presentday, there are many whose attendance at worship is mechanical, whose worship issimply a matter of duty. So they are quick to go through the motion of offeringsacrifices, whether it is animal sacrifices in the Old Testament, or sacrificesof praise in the New Testament. And then in churches where the offering iscollected during worship, these are very quick to give. Perhaps giving much tothe church helps to silence the voice of conscience within their hearts. Butthese sacrifices, says Solomon, are “the sacrifice of fools.” These are offeredwithout regards to whether God is pleased to receive them. They are offeredselfishly, like when a rich man thrusts a gift at a poor person in order thathe may feel good at the thought that he had done a good work by giving to thepoor.

But such worship is never accepted of God. You remember how the Lord Jesustaught His disciples that the poor widow, who gave the two mites to God, gavemore than all the rich people who gave of their substance (Mk 12:43–44)? Whenwe read the account, we get the sense that the Lord was indicting the rich whowere worshipping God with proud hearts, which were drunk with the notion thatthey were doing God a favour when they gave their tithes. When a worshipperthinks more about himself rather than the holiness and glory of God, then hisworship becomes hypocritical and therefore evil.

Solomon therefore exhorts us rather to be more ready to hear than to give. Thatis to say that we must be more ready to hear and submit ourselves to God and toobey Him than to simply go through the motion of worship. The true worshipperapproaches God as an infinitely holy God, whom he knows he cannot approachfrivolously according to his wimps and fancies. He knows that he must approachGod at God’s own terms. And when he approaches God, he offers sacrifices out oflove and reverence for God.

In the same way, the true worshipper, knowing the holiness of God, will not bequick to advise God on what to do, or to judge God as the scribes and thePharisees judged the Lord Jesus Christ. So Solomon charges us: “Be not rashwith thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God”(v. 2).

Here, again, is a warning for the outwardly religious person: When you comebefore God, you must not be quick to speak. It is a strange phenomenon that whenmen come before other men of prestige and rank, that they will generally besilent and speak only when asked to. But from ancient times, many haveapproached God with disregard and so are slow to listen but quick to speaktheir minds and express their opinions, or to tell God what to do in theirprayers. This is not how we are to approach God, because He is a holy God.

Solomon makes this point clear when he adds: “for [i.e., because] God is inheaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few” (v. 2). “God is inheaven, and thou upon earth”: There is a great distance between God and us. Godis infinitely apart from us. He is infinitely holy. He is so holy that even thecherubim, which were created to serve God, covered their eyes and their feet asthey cry out unto God: Holy, holy, holy. How can we approach Him with brashfamiliarity and so be quick to speak. Ought we not rather shut our mouth andexclaim as Isaiah did: “Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am aman of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips” (Isa6:5)?

Beloved and friends, we must fear God because God is holy. And because God isholy, His worship is sacred. Let us fear God and approach Him as a holy God.Let us therefore repent of our attitude of pride and of any false notion thatwe are doing God a favour when we come to worship Him week after week. God mustbe worshipped in fear mingled with sincerity and love because He is holy.

God is Infinitely Just

Secondly, God is to be feared because He is infinitely just. Solomon says:

For a dream cometh through themultitude of business; and a fool’s voice is known by multitude of words. Whenthou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it; for he hath no pleasure infools: pay that which thou hast vowed. Better is it that thou shouldest notvow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay. Suffer not thy mouth to causethy flesh to sin… (Ecc 5:3–6a).

Just as the dreams in our sleep are often reflective of the cares we haveduring the busy day, so when a person says many words without meaning what hesays, it is reflective of a foolish heart.

This is especially so, when a person makes vows before God. An outwardlyreligious person may make vows to God because it is a pious thing to do. Theywould make vows without any thoughts as to whether they can keep the vows.Neither do they have any intention to keep the vows. But they forget that Godis infinitely just.

When a person vows to God, a promise is made to God. Who would dare to break apromise to a king? Yet a king may forget the promise that we make; and the kingmay have no way to enforce any promises that we make.

But it is not so when we vow to God. God is perfectly just. He remembers ourvows, and He requires that we keep them. You see, vows are either made out ofthankfulness for mercy received or out of a desire to obtain some specificblessings or favours from God. So Jacob vowed a vow, saying:

If God will be with me, and willkeep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment toput on, So that I come again to my father’s house in peace; then shall the LORDbe my God: And this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be God’s house:and of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee (Gen28:20–22).

That is to say, he was ready to serve the Lord provided the Lord would blesshim.

Now, when a vow is made out of a heart of thanksgiving to an earthly king, weknow that the king will not demand of us our vows. But when we make a vow ofthanksgiving to God who is perfectly just, we must pay back our vows becauseotherwise it would indicate insincerity to God and therefore wickedness.

In the same way, when we vow a vow with the desire that God would bless us insome areas, and God hears the vow and gives us the desire of our hearts, thenhow could we withdraw our vows? If you vowed that you would give your firstmonth’s pay to the Lord if He blesses you with a job; then when the Lord givesyou a job, if you fail to keep your vow, you would, firstly, be telling a lieto God; secondly, be ungrateful to God for giving you the job; and thirdly,showing contempt to God. Would not God bring you to justice for thiswickedness?

This is why Solomon warns us: “Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, thanthat thou shouldest vow and not pay.”

Indeed, because God is perfectly just, we will have to account for every of ourwords, which we speak in this life. This is why Solomon does not only speakabout vows, but about words: “For a dream cometh through the multitude ofbusiness; and a fool’s voice is known by multitude of words” (v.3), and again “For in the multitude of dreams and many words thereare also divers vanities” (v. 7).

The Lord Jesus Christ confirms this teaching when He says: “But I say unto you,That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof inthe day of judgment” (Mt 12:36).

Beloved and friends, fear God because He is a just God. Let none of us thinkthat God is unaware of all that we say and do. God is just. He alone isperfectly just, and He will bring all things to judgment one day.

God is Infinitely Sovereign

Thirdly, we must fear God because He is sovereign. Solomon puts it this way:

Suffer not thy mouth to cause thyflesh 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 thinehands? (Ecc 5:6).

Notice particularly the phrase: “wherefore should God be angry at thy voice,and destroy the work of thine hands”? What is Solomon acknowledging in thisstatement, but that (1) God can be righteously angry against sinners, and (2)that God is able to execute justice.

It is particularly with the knowledge that God is sovereignly able to executejustice, that all men fear God and live with a consciousness of His presenceand interest in our lives.

Many of us would have heard messages that touch on the fear of God. And wewould have heard repeated many times: “To fear God is not to be afraid of God,but to reverence God.” Well, there is some truth to that saying. But I wouldsuggest to you that that is not the whole truth.

The truth is that we ought to be afraid of God just as Adam and Eve were afraidof God when they sinned against Him. We ought to be afraid of Him because He isholy and hates sin; because He is perfectly just and will punish sin; andbecause He is sovereign and will punish sin to the magnitude that sin againstan infinite God deserves.

And I would submit to you that if you are not afraid of God today, that whenyou come to the end of your life’s journey, your fear will be beyond anythingyou can ever imagine in this life. Anyone, who comes to the judgment seat ofGod without any assurance of God’s love, will no doubt tremble and befrightened with an indescribable fear. The book of Revelation gives us an ideaof how fearful it will be in the day of judgement, for it is said:

And the kings of the earth, and thegreat men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, andevery bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocksof the mountains; And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide usfrom the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of theLamb: For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?(Rev 6:15–17).

But thanks be to God, we need not go to the throne of judgment without anyassurance of God’s love. For if you would acknowledge that you are a sinnerdeserving damnation, and truly believe that God is just if He would punish youwith eternal damnation for your sin, then you have great hope. You have greathope because the Lord Jesus Christ tells us that He came to save sinners, andthat all who would come unto Him, He will in no wise cast out.

You see, anyone who truly believes that God will call us to judgment one day,and therefore fear the punishment of God, may flee to Christ to be theirmediator and advocate. And anyone who has the Lord Jesus Christ as his mediatorand advocate needs not be afraid to stand before the Lord on the Day ofJudgment.

So beloved and friends, I would ask you: Do you fear the Lord? If you do notknow the Lord Jesus Christ, you ought to fear Him because you can be called tostand before Him at His throne of judgment at any moment. Do you not feardamnation in hell? Have you never felt physical pain? In hell, physical painwill be very greatly intensified. Have you never felt the pain of a guiltyconscience? In hell, the pain will be multiplied a million times and will neverbe quenched. Have you never felt great discomfort when you know that someonedislikes you? In hell, a million eyes will be staring at you with deep hatredand gnashing of teeth. Have you never experience the pain of regret? All thesouls in hell would no doubt be full of regret at a lifetime wasted. But worstof all, have you never experienced fear? Every soul in hell would no doubt bewrecked with fear, not only by the devil and his demons and other wretchedcondemned souls, but by the thought of God who is infinitely holy and just, whohates sin with a perfect hatred.

Flee, therefore, to the Lord Jesus Christ while there is yet time. Forsake yourself-righteousness and your sin. Do not excuse yourself by saying that you aretoo busy to think of religion and of Christ. You will have eternity to regretif you enter into damnation. Seek the Lord while He may be found.

Dearly beloved, you who name the name of Christ, do you know the Lord JesusChrist as your sweet Saviour? You must fear God too, but your fear must be aloving fear of deep reverence and submission to God your heavenly Father. Youmust “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” (Phil 2:12). Youmust constantly cultivate your inner man and study to ensure that your love forGod will constantly be fanned to flames. And you must guard with all your heartagainst having a form of religion but denying the power thereof. But yours arethe promises according to the Covenant of Grace mediated by the Lord JesusChrist. God has promised that He will never leave you nor forsake you, and Hehas also promised that all things will work together for good to them that loveHim.

Conclusion

We began by noting that, in our text, Solomon is particularly addressing theoutwardly religious. I would close by asking if you are outwardly religious? Ifthese things that we have said do not move you; if it does not thrill your soulto contemplate on Christ and His Word; if you are here as a matter of dutyrather than love for God, then there is every possibility that you are outwardlyreligious. If you are so, I will remind you: the God we worship is a holy, justand sovereign God. We must never play games when we come to the worship of God.Our God is a consuming fire. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands ofthe living God. Will you not repent of the hardness of your heart and fear thouGod? Amen.

—J.J. Lim