Guard your steps (Eccl 4-6; Ps 125; 2 Tim 2)

My wife hates bananas! If I decided I wanted to show Dorothy how much I love her, I wouldn’t buy her a bunch of bananas! If I did, it would show that either I didn’t know her or just didn’t care what she thought. Sometimes when it comes to worship, people don’t think about what pleases God, either because we’re not listening to what He tells us in His Word, or we don’t care what He thinks.
In Ecclesiastes 5, the preacher tells us that it is a serious business to come to worship God and so he warns us to guard our steps in two ways. Firstly, he warns his hearers not to just rush into the temple and offer your sacrifice and get out again. It seems that people were not listening to God but thought they could just turn up to the temple, offer their sacrifice and everything would be all right. But, God calls that the sacrifice of fools. He warns people not to be casual about their worship, or to just go through the religious motions with no intention of listening to and obeying God (v1).
We don’t go to the temple anymore, Jesus’ perfect once for all sacrifice means that we don’t need to offer animal sacrifices anymore. But, God still wants us to get to a church that handles His Word rightly (2 Timothy 2:15). He wants us to be there every week and to come listening to what He says in His unchanging word.
Secondly he warns us not to make vows that we won’t keep, he says it’s better not to make a vow than to make it and not keep it (v4-5). Maybe you have made a vow when you have been in a tight spot – “God if you get me out of this…I’ll never miss a week at church!” Or maybe you’ve made vows
in church at a wedding, or a baptism or when you have come into church membership. When we make such vows we are making serious promises in front of the living God.

God says it’s better not to vow than to vow and not carry it out. Part of the responsibility of a minister to rightly handle “the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15) is to help people consider vows before they take them. Ministers will want to ensure that people know what they are promising in marriage, in baptism or in membership, to prevent them from making vows to God that they don’t intend to keep and to help them see the seriousness of worship.

Lord God, you are a holy God, please forgive us for times we forget this, forgive us for thinking we can be casual in our worship, thinking we know best. Help us to listen to what your Word says so that we won’t offer the sacrifice of fools. Thank you for our Lord Jesus always keeping His vows to you and His sacrifice for every time we fail. Please help all ministers of the gospel to courageously and lovingly help everyone who comes to them intending to make vows to help them see the seriousness of what they are doing. Please help us to guard our steps as we come to worship, that we may draw near to listen and hear wonderful things in your Word. Amen