Ecclesiastes Chapter Five, The Sacrifice Of Fools

Ecclesiastes 5:1 Walk prudently when you go to the house of God; and draw near to hear rather than to give the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they do evil.

The preacher commends prudence when going to God’s house. His house, in this instance, is the temple Solomon built in Jerusalem, the seat of Jewish worship. Here Yahweh appeared in the Shekinah glory behind the veil in the Holiest of All, over the mercy seat and the Ark of the Covenant. The KJV renders the verse, “keep thy foot.” In short, like the NKJV version, the idea is to walk circumspectly, to be aware of where and why we’re going where we’re going.

When Moses approached the place where God manifested in the burning bush, he was told, “Do not draw near this place.” Further, God explained, “Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground,” Exodus 3:5. Two things become obvious here. We may only approach how and when God permits. And secondly, even when He expresses His willingness to allow us to come, it must be on His terms. Moses was not to simply walk up to the bush. Indeed, that was the patriarch’s initial reason for drawing near; he simply wanted to sate his curiosity as to why the bush was not consumed, Exodus 3:3. But human interest is not enough. God’s will must align with human desire, and then the path opens for approach upon holy ground.

Moreover, and worse yet, the preacher cautions his readership to draw near and listen, rather than offer the obligatory sacrifice. Sacrifice of itself can actually be sinful. Obedience, which can only come from hearing God and His word, is greater than sacrifice, 1 Samuel 15:22. Solomon wrote of the sinful man who offered sacrifice to God. He declares them wicked, and that their offering is an abomination before God, Proverbs 15:8. We find the priests of Malachi’s time offering impure animals to God, and by disregarding what defines sacrifice, offending a holy God before His very altar, Malachi 1:8. Fools, says the preacher, do evil with their offerings. It is like the Roman Catholic that gives up cigarettes and beef for Lent, thinking that such an offering somehow pleases God. But we learn from Hosea, “For I desire mercy and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings,” Hosea 6:6. We often sacrifice to mask our wickedness, as if we’re bribing God to look the other way by casting Him a pittance. A true sacrifice offered in the temple would be given by a penitent who knows that his lamb is dying in his stead, and God provided this vicarious offering to atone (literally cover) his sins so that man may approach, worship, and fellowship with a holy God. The obligatory sacrifice that checks a box because “I’m religious,” is certainly a foolish act. There is no wisdom or heart behind it. And even if there is heart, it may still be the offering of a fool, because it is not accompanied by knowledge in what genuinely pleases God.

The preacher does state that the fools who offer evil sacrifices are ignorant. This is sadly true of many professing Christians that do not know their Bible (and by that measure, their God) well enough to offer what is fitting; instead, they offer in their folly what they personally think is fitting, replacing God’s wisdom with man’s conjectures. One of the most infamous examples is also the first example in human history. God gave the command to bring the firstborn of the flock and their fat in the days of Cain and Abel, Genesis 4:4. Cain brought fruit of the ground; the ground which God had cursed for man’s sake because of disobedience, Genesis 4:3. God had already demonstrated the first offering in Eden by clothing the man and woman, Genesis 3:21. Later, it is seen that Noah was well aware of animal sacrifice being the method of approach God had chosen, Genesis 8:20, 21. Cain offered the sacrifice of fools, doing evil in the act. Cain was a religionist that had a form of godliness, but denied its power, 2 Timothy 3:5. 

He was, as we might put it, going through the motions. We attend church, sing hymns, hear the sermon, praise the Lord, and return to living as we formerly did, without the Spirit of God affecting a transformation in us. Cain was a Churchian, who was all too content to write his own variation of God’s truth that suited his life and pleasures, and instead of repenting when confronted, sinned all the more by taking out his rage on Abel and killing him. “Faith,” is convenient when we corral it into the pasture of our bias and force it to conform to our worldview and lifestyle, rather than letting genuine and living faith change us to God’s worldview and lifestyle. And for all this they do not know that they do evil; or rather, they are compounding evil by not even considering what they are doing, and who it is for. Is our sacrifice for us, because we are religious and like checking boxes? Or is our sacrifice for God, because we love Him and cling to Him in love, and what He says we long to do? That is the nature of modern sacrifice. It is not a singular, physical act; it is conformity to God’s revealed will as we surrender our life to His control. In deepest sobriety it is something all of us should stop to think about.