Ecclesiastes Chapter Five, When Fools Speak

Ecclesiastes 5:2 Do not be rash with your mouth, and let not your heart utter anything hastily before God. For God is in heaven, and you on earth; therefore let your words be few.

We still find ourselves in God’s house with this passage. However, the preacher is quick to give God His due by pointing out that the temple, while hosting the Shekinah glory, is not God’s house. He simply writes, “God is in heaven.” Through the prophet God tells us, “Heaven is My throne, and earth is My footstool. Where is the house that you will build Me? And where is the place of My rest?” Isaiah 66:1. While revealing Himself to be greater than any temple could hold, Yahweh does explain that He notices, “him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at My word,” Isaiah 66:2.

To give further context, while God is in Heaven, and created all things, man is on earth and is accounted for as but one of those created things. Rashness when addressing the Almighty, then, does seem highly imprudent. Granted, the believer does not need to have a servile fear of God, but humanity as a whole, unrepentant in their sin, should. Why? Fear of God and threat of punishment for rejecting His salvation is a danger no sane person would wager upon. Not if they were given the facts to carefully weigh and, by God’s grace, reached a thoughtful conclusion.

But here, we have a man vowing before God, so the preacher advises caution. Rashness could prove disastrous. Further, the preacher says that men should not utter anything in haste. So before one speaks to God, consider what you are about to say. On a bit of a tangent here, I would also say this could involve prayer as well. We all know that vain repetition is something God outright ignores, because the pray-er’s heart isn’t in it, like the sacrifice from the last passage. Prayer is a conversation with God as the individual speaks about their needs, the needs of others, daily blessings, God’s providence, and gratitude for all God is and has done for us. It can be expressed quickly or take time. It changes often, just as human conversation with other people does. Rashly praying because one is fervent, or sorrowful, deeply moved or upset, is not an evil thing. But rashly praying with a prayer that says nothing because it conveys nothing is insulting. God’s throne, the throne of grace, is open for the Christian to speak to the Father. Do not abuse this privilege by spewing nonsense or perversion. Like the Pharisee who thanked God that he was so righteous, Jesus noted that this man prayed with himself. It was not a prayer for divine consumption, but a vain man pulling himself up by his bootstraps while pretending to laud God.

Instead, we are instructed that our words should be few, not hasty but measured. God is our Father, yes. But as our Lord points out in His prayer that outlines what prayer ought to be like, He is our Father in Heaven. Intimate, but majestic beyond understanding.

Ecclesiastes 5:3 For a dream comes through much activity, and a fool’s voice is known by his many words.

The Septuagint renders this verse, “For through the multitude of trial a dream comes; and a fool’s voice is with a multitude of words.” The Tanakh links the contrast more closely by stating, “Just as dreams come with much brooding, so does foolish utterance come with much speech.” The preacher likens a dream brought on by tiresome industry with a fool prating on, vomiting up words in an effort to prove his point. The Scripture says, “Do not answer a fool according to his folly, lest you also be like him,” Proverbs 26:4.

The preacher tells his readership that a dream may come simply through an overabundance of activity. The mind is active and overstimulated as the person sleeps, and dreams occur. Of course, we do know that dreams have been an ancient medium by which God and Satan have spoken to men. It is written that Eliphaz the Temanite, “in disquieting thoughts from the visions of the night, when deep sleep falls on men,” was visited by a demonic spirit that warped Eliphaz’ perception of God and His justice, Job 4:12-21. The latter portion of this evil spirit’s rhetoric might almost fit Ecclesiastes, where it is said, “They are broken in pieces from morning till evening; they perish forever, with no one regarding. Does not their own excellence go away? They die, even without wisdom,” Job 4:20, 21.

Furthermore, God testified to Aaron and Miriam, “Hear now My words: if there is a prophet among you, I, the Lord, make Myself known to him in a vision; I speak to him in a dream,” Numbers 12:6. God says to Jeremiah, “The prophet who has a dream, let him tell a dream; and he who has My word, let him speak My word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat?” Jeremiah 23:28. The false prophets of Jeremiah’s time loved to prattle on about what they had heard from God in a dream. This revealed, not God’s character, but their own arrogance and ego as they sought the people’s adulation for being a vessel of God’s revelation. 

Part of the fool’s many words may be his eagerness to spout spiritual truth as he believes that it is imparted to him. Yet God, when speaking to Jeremiah, differentiates the truth from a prophet’s dreams. The truth is the objective revelation vouchsafed by God for His people. If the prophet’s dreams do not align with what has already been declared, but contradict it, the dreamer is a false prophet. They are referred to in this passage as chaff, verses prophetic truth, which is nourishing and sustaining wheat. These were the kinds of men undermining Jeremiah’s efforts to bring the people to repentance before calamity struck Israel and Jerusalem.

But a fool may be foolish in much of what he relates, though in things pertaining to the divine it would seem most perilous for him. Scripture states, “In the multitude of words sin is not lacking, but he who restrains his lips is wise,” Proverbs 10:19. The fool rails on those that oppose his views and beliefs. He can’t fathom being in error and often seems to enjoy the sound of his own voice. The fool is incapable of pleasing the Lord, because he does not walk with Him. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction,” Proverbs 1:7. Reverential fear is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise this. They despise being wrong, they despise being corrected, they despise not being the authority or having to suffer beneath any other authority. God is a useful tool to such men when He advances their own fame, power, or influence. But God is not their Lord; they answer to no one but their own deluded wisdom, their insight and opinion being the pinnacle of truth.

Lastly, it is meet that the fool is known by his voice. He is instantly recognizable when he begins to speak. Why? Because he must have the floor, he can’t stop spewing his rhetoric. The fool is arrogant, perhaps blindly so, believing everything he says as wise, and viewing any contrary input as inferior or absurd. The fool spews so much pablum that even he may not really know what he is genuinely saying. His logic may be circular, shallow, or ill-thought through. I think many infamous television evangelists fall into this camp, or cult leaders who specialize in charisma, but possess an obscene lack of doctrinal integrity. The only thing more dangerous than a fool is a flattered fool, whose ego is now primed to steamroll any opposition because it is him speaking; how can he be wrong? This fool in this instance, as we shall see, appears to be making a rash vow to God, Ecclesiastes 5:4. More on this later, God willing.