Ecclesiastes 5:6

"Do not let your speech cause you to sin and do not say in the presence of the messenger of God that it was. mistake. Why should God be angry on account of your voice and destroy the work of your hands?"cause you to sin" -Yes, despite the claims of some, our words can be sinful. But we have. choice here, "Do not let". The person who has an uncontrolled tongue is choosing not to restrain themselves. Meaningless prayers and rash vows are two examples of speech that will cause one to sin.

"do not say" -Here is one excuse that you had better not use.

"in the presence of the messenger of God" -the Hebrew word here can refer to both human and divine messengers. Malachi uses the term messenger of Jehovah to apply to the priests among the Jews (Ecclesiastes 2:7). Here is the man who comes to the priest and wishes to be excused from the vow he has made. He argues that such. vow was. mistake, either made rashly or out of ignorance. Cheerfully such an individual approaches the priest, "It was an error that. made this vow, offer the appropriate sacrifice for me". So simply does such. person expect that his sin can be erased. "Solomon warned that it would do no good to try to get out of fulfilling such. vow by pleading with the priest that it was. mistake" (Bible Knowledge Comm. p. 988).

Point To Note:

There is. great lesson here for us. We live in. society in which forgiveness is viewed as something very easy to obtain. Even Christians can develop the attitude that they can go ahead and sin deliberately and then simply ask for forgiveness. But forgiveness has conditions and one of them is genuine repentance (2 Corinthians 7:10). After such. deliberate sin, you may not be able to manifest such repentance! If our heart isn't contrite then God won't forgive us simply because we mouthed the words, "please forgive me" in some prayer. In addition, there are many obligations that God will not release us from until we have fulfilled them. Such as the marriage relationship (Matthew 19:9; Romans 7:2-3), or training our children in the ways of God (Eph. Ecclesiastes 6:4).. cannot ask God to release me from the obligation of teaching my children about Him. Neither can. ask God to release me from the obligation of being the spiritual leader in the family.

"Why should God be angry….and destroy the work of your hands?" -"rendering unsuccessful whatever man attempts" (Leupold p. 122). (Psalms 90:17).

Point To Note:

In the context, the word of our hands would include all our labor, whether religious or secular. Not only can our work lose its joy due to jealousy, rivalry (Ecclesiastes 4:4) or greed (Ecclesiastes 4:8; Ecclesiastes 5:10), but sin can also undo everything we have previously accomplished. God can turn off the physical blessings. If we place things before God, then God can providentially see to it that we lose those things. If we place career before God, then God can easily cause us to fall down the company ladder. God doesn't allow us to put Him on hold, to put off the fulfilling of our promises to Him because we are too busy with other things.