Ecclesiastes 5:4-7 (ESV Strong's)
When you vow a vow to God, do not delay paying it, for he has no pleasure in fools. Pay what you vow.
It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not pay.
Let not your mouth lead you into sin, and do not say before the messenger that it was a mistake. Why should God be angry at your voice and destroy the work of your hands?
For when dreams increase and words grow many, there is vanity; but God is the one you must fear.
Truth: God holds us to our words because He holds Himself to His Words.
We have heard it said, even by mankind, if a man doesn't have the words of him mouth, what does he have? We are the sum of what we say. When we profess one thing and do another others lose faith in us and trust is ultimately destroyed. In the above passage God is not concerned, however, in the words we might say to others and fail to perform. He is concerned about the words we say to Him and don't perform. This is because God's Word is solid and He always does what He says He will. It is our words that lack such fidelity. God is saying, in this passage, that He will send a messenger to account for our words. If we have promised Him something and failed to perform it, we would be better not to promise. God states in this passage that this is especially true when we dream about this or that. We make promises that "if" this happens we will do "that." Yet, when dreams come and they increase our words, that is vanity ... empty. It is God who must be feared. We are to limit our vows and keep the vows we promise. That is a true expression of the fear of the Lord. Just like promising something to another person on earth and failing to keep the promise is disrespectful, so, too, is promising something to God and failing to keep the promise: It is disrespect to God - not fearing Him.
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