It is better not to make a vow than to make one and not fulfill it. – Ecclesiastes 5:5

Today’s Scripture Reading (November 5, 2019): Ecclesiastes 5

John Green, in his 2012 Novel “The Fault in Our Stars,” writes that “Some people don't understand the promises they're making when they make them … but you keep the promise anyway. That's what love is. Love is keeping the promise anyway.” Making promises is often an easy task with a hard follow-up. At the moment when we make the promise, it often seems natural and something that we can do. It is only in the aftermath that we realize how hard keeping the promise is really going to be. And maybe our marriage vows are a good example. At the time of the promise, it seems like this promise we make to the one that we love might be the easiest and most pleasurable promise that we could make. It is only in the aftermath, maybe years later, that we begin to realize how hard our commitment is going to be to keep. And it seems, at least in my culture, that we sometimes seem to be all too ready to walk away from the promise that we have made to the one we love. If love is keeping the promise, then maybe it is when love seems to die that we are more willing to let the vow die as well.

The Teacher of Ecclesiastes specifically turns his focus to the promises that we make to God. Most seem to be made in haste, without proper consideration, and in a time of high stress. These promises are “God, get me out of this and I will …’ or they are commitments that we make so that we can gain the respect of the community. The problem is that God is a God of promise. What he has said, he will do. But he expects the same out of us.

The Teacher argues that breaking our promises with God is a dangerous proposition. Maybe Green is right; keeping the promises that we have made with God and in front of God are an expression of our love. And like other promises that we have made, breaking those commitments probably means that that love has died.

But whatever the reasons might be for why we break our promises, maybe it would be better if we didn’t make the promise rather than breaking it after we have made our commitments. Perhaps we need to consider before we commit whether we are willing to work hard to fulfill our vow. And that is the point that the Teacher is trying to make. The time to consider the implications of a promise is before we make it. Reconsidering it after we commit is too late.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Ecclesiastes 6