Ecclesiastes 5 - 7

Talk Is Cheap

In today's reading Solomon talks, in chapter 5, about one's approach to God in the Temple with a careful warning, "As you enter the house of God, keep your ears open and your mouth shut."  The KJV reads (in part),"...and be more ready to hear, than to give the sacrifice of fools."  The lesson is that as believers we must be ready to listen, not itching to talk, when we enter the house of God.  While it is true that we can overhear the wrong thing, or expose ourselves to evil talk, it is rare to enter a church service where the Lord is directing the minister and not be blessed by God by hearing something edifying. It is also true that, for most of us, we simply talk too much!

In 5:3 we read, "Too much activity gives you restless dreams; too many words make you a fool."  We can talk away all of our victory. We think we are doing ourselves a favor by speaking and explaining, ad infinitum, about a subject, even a religious subject, but too much talk makes one appear a fool.  Especially if this is not tempered with listening.

Listening is quickly becoming a declining skill in our fast-paced society. We are expected to have an opinion and to voice that opinion. Many times people are less interested in what you have to say, and more interested in using your speech as a starting point for their own oration. When I think of the great people with whom I have interacted, it was the person who listened first and did not immediately proffer an answer that I most respect. It is a skill I covet and cultivate in my own life.

In Stephen Covey's outstanding book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (published 1989, Simon and Schuster) his fifth habit is Seek First to Understand then to be Understood. This habit is one he defines in the public arena, i.e. our interactions with others.  It is a major paradigm shift from what we typically encounter and from what we typically project.  If we have a problem, our first approach it to try to get the other person to see our side.  For Covey, the approach should always be to understand the other person first, then seek to be understood.  This blog is not the place for a complete explanation and I highly recommend this book for an in depth study on this and the other six habits. Suffice it to say that if we took this approach consistently, our lives and the lives of those around us would be greatly enriched.

Think about your relationship to Jesus Christ.  We do not have to make Him understand us.  Our prayers are not informative to him.  He knows more about us and our problems than we do.  Thus, effective communication with Him through prayer and meditation forces us to "seek first to understand."  We must understand Him and His will!

This takes us back to the exhortation of Solomon about entering the house of God.  We enter to hear, we enter to learn, to receive from Him.