Wisdom in Stereo

Scripture Reading

Ecclesiastes 10:4–20 NKJV

If the spirit of the ruler rises against you, Do not leave your post; For conciliation pacifies great offenses. There is an evil I have seen under the sun, As an error proceeding from the ruler: Folly is set in great dignity, While the rich sit in a lowly place. I have seen servants on horses, While princes walk on the ground like servants. He who digs a pit will fall into it, And whoever breaks through a wall will be bitten by a serpent. He who quarries stones may be hurt by them, And he who splits wood may be endangered by it. If the ax is dull, And one does not sharpen the edge, Then he must use more strength; But wisdom brings success. A serpent may bite when it is not charmed; The babbler is no different. The words of a wise man’s mouth are gracious, But the lips of a fool shall swallow him up; The words of his mouth begin with foolishness, And the end of his talk is raving madness. A fool also multiplies words. No man knows what is to be; Who can tell him what will be after him? The labor of fools wearies them, For they do not even know how to go to the city! Woe to you, O land, when your king is a child, And your princes feast in the morning! Blessed are you, O land, when your king is the son of nobles, And your princes feast at the proper time— For strength and not for drunkenness! Because of laziness the building decays, And through idleness of hands the house leaks. A feast is made for laughter, And wine makes merry; But money answers everything. Do not curse the king, even in your thought; Do not curse the rich, even in your bedroom; For a bird of the air may carry your voice, And a bird in flight may tell the matter.

I. It is easy for authorities to glorify folly . . .

The common theme in all four of these verses is that they all discuss a ruler who makes foolish decisions about promotion or demotion.Solomon tells us about a mistake that “proceeds from the ruler.” That is, this kind of mistake is difficult for rulers to avoid, so it often is found in large bureaucracies, like big companies and governments in general regardless of the form of government. The mistake that is made is that foolish people are promoted, because they are noisy and know how to suck up to the boss, while the quiet wise ones are ignored. It seemed strange that the rich is set in a lowly place, when James tells us the opposite problem (James 2:1-4). But remember in this proverb, the contrast is not between the rich and the poor, but between the rich and the foolish. So when is “rich” the opposite of “foolish”? when a person is wealthy because of his wisdom. That is, this rich person knows how to solve the government’s problem, because he is wise with money. Furthermore, the rich man also has the resources to solve the problem, because he has used his wisdom to make himself rich. Thus, the government ought to promote the rich man, since he is willing and able to do the job better than the one actually doing the job. But because the foolish person is much noisier, he ends up being noticed and gets the position, while the quietly wise rich man goes ignored.

James 2:1–4 NKJV My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with partiality. For if there should come into your assembly a man with gold rings, in fine apparel, and there should also come in a poor man in filthy clothes, and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say to him, “You sit here in a good place,” and say to the poor man, “You stand there,” or, “Sit here at my footstool,” have you not shown partiality among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?

James 2:1–4 NKJV

My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with partiality. For if there should come into your assembly a man with gold rings, in fine apparel, and there should also come in a poor man in filthy clothes, and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say to him, “You sit here in a good place,” and say to the poor man, “You stand there,” or, “Sit here at my footstool,” have you not shown partiality among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?

This mistake stems from the nature of wisdom and folly - folly is obvious and noticeable, while wisdom is harder to spot. Not that wisdom is invisible. Solomon’s wisdom was obvious to everyone who met him, and the fool that is promoted is certainly not promoted because he is a fool, but because he fools the ruler into thinking that he is wise.The same kind of thing happens when Solomon sees servants on horses and princes walking on the ground like servants. Here again, the problem is that those with the actual solutions - the princes - are not respected while the flashy servants are lauded and people think them wise. Solomon’s implication is that authority should be respected. Mal 1:6-8 But Solomon observed that sometimes the authority figure becomes the lightening rod for criticism, while the servants are respected when they don’t have the authority to actually fix the problems. This happens again because it’s way easier to notice a problem than it is to fix it. That’s why it’s much easier to be critical than to offer substantive solutions. I wonder how much griping would end if the person doing the complaining also had to come up with a realistic way of fixing the problem, or at least, a realistic way to help the boss fix it. Not only would this cut down on stupid complaints, it would probably actually also stop some legitimate concerns as well, for the complainer would be strapping himself into a plan to solve the observed problem.

Malachi 1:6–8 NKJV“A son honors his father, And a servant his master. If then I am the Father, Where is My honor? And if I am a Master, Where is My reverence? Says the Lord of hosts To you priests who despise My name. Yet you say, ‘In what way have we despised Your name?’ “You offer defiled food on My altar, But say, ‘In what way have we defiled You?’ By saying, ‘The table of the Lord is contemptible.’ And when you offer the blind as a sacrifice, Is it not evil? And when you offer the lame and sick, Is it not evil? Offer it then to your governor! Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you favorably?” Says the Lord of hosts.

Malachi 1:6–8 NKJV

“A son honors his father, And a servant his master. If then I am the Father, Where is My honor? And if I am a Master, Where is My reverence? Says the Lord of hosts To you priests who despise My name. Yet you say, ‘In what way have we despised Your name?’ “You offer defiled food on My altar, But say, ‘In what way have we defiled You?’ By saying, ‘The table of the Lord is contemptible.’ And when you offer the blind as a sacrifice, Is it not evil? And when you offer the lame and sick, Is it not evil? Offer it then to your governor! Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you favorably?” Says the Lord of hosts.

I skipped over v.4, because it’s the response for this evil. A courtier can’t quit in exactly the same way an employee can. They can flee and go home, but there’s no career choice waiting for them. They can’t get rid of the ruler, as this is not a democracy, and they will likely be stuck with him for the rest of the ruler’s life. That’s similar but not quite the same as your boss. Some situations really are intolerable. David had to flee Saul before Saul killed him. He really didn’t have an option. Your situation doesn’t have to be quite that extreme to be intolerable; though you should carefully ask if this situation is really so bad that it should not be tolerated. If it shouldn’t, then you’ll need to do something different. But if it should be, then you should take Solomon’s advice. Try calming down and being a bit more gentle - patience has a great deal more power than most people recognize.

Similar is Prov 25:15. In both cases Solomon is thinking about a ruler and those in his court. But we can apply the same principle to other situations. What happens if the boss gets mad? Notice that Solomon doesn’t say that why the ruler is mad. that’s important, because it means this advice applies regardless of whose fault it is. Is the ruler mad because you did something remarkably stupid? Then take Solomon’s advice. Is the ruler mad because he is stupid? Then take Solomon’s advice. Is the ruler mad because you’re both stupid? then you really need to take his advice. His advice is remain calm and be patient, because calmness and patience can heal really big mistakes.

Proverbs 25:15 NKJV

By long forbearance a ruler is persuaded, And a gentle tongue breaks a bone.

II. . . . But Wisdom Overcomes Obstacles

All of these proverbs have the theme that risk exists, except for v.10, where it is not danger but wasted energy that’s the problem. Still, this connects back to v.11-12, which remind us that time and chance happen to everyone. Solomon observed four categories fail to achieve their goals - the race is not to the swift, the battle not to the strong, bread not to the wise, riches to men of understanding, favor to men of skill. In each case, he isn’t saying that they never win, just that they don’t always win. You’d think that the winner of the race must be the fastest, the winner of a battle must be the strongest; the wealthiest man must be cleverest. But sometimes you get lucky, and win something you should have lost; sometimes you are unlucky, and lose something you should have won. I’ve said before that I don’t believe in luck, and I don’t. Solomon also believes in the sovereign hand of God (9:1). But randomness does exist, not in the sense that there’s something outside of God’s control, but in the sense that we can’t figure out why God does certain things. Chance is an admission that we don’t know the future, that we can’t penetrate the reason God does everything. So sometimes the best we can do is give the odds of success. Giving the odds is an admission that we don’t comprehend why God does quite a lot of things, and will never understand them this side of eternity.Furthermore, we cannot predict when things will happen, even for some things that we know will happen eventually. Thus calamity takes all of us at one time or another. God always has a plan, but he usually doesn’t share that plan with us, so we just have to trust that he knows what he is doing. This means that life is full of risks.While those who dig a pit elsewhere are those who mean harm to others, here that isn’t the case. It’s just someone digging a hole, and they might fall in and hurt themselves.If you quarry stone, you might get hurt; if you chop wood, you might get hurt. Also ordinary activities, nothing wrong with them. It’s just that danger lurks everywhere.A serpent may bite the snake-charmer. this is not a normal activity. So you can be hurt pretty much no matter what you do. Danger is everywhere, but you have to live, so you’ve got no choice but to face it somewhat. But danger means that sometimes the bad things do happen.The exception is that the dull ax happens naturally as you use the thing. So if you aren’t diligent about keeping it sharp, you’ll have to work harder to do the same job. A little planning makes your work much easier. That’s why wisdom brings success. spend a little time at the beginning planning and thinking about how to do the job the best, and you’ll save lots and lots of time at the end from wasted efforts.Either way, the solution to both risk and waste is planning. You can’t plan away all danger, but you can minimize it. You can’t eliminate all effort by planning, but you can work smarter instead of harder.There’s a lot of ways to avoid risk - the first step is to recognize real risks. This is harder than some think, as it’s easy to be caught up avoiding insignificant dangers only to fall into the real one instead. But it’s also vital to put the danger in it’s proper perspective. The only way to have no danger at all is to completely predict the future. But as this is impossible, you’ll have to live with some risk. You risk dying in a car accident every time you drive or are driven. But as I don’t think any of you walked here, all of you that are here took that risk, because it’s a small one if you’re a responsible driver or are being driven by one.There’s a lot of ways to waste your efforts. You can waste time by worrying; you can waste time by getting involved in everything except what you’re supposed to be doing; you can even waste time by trying to do too much. But we all have finite strength, and finite time. We all have to choose what to spend that limited strength and time on. You’ve got one life; spend it wisely. Probably not a one of us uses our time perfectly. Do you make an effort to spend your life on things that matter for eternity?

III. Words have Great Power . . .

Advice on wisdom always ends up in advice on the use of the tongue, for our words are the acid test of a wise heart.

A. They can build up

The contrast in this verse is between the gracious words of the wise man, and the destructive words of the fool. Clearly, a wise man’s words are full of “grace”, i.e. they are inherently favorable. But how so? They are favorable because the wise man’s words are full of good advice. A wise man’s gracious words will gain him a hearing with the powerful Prov 22:11. To have grace on your lips is not just to speak nicely to people, it’s to speak in such a way that the right response is not only gratitude because you are correct, but because you brought up the subject persuasively and pleasantly. It’s not that difficult to be right in an argument; it’s quite difficult to be both right, and to deliver tough information in such a way that most people will thank you and be grateful to you for telling them that. The first part of wise words has to be the content, as no amount of attitude or nice words can change bad advice into good advice.

Proverbs 22:11 NKJV

He who loves purity of heart And has grace on his lips, The king will be his friend.

But it’s not enough to have good advice. You must speak at the right time. Prov 25:11-12. So it’s quite possible to be exactly correct in what you said, but the timing or manner of what you said makes it foolish rather than wise. So what makes a word “fitly spoken?”

Proverbs 25:11–12 NKJV

A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold In settings of silver. Like an earring of gold and an ornament of fine gold Is a wise rebuker to an obedient ear.

Most obviously, good advice doesn’t do a lick of good, after the time for action has passed. The most honest response to “you could have done x” is a sarcastic “thanks, you’re a big help.” fyi, that’s usually not the best reply.

Not only is a fit word done at the right time, it is also at the right level of importance. If you’ve got the right idea, but you’ve got the wrong attitude about it - you could do that by blowing small things out of proportion. If you react to a small thing like it’s the end of the world, even if you’re right, people won’t thank you. They’ll cringe when they see you coming instead. Of course, it’s also possible to take big things too small, but in that case you usually don’t bother to give the advice anyway. In which case the word would be not spoken at all. I suggest that a very large percentage of interpersonal conflicts come under this category - where both agree on what is right, but disagree on how important it is.

Finally, a fit word must get the motives right. If you’re right about what to do, and even right about how important it is, but you accuse the other person of having motivations that they don’t have, you won’t get a thank you. Instead, you’ll likely get anger. It’s notoriously difficult to discern motives, so you are on much safer ground to assume the best motives you can imagine. If you suggest to the other person that their motives are more pure than they in fact were, you will probably not get an angry reply, you might even get that person thinking about what the right motives should have been. If you impune their character for something they did not mean, you will probably not like the result. And since we can only guess at other’s motives, it’s very difficult to do correctly.

B. They Can Destroy

The reverse problem is the one Solomon spends the most time on. The words of a fool destroy him.

Foolish words destroy. James 3:3-8; 1 Kings 12:12-17

James 3:3–8 NKJV

Indeed, we put bits in horses’ mouths that they may obey us, and we turn their whole body. Look also at ships: although they are so large and are driven by fierce winds, they are turned by a very small rudder wherever the pilot desires. Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things. See how great a forest a little fire kindles! And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell. For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and creature of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by mankind. But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.

1 Kings 12:12–17 NKJV

So Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam the third day, as the king had directed, saying, “Come back to me the third day.” Then the king answered the people roughly, and rejected the advice which the elders had given him; and he spoke to them according to the advice of the young men, saying, “My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to your yoke; my father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scourges!” So the king did not listen to the people; for the turn of events was from the Lord, that He might fulfill His word, which the Lord had spoken by Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam the son of Nebat. Now when all Israel saw that the king did not listen to them, the people answered the king, saying: “What share have we in David? We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse. To your tents, O Israel! Now, see to your own house, O David!” So Israel departed to their tents. But Rehoboam reigned over the children of Israel who dwelt in the cities of Judah.

Foolish words breed more foolishness until they spin off into wicked craziness.

Fools tend to talk way too much, especially about the future.

Prov 10:19

Proverbs 10:19 NKJV

In the multitude of words sin is not lacking, But he who restrains his lips is wise.

James 4:13-16

James 4:13–16 NKJV

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.” But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.

Foolishness wastes effort.

IV. . . And Prosperous Lands require Moral Rulers

This subject is quite different than wise/foolish words, but Solomon is making a point that ends in v.20. Here though, he makes the case that any country that wants to prosper must have righteous rulers.

The land that has “a child” for a king is doomed to suffering (“woe”). Notice, however, that the opposite of child is not adult, but “son of nobles”. Last time I checked, the one year old son of a noble is pretty much as capable as the one-year-old son of a commoner. However, the assumption that Solomon is making is that a nobleman is going to be more capable as a ruler, because he grew up in that environment and knows how it works. So the “child-king” isn’t a king who is young in years, but a king who is immature and undisciplined. Solomon is thinking of a childish king, not a literal child.

The parallel is that the princes “feast in the morning.” Again, Solomon isn’t attacking breakfast. Ancients didn’t eat breakfast usually, so if they were feasting in the morning, they were being lazy. It’s similar to saying that an employee takes too many coffee breaks. Notice that the opposite of “feast in the morning” is “feast at the proper time.” and the purpose is for strength - i.e. the princes eat normally, not just to party and get drunk.

Any country that has childish rulers that don’t do their jobs, that has government officials who are in it to party and benefit themselves is a country that is destined for suffering and poverty. But why is this?

Again at first, what does fixing your house have to do with rulers? well, Solomon is making a wider point. Any house that isn’t maintained will gradually become unlivable. Homes require fixing to continue functioning. Countries are the same way. They require regular effort to maintain order, to foster effective foreign relations. If the ones charged with doing this aren’t doing their job, then the country will fall apart just as surely as the home. Companies are the same way - they require regular management or the company will fail. Churches are the same way - they require regular management or the church will cease to function.

Thus, a country whose government officials aren’t doing their jobs will gradually start to fall apart, to the precise extent that the officials neglect what they ought to be doing.

The other reason why rulers have to do their jobs is about feasting and money. Feasting etc. is fun, it makes people feel good. By itself that isn’t always a bad thing; however, the reality is that “money answers everything.” That is, everything costs money, so if the rulers are spending all their resources on parties and fun, they won’t have the money to do what the country really needs.

I should add that it doesn’t matter why the rulers aren’t doing their job. The king could be a child because he is literally a kid - in which case it isn’t his fault, but nevertheless he isn’t doing his job. The king could be immature despite being an adult; he also isn’t doing his job. In the latter case you’ll be in a much bigger pickle, since time probably won’t fix the problem. In both cases the same result happens regardless of why it was done. It doesn’t matter what form of government this condition is found, either. Regardless of whether its a democracy, a constitutional republic, a monarchy, a dictatorship, etc. If those responsible for running the country aren’t doing their job, the country will suffer; if those responsible for running the country are responsibly trying to rule effectively, the country will prosper.

It also isn’t about honest mistakes, but about whether the job is getting done, whether they are trying to do what they ought to do, or whether they are milking the system for personal gain. Similarly, however, Solomon does not here provide solutions. That’s because the proper solution is going to be much more complicated, for it depends on the reason for the problem. If the king is a child because he got landed with the job before he is ready, the solution is to pray that those who guide him, those that really run the country, are doing the job for him until he is able to do it himself. If the king is childish, then I’m afraid you’re just stuck. There no elections, so you’ll just have to trust God and be patient. If it’s not a king, but a CEO or other manager at a company, you might have more options. Convincing them might work, though you’ll need patience and wisdom to do that.

V. . . But Be Respectful Anyway

Solomon’s practical advice, after telling us that some rulers do a bad job, is to be respectful anyway. He advices extreme caution when criticizing the ruler. Why? when the ruler can have you executed because he feels like it, criticism can carry quite a high price. It’s obviously an exaggeration to say that a little bird will tell on you, but the point is clear. Thoughts produce words and actions, so you can end up betraying your real thoughts even if you didn’t mean to; scandal carries, so if others figure out what you think, the information will spread and you’ll end up having a very tense and awkward conversation with the boss. And that’s if it goes well.

But the main point is that the office deserve respect, even if the office holder doesn’t; so the wise courtier will give that respect when it is due. Similar applications can be made to other kinds of authority, with whatever modifications are necessary.