The Strength (And Weakness) of Wisdom - Ecclesiastes 9:13-10:4

©August 2, 2020 by Rev. Rick Goettsche SERIES: Ecclesiastes

There is an old saying that to the man who only has a hammer, everything looks like a nail. One of the things I’ve discovered through the years is that having the right tool for the job makes life much easier. Often you can get the job done with the wrong tool, but you’ll be far more effective (and efficient) if you use the right one. The man who has only a hammer is going to be much more destructive than the man who also owns a screwdriver, a saw, and a drill. Using the right tool for the job is very important.

We see this in other areas of life as well though don’t we? We know that a truck is needed if you want to haul large loads, but if you’re simply commuting for work, a more fuel-efficient vehicle is better. On a football team you recognize that you need the little, quick guys to carry the football, but you also need the slower-moving, bigger guys to block for him. We know that cell phones are great for communicating, but you really want a computer to write a research paper. And (though I’m not convinced everyone knows this), digital communication, like text messaging and social media are great for quickly sharing information, but they are not a substitute for face-to-face conversation when developing real relationships. We understand that certain tools have their place, but no tool will solve every problem we face.

This morning, Solomon reminds us that wisdom falls into that same category. Throughout Ecclesiastes, Solomon has told us that looking to wisdom for ultimate satisfaction is meaningless. No matter how wise you are, we still live in a fallen world where things are not as they should be. Retreating inward or searching for wisdom to make sense of or solve that problem is an exercise in futility. But he is not saying wisdom is worthless. Today he reminds us that wisdom is a powerful and worthwhile tool. We should value wisdom but also recognize its limitations. Solomon gives us several sets of proverbs to help drive home this point.

A Story

He starts by telling a story,

13 Here is another bit of wisdom that has impressed me as I have watched the way our world works. 14 There was a small town with only a few people, and a great king came with his army and besieged it. 15 A poor, wise man knew how to save the town, and so it was rescued. But afterward no one thought to thank him. 16 So even though wisdom is better than strength, those who are wise will be despised if they are poor. What they say will not be appreciated for long. (Ecclesiastes 9:13-16, NLT)

This is likely a fictional story, though many have tried to tie it to specific historical events. The fact that so many people see parallels in history demonstrates how true his statement is. He makes two points in this short story.

The first is that wisdom is more important than strength. Strength is helpful, but unless you know how to use it, it is wasted. Another statement I’ve come to embrace as I’ve gotten older is work smarter, not harder. I’ve discovered that young people tend not to embrace this phrase as much as older people. Why? Because as you get older, your body cannot endure as much abuse—and it hurts for a lot longer. As I’ve worked with older guys, I’ve seen that they tend to take a bit more time to think things through, rather than just rushing into a job headlong and assuming they can muscle their way through it. Universally, taking the time to think and plan the best way to approach something ends up making the job a lot easier and much more enjoyable.

That’s the same thing we see in this story. A great army came and besieged a tiny town. This great army had all the power on their side. The odds were stacked against this tiny town, but then one man (who was poor, which shows that wisdom and riches do not always go hand-in-hand) knew what to do to save the town. We aren’t told what his plan was because it really doesn’t matter. What we are told, however, is that the town was rescued. His plan worked! Wisdom overcame the might of a much larger army.

The lesson for us here is that we should spend more time seeking wisdom than we do power. Most people want to put themselves in positions of power but fail to realize that unless you know how to wield that power effectively, you are dangerous. It’s like giving a child a machete and asking them to clear brush. Sure, they have the potential to do some significant work…but will more likely do significant damage. Great wisdom can make up for a lack of power. And power without wisdom is dangerous. So we should work to gain wisdom.

The second principle is that wisdom may not garner us praise. Though this man saved his city, the people forgot about him and no one thanked him. Solomon says that people appreciate you more if you are rich than if you are wise.

Sadly, we know this to be true. The most popular figures in our culture are those with lots of money, not necessarily (and often not) those with the greatest wisdom. Wisdom is not the right tool to win a popularity contest, and not necessarily even to gain friends. People appreciate wisdom when they think they need it, but otherwise they are happy to ignore it.

What is Solomon telling us? Is he saying we should try to be rich so people will like us? Not at all! He is reminding us that though wisdom is valuable and we should work to gain it, we should not expect that gaining wisdom will make us popular, nor should we expect that when we help others with a problem they will show us the appreciation they should. We should be prepared to offer our help to others without worrying about whether we receive appropriate thanks. We can do this because we know that God will one day reward us for doing what is right, even if no one else ever seemed to notice it.

Two Comparisons

Solomon now seeks to teach us about wisdom by way of contrast. He gives us two proverbs that are both written in the same way, juxtaposing wisdom with foolishness, and a third proverb that illustrates the dangers of foolishness even more colorfully.

17 Better to hear the quiet words of a wise person than the shouts of a foolish king. 18 Better to have wisdom than weapons of war, but one sinner can destroy much that is good. 1 As dead flies cause even a bottle of perfume to stink, so a little foolishness spoils great wisdom and honor. (Ecclesiastes 9:17-10:1, NLT)

All of these proverbs point us to the value of wisdom over foolishness, but they come at it in different ways. The first one reminds us that wise words do not necessarily have to be loud words.

I have tried to teach my children and my students the importance of being able to explain and defend your position and your beliefs. Everyone has beliefs, but few can explain or defend them. The wise person can explain to someone else why they believe what they do, and they are willing to hear contrary positions, as it may help them see an error they have made. But that’s not how a fool responds to criticism.

What happens when you question someone’s belief, but they don’t really know how to defend it? They start getting louder! They start talking louder in hopes that people will feel threatened by how confident they are and back down, without resorting to using pesky things like facts or logic!

Talking louder (or even shouting) is not the only tool in the fool’s arsenal. Rather than defending their beliefs, the fool will change the subject or attack the person rather than explaining why their position is valid. In logic, this is called, ad hominem. You attack the person rather than engaging the idea. The hope is that you can distract from the fact that you really have no basis for your beliefs by calling the other person names. It is the basis of modern politics. Rather than having a debate over issues and trying to reach an agreement that works well for everyone, our political leaders get into power struggles where they attack each other and just keep shouting louder in the hopes of winning. The result, of course, is that nobody wins.

But this doesn’t just happen in the political arena. It happens in our homes, our churches, our businesses, on the athletic fields, everywhere! The problem is that not only do we engage in this behavior, we tend to believe people who engage in it as well!

Solomon reminds us that the loudest voice is not always (and seldom is) the wisest. If we are wise, we will learn to listen to the quiet voices who have legitimate perspectives. Those are the people who have actually thought things through. Those people are the ones we should listen to.

At the same time, we would be wise to watch for when we resort to such tactics. If we find ourselves becoming loud or attacking, it’s a sign of pride, not wisdom. The wise person finds a way to communicate their thoughts effectively, rather than pushing for power plays to get their way. We should strive to be wise people, not bullies.

The last two proverbs remind us (as we saw in the story above) that wisdom is better than great weapons, but that foolishness is similarly powerful. Just as a great weapon in the hands of a wise soldier is a tremendous asset, a powerful weapon in the hands of a fool is a great liability—and it doesn’t take a lot of dead flies to ruin a great perfume.

Here’s the principle I think we should see. We should be careful the kind of people we surround ourselves with. When we put fools in positions of power and leadership we are asking for trouble. It doesn’t matter how many wise choices you make, a foolish person can undo them all with a single act of folly.

This means if you are considering where to work, who to marry, who to partner with for business, who to put in leadership, or anything along those lines, you should ask yourself whether that person is wise or not. You may think you can control a fool, or help them understand how to live wisely, but beware, because their foolish behavior can have drastic consequences, and you may be powerless to do anything about them.

And to turn the spotlight inwardly for a moment, it reminds us that while we should be seeking wisdom, we should also be trying to weed out foolishness from our lives. The two cannot coexist, and if we want to become wise we must stop foolish behaviors.

Wisdom is Shown by Choices

We’ve talked a lot about wisdom and foolishness so far, but it would be easy for us to misunderstand what it is. Solomon reminds us that wisdom is not the same thing as knowledge—it’s far deeper than that.

2 A wise person chooses the right road; a fool takes the wrong one. 3 You can identify fools just by the way they walk down the street! (Ecclesiastes 10:2-3, NLT)

Solomon’s principle is simple—wisdom (or lack thereof) is revealed by how we live. It is not enough to have great knowledge. It’s possible to know the right thing but ignore that knowledge and go our own way. Wisdom is about choosing to walk in godliness.

The New Living Translation translates verse 2 differently than most other translations. The reason is that they’re trying to make the meaning of the verse clearer, because its original form is poetic in a way that may be confusing.

The original text says that the wise go right and the foolish go left. It would be easy to understand this as saying they go different directions (which is true), but it is actually talking about the choice between right and wrong, not just right and left. In the ancient world, left handedness was considered evil (actually, the Latin word for left is where we get our English word for sinister). So left was often used to represent evil. The NLT’s translation is accurate, but it does differ from the way it reads in most other translations, which is why I wanted to explain it.

So how do we get wisdom? How do we avoid foolishness? The answer is that true wisdom comes only from God. In the book of Proverbs, which is all about wisdom, we are told that, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” (Proverbs 9:10, ESV) We talked a couple weeks ago about how the fear of the Lord will drive us to do right. True wisdom comes from recognizing that the source of all truth is God, and submitting our values and feelings and thoughts to His. It comes from studying His Word, understanding what it says, and putting it into practice in our lives.

It is possible to be a foolish Bible scholar. We can know the Bible forwards and backwards, but if we don’t put those principles into practice we are fools. Solomon says the foolish person makes their folly readily apparent. The person who cannot seem to control themselves, who is a bully, who knows what God’s Word says but doesn’t seem to care, or who seems to think everyone else is a fool, but they are always right; they are truly the fool. We must strive for consistency in our lives and be ever vigilant for those areas where we are compromising our faith. If you don’t think you have areas of compromise, you are a fool. If you’re serious about weeding out areas of compromise, ask the Lord to show them to you, because I’m certain He will. The difference between the fool and the wise person is what they do when they see those places. Wisdom is revealed in how we live.

He gives us a closing example of what wise action looks like in verse 4,

4 If your boss is angry at you, don’t quit! A quiet spirit can overcome even great mistakes. (Ecclesiastes 10:4)

This is not merely job advice, it is life advice. There are a couple of reasons your boss might be angry at you. It’s possible your boss is a fool and is frustrated by your wisdom. More likely, however, is that you have done something wrong and your boss is rightfully upset. In either case, Solomon’s point is the same. The easier course of action is to run away from a difficult situation, but it’s not usually the better course. The better course is to strive for consistency, knowing that if you do, one day you will win your boss over.

This principle doesn’t just apply to the workplace, of course. It applies in all relationships. As a society, we are quick to run away from difficult situations. We see this in the rising divorce rates (even among people in the Church); in the fact that people jump from job to job, hoping to find one that “fits”; that people constantly switch churches, leaving as soon as they don’t like something; and even just burning bridges in friendships as soon as difficulty is encountered. Though there are times to walk away, it is always a last resort. Before we walk away we need to examine our own hearts before the Lord. Often we are simply running away from a situation that is hard. The Bible tells us that no matter who we think is at fault, it is always our responsibility to try to mend a relationship. When trust is broken, it takes time for that trust to be restored, but it can be rebuilt—it just takes time. Much of the time, the wise course is to stay and try to help things get better. If we will work at it, much of the time everyone benefits.

The Bible tells us that as iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. I don’t know if you’ve ever tried to sharpen something, but sharpening is abrasive. You are grinding away the parts that shouldn’t be there. That’s what our relationships are designed to do for us—sometimes our relationships will be abrasive, but as we work through disagreements, learn to listen, and learn to extend grace, we both become sharper and more godly. But the process is slow. It requires us to stick with it. The wise person is patient, because wisdom is often only gained through patient obedience.

Conclusion

In these verses, Solomon extols the value of wisdom and the danger of folly. But he also reminds us that wisdom cannot solve all our problems. Wisdom may not make us rich, famous, or popular, but it will make us more like the Lord. And doing things God’s way is always better. Let’s draw a few practical lessons from these verses.

Acting wisely may not get results as fast as flexing our muscles, but the results we do get will always be better. Remember, to the person who only has a hammer, everything looks like a nail. The wise person recognizes there are other tools in their toolbox—and usually being patient and working through things gets us a better result in the long run. Don’t immediately reach for the “hammer.”

Wisdom is seen in how we live, not just how much we know. It’s not enough to know the right answers in life—we actually have to put them into practice. I’ve often said that if you have to tell people how smart you are, then you’re not. The same is true of wisdom. Wisdom is revealed in our character—so we should work at consistency. If you have to tell people how wise you are…you’re not.

Wisdom requires patience, but it does work. The wise person recognizes that you don’t always see results right away, but keeps plugging away at doing the right thing. Throughout Ecclesiastes Solomon has kept reminding us that doing the right thing is not always a guarantee of worldly success, but it is always the better course of action. Shortcuts may get you worldly success, but it is far better to just keep doing what we know is right. That’s the mark of a truly wise person.

The wise person is willing to be taught. A truly wise person recognizes they don’t have all the answers, and is willing to listen to other people, rather than assuming they know better than everyone else. If you find you are always the first to speak, consider taking some time to listen. You may be surprised by what you learn.

Wisdom is always the better course, but it is seldom the easy course. The process of gaining wisdom is often painful, as we have to let go of the sinful parts of ourselves. But if we are wise, we will let God prune away the parts of us that He says needs to go—because that is the only way we will grow into who He desires us to be.

©August 2, 2020 by Rev. Rick Goettsche SERIES: Ecclesiastes