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Reading Ecclesiastes 10:11-20 still considering how the wise man has the advantage over the fool, who multiplies words to his destruction. Visit wwutt.com for all our videos!
Just because you pursue wisdom, that doesn't mean your life is going to be easier. Even the wise suffer. But there is an advantage to living according to wisdom in this world and not falling into folly when we understand the text.
This is When We Understand the Text, a daily Bible commentary to help encourage your time in the Word. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday we feature New Testament Study, an Old Testament book on Thursday, and our Q &A on Friday.
Now here's your teacher, Pastor Gate.
Thank you, Becky. We come back to our study of the book of Ecclesiastes, which is the Old Testament book we've been in on Thursday. I'm still in the middle of chapter 10. I've got the second half of this chapter to finish up.
So let me begin reading in verse 11 and we'll go through verse 20 out of the Legacy Standard Bible. This is the Word of the Lord. If the serpent bites before being charmed, there is no advantage for the charmer.
Words from the mouth of a wise man are gracious, but the lips of a fool swallow him up. The beginning of the words of his mouth is simple-minded folly, and the end of what comes from his mouth is evil madness.
Yet the simple-minded fool multiplies words. No man knows what will happen and who can tell him what will come after him. The labor of a fool so wearies him that he does not even know how to go to a city.
Woe to you, O land, whose king is a young man and whose princes eat in the morning. Blessed are you, O land, whose king is of nobility and whose princes eat at the appropriate time for might and not for drinking.
Through indolence the beams sag, and through slack hands the house leaks. Men prepare bread for laughter, and wine makes life glad, and money is the answer to everything. Furthermore, in your bedchamber do not curse a king, and in your sleeping rooms do not curse a rich man, for a bird of the sky will bring the sound, and the winged creature will tell of the matter.
So keeping these things in context as we've been going through chapter 10, the preacher here is lamenting the fact that there are times when wisdom really is not of any advantage. Just because a man is wise, that doesn't mean he won't suffer.
Of course, the wise and the fool alike will both go down into the grave. But even in life, does the wise man really have an advantage? This is of course the preacher trying to understand wisdom in the midst of a fallen world.
This world is fallen. It has been subject to a curse because of the sin of man against God. All things have been subjected to futility. As it says in Romans chapter 8. So therefore, even wisdom is not perfect wisdom, nor does it save us.
But ultimately, the preacher does come to the conclusion that wisdom does have advantage. It is better to live a life pursuing wisdom than to live a life in foolishness. And that was where we concluded last week in verse 10.
If the axe is dull and he does not sharpen its edge, then he must exert more strength. Wisdom has the advantage of giving success. So even though wisdom is not perfect, and even though the wise and the foolish alike will go down into the grave, it's still better to live your life according to wisdom than according to foolishness.
Now there's really only purpose in the wisdom that we have if we're doing all of this unto the Lord, which the preacher had said earlier in Ecclesiastes. We must do all things to the glory of God, not to the glory of ourselves.
That is the only way to find any meaning and purpose in this life in which we live. Still it is better to live according to wisdom than according to foolishness. And that has been illustrated in some of these metaphors that we've been reading.
Consider the end of verse 9. He who splits logs may be endangered by them. I mean, you got to do the work. But in this fallen world, even that work can be dangerous. It's good work. You need to do it.
You've got the wood to be able to burn and therefore provide heat in the wintertime. But you could still be injured doing that work because it's a fallen world. And so injury and potentially death are consequences for our sin.
Yet, look at verse 10. If the axe is dull and he does not sharpen its edge, then he must exert more strength. So even the hard worker can be injured. But the work is even harder if he's using a dull tool.
It's better if he is using a sharp instrument. And that is the illustration that is pointing us to understanding that it's better to live with wisdom. It's better to pursue wisdom and possess it according to what God's Word says than to go through life as a dull instrument, as a stupid idiot.
And so the picture continues in verse 11 with this. If the serpent bites before being charmed, there is no advantage for the charmer. Now a serpent may bite you one way or the other, but there's less risk of being bitten if you charm the snake first.
If the charmer does not charm the snake and is bitten, then what's the point of even being a charmer? Now let's apply this to something a little more real life. There's a possibility somebody may try to manipulate you and con you to get something out of you, to swindle you somehow.
But you're less likely to fall for it if you pursue the wisdom of God. There are all kinds of things in this world that want to tempt you, that want to draw you into worldliness and entertaining the passions of your flesh.
But you're less likely to be fooled by those desires if you have been in the wisdom of God, according to his word. It does not mean that we won't sin, but we're less likely to sin when we have minds that have been trained by scripture, by the Bible, right?
So that's the picture that's being given here in Ecclesiastes 10. Even though we may still stumble and injure ourselves and be hurt, and it is true that eventually our bodies will die. There's still an advantage to living life according to wisdom and according to the wisdom of God, than by going through life as a clueless idiot.
So we go on to verse 12, words from the mouth of a wise man are gracious, but the lips of a fool swallow him up. Therefore, in light of this, in light of what the preacher has said, that there is advantage to living according to wisdom, then the words that come from the wise man are good words.
They're gracious words. You don't deserve them and you can't do anything to earn them. They are just a blessing. But the words of a fool will swallow you up. They are not for your advantage. They will be to your destruction.
Verse 13, the beginning of the words of his mouth, so still talking about the lips of a fool, the beginning of the words of his mouth is simple-minded folly. He starts with that and he ends with that.
And the end of what comes from his mouth is evil madness. It may start with a little bit of foolishness, but the more you continue to listen to it and follow it, the more your mind is given over to it entirely until your character is just evil.
And that's the way it starts with anybody that lives in deep depravity. We are all born sinners. We're born inherently opposed to God. That is our sin nature. We are in rebellion against God, wanting to go our own way, but we're not as depraved as we could be.
As a person lives his life according to that evil madness, well, according to that foolishness, the foolishness of the world, as he continues to live that way, he consumes more and more of it. His mind is shaped according to it, and now it's not just simple rebellion against God.
Now it's even worse sins that he has fallen into. And that's what happens to a person. Romans 1 says that because a person was not grateful to God, they did not give thanks to God, he gave them over to their depraved minds to do what ought not to be done.
So it starts with what seems like simple sin, just the case of our sin nature to be in rebellion against God. But since they don't acknowledge God or give thanks to him, then he turns them over to what ought not to be done.
And they continue in sin and worse depravity until ultimately it leads to their destruction. You have also in 2 Thessalonians 2, where we're talking there about the man of lawlessness, and it says God gives them a strong delusion so that they may do what should not be done.
They chase after the passions of their flesh, so they come into judgment because they had pleasure in unrighteousness rather than to turn from their sin and be saved. So this is what happens to a person who devotes themselves to foolishness.
It goes from just the simple sin that we do because we're in a state of rebellion against God to even worse and worse depravity, and we're seeing that happen in our culture today. Things are just getting progressively worse and worse, and it seems like that slippery slope is getting steeper and the culture is falling into that sickness even more rapidly.
So it begins with simple-minded folly, and the end is evil madness. They're just so insane with it. You wonder how they could ever turn back from it at all. But the Holy Spirit of God is more powerful than the spirit of this world, and if it be God's will, he will turn a sinner from his ways.
So we must go out with the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is only by hearing the good news that Jesus died on the cross for our sins and rose again from the dead. It's only in that news and by putting faith in Jesus Christ that we can be saved from the judgment that is coming against this world because of its simple-minded folly and evil madness.
The Holy Spirit will change even a madman from his insane evil to become a righteous person in Jesus Christ, and it's only by the gospel that a person can be transformed in that way. We must continue to preach the good news of Jesus' death, his resurrection, his rising again, and his coming back again to judge the living and the dead.
Those who worship Jesus, King of kings and Lord of lords, who sits enthroned in heaven even now, they will not perish, but they will have everlasting life. So we go on to read in verse 14, yet the simple-minded fool multiplies words.
He does not even understand his own foolishness. So it begins with simple-minded folly. It's going to end in evil madness, but not recognizing the words that come from his mouth will eventually be his destruction.
He multiplies those words. No man knows what will happen and who can tell him what will come after him. But the foolish man continues on like he knows or even like he's unstoppable. When my dad, who was in radio for years and years, over 50 years was how long that he was in radio, when he would do talks with youth groups and he would warn youth about the music that they were listening to, making good music choices.
This was one of those verses that he would use Ecclesiastes 10, 14 to describe the music that they were listening to, especially if it was hip hop because there's a lot of words in hip hop or a lot of the pop music.
It's just, it's just multiplied words. The simple-minded fool multiplies words, doesn't lead a person anywhere except to their own destruction. Be careful whose words you are listening to, that you would listen to the wise man.
Words from the mouth of a wise man are gracious. Don't listen to the words of a fool. Verse 15, the labor of a fool so wearies him that he does not even know how to go to a city. So we've, we've seen occasions in Proverbs and in Ecclesiastes where foolishness and laziness are equated with one another.
So this is talking about how the fool is so lazy. He doesn't even know how to go to the city to get into more trouble. He's in enough trouble right where he's at by sitting around and doing nothing. So labor so wearies him.
He doesn't even know how to get off of his can and walk down the road and go to a city. Verse 16, woe to you, O land, whose king is young. All right. We're talking about a foolish man, somebody who has not had life experience and now he's given rule.
Now he's given a sovereign reign over a people and over a kingdom. How are that people going to benefit from this man who has no life experience, has not gained wisdom. So woe to you, O land, whose king is a young man and whose princes eat in the morning.
Is the preacher condemning breakfast here? No, that's not the picture. But rather eating is associated with feasting, which is connected with drinking. So he's feasting and drinking and getting drunk even in the morning instead of investing that time of day in matters that pertain to caring for his kingdom.
From the time he wakes up, he should be thinking about what needs to be done in the kingdom to benefit this people and then laboring so that the kingdom will flourish and the people will be blessed. So it goes on to say in verse 17, blessed are you, O land, whose king is of nobility.
In other words, he's a man of experience. He understands what it takes to be a king. He gets what is needed in his kingdom, what his duties require and who is depending on him. So blessed are you, O land, whose king is of nobility and whose princes eat at the appropriate time when it when there is cause for celebration, when the harvest has gone well or we have defeated our enemies and we are feasting victoriously for might and not for drinking, it goes on to say in verse 17.
So there is an advantage to celebration. It's good morale for the people in a kingdom to have a celebration and that would be for the benefit of the entire kingdom. There's might in the kingdom in that.
But if a king has a lot of money and he has a lot of servants and he just squanders those things on himself so that he may make his own heart merry and glad, not thinking about the benefit of anybody else in his kingdom, then that is going to be to the detriment of the people who are under him.
The foolish king eats in the morning. The wise king eats at the proper time. He feasts at the appropriate time for might and not unto drunkenness, where it says for might and not for drinking, that would be drinking unto drunkenness.
So it is good to drink wine and make the heart glad. But it would be wrong to drink to the point of drunkenness, which leads to debauchery as talked about in Ephesians chapter four or five, somewhere in there.
Do not be given over to drunkenness, which leads to debauchery, but be filled with the Holy Spirit. Don't be filled with those things that have temporary fulfillment, but be filled with that which leads to everlasting fulfillment.
That is the Holy Spirit of God. Drunkenness, it really is like the most outward manifestation of foolishness. The fool is already not in his right mind. And so when he gives himself over to drunkenness, it just dulls himself all the more.
It just kind of demonstrates all the more on the outside who he really is in his heart. So a land is benefited by a ruler who is devoted to wisdom and not himself. And this goes back to the theme that we've been seeing here over the course of chapter 10.
Yeah, it doesn't mean that things are perfect, but it's still better to live by wisdom than live by foolishness. A people will benefit by a wise king and they will languish under a foolish king. So going on to verse 18, through indolence the beams sag and through slack hands the house leaks.
Indolence is just another word for a lazy fool. So I think that the picture that's being painted here is pretty self-explanatory, right? If a person is not diligent to take care of his home, then it's going to leak, it's going to fall apart.
And so again, wisdom is better. The lazy fool is going to have a house that falls apart, whereas the wise man is going to keep his house up. And you combine this with what we just read about the ruler.
So the wise ruler is constantly going to be maintaining his kingdom for the benefit of the people that are in it. But the fool is going to become lazy and the kingdom is all going to fall apart. And we see this theme of a kingdom, of a ruler and a kingdom throughout these verses here, 16 through 20.
The next one, verse 19, men prepare bread for laughter and wine makes life glad and money is the answer to everything. And now this is one of those proverbs that could go either way, since we've been talking about the wise and the fool and especially the wise ruler and the foolish ruler.
Men prepare bread for laughter. Well, what's it going to be for? Will it be for feasting and celebration or will it be feasting unto drunkenness? Wine makes life glad once again. Is that in celebration?
Is that in victory? Is it to the benefit of the whole kingdom or is it to the man who just drinks himself under drunkenness and debauchery and pleases himself? And money is the answer to everything. Again, is that going to be to the benefit of the kingdom or is that the fool who just benefits himself?
There are advantages to all of these things, bread, wine and money, but when they are misused and mismanaged, then they are going to be to the detriment of all. And so we have this kingdom that is either reigned by a wise man or reigned by a fool.
And after all of this mismanagement that has been going on in the kingdom, if the fool does not handle things rightly, here's the warning that is given in verse 20. Furthermore, in your bedchamber, do not curse a king like you've had a foolish king out there.
He is doing stupid stuff. The kingdom is falling apart because he is not taking care of business the way that he needs to. So in your sleeping rooms, do not curse a rich man. Still talking about this ruler or talking about this king in your bedchamber.
Do not curse a king in your sleeping rooms. Do not curse a rich man for a bird of the sky will bring the sound and the winged creature will tell of the matter. Somebody may overhear it and then take it to the king.
And then that for you could be to your destruction if that king decides that he wants to strike you down because you were speaking ill about him. Verse 20 is kind of a warning in that way. Now a wise man is probably not just going to be muttering to himself about how foolish he thinks the king is.
He's probably saying this to somebody else. But in what company? Who's going to overhear the wise man say that? The wise man may be perfectly right in everything he says about the mismanagement of the kingdom.
But it's the very fact that he said it. And now the rich man or the king is offended and is going to strike him down for saying this wicked thing. So be careful what you say, for it may be overheard and that could be to your destruction.
That's the warning that is given there. And that's a good warning for us to heed, even in our social media culture today. And when we're posting things on Facebook and Twitter and Instagram and all this stuff, we're probably not saying it in our bed chambers.
We're saying it in a public place that can be read by anybody. But we already know and we have seen going on in the culture that stuff that that people post online can affect even whether they get a job or keep their job or what their social standing is.
There was a fellow just recently in England who was arrested because he said something on Facebook that offended his neighbor and turned him in. And he has gone to jail because that he was arrested. I don't know if he went to jail or not.
But anyway, just all to say that it may be better. It may be to your advantage in some situations to just not say anything at all and keep your mouth shut, even though you may be right in what it is that you say.
I'm not saying that we shouldn't be out there warning against the evils that are happening in this culture. Just be wise with what you say and who you say it to. Let's finish their heavenly father. I thank you for the lessons that we've learned here, even practical wisdom that has been passed on to us through the wisdom of these proverbs, whether it be in the book of Proverbs or Ecclesiastes or the Psalms or elsewhere.
There is there there are things here that can apply to us that we can put into practice in our daily lives. And so may we have lips that are devoted to wisdom and speaking gracious words and not multiplying words and making us fall all the more into foolishness and folly.
Teach us wisdom. Teach us the wisdom of Christ. For as is said in Colossians chapter two, it's in Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. We ask these things in Jesus name. Amen.
This has been When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabriel Hughes. For all of our podcasts, episodes, videos, books, and more, visit our website at www .utt .com. If you'd like to submit a question to this broadcast or just send us a comment, email whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com and let your friends know about our ministry.
Join us again tomorrow as we grow together in the study of God's word when we understand the text.