Sermon Dicussion Questions
1. Read Eccl 10:1-20 together, looking for the "two paths." What do you learn about folly? What do you learn about wisdom?
2. If the path of folly is so destructive, why do we choose it?
3. Read Eccl 10:10. Practically, what does it look like in your life to apply this?
4. Why is it particularly evil when kings commit folly?
5. Read 1 Cor 1:22-25. Why is Jesus, the wisdom of God, considered folly to the world? What does this teach us about following Him?
How has social media affected your experience of the election?
If you are like me, you’ve probably encountered no small share of political content on YouTube, Facebook, and the like. You may have even—like me—shared some of your own views and attempted to persuade and inform others. And, if you are like me, you have noticed that social media has a kind of distorting effect on how you feel about politics. It is hard to encounter any political discourse in that environment and not walk away feeling angry—even if you are reading/listening to someone that you agree with!
Why is that? Because the medium shapes the message. Or, as Marshall McCluhan famously said, the medium is the message. Meaning, the medium of communication you use has a built in philosophy that adapts the very content of the message to it. Writing someone a letter alters the content in the message in different way than a text message. When JFK debated Richard Nixon in 1960, people who listened to the debate thought that Nixon won. People who watched the debate, thought that JFK won. Why? The younger, more attractive JFK looked calm, while the older Nixon, who refused to wear makeup and began to sweat under the studio lights, looked weak. The medium is the message.
So, how does the medium of social media affect you? Are you aware of the warping influence? If you want to go viral on social media, you do not need to tell the truth, you do not need to be reasonable, fair, or well-informed. You just need to be outrageous. And the companies know this. Content on social media the evokes negative emotions like anger, sadness, or anxiety are much more likely to be shared and clicked on. And, these social media companies are not providing you these “free” services just out of the goodness of their hearts. The longer you remain on their sites, the more money they get from advertisers, and thus are incentivized to promote the most outrageous of material. And there are few things that elicit more sadness, anger, anxiety, and outrage today, than politics. So, your feed is not truth-biased, but attention-biased. But that isn’t even the worst part. Not only is the content of social media filled with that negative-bias, but it also affects your very critical thinking skills.
Last week, a suit was filled against TikTok by the attorney general of Kentucky that revealed that TikTok’s own research states “compulsive usage correlates with a slew of negative mental health effects like loss of analytical skills, memory formation, contextual thinking, conversational depth, empathy, and increased anxiety.” How long does it take you to qualify as a “compulsive user”? 35 minutes.
What does this have to do with why you came to church today? Because the Bible is interested in making you wise. The world is interested in making you outraged at everything and content with nothing.
Dead flies make the perfumer’s ointment give off a stench; so a little folly outweighs wisdom and honor. 2 A wise man’s heart inclines him to the right, but a fool’s heart to the left. 3 Even when the fool walks on the road, he lacks sense, and he says to everyone that he is a fool. 4 If the anger of the ruler rises against you, do not leave your place, for calmness will lay great offenses to rest. 5 There is an evil that I have seen under the sun, as it were an error proceeding from the ruler: 6 folly is set in many high places, and the rich sit in a low place. 7 I have seen slaves on horses, and princes walking on the ground like slaves. 8 He who digs a pit will fall into it, and a serpent will bite him who breaks through a wall. 9 He who quarries stones is hurt by them, and he who splits logs is endangered by them. 10 If the iron is blunt, and one does not sharpen the edge, he must use more strength, but wisdom helps one to succeed. 11 If the serpent bites before it is charmed, there is no advantage to the charmer. 12 The words of a wise man’s mouth win him favor, but the lips of a fool consume him. 13 The beginning of the words of his mouth is foolishness, and the end of his talk is evil madness. 14 A fool multiplies words, though no man knows what is to be, and who can tell him what will be after him? 15 The toil of a fool wearies him, for he does not know the way to the city. 16 Woe to you, O land, when your king is a child, and your princes feast in the morning! 17 Happy are you, O land, when your king is the son of the nobility, and your princes feast at the proper time, for strength, and not for drunkenness! 18 Through sloth the roof sinks in, and through indolence the house leaks. 19 Bread is made for laughter, and wine gladdens life, and money answers everything. 20 Even in your thoughts, do not curse the king, nor in your bedroom curse the rich, for a bird of the air will carry your voice, or some winged creature tell the matter.
- Eccl 10:1-20
Like a braided rope, this section winds the themes of its proverbs around and around throughout the chapter. So, rather than move through it sequentially, we will try to isolate the two major themes of Folly and Wisdom. Verse 2 gives us a picture of the two big ideas of the chapter: “A wise man’s heart inclines him to the right, but a fool’s heart to the left,” (10:2). Rather than giving us insight into the American political landscape, the Bible is instead showing us two ways to live. The “right hand” is an image used throughout the Bible to denote the position of honor, power, and righteousness—and the left (sorry lefties) is the opposite of that. Jesus sits at the “right hand of the Father”, and when He separates the sheep and the goats, the sheep on the right and the goats on the left (Matt 25:31-46).
So, the wise pursue the path of righteousness and honor, while the fools pursue the path of wickedness and shame. This also helps us realize that in the Bible, wisdom is not limited to intellect—there is a moral dimension to wisdom. Notice, it is the heart that inclines a man to the right right or left. The heart in the Old Testament does involve the mind, but also the will, priorities, and emotions. And conversely, this means that the fool is not simply the least intelligent person in the room. The fool is the one who willfully rejects reality, who refuses to live under God’s rule, and seeks to make his or her life what they want it to be. Think of the Pharaoh in the Exodus—he refuses to accept reality over, and over, and over again. The fool’s heart is a hard heart.
So, let’s look at the path of folly and then the path of wisdom.
The Evident, Easy, and Evil Path of Folly
Evident
By “evident”, I don’t mean that the path itself is necessarily evident, but that when you walk on the path, it is evident.
Dead flies make the perfumer’s ointment give off a stench; so a little folly outweighs wisdom and honor. - Eccl 10:1
You purchase an expensive new face cream from the boutique salon, bring it home and open it to find…dead flies inside. What was meant to give off a pleasing aroma now, through the small inclusion of these dead flies, now gives off a pungent stench. The ointment is useless. So a little folly will ruin a life of wisdom and honor. One hair, says Bobby Jameison, ruins the casserole.
Folly can be like a virus: small, but it will make its presence known. Which is the idea of vs. 3:
3 Even when the fool walks on the road, he lacks sense, and he says to everyone that he is a fool.
The fool makes his folly known wherever he goes. Detecting wisdom and folly doesn’t require sophisticated tools of analysis. The fool will let you know that they are a fool! “When he walks on the road” is a Biblical euphemism for the manner and deeds of one’s life. Verse 3 tells us that through the fool’s acts and words, he broadcasts for all around his own self-centered folly. He won’t tell you “I am a fool,” overtly, for if he admitted his own folly, he would actually be on the path to wisdom! No, the folly is revealed by his own blindness to his folly.
And words are the emphasis of verses 12-14:
12 The words of a wise man’s mouth win him favor, but the lips of a fool consume him. 13 The beginning of the words of his mouth is foolishness, and the end of his talk is evil madness. 14 A fool multiplies words, though no man knows what is to be, and who can tell him what will be after him?
- Eccl 10:12-14
What is one sure-fire way to identify a fool? Find the person who won’t stop talking. Especially the person who continues to talk confidently about the future, even though “no man knows what is to be.” We do not know what tomorrow will bring. We do not know what endeavors will fail or succeed, so we must hem in our language with the rope of humility. We are not God.
What is one way to stop yourself from being the fool? The fool multiplies words. So, listen more than you talk. Do you ask questions as much as you make confident assertions? One of my old professors had a penchant for responding to what he thought a student was asking, rather than answering their actual question. He would frequently interrupt them in the middle of the question they were asking, pacing back and forth, dictating his erudite answers to a question that no one was actually asking. Eventually, we all learned that he was not someone we could get answers from. He was an extremely intelligent man, but he was also a fool. Friends, most people are conflict-adverse. Which means, if you talk over other people, always turn the conversation back to yourself, attacking strawmen rather than answering real questions…unless the person you are speaking with has an appetite for argument or loves you very much…most people are just going to let you continue talking foolishly and say something like, “Wow, good point,” just to end the conversation. James wisely reminds us: be slow to spoke, quick to listen. What if, instead of being blackholes of conversation, sucking the oxygen back into ourselves…what if instead we breathed life into others through wise questions? What if we found the person in the circle who had been quiet and asked: What do you think? Curiosity and charity will bring much healing.
Verse 13 tells us that the beginning of a fool’s talk is foolishness, but it’s end is that of a lunatic. The longer the fool talks, the further he drifts from reality into his own world where he knows he makes sense and the problem is just everyone else. Not only does this hurt other people around him, but notice vs. 12: “the lips of a fool consume him.” This untethered experience from reality, this incontinence of speech, this strange confidence in a world where that is unpredictable…will eventually ruin the fool’s life. People will begin to avoid him, or the people who will listen will only strengthen his folly and dislocation from reality.
Easy
15 The toil of a fool wearies him, for he does not know the way to the city.
- Eccl 10:15
Throughout Ecclesiastes, the Preacher has commended us to find joy in all our toil—that is, our labor. The fool finds no joy in it, but is instead just exhausted by it. Why? “For he does not know the way to the city.” One commentator explains, “He would get lost on an escalator.” He doesn’t know where he is going, he is aimless in his endeavors, so his work is exhausting. The fool in proverbs is frequently called the “sluggard.” The person who just takes the path of least resistance. Work is hard. So, why do it? **
18 Through sloth the roof sinks in, and through indolence the house leaks.
- Eccl 10:18
My grandpa used to tell me to “measure twice, cut once” whenever we would be working on a project together. The easy road, which is so attractive because it involves less work*,* ironically, leads to more work. Ancient Israelites would have flat roofs that would need regular maintenance to prevent leaking. Surely, it was tiring work to continue to maintain the roof, and the roof probably looked fine before it needed a reapplication of the sealant that would prevent leaks. But the laziness of sloth wreaks havoc—far more work is needed when the roof caves in.
That is a fairly dramatic example, but that choice is before us all the time. It is faster to put your toddler’s shoes on for him. But, if he never learns? The problem will only get worse. It is easier to ignore those phone calls and text messages in the moment. But, eventually, you’ll find yourself buried under a mountain of them and to reply to them will feel overwhelming.
If the iron is blunt, and one does not sharpen the edge, he must use more strength, but wisdom helps one to succeed.
- Eccl 10:10
The fool chooses the easy path, but it almost always ends in more work, more exhaustion than if he had just done the hard, but the right thing right away.
But, not only is life harder, but it is actually less enjoyable. Labor is not a curse. Adam worked before sin entered the world. The world is cursed now, so sin seeps into our tasks and responsibilities. But if we erode into the posture of a fool, then the work that we were meant to actually enjoy in life, simply becomes a wearisome task. You won’t be able to enjoy the many blessings of life:
Bread is made for laughter, and wine gladdens life, and money answers everything.
- Eccl 10:19
A strange sounding proverb, no doubt. But I think the basic idea is that sloth deprives you of the fruits of labor: bread, wine, and money.
The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied.
- Prov 13:4
Evil
There is an evil that I have seen under the sun, as it were an error proceeding from the ruler: 6 folly is set in many high places, and the rich sit in a low place. 7 I have seen slaves on horses, and princes walking on the ground like slaves. - Eccl 10:5-7
Something can be foolish, and not necessarily be evil. For instance, Proverbs 27:14 tells us that if we say “Good morning!” too loudly to our neighbor early in the morning, we will actually be annoying them. That isn’t evil, but it is foolish. But, as I have been reading through Proverbs I am struck that there is very little daylight between folly and evil. Most of the time, folly is evil…and, left unchecked, folly will end in evil. That was the point earlier the Preacher made about the fool’s speech: it begins in foolishness and ends in evil madness. The particular evil that he zeroes in on now is when folly flows from the seat of government. The series of opposites he presents (rich in low places, slaves on horses, princes walking on the ground) isn’t a classist complaint against the poor elevating themselves. It is, again, the Preacher giving us his surprising observations of time and chance in life. Normally, the wealthy are in power, and the poor are not. But, life isn’t a simple formula: time and chance happen to us all.
But here, he is using these opposites to underline a moral dilemma. The race may not always go to the swiftest, the battle to the strong, the position of honor to the wealthy….but it is an evil thing when error proceeds from the ruler, when folly is set in many high places. The book of Proverbs similarly tells us:
It is an abomination to kings to do evil, for the throne is established by righteousness.
- Prov 16:12
It is an abomination when kings do evil because they have outsized influence on the nation. When you read the Old Testament, you can see that as the king goes, so goes the nation. The throne is established by righteousness—if a governor or mayor or president cuts against the grain of God’s design for this world, if he (or she) rejects God’s reality, their government will not last long. Now, the form of government that we live under is not a monarchy. Our president does not have the same influence that king of Israel had in the Old Testament. Our entire form of government was created because of the danger of the unchecked influence of a king! Nevertheless, this passage still bears influence on the danger of morally unfit leaders in any enterprise.
So, the Preacher pronounces a curse:
16 Woe to you, O land, when your king is a child, and your princes feast in the morning! 17 Happy are you, O land, when your king is the son of the nobility, and your princes feast at the proper time, for strength, and not for drunkenness!
- Eccl 10:16-17
The blessing on the king being a son of nobility, again, is not a classist smear of the common folk. The son of nobility would have received training to serve in the office. When the king is a child, though? When the rulers get drunk in the morning? Then the land is cursed. The character of a leader matters. If the CEO is vain and impulsive, if the coach is dishonest and short-tempered, if the pastor is lazy and a slave to people’s approval…then those under their leadership will suffer. They won’t make wise decisions or listen carefully. If those in authority lack integrity, self-control, and humility, then they will inevitably wind up taking advantage of those under their authority.
It has become a common saying that people throw around to say that “we are electing a president, not a pastor.” Which, is basically a concession that we have two candidates that are not moral exemplars. I understand the current political climate we are in. Because we are left with two options for president that are less than stellar, we have to make some difficult choices on Tuesday. And frankly, both candidates have said and done things that, in the past, would have immediately disqualified them from running for office. But, here we are. We don’t get another option, and we have to make a choice. But, when either candidate does or says foolish things—when they reject God’s reality—let’s not defend that. Let’s not say overtly or imply that the character of a leader doesn’t matter.
The Rigorous, Risky, and Rewarding Path of Wisdom
Rigorous
If the anger of the ruler rises against you, do not leave your place, for calmness will lay great offenses to rest.
- Eccl 10:4
Since folly is set in high places, then the Preacher offers you some wise advice. If you find yourself in a setting where your boss, your coach, or anyone in authority over you begins to blow in anger at your, what do you do? The Preacher’s advice: stay calm. Don’t quit your job, don’t flee from his presence. Wait him out. Be a stone that simply stands in the wind of his anger. And when he tires out, you’re peaceful countenance and calm will help lower the temperature in the room and bring rest. This is hard…but this is the path of wisdom.
The vexation of a fool is known at once, but the prudent ignores an insult.
- Prov 12:16
To express everything you are feeling may be the path to authenticity today, but that path is the Bible’s description of a fool. It is wise to overlook offenses, to not take yourself too seriously. Maybe you lose the argument, but you’ll make peace. Controlling your tongue is incredibly hard—especially against a ruler who blows up on you. But, consider the final verse of the chapter:
Even in your thoughts, do not curse the king, nor in your bedroom curse the rich, for a bird of the air will carry your voice, or some winged creature tell the matter.
- Eccl 10:20
The Bible commands us to honor those who are in authority over us because God has installed them over us. Thus, when we disrespect and dishonor them, we dishonor God. Notice: this goes so far as to tell us that even in our thoughts we ought not curse the king. If a government begins to police the thoughts of its citizens, that is a terrifying abuse of power. This is not promoting that. This, instead, is saying that you should regulate your own thoughts. Why? Because if you seethe with resentment towards the authorities internally, it is only a matter of time before that leaks out. So, to think about this in contemporary times: if you not only disagree with the policies of Trump or Harris, but you despise them personally? Even if you try to be careful about your speech, it will leak out and become evident. Out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks. This week, I had a member of our church point out to me that I had spoken about one of our former presidents with an air of contempt; I did not speak honorably, but instead let the world disciple me in how I spoke about political leaders I disagree with. And I do disagree with that president. This isn’t advocating for becoming thoughtless drones who mindlessly endorse any leader. But how about this? Daniel 4 tells us “the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will” (Dan 4:17). What if, every time our minds thought about the next president, as we thought about what we like or dislike, love or hate, we concluded every thought with: “and God has installed them as the president of our country for His own good purposes.”
Risky
8 He who digs a pit will fall into it, and a serpent will bite him who breaks through a wall. 9 He who quarries stones is hurt by them, and he who splits logs is endangered by them. 10 If the iron is blunt, and one does not sharpen the edge, he must use more strength, but wisdom helps one to succeed. 11 If the serpent bites before it is charmed, there is no advantage to the charmer.
- Eccl 10:8-11
This is a complicated interweaving of images. Verse 10 is the clearest. If you have a blunt axe, you’ll need more strength to chop the tree down. Laziness makes life harder. Wisdom, on the other hand, recognizes reality and conforms to it—it tears along God’s perforated lines in life. A sharp axe makes quick work of the tree. Verse 11 seems to be showing us the opposite of that. If you try to grab a snake before it is charmed, you’ll be bitten—you didn’t pay attention to reality! If you wait to put your seatbelt on after the car accident, it won’t help you! If you start preparing for retirement a month before you retire, too late! Wisdom is what helps us succeed in life. But that doesn’t mean it gives you a foolproof guarantee.
And that, I think, is the point of verses 8-9. Digging a pit, breaking through a wall, quarrying stone, splitting logs…the damage that is done to the subject in each of these events is unexpected. You step wrongly and, whoops, you fell into the hole you were digging. You didn’t know there would be a serpent waiting to strike once you broke through the wall! Splitting stones or logs doesn’t normally hurt you, but the tree falls the wrong way, you dislodge an unsuspecting boulder and wham, you’re hurt.
Why is the Preacher telling us this? Because, sometimes you pursue wisdom, and things don’t work out. If we think that pursuing the path of wisdom will eliminate all risk, we will be disappointed. Sometimes the anger of a ruler rises against you, and you remain calm…and it doesn’t fix the problem. Sometimes you are like the poor, wise man from the previous chapter who is forgotten and despised, despite his great work of wisdom which saves many lives. Time and chance—God’s mysterious workings of providence—don’t always result in you being the champion.
Rewarding
This whole chapter is holding up the value of wisdom and the cost of folly. Wisdom will help you succeed in life. It will help you think clearly about complex matters. It will keep you from doing things you regret and will win you favor. So, the reward of wisdom is self-evident. But there is a problem with wisdom. Notice:
Dead flies make the perfumer’s ointment give off a stench; so a little folly outweighs wisdom and honor. - Eccl 10:1
There is an inherent weakness to wisdom and honor. When scientists are working on developing microchips they have to work in a clean room, where full-body suits and masks, and work in a pressurized, contaminant free chamber, because it just takes one spec of dust to ruin the entire endeavor. That is what wisdom and honor is like. One moment of infidelity can ruin a marriage. One drop of poison can kill you. And if you are anything like me, you read that and are rebuked, you think: then who of us can be wise and honorable? Who of us doesn’t have a little folly in our life?
The path of folly is easy—all it requires is caving in. In some ways, because of sin, folly feels natural to us. Folly is bound up in the heart of a child, Proverbs tells us. We must discipline our children out of folly. But that means that the path of laziness, letting our mouth run off, voicing all our complaints, all of these things will have well-worn ruts in our mind that will, in some sense, feel natural to us to fall into. But when we do, the Preacher tells us, that little folly then sours our life of wisdom and honor.
How then are we to become wise?
For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. - 1 Cor 1:22-25
The world is on the hunt for wisdom. Solomon points out how vanishingly rare it is—it only takes a little folly to ruin it. Paul points us to the strange and overlooked place that wisdom lies: it is hidden in the shame of the cross. Jesus Christ is the wisdom of God, the righteous man who has no folly, no shame, no fly in the ointment. He never gives in. He never snaps in anger, never takes the easy way, never capitulates to the pressure of the crowd, but stands…even when he stands alone. Even when the rest of the world calls Him a fool. Even when the risk of His wisdom leads Him to the most shameful and humiliating death possible: the death on a cross.
Why would the One wiser than Solomon have His perfect wisdom rewarded with such shame?
Because He was dying a fool’s death for fools like us. For those of us have many dead flies that cling to our life, many compromises, and many sins. But here is the good news, the righteous, wise One has taken our place, has born our shame, and carried the stench of death away for us.
26 For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, 29 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. 30 And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, 31 so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” - 1 Cor 1:26-31
And now, we can risk it all, because we know that we stand with Christ! His way is the upside-down, unexpected path to victory!
Workman of God! O lose not heart,
But learn what God is like;
And in the darkest battlefield
Thou shalt know where to strike.
2 Thrice blest is he to whom is given
The instinct that can tell
That God is on the field, when He
Is most invisible.
3 Blest too is he who can divine
Where real right doth lie,
And dares to take the side that seems
Wrong to man’s blindfold eye.
4 Then learn to scorn the praise of men,
And learn to lose with God;
For Jesus won the world through shame,
And beckons thee His road.
