Ecclesiastes 10:1-7 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.

INTRODUCTION

It was a joy to hear John and Matt’s sermons. They are faithful, godly men who are gifted in handling and preaching God’s Word. Make sure you thank God for them and them for their ministry to us.

My time in the Philippines was tremendous. I believe it was my 8th or 9th TLI trip and this one might have been the best. Logistics and health were straightforward. More significantly, however, the men were able to grasp the content and immediately share ways it was going to shape their ministry. That hasn’t happened all that often and never on this level for the group as a whole. Thanks for sending me.

Providentially, I taught on biblical poetry while I was there. The two main areas of focus were Psalms and Proverbs. And yet, the main point was not to teach the content of those books. The main point was to teach how to properly read the poetry in those books as an example of how to read it wherever we find it in the Bible—as in Ecclesiastes. In that way, I learned a few things that, Lord willing, will help me finish Ecclesiastes even stronger than I started.

With that, the main point of this passage is the nature of the fool and his folly (1-3) and the wise response to it (4-7). To be clear, the first part is not a how-to manual (of how to be the best fool). It is a warning against it. The point of the poetry is to reveal the folly of folly in order that we might wisely reject it and respond to it.

Again, then, the big idea of these few verses is that folly is destructive, dangerous, recognizable, unnecessary, and prevalent. And the main takeaway is to weed out the folly in our lives and the lives of those we love and replace it with the wisdom of God.

THE PREACHER’S PROVERBS CONCERNING FOLLY

In order to keep us from taking the poetry out of the poetry, and from reading/preaching the biblical poems exactly as we read/preach the letters or the narrative stories of the Bible, the curriculum I taught in the Philippines encourages readers of biblical poetry to do a few things whenever we come to a poem:

1. Be impacted by the poem. Poems are by nature meant to affect us on a deeper level.
2. Ask questions about the details and structure of the poem. Poems have structure and shape to help drive home the point.
3. Experience the imagery. Poems use significant pictures and stories in order to stir us.
4. Follow the flow of thought. Poetry is often non-linear, but it is going somewhere, in some order and recognizing its flow is essential to getting everything out of it that the poet intends.
5. Summarize the poet’s main point. With all of that, we’re in a good place to grasp the poet’s intended effect.

Again, the point of each of these individually, and even more so of all of them collectively, is to get us slow down and appreciate the fact that poems are given to us as poetry on purpose. While poems by nature have a lesser ability to communicate precise truths than letters (for instance), they have a greater ability to drive the truth they do communicate deep into our hearts. In other words, poems are often designed by God to be narrower in scope, but greater in impact. And these five charges are one means of making sure we are impacted as accurately and fully as possible.

Good sermons on biblical poetry don’t name each of those, every time, but they are shaped by a preacher who has interacted with them every time. I hope you have and will continue to experience that as we finish up Ecclesiastes.

To that end, we’ll consider five poetic proverbs this morning. In them we’ll see that: A little folly outweighs much wisdom (1), there is a defining characteristic of both the wise and the fool (2), fools are always found out by their folly (3). the wise are marked by self-control (4), and folly is found everywhere (5).

Let’s begin at the beginning.

A Little Folly Outweighs Much Wisdom (1)

Consistent with everything I’ve just said, the first line of the first proverb is meant to stir in us a deep sense of disgust and frustration. Only once it does, can the second line find its proper mark in us. And again, for that to happen, we need to slow down and experience the poem’s imagery.

For reasons I don’t understand, the flies have been worse this year than any year I can remember. It’s abated a bit recently, but for a good chunk of the summer, they were everywhere in huge numbers. We could barely eat outside because they were so bad at times.

From what I can tell, flies are especially attracted to food. The nasty part is that they are equally eager to eat it right off your plate and right out of your digestive system. Flies are gross and they carry all manner of their grossness with them wherever they go.

On the far other end of the spectrum is perfume. If it is anything, it is pure and sweet—the opposite of flies.

In the ancient world, the world of Ecclesiastes, it was no small thing to produce it. It involved gathering more expensive or less available materials (usually flowers, herbs, resins, barks, woods, roots, and seeds), employing various methods of extracting the fragrance from them, allowing the extracted fragrances to age, and then implementing some way to disseminate the fragrance (often through grinding up the materials and putting them into pouches or mixing the extracted, aged materials with something like olive oil for application to the skin).

The main point is that it was a lot of work, it was expensive, and it was time consuming. But once the perfume was finally ready, it was a precious thing indeed. Consider the reaction of the disciples when a women poured out a flask full of perfume on Jesus’ head. Matthew records them as indignantly saying, “Why this waste? For this could have been sold for a large sum of money [maybe even a year’s wages] and given to the poor” (Matthew 26:8-9).

Imagine, then, putting all of that work into making a batch of sweet-smelling perfume, to wear or sell or give as precious gifts. Imagine how costly and delicate it is. Imagine how precious it would be and how carefully you’d guard it.

Now imagine a pile of dead flies finding their way into your perfume. It wouldn’t take many of them to cause the perfume to smell tainted beyond the point of rescue. That would be devastating for the perfume maker or the one who had purchased the perfume.

Maybe you’ve spent all day preparing a meal only to burn it at the end. Maybe you’ve trained all year for a something only to get injured right before it or, as happened recently with the TCM, it was cancelled due to weather. Maybe you’ve saved and saved for a new (used) car, only to have the transmission give you problems a few months after you purchased it. Maybe you’ve worked on a paper for weeks only to have it somehow deleted from your computer. I’ve worked for a long time on turning a wooden bowl, having put hours and hours into shaping, sanding, and finishing it, only to come out and find it cracked (due to continued drying) in a significant and unrepairable way.

It’s a sinking feeling to put so much into something only to have something relatively minor and entirely out of your control derail the whole thing. Unless you’ve experienced something like that, you won’t be able to feel the full weight of the second line and the point of the proverb.

¹ Dead flies make the perfumer’s ointment give off a stench;
      so a little folly outweighs wisdom and honor.

In the same way that a few flies getting into a container of perfume can undo something that it took months to make, a little folly can undo a lifetime of wisdom or an otherwise healthy fellowship.

This happens when a previously faithful spouse foolishly gives into lust one time in moment of weakness. This happens when a good student is expelled due to a single unwise choice to cheat on a test or plagiarize a paper. This happens when, after years of careful driving, someone gets in a car crash because they were foolishly texting or driving under the influence. This happens whenever someone who had been a good employee is fired for a costly mistake that happened because they were uncharacteristically lazy in finishing a project.

To be clear, folly and sin are related, but not the same. In the examples above, it is a foolish choice that led to the decision to sin, but they are two different things.

Hopefully, you have your own, visceral experience with this so that you really get the idea: It takes just a little bit of foolishness to overcome much wisdom with potentially devastating results.

Flee folly and fools, therefore, Grace Church. Seek wisdom and embrace it when you find it. Surround yourself with wise people and not fools. It is no small thing to let a bit of foolishness into our lives. It can ruin everything.

The Heart of Folly and Wisdom (2)

Continuing with proverbs concerning folly, the Preacher’s next thought cuts straight to the heart of both wisdom and folly. As I mentioned above, a key component to most poetry is its vivid imagery. That is, to really appreciate the poem, we need to recognize and relate to the picture(s) it paints. In that way, it is true that a picture is worth a thousand words.

With that having been said, the imagery of v.2 is largely lost to us. That often leads to one of the most consistent and dangerous ways to misinterpret a poem. When, for whatever reason, we miss the real idea behind a poem’s imagery (and especially when we don’t realize that we’ve missed it), we are vulnerable to misinterpretation and misapplication.

Consider v.2.

² A wise man’s heart inclines him to the right,
      but a fool’s heart to the left.

As you consider these few lines, what’s the first thing that comes to mind? In our culture today, the right and the left tend to connote images of political parties. The Republicans are “the right” and Democrats are “the left”. This is a fairly silly example, and I know you all know better, but I bet if 1000 churches around the US were to hear a sermon on this passage, an embarrassing number would include some form of political commentary based on this false understanding of the image of the poem.

That is a powerful image in today’s world, isn’t it? It’s not hard to be emotionally moved as we consider various aspects of both parties. But that’s not, as you know, what this is about.

The actual meaning of the image, however, is no less powerful. The Israelites in the Preacher’s day would have responded to the imagery of this verse in a manner similar to the one we’d likely have concerning a saying about the respective merits of the two main political parties in the US today.

The picture is of a man on a journey. At some point, he comes to a fork in the road and needs to decide which way to go. More than a matter of a slight inconvenience for choosing wrongly, though, a lot is at stake in the man’s choice.

The Preacher means us to imagine something like a man who is wounded, bleeding profusely, and is hobbling along trying to find a hospital in an unfamiliar area. He comes to a place where he must go either to the left or to the right. If he chooses the correct path, he will soon find the help he needs. If he chooses the wrong path, he will likely succumb to his injuries. Everything hinges on him choosing properly. Again, that’s the picture here. And we won’t gain the full measure of the Preacher’s wisdom if we don’t feel the imagery in our bones.

I’ve been helped more than I can imagine by the shortest and simplest of all my commentaries on Ecclesiastes (Derek Kidner’s “The Message of Ecclesiastes” from “The Bible Speaks Today” series). Speaking to the imagery of this passage, I think you’ll see why.

“Perhaps [the Jerusalem Bible translation] puts it best, if freely: ‘The wise man’s heart leads him aright, the fool’s heart leads him astray.’ The right and left hands have always been widely viewed as lucky and unlucky, good and bad … and in our Lord’s figure of the sheep and goats the two sides correspond to the two contrasted verdicts. … The fool, then, inclines to the less valuable, the less good and, by the same token, to the positively wrong. The preference shows in many ways: not only morally and spiritually. By contrast, the wise man’s predilections are spelt out in the great list of ‘whatevers’ in Philippians 4:8 [‘whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things’]” (Kidner, TMOE, 89).

In other words, every day we are faced with the choice of going to the right or to the left, on the path of wisdom or folly. And every choice we make may be like a wounded man choosing between the correct road to the hospital and the incorrect one with no time to spare.

This is, once again, a stark warning concerning the life we choose to live. The choice is ever before us. This is particularly true for young people, as the Bible describes youth as especially prone to choosing the path and peril of folly.

Grace, listen to the words of the wise. If you always imagine that’s you, it’s probably not.

Conversely, avoid the fool and his counsel at all costs. Indeed, as the opening lines of the Psalms read, “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; 2 but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.”

Fortunately, avoiding fools is not hard to do for those who are so inclined, as the next proverb makes clear.

Fools Are Always Found out by their Folly (3)

Look at v.3.

³ Even when the fool walks on the road, he lacks sense,
      and he says to everyone that he is a fool.

The picture is again of a man walking down the road. The second line of the proverb might make it seem like the man reveals his folly by going up to everyone he meets on the road and telling them, “I’m a fool. I’m a fool. I’m a fool.” But that’s not what the Preacher has in mind. In fact, one of the most defining characteristics of a fool is that he doesn’t know he’s a fool even though he’s continually broadcasting it.

Instead, the idea is that there’s simply something in the way he walks and talks that reveals his folly. Perhaps, he’s too unaware of his surroundings to notice the mud puddle or the animal droppings before stepping in them. Perhaps he has his tunic on backwards. Perhaps it’s in his quirky mannerisms or his incoherent talk. Perhaps he comes across as thinking he knows it all when it’s apparent that he actually knows very little.

“To the practiced eye of [the Preacher] the fool has no way of disguising what he is, except perhaps by total silence (Proverbs 17:28). Even then, his general bearing would probably give him away. But in fact he is too full of himself to refrain from airing his views to everyone he meets. To judge from Proverbs, his fine phrases will sound incongruous (Proverbs 17:7), his tactless remarks impertinent (Proverbs 18:6); and when you talk to him he is not really listening (Proverbs 18:2). If he has a message for you he will get it wrong, and if he comes out with a sage remark it will misfire (Proverbs 26:6). You can fortunately sense his approach by the efforts of all and sundry slip away (Proverbs 17:12)” (Kider, TMOE, 89).

The point is: Fools always reveal their folly. They can’t hide it for long. Fools are almost always easy to spot.

Knowing the potentially disastrous effects of interacting with fools and their folly, keep your eyes open, Grace. Be on the lookout. Know the signs.

But that leaves us with the question of what to do when we encounter a fool. Kindly, the Preacher’s next proverbs give us a few pointers.

The Wise Are Marked by Self-Control (4)

The first three proverbs (the ones we’ve just considered) concern the nature of a fool. The next two focus on how to respond to a fool when you find one, beginning with a fool in a position of power.

⁴ If the anger of the ruler rises against you, do not leave your place,
      for calmness will lay great offenses to rest.

Imagine being a servant in the court of a king or an attendant in the house of the president. In the course of your duties, you notice that the person in charge of your land is an unmistakable fool. He lacks sense. He acts irrationally. His words are characteristically rash and laced with nonsense. His orders only breed confusion and frustration, division and contempt. He thinks he’s leading wisely, but it’s plain for all to see that it’s anything but. And on top of all of that, for some reason you find that his anger is directed specifically at you.

The ruler has all the power, but lacks the wisdom to know how to wield it well and everyone around him —you in particular—is miserable because of it. It’s a maddening place to be. What do you do? What would you do?

Under a king, as was the case with the Preacher and in his day, quitting wasn’t an option and sounding off would likely get you thrown into prison or worse. So what does a wise person do when stuck under the authority of a foolish and angry ruler?

The Preacher’s admonition is to hold fast and keep calm. Don’t try to quit and don’t add anger to anger or folly to folly (that’s like Matt’s story from last week about throwing water on a grease fire). Instead, wisdom and prudence call us to stay at our post and do our duty as best as we can, in the hope that our self-control will calm the ruler’s foolish rage.

This is a proverb and not a promise. It is a statement of how things often though not always work. And yet, ordinarily a soft answer turns away wrath (Proverbs 15:1).

Practically, today, Peter’s first letter contains a list of admonitions in this spirit.

What does God’s wisdom call for when unbelievers foolishly speak against us?

1 Peter 2:12 Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.

What does God’s wisdom call for when foolish rulers rule in ignorance?

1 Peter 2:13-15 Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, ¹⁴ or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. ¹⁵ For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people.

What does God’s wisdom call for when our bosses foolishly act unjustly and make us suffer for it?

1 Peter 2:18-19 Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust. ¹⁹ For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly…

What does God’s wisdom call for when husbands foolishly disobey the Word of God?

1 Peter 3:1 Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives, 2 when they see your respectful and pure conduct.

What does God’s wisdom call for when other Christians foolishly sin against us?

1 Peter 4:8 Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.

What does God’s wisdom call for when obeying Jesus leads to foolish insults?

1 Peter 4:14 If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.

Are you tracking, Grace Church? Responding to folly-induced suffering with folly only leads to more suffering. Those with under the sun wisdom, then, respond to folly-induced suffering with calmness and self-control. And those with above the sun wisdom add to that trust in God’s promises and hope in Jesus’ example.

Kids, this week when your brother or sister or the kid at school says mean things, don’t say mean things back. Instead, try to say something nice or don’t respond at all and quietly pray for them.

Husbands and wives, this week when your spouse acts out in folly or sin toward you, don’t reply in kind or with condemnation. Instead, consider the fruits of the Spirit and do your best to be a blessing to them in their time of frustration.

Employees and employers, this week when your boss or employee or coworker does something frustrating or obnoxious or mean, remember how Jesus endured similar (and worse) things, entrust justice to the Lord, and do your job even better than you otherwise would have.

If fools are easy to recognize and calm rationality is the wise response in the face of folly, we might wonder how often we’re going to need to be prepared to do so or, from another angle, we might wonder where fools are concentrated. Again, in God’s kindness, the Preacher addressed that question in the final verses that we’ll consider this morning.

Folly Is Found Everywhere (5-7)

How prevalent is folly and where is it found? Is it predominantly among the poor and uneducated? Is it mainly among the second generation of the wealthy? Are fools few and far between? Look at v.5 for the answer.

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.

The bottom line is that folly is everywhere. There is no place or position in which it is not found. It is found among the highest positions of authority and in the lowest slave. It is found among the richest of the rich and the poorest of the poor. We see it in the most educated, tenured university professors and in preschool kids. We see it in pastors and atheists. We see it in actors, musicians, and athletes as well as in aid workers, counselors, and health-care workers. We see it in politicians and philosophers. We see it in the United States and wherever is the exact opposite side of the globe from the United States.

Folly is everywhere, even in small amounts it corrupts (at times) catastrophically, it is always the wrong choice, it is easy to recognize, we ought to avoid it wherever possible, and when we can’t we ought to respond to it with quiet calmness, entrusting ourselves to the Father according to the example of Jesus.

CONCLUSION

Again, then, the big idea of these few verses is that folly is destructive, dangerous, recognizable, unnecessary, and prevalent. And the main takeaway is to weed out the folly in our lives and the lives of those we love and replace it with the wisdom of God.

However, while all the under the sun wisdom in the world might allow us to maximize our under the sun happiness, it will always fall short of providing true satisfaction and is entirely impotent to reconcile us to God. At best, it will reveal to us that there is a higher satisfaction and a need to be made right with God, but it cannot get us there.

In the end, we need God’s help—we need above the sun wisdom—to know that wisdom always begins with the fear of the Lord (Proverbs 9:10). Every ounce of above the sun wisdom begins there and is rooted there.

Further, we need God’s help to know that true wisdom is folly to those who are perishing in their sin (1 Corinthians 1:18). Not only is this kind of wisdom inaccessible to us apart from God’s help, it sounds ridiculous whenever we hear it.

And above all, we need God’s help to know that Jesus is the wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1:24).

²⁰ Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? ²¹ For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. ²² 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.

Grace, if you have ears to hear, listen to the above the sun promises and wisdom of God that are in Jesus Christ alone and trust in them, trust in Him, with all you have.