Folly in high places | Ecclesiastes 9:13-10:20 (Mark Evans: 11-12-2023)

The sermon continues the series on the book of Ecclesiastes, covering chapters 9 and 10. It discusses the importance of wisdom and the dangers of folly. It emphasizes that wisdom is more valuable than might and that even a little folly can outweigh wisdom. The sermon also highlights the power of folly to destroy good and warns against the influence of fools. It concludes by encouraging listeners to pursue wisdom and be vigilant against folly. If you have your Bibles, do grab them and make your way to the book of Ecclesiastes. We continue our sermon series through this wonderful book and for today, I'll be finishing chapter 9 and covering all of chapter 10. So chapter 9, verse 13 through the end of chapter 10. And to get us going, I'll read the first seven verses as well as verses 16 and 17. And these are the words of the God who is from everlasting to everlasting. The dead flies make the perfumer's ointment give off a stench, so a little folly outweighs wisdom and honor. A wise man's heart inclines him to the right, but a fool's heart to the left. Even when he walks on the road, he lacks sense, and he says to everyone that he is a fool. If the anger of a ruler rises against you, do not leave your place, for calmness will lay great offenses to rest. There is an evil that I've seen under the sun, as it were, an error proceeding from the ruler. Folly is set in many high places, and the rich sit in a low place. I have seen slaves on horses and princes walking on the ground like slaves. Now verse 16, woe to you, O land, when your king is a child and your princes feast in the morning. 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, while the grass withers and the flower fades. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we do indeed praise you for your word, that it is sweeter than honey from the honeycomb, that it is able to make wise the simple. And so, Father, here we are as your simple children and praying that you would give us light upon light, that you would open our eyes, that you would change our very hearts, for you are our maker, our redeemer, our friend. We pray that you would give us above all eyes to see the Lord Jesus Christ, the richest of them all, who became poor for our sakes, that we might become rich. In his name we pray. Amen. Amen. You may be seated. Well, if you ever want a truth stranger than fiction, just roll through the history of European kings. You'll find kings like King Henry VIII, who had six wives in total and had two of them killed. You'll find kings like Emperor Caligula, who was said that he wanted to appoint a horse to his cabinet. Kings like Charles VI of France, who was convinced in his mind that his body was made up entirely of glass. And there's Charles XII, who became king of Sweden when he was just a teenager, and his wild behaviors included riding on horseback through his grandmother's apartment, knocking the wigs off of court officials, shooting firearms out the palace windows, and apparently getting bears drunk. Well, in response to that, the leading preachers of Stockholm banded together and they agreed to preach from the same text on the same Sunday in order to pronounce a curse upon the land of Sweden. Because it seems that Sweden had a child for a king instead of a man, a reveling ruler rather than a righteous ruler. And the particular scripture that the preachers of Stockholm decided to preach from that faithful Sunday is actually our very text this morning, Ecclesiastes 10. And you'll soon see why they would choose this text for that situation. And Solomon tells us how life under the sun is very much a backwards world. And so we'll walk through chapter 10, as always, looking at wisdom and folly in relation to our work, our words, and then lastly, our backwards world. And you might notice that wisdom literature gives us instruction from everything to our lips to our labor. And we're reminded as to just how broad, how all-encompassing is the Christian life, which is just another way of simply saying that the Lordship of Jesus Christ extends to all areas of life. There's no secret compartment that you could petition off from the Lordship of Christ. When we open our mouth, when we think a thought, when we head off to work, even in casting a vote for a political leader, in every situation, Christ is Lord. As Abraham Kuyper famously said, there's not one square inch of this world that Christ does not point to and declare mine. And is this that Ecclesiastes has to teach us? Lord willing, after today, we only have two weeks left in the book. And who knows, the next time will come for us to sit under wisdom literature. Could be months, could be years. In the words of Solomon, who knows what is going to come tomorrow. And so I pray that one thing that this series has provoked in you is an unrelenting desire to get wisdom, to seek her out, to find her, to prize her above all else. You could even ask yourself right now, what am I doing to pursue wisdom? How much devotion do I have to the scriptures, to prayer, to the wise counsel of others? How zealous are you to walk in the spirit, to humble yourself before God repeatedly? If you have no answers to those questions, the scripture is quite clear that there is no reason to expect wisdom. That wisdom does not just fall into someone's lap. While unfortunately, folly does. Folly is cheap and easy to come by. The good news is that our good God does give wisdom and He gives it generously to those who ask. And sure, we need more persuasion as to wisdom's value. We see wisdom's power in this little parable of verses 13 through 16 of chapter 9. It tells the story of the city that comes under siege. You can just skim those verses and you'll see how this conqueror rolls into a city and he ransacks it. All right, so an army rolls in. They've got Abrams tanks and Blackhawk helicopters and by every human calculation, this city is sacked. And then you see in verse 15, chapter 9, Solomon says, not so fast, all because of one poor man, who though poor, he was wise. We don't know how, but through his wisdom, this city was delivered from certain destruction. One man's wisdom overcame an entire army. But typical of Ecclesiastes, just as you think, well, surely, they renamed the city after this man. Surely, they made this man mayor, or at minimum, they built a statue to honor this man. Verse 15 says, nope, he was forgotten. Nobody cared. Nobody even knows his name any longer. Such is life under the sun. There will be times when you have done something and yet you receive no recognition. You were the hero, yet the thankless hero. You had solutions, but nobody listened, nobody cared. There'll be times when you serve and you pour yourself out and yet your service is overlooked, maybe even despised. Such is life under the sun. And of course, our great high priest knows this better than anyone, for no one became poorer and no one wiser than Jesus Christ, who delivered not just the city, but delivered the entire world. And of course, he was not simply forgotten. He was despised, rejected by the very ones that he came to save. To read Ecclesiastes, we're reminded Christ himself endured more vanity than anyone. But his vanity of life is not to deter us from seeking wisdom. Solomon concludes his parable in verse 16. And he says, despite how backwards this is, wisdom is still better than might. I think verse 18 puts it even clearer. Wisdom is better than weapons of war. I know I experienced this firsthand in martial arts. I remember one of the very first times I wrestled against a black belt. And I remember prior to the match thinking, man, I have every advantage over this person. I have a weight advantage. I have more brute strength than this person does. I have more raw power than this person does. And yet it took him all of 20 seconds to wipe the floor with me. And why? Well, because he had a skilled knowledge. He had wisdom in wrestling that he could apply to a given situation or a given position. And his wisdom made my strength all the more embarrassing. And that is wisdom's glory. It is better than weapons of war. And of course, how much more so is that the case with our spiritual wrestling? As we wrestle against principalities, powers, the dark spiritual forces of evil, as we withstand the prince of darkness himself, the psalmist says, God's word can make us wiser than our enemies. What does Solomon want to do the very moment we're fired up to storm the gates of hell? He brings us back down to reality. Because in the next section, he says, yes, wisdom has great strength, however, it is offset by folly. As still worse, folly is in some ways actually stronger than wisdom. It outweighs it, you could say. Chapter 9 ominously concludes with this verse, one sinner can destroy much good. In chapter 10, verse 1 gives us the perfect image of that. Dead flies make the perfumer's ointment give off a stench. The image is as striking as it is clear. I imagine you've got this wonderful aromatic perfume or diffuser, this pleasing aroma fills the room. Everyone likes it, including the flies. It just takes a few tiny flies, and now that wonderful aroma is a stench of death. That is how powerful folly is. A little folly swallows up wisdom. Kids, I'm sure you have experienced this. Kids, I'm sure there's been a time when you're in a group, you're in a classroom, you're on a team, everyone is doing what they're supposed to be doing except for maybe one or two children. You've just got one or two kids, and maybe they are acting a fool, being disruptive. And you know that's all it takes, and it ruins the entire experience for all. Same truth of a church body, isn't it? It only takes a little leaven, a small minority to spoil the aroma of Christ in a church family. That is how great folly's power is. It reminds us as to just how vigilant the Christian must be to put it off. It takes just one rude word, one hasty decision, one lapse of judgment, one moment of arrogance to unravel the labor of wisdom. Now that said, one advantage is that folly is easily identified. Spotting folly is like spotting the big E on the I-chart. Verse 3 says, even when the fool walks on the road, he lacks sense and he says to everyone that he is a fool. In a sense, the fool sounds forth with a trumpet, announcing to everyone that he has arrived on the scene. And the fool does this in various ways, right? Never saying the wrong thing at the wrong time, erupting in anger and frustration, refusing to listen to counsel, or just endlessly airing his opinions unsolicited. It's important to see as it sets the tone for this entire section, how the heart is the guiding compass of it all. As Proverbs says, above all else, guard your heart. And so verse 3 says, the fool is this way, he's inclined to the left because his heart so inclines him. We know foolishness is not an intelligence issue, right? We all know people quite brilliant, and yet they say in their hearts, there is no God. Folly comes from within. So foolishness is self-disclosing, easily identified. But unfortunately, the ratio of folly to wisdom is always highly skewed in favor of folly. It's far harder to get wisdom, far easier to be foolish. And so we're to expect encounters with it. Verse 4 gives us a game plan, all right, in that cooler heads will prevail. You see this here, if the anger of a ruler rises against you, don't leave your place. Calmness can lay offenses to rest. You might remember a similar proverb from Proverbs verse 15, that a soft answer turns away wrath, that the tongue can break a bone if it is soft. So Solomon says, right, stand your ground, keep calm, right? Don't be intimidated, stay cool. You may have experienced this in your workplace, right? You may have that supervisor who is the fool, the classic hothead, and he is always venting out his anger, his frustration on his employees. It's tempting in that moment to stomp out the door and say, I'm not going to take this anymore. And there may be a time for that, but Solomon says there's power in just staying calm, cool, and collected. This was Peter's counsel we just read from 1 Peter on governing authorities, that there's a great power of patience that the Christian have that can silence the fool. People need to get used to things being this way, embracing the vanity, you might say, because Solomon now goes on to say that not only does folly outweigh wisdom, not only is it more common, but to make matters worse, folly rises to the top. Verse 6, he says, folly is set in many high places. There was that old Garth Brooks country song that had the lyric, I got friends in low places. Solomon's ballad is simply, I got fools in high places. It was Mark Twain who once joked, suppose you were an idiot, and suppose you were a member of Congress, but I repeat myself. Folly has a kind of inexplicable way of rising to the top, of being promoted. And folly in high places is, of course, immediately relevant to us. I just think of our best, and by best I just mean most popular, most influential. Consider our best entertainers, our best screenwriters, our best politicians, our elite educators, our top scientists, our business moguls, who often occupies these lofty positions. Our top scientists are at the point of they can no longer discern the difference between a boy and a girl. Our elite educators are more concerned with critical theory than they are with classic virtues. How many elections come to pass as the populace bemoans in a kind of stupefied gaze, wondering, is this really the best person we have to rule and to govern over us? And when folly is in power, you can get a backwards world, verses 6 and 7 depict it. The rich sit low, and slaves are on horses while princes are on the ground. You see, you have this kind of inversion as to how things ought to be. So that might mean, practically speaking, you could go and honestly acquire wealth through hard work and diligence. Say you apply the book of Proverbs to your life, well, Ecclesiastes rides in and say, well, that's true, but your wealth could be turned on its head, all because there's folly in high places. The world of physics has a term for this known as entropy, that scientists look at the world and they see a little bit of disorder, a kind of degree of dysfunction that is baked into the physical world. Not that it's all chaotic, but there's just enough disorder that it is noticeable. And the Christian worldview says, yes, but of course, right, this is a curse as old as Eden. God has subjected this world to a kind of futility. And you see such entropic effects of the fall in the next section, beginning in verse 8, and it reads this, and he who digs a pit will fall into it. The serpent bites him who breaks through the wall. He who quarries stones is hurt by them, and he who splits logs is endangered by them. All right, these are the consequences of living in a fallen world. It's no sin to split logs, right? This is not a moral issue, but it comes with a danger, doesn't it, right? Just one bad swing of the axe and you have one less hand to work with. And we all face these kind of occupational hazards, right? If you're in the medical field, you risk contracting disease yourself or toxicity from medications. If you're a cop or a soldier, you face certain physical dangers on a much less exciting level. The white-collar worker faces carpal tunnel syndrome in his wrist, a bad back from sitting at the desk all day. The school teacher faces near certain insanity from teaching children all day, and so on and so on. But what can mitigate these dangers is wisdom. Now, to be sure, wisdom doesn't eliminate these, but you see how it can lessen the disorder in verse 10. Solomon says, if the iron is blunt and one doesn't sharpen the edge, he must use more strength. But wisdom helps one to succeed. So last week, Solomon preached work hard. This week, he preaches work smart. Abe Lincoln once said that if he were to chop a tree for four hours, he would spend three of those hours sharpening the blade. And that's the point of this proverb, right? Before you rush out, don't just use brute force. It's better to sharpen the instrument. Don't chop down a tree with a Nerf noodle. That's not smart. But of course, even to make that calculation in itself takes wisdom, right? You'd have to be prudent enough to make the tradeoff and say, I'm going to trade the time I would be chopping, and I'm going to trade that for sharpening. Now, that's an easy example, but of course, it only gets more complex the more life is lived under the sun. For instance, rather than going right into the workforce after high school, the received wisdom says, invest four more years in college, sharpening your mind, sharpening your craft, fine-tuning your skills. You're going to trade income today to sharpen the ax for tomorrow. And parents and students have to wrestle with, okay, is higher education all that higher, right? Is it really sharpening the blade, or is it dulling the blade? And that is what Solomon would have you consider in all areas of life. And so, you're right to ask the question, how sharp is my blade? What are the dull areas of my life, my work, my speech, my disciplines, my time? What do I need to sharpen right now, today, knowing it's going to take more time in the short term, and you make up for it in the long term? This is, of course, above all the case when it comes to our training in godliness. As Timothy says, such training is of value in every way, not just for this life, but for the life to come. That's where the smart money is. Well, by contrast, the fool's work stands out in two areas, in competence, and secondly, in laziness. You see, verse 15, the toil of a fool wearies him, for he does not know his way to the city. So, the fool has this flurry of activity and busyness, but he makes no gains. The way we put it is, he could get lost in an elevator. Secondly, you see laziness, verse 18, by sloth, the roof sinks in, unlike our Texas roofs. In the ancient Near East, roofs were flat, so they had a dual purpose. You could not just have a roof over your head, but you could go up there and you could hang out. But every roof came equipped with a roof roller, like a giant paint roller, and you'd need to go out there and roll out the mud, and if you didn't, you were going to have leaks through your roof. Of course, there's nothing new under the sun, the same today, right? All it takes is a little sloth, and your car no longer runs, your yard sprouts weeds, your dishes pile up, your gutters get clogged, your body turns flabby, your mind goes to waste. Just prop up your feet, and disorder sets in. There's a reason for the maxim that nature abhors a vacuum. And again, on a more serious level, right? Just add some sloth, and before long, your marriage, your family, your relationships, above all, your devotion to Jesus Christ is soon spoiled and deteriorating. It's true of work, it's true in the Christian life, it is certainly true for a church. The storm tomorrow, and that is Monday, November 13th, actually marks the day the Cornerstone Presbyterian Church turns one year old. So, here we are in our diapers, perhaps taking our first baby steps, and with time comes the temptation for a church to rest on its laurels, be complacent, and to just start coasting, to be lukewarm, and that is a temptation that we must always face down, remembering just a little sloth, and the roof starts to leak. So we've seen wisdom at work, now let's consider with our words. Indeed, one of the most convicting things that the Lord Jesus says is that we will be judged for every careless word that we utter. This is the weight that Scripture assigns to our words, and we know why, because Scripture says that our words are just windows into our heart. Rotten words from the rotten heart, good words coming from the good heart. And so Solomon says in verse 12, the wise man's words win him favor, and it was said of Jesus at the start of His ministry, the crowds marveled at His gracious words, right? Every word that He spoke was soaked in wisdom, like as Solomon said, He had a tongue like a ready scribe, because never was a heart so full of love, so full of truth, and so when He opened up His mouth, what else could possibly come out but words soaked in grace. By contrast, we often use our words to get something, to get attention, to get a laugh, to get our way, to get our voice heard. But the wise utter words, not so much to get, but in order to give. Like someone's a question of us, when you open your mouth, do I give grace to those who hear? Do I edify those around me? Do I build them up? Because you see, by comparison, the fool's words tear down, even in self-destruction. This imagery of verse 12, the fool's lips consume him. You can think of that warning of Proverbs to the mother who has the power to build up her house. And at the same time, she has the folly to tear it down, namely to tear it down with her words. Secondly, Solomon says the fool's words are high in quantity. Verse 14, you see the fool multiplies his words. High word count. And what helps us to be wise as serpents is to see the fool with his many words is never lacking in confidence. As Americans, we love confidence. We like to listen to people who are confident. Confidence is very persuasive. Indeed, the term con-man is just short for confidence man. Confidence has a persuasive power to it. And so you see, Solomon says in verse 14, beware that the fool will project this confidence in the sense that even though no one knows what's to come, no one knows what tomorrow holds, it doesn't stop the fool from making groundless predictions, boldful assertions. Right? Fools tend to be big talkers who air their opinions unsolicited. And as it's said, the wise speak because they have something to say. The fool speaks because he has to say something. All right, so we've seen our work. We've seen our words. Lastly, a look at our world, namely as it concerns leadership. Let's just pause to observe what are big flashing red lights. You see that word in verse 16 of the word woe, as in woe to you. Woe is just a biblical way of expressing judgment. You might remember Jesus pronounced seven woes, seven denunciations on the Pharisees. And Solomon rarely uses this language in Ecclesiastes. This is only the second time that he invokes the word woe. So you know this is no small matter. And here's the full weight of it in verse 16, woe to you when your king is a child and your princes feast in the morning. Simply put, judgment upon a land when things are entirely backwards, when you have a child on the throne. Because the ideal king from Deuteronomy was a fully matured man in every way. He had a copy of God's law. He had learned how to fear the Lord. His powers of discernment were well trained. In short, all things that a child simply could not be. It's that component of wisdom that hangs upon time and experience that are irreplaceable. As Proverbs says, by wisdom kings reign. And that's why Solomon says, woe to you when a child rules. Or as he says, when you have rulers who feast in the morning. In other words, the very time that they should be getting after it, right, doing everything that they can to serve and protect your people, instead you've got this drunken feasting during the morning. You can think of the very first king, King Adam's failure. He ate at the wrong time and he ate in the wrong way. In our vernacular we would say, woe to the land whose rulers have no virtue and no self-control, no moderation, who abuse their authority in self-interest. They abuse their political clout to pad their pockets and they live in self-indulgence. Woe to that land. And this is, of course, immediately, if not painfully applicable to our political landscape. We live in the age of decadence today that in countless ways trickles from the capital on down to the populace. And we're right to see here that one way, not the only way, but certainly one way that God judges nations is simply by who He decides to install upon the thrones. This will of Solomon is actually picked up by the prophet Isaiah. Isaiah prophesied to Israel that God was going to give them boys for princes and infants to rule over them. And you see that will played out in the life of Israel. The further and further she goes in terms of her faithlessness, the further she slides into apostasy, the worse and worse are the rulers. Now of course today, we're not a theocracy in the same way that Israel was, but of course the principle remains in full force. Woe when you have rulers who do not rule in the fear of the Lord. That is often a token of God's judgment. We even just confessed that magistrates are God's gift to us for our civil good. As Proverbs says, righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people. Because Solomon's logic is that same backwardness of feasting in the morning will eventually make its way out into the public square to the people. And thus today, you have rulers who desire drag shows for children, or the sanctioning of murdering of unborn children. And Solomon simply says, woe upon such a people. And it's tempting in those moments to start complaining, to start grumbling, rather than doing the hard work of reform, we might even give ourselves over to cursing. But you see verse 19, Solomon says, even in your thoughts, do not curse the king. And you see why? A bird of the air will carry your voice. We would put it as a little bird told your secret. To curse the king is to curse God's sovereignty. And in His providence, our words will be told and catch up with us. You might remember the fool named Shimei, who cursed King David in 2 Samuel, called David a worthless man, called him a man of blood. You don't have to know Hebrew to know that is an insult. And eventually his folly caught up with him. A little bird told his story. In fact, a little bird told his story to a new king, and that new king had him executed. And that new king is none other than the man Solomon himself. And we're right to note, cursing is not the same thing as being critically minded. You see Solomon here is being critical of leaders for their immaturity, for their impropriety. No, to curse is much stronger. It is to condemn. It is to despise. So there is the woe, but let's not end there. How about a blessing? What makes for the land happy is godly leadership. You see verse 17, the reverse. Solomon says, Happy are you, O land, when your kings are the son of nobility, and your princes feast at the right time for strength and not for drunkenness. Again, simply put, righteousness exalts a nation. It was said of King David that his rule was like the sun shining on a cloudless morning. Right? Imagine that. Wouldn't that be something? If you could look at your political leaders and think, man, they're rule over us. It's like the sun shining upon this land. Well, you can get a feel for the success of secularism, and that even the modern day Christian has all but lost the ability to say that Christianity belongs in the public square. They may be far more likely to say that politics and religion are to be kept separate. So Solomon reminds us, we could even say rebukes us, that not only are politics and religion not separate, in fact, they cannot be separated. The question is not whether there will be a religion on the throne, the question is which religion will it be? Will it be the god of tolerance? The god of secularism? Will it be the god of liberalism? Or will it be the true and the living god? More happy is the land when such rulers rule in the fear of the Lord because it's the Christian faith alone that provides the resources for liberty, for peace, for human rights. And so what is ours to do in the land of woe? Quite simply, to fear God, to seek His wisdom, to plead His mercy, to courageously stand your ground and keep calm, and above all, to remain faithful to the cause of Jesus Christ. I hope you see it's true, that no matter how much woe in the land, happy are God's people because God has given us the best ruler of all, the true son of nobility in the Son of God. That's why you can always say happy is the church. God has given Jesus Christ as head over all things to the church. If you're here this morning and you're not a Christian, here is the one and only King who did what no other king could do and no other king would do, that He gave His life as a ransom for sinners. Here is the one King who declares that whoever comes to Him, He will in no wise cast out. Here is the King whose blessings flow as far as the curse is found. Not so happy are God's people, for what king is like Him? He knew how to feast at the proper time for strength. Just think of that final meal, that last supper with His disciples. There in that upper room, Jesus summoning all of His strength to go to the cross, to destroy the works of the devil and to set free His people once and for all. Happy is the church for what king is like this who rules over them? Let us pray. Our gracious God and heavenly Father, indeed we praise You that You have given us the greatest King of all, the King who loved us, who gave Himself up for us as a ransom for our sins to set us free from sin, from Satan, from death itself. Father, we praise You for Your Word that it does make wise the simple. And so we pray as we hear Your Word that we would store it up in our hearts, that we would walk it out in our lives, that we would do so by the power of Your Spirit and for Your glory. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.