Wisdom, Folly and Rulers
Passage: Ecclesiastes 10:1-20
Qoheleth, the Preacher, King Solomon has been extoling the virtue of wisdom over everything else in this life under the sun. Seeking to become wise and mature in negotiating the ever changing and fleeting challenges of life has been his mantra.
But this is not as easy as it sounds, and the Preacher is not about quick or easy fixes. He has made much work of observing all of life from every angle and he sees contradictions, irony and paradox, as normal parts of life.
Happiness is vanity, fleeting, and yet happiness is the only thing a reasonable person can pursue in this life. Eat, drink and have pleasure and live as happily as you can while you live.
Toil is vanity, fleeting, what does it profit in the end, yet whatever your hand finds to do, do with all your might.
Wisdom and folly are the same in the end, both come to the same end, yet wisdom is precious and to be pursued, it gives more strength than ten rulers.
He has explored what wisdom can and can’t do in chapter seven, in chapter eight he reminded us of why we must remain humble regarding wisdom since our wisdom can’t understand or comprehend God and His ways. Chapter 9 once again declares when all is said and done, wisdom is better than folly, every time, all the time.
Solomon has tried to make this point as clear as possible. To drive the point home we now takes out his hammer and a big fist full of nails to hammer the point home, 20 nails actually.
He gives us an onslaught of proverbial wisdom. These proverbs are meant to spur us on toward wisdom and away from folly. Solomon shows his wisdom in how he can see things in common, daily live and make moral and ethical applications from them. This comes off as a random sampling of practical advice, but in it is great wisdom.