“The Rise and Fall of
Wisdom”
A
Sermon on Ecclesiastes 9:13-10:7
March
23, 2003
by Rev. Stephen C.
Magee
Ecclesiastes 9:13-10:7
13 This wisdom I have also seen under the sun, and it seemed great to me:
14 There was a little city with few men in it; and a great king came against it, besieged it, and built great snares around it. 15 Now there was found in it a poor wise man, and he by his wisdom delivered the city. Yet no one remembered that same poor man.
16 Then I said:
"Wisdom is better than strength.
Nevertheless the poor man's wisdom is despised,
And his words are not heard.
17 Words of the wise, spoken quietly, should be heard
Rather than the shout of a ruler of fools.
18 Wisdom is better than weapons of war;
But one sinner destroys much good."
10:1 Dead flies putrefy the perfumer's ointment,
And cause it to give off a foul odor;
So does a little folly to one respected for wisdom and honor.
2 A wise man's heart is at his right hand,
But a fool's heart at his left.
3 Even when a fool walks along the way,
He lacks wisdom,
And he shows everyone that he is a fool.
4 If the spirit of the ruler rises against you,
Do not leave your post;
For conciliation pacifies great offenses.
5 There is an evil I have seen under the sun,
As an error proceeding from the ruler:
6 Folly is set in great dignity,
While the rich sit in a lowly place.
7 I have seen servants on horses,
While princes walk on
the ground like servants.
At the beginning of the 21st
century, the
In these last few years since the
fall of the
As I introduce these ancient words
of wisdom from the ninth and tenth chapters of Ecclesiastes, I simply wish to
note this fact: Over the course of just a few years, we have grown very used to
the fact that in the field of international affairs, we possess both might and
right, both strength and wisdom. This
has quickly become to us a most normal state of affairs. But it is not at all normal. Twenty years ago it was not clear that we had
such superiority and strength. Even less
than two years ago we suffered an attack from an enemy who caught us off guard,
destroying many lives, much property, and our economic security by taking
control of our own planes and using them as weapons against us. We had great strength through the technology
of our missiles, but would we be able to defend against suspicious white powder
sent in a simple envelop to an unsuspecting recipient?
Today we have power, but tomorrow we
could feel very vulnerable again. Over
the course of human history, it has not at all been a given that those who had
might would also have right – that those who had strength would also have wisdom. It would seem that such a combination is not
all that common in the pages of history.
Nations and peoples who have not shared our moral and ethical heritage
have often been quite powerful.
Solomon begins this passage with an
account, a parable, a story of “a little city with few
men in it.” The point of this detail is
that this city was not a particularly strong city. It was vulnerable to the attack of more
formidable powers that might come against it.
This is how the story proceeds.
“A great king came against it,” that is a powerful king, a powerful
foe. The little city with few men seemed
to be in big trouble. The powerful king
built siege works against the little city, surrounding it in such a way that
there could be no escape or deliverance.
But, in a most unexpected development, there was found in the little
city “a poor wise man, and he by his wisdom delivered
the city.” We don’t know how he was
identified by the powers that be in the city, or what his word of wisdom was. All we are told is that somehow it worked, and
the city was saved through this wisdom.
Wisdom seemed to prevail. But
there is one more sentence in the parable. “Yet no one remembered that same
poor man.” At the end of the story, he
remained a poor wise man, and his wisdom was not appreciated by the populace,
despite the fact that it was powerful for the protection of the land. Wisdom was effective, but in some sense
unable to hold on to the place of victory.
Solomon proceeds to give seven
points of reflection upon this parable.
Before we proceed with these, it is worth noting that before he told the
story, he mentioned that the wisdom that he received from it seemed great to him
(verse 13). Here are the seven things
that he reflects upon in these verses.
1.
Wisdom is better than strength.
The city was delivered by wisdom,
despite the strength of the adversary.
Wisdom was shown to be superior to brute force. For this reason, our ears should be attentive
to wisdom. It is important for us to
remember what wisdom is. It is more than
raw intelligence, or data, or knowledge.
Wisdom is connected in the Bible with holiness of life lived in the
presence of God. It is the sum of a
right orientation of the heart that yields wise choices in daily living. It cuts through the fog of prevailing worldly
deceptions, sees things clearly, and acts accordingly. This is more powerful than weapons of mass
destruction. Wisdom should be heard,
even though it may be spoken quietly by someone without prestige or power.
2.
Wisdom is sometimes unheard, despised, or forgotten.
There are times when no one is
attentive to wisdom at all. Righteous
Lot tried to warn his sons-in-law concerning the coming destruction of
3.
Sinful foolishness overthrows much wisdom.
The next reflection is the one that
begins to have some bite to it. In this
world of common curse, this world under the sun, foolishness has its own
special power. It does not take much
foolishness to win the day. The foggy
clouds of deception can roll back in again so quickly and the fresh breeze of
wisdom that had granted such clarity of vision is soon forgotten. In a society, this seeming victory of
foolishness over wisdom can come through even one sinful fool, for “one sinner
destroys much good.” This point is
abundantly proven through the pages of Scripture, and is amply attested in the
annals of history.
Leadership skills and forceful
rhetoric are powerful tools for either good or evil. Yesterday’s paper included a story from the
legacy of the first gulf war. Apparently
hundreds of thousands of Iraqis who prematurely celebrated the demise of Saddam
in the 1990s were slain by the order of that one sinful man who managed to stay
in power that time around. We can
earnestly hope that those who are celebrating the imminent liberation of their
nation today will not meet with a similar end.
From Adam to Cain to Lamach to Pharaoh to
Judas to Caiaphas to Nero to Hitler to Pol Pot to Saddam, “one sinner destroys much good.”
4.
A little foolishness in a man overthrows much wisdom.
This problem of the victory of
foolishness within a society can also be seen within an individual. We are told that even “a little folly” in one
“respected for wisdom and honor” is like dead fleas in something that is
supposed to be pure and fragrant.
Solomon was such a man himself, respected for wisdom and honor, and yet
his episodes of folly were devastating.
Using his own metaphor, he had more than a few fleas, despite his great
wisdom.
All of us unfortunately have the
same disease. As the author himself stated in Ecclesiastes 8:11, "the heart of the
sons of men is fully set in them to do evil." We too apparently have some fleas in our
perfume, just as Solomon himself had more than a little folly.
5.
Foolishness is fairly obvious to obvious to observe.
The next point that the author makes
is that this problem of human foolishness is not exactly a secret issue. A man's folly is obvious to all. Where is the wise man without a little
folly? As Solomon said earlier in
Ecclesiastes 7:28, such a wise man is one among a thousand.
The “victory” of foolishness is that
it seems to overwhelm wisdom, and this is fairly obvious to all. In fact, the fool cannot even go out for a
walk without showing forth his foolishness.
6. Stay humbly at your post despite the
foolishness of a ruler.
If we are not to be surprised when
we see the power of foolishness in even the wise and the honorable, it should not
be a complete shock to us to find foolishness in our leaders. What are we to do when we see sin in high
places? We know that we are called to
submit to those in authority. Solomon
gives us some very practical guidance here.
Even when we find ourselves to be the victim of the foolishness of a
superior, or the victim of our own foolishness, we are to remain steady, and to
stay at our post. As we learn in
Proverbs, a “gentle answer turns away wrath.”
As much as it depends upon us, we should do our best to be conciliatory,
and look to see a corresponding yield of gentleness on the part of those who
have authority over us.
7. Fools often win in this life, and wise nobles
often lose.
When all is said and done, we need
to remember that our hope is not in this world.
Expectations of wisdom always prevailing in this life are
unwarranted. Also, expectations that
those who have strength will always be those who have wisdom are misplaced. This seems to be the message of this
passage. Do we understand why those who
seem to us well-suited for leadership often have no opportunity to use their
gifts, and those who seem to us to be troublesome rulers are sometimes placed
by God in positions of authority? No, we
do not. As we have seen throughout this
cycle, the wisdom of God is beyond us.
But what we have learned is this.
Wisdom is excellent, and to be sought after, but it does not always
prevail in this world of common curse.
As we have considered the story at the
beginning of this text, and Solomon's seven-fold reflections upon it, we see
both the superiority and the defeat of wisdom in this world under the sun. We long for a place where wisdom will prevail
forever. We know that wisdom can save
the city. We want it to be heard,
appreciated, followed, and remembered.
The Fall of
Wisdom
But we see the obvious limitations of wisdom. The power of foolishness is evident. It is plain for everyone to see. We see the victory of foolishness in
ourselves, since we so easily erase the worth of the wisdom and honor that we
possess with just a little bit of deadly folly.
We also see the leavening effect of foolishness within our society, as
the fog of the devil's deceptions seems to overshadow our world.
If I consider the current war that
we are fighting, I wonder if we will prevail against our enemies in far-away
lands, only to be destroyed by our own foolishness here at home.
Wisdom is Better… Wisdom Rises Again.
Yet we must still concluded
with Solomon that wisdom is better than all earthly power. There is a Wisdom that has visited us in
person in Jesus Christ. His words and
His actions seemed to rise in the hearts of the populace of His day for a
time. They were amazed that he taught
with authority, and they marvelled at His command
over every power, defeating the wind and the waves, and even death itself with
a simple commanding word.
Christ is our wisdom and our
power. In this world he brought forth a
wisdom that seemed weak, but which prevails.
It is the wisdom of the cross.
The power of the cross was not displayed in the approval of a cursed
world. The power of the wisdom of Christ
was ultimately displayed in His resurrection.
It is that same resurrection power which is at work in us by the Spirit
of God. Wisdom may seem to rise, and
wisdom may seem to fall, at least in the opinion of men. Where the wisdom of God truly shines is when
wisdom rises again. It is this
resurrection that we have come to believe in.
We have seen the power of the cross in taking away our sins, and the
power of the resurrection in assuring us of the certainty of the promises of
God for all who would believe. I call
you to this resurrection faith and to this resurrection wisdom this morning.
So what should you do now? Stay on your post, and live the life of
sacrificial love in faith today and always.
As dearly-loved children, follow the Lord of wisdom. Though you wonder how it could be that
foolishness seems to prevail in so many places, remember that the wisdom of God
is beyond us. Set your heart on
resurrection thinking, and work faithfully at your post until that day when the
Lord relieves you of your earthly duties.