Ecclesiastes 10:12-20

The book of Proverbs, chapter 10. Clesiasties. Yes, let’s go to Clesiastes. I read 12. I’m not feeling really well tonight, so you’ll forgive me. Ecclesiastes chapter 10 and verses 12 through 20. The words of a wise man’s mouth are gracious. But the lips of a fool will swallow up himself. The beginning of the words of his mouth is foolishness, and the end of his talk is mischievous madness. A fool also is full of words. Man cannot tell what shall be, and what shall be after him. Who can tell him? The labor of the foolish wearieth every one of them, because he knoweth not how to go to the city. Woe to thee, O land, when thy king is a child, and thy princes eat in the morning. Blessed art thou, O’land, when thy king is the son of nobles, and thy princes eat in due season for strength, and not for drunkenness. By much slothfulness, the building. Duckeeth, and through idleness of the hands, the house dropeth through. A feast is made for laughter, and wine maketh merry, but money answers all things. Curse not the king, no, not in thy thought, and curse not the rich in thy bedchamber, for a bird of the air. shall carry the voice, that which hath wings, shall tell the matter. May God bless to us his sacred and holy word this evening. Well, police officers in St. Louis, Missouri at least got one easy arrest. It occurred at the back door of the police station. The suspect pulled his car up to the booking window. Turned out he thought he was at Burger King. So he tried to place an order of what he thought was the drive-up window. The booking officer arrested him for drunk driving. That was an easy one. Solomon here speaks of the use of wisdom in the affairs of life. As you go through life, you’re bound to run into the situations of which he says, speaks here in this chapter. And you need spiritual guidance. In our last study, we dealt with wisdom’s guidance with regard to authority in verses 4 to 7, with regard to vindictiveness in verses 8 and 9. And with regard to opposition in verses 10 and 11. Now in verses 12 to 20, Solomon continues his observations about wisdom. and he says wisdom gives you the ability to discern character, to read people. Our topic then is wisdom’s guidance again tonight. Wisdom will guide you with regard to identifying character, verses 12 to 15. Now, you will realize fools talk a great deal to no purpose, verses 12 to 14. The words of a wise man’s mouth are gracious, but the lips of a fool will swallow up himself. The beginning of the words of his mouth is foolishness, and the end of his talk is mischievous madness. A fool is full of words. A man cannot tell what shall be and what shall be after him who can tell him. Nothing reveals what kind of person you are more than what you say. For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh and reveals the heart’s condition. The words of the wise go out and we read here in verse 12 that they communicate grace to others. However, the words of the foolish turn against him and end up destroying him. He destroys himself by his words. To the latter part, the verse 12. It’s important to remember that in scripture a fool is not somebody who is just spiritually, or not someone who is just dull and unintelligent. In other words, they’re not just a dunce, so to speak. But someone who is not thinking spiritually. And when we talk about not thinking spiritually, we’re talking about in the finances, in economics, when it comes to business, politics, science, ethics, child-rearing, health care, religion. It doesn’t matter. All these areas, they’re not thinking spiritually. The full refuses to begin with God. His philosophy and attitude and words then don’t reflect God in his history. Finke. To begin with, the words of a full are foolish. Verse 13 says here, the first part of it. He says nothing useful. He starts out with a mind devoid of spiritual principles, so how can he say something useful? Yet, sadly, this is the way of life for a fool. It’s not an occasional thing. This is a continuous thing. And what starts out as foolishness ends as mischievous madness. The last part of verse 13. There’s an irrationality about the fool which causes all kinds of evil. It’s anti-God and totally debased. So the fool has a mischievous goal in his mind. He multiplies words, but there’s no real basis for confidence in the words that he says. He has no biblical foundation. He’s deceived. He has no knowledge of what the future holds. He’s ignorant. Verse 14, you can’t trust in what he says. But when did that ever stop a fool from building castles in the sky? He has grand schemes of success. But he’s delusional. The tongue of the fool spreads mischief wherever he goes in his family and society, stirring up envy and strife and confusion in every evil orc. I’m reminded of Amnon, the son of David, who had a friend who was also a relative of David, John Adap. Now David’s son, you recall Amnon, was lovesick over his step-sister, Tamar, who was a beautiful sister of Absalom. He was so vexed about it to the point of sickness and his lust for her. And so he appealed to his friend, John Adab for help. But John Adab was devoid of spiritual principles. He was a fool. So he advised him. Amnon to trick Tamar by pretending that he was sick and laid up in bed and asking David his father to have Tamar here come, cook some cakes for him, and feed him by his bedside. There, when she came in to do that, innocently enough, he trapped her. He grabbed hold of her. And he raped her. and ultimately you recall that absalom avenged this by killing him. This was the result of the foolishness of Jonah. And mischievous madness came out of it. This is how his foolish words ended. Johnadam smugly acts as if he’s all wise when the king thinks all his sons are slaughtered by absalom he says oh you shouldn’t think that it was just amnon he had the the vengeance for he’s in the no you see he’s in the know because he caused the whole mess that’s what happens when you listen to the advice of fools and jonadab was foolish and what he advised amnon to do so we should realize that when we talk it’s not just words sometimes if we say foolish things it can have bad repercussions the heart of the righteous studies the answer but the mouth of the wicked pourth out of evil things the the righteous man is careful he tries to think about what he says so that it may be beneficial to people as you deal with people in your daily life you will be able to identify their character just listen to what they say. Does this person speak gracious words which benefit others, then he must be wise. When Jesus walked among the children of men, people wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. He was a wise man. The famous reformer Martin Luther owed much to the gracious words of his friend Staupitz. God used this man to bring Luther to salvation. He spoke words which were beneficial to Luther’s soul. Here’s what he said. In order to be filled with the love of that which is good, he must first be filled with the love of God. If you wish to be really converted, do not follow these mortifications and penances, meaning of the Roman Catholic Church. Love him. first loved you. These words penetrated Luther’s heart. He began to study the word of God and he looked up those passages which speak of repentance and conversion, words which previously he had thought spoke of penance instead of repentance, and repentance, and now he no longer dreaded. In fact, he said those passages, Scripture, which once alarmed him and troubled him. him so much. Seem now to run to him from all sides to smile, to spring up, to play around him. These were gracious words then to Luther. The Bible has much to say about the use of the tongue because it reveals the inner state of your heart, whether you’re wise or whether you’re foolish. So you will realize fools talk a great deal to no good purpose. notice this also. You will realize fools toil a great deal to no good purpose. Verse 15. The labor of the foolish wearies, wearieth every one of them, because he knoweth not how to go to the city. I read a story about Augustine, one of the early church fathers. One day he was down walking by the seashore. And he happened to see. a little boy who had a shell in his hand and he had dug a big hole in the sand. And then he went down to the ocean and gathered some water and brought it up and dumped it into the hole. And he kept going down to the water and getting more water in his shell, bringing up, and dumping it into the hole. So Agathine thought he’d asked the boy, well, what are you doing? And the boy said, oh, I’m going to empty the ocean into this hole that I have placed up here and dug in the scene. My friend, that’s how the foolish are. They think they can accomplish things when they have no idea what they’re doing. And so their labor is foolish. Solomon says they weary themselves for nothing. they engage in a work that’s not profitable to anybody. When it comes to actions, particularly the consistency and competency, required to do something productive they lack. He has no inner guidance. Now, he’s talkative enough. He has endless energy to embark on new schemes, but for all that, he’s gripped with moral laziness that leads to vanity. even if you actually get a fool to work, all his labor is really for this world, for his own body. There’s nothing useful, spiritually speaking, in a fool’s labor. You know what’s not how to go to the city. That’s an interesting phrase here. It’s probably some kind of stock saying, like we would say, he doesn’t even know how to find his way home, or perhaps they don’t know enough to come in from the rain. The fool has no inner guidance system. He misses what should be obvious, and what is obvious to a novice Christian. He has no clue. Just like he doesn’t know the road that leads him to a major city, so he’s groping around in the dark spiritually. so wisdom will guide you with regard to identifying character. Secondly tonight, wisdom will guide you with regard to leadership. Versus 16 and 17. You will realize blessing comes through a leader who takes responsibility seriously. Versus 16 and 17. Wo unto thee, O land, when thy king is a child, my prince is eat in the morning. blessed art thou, O’ land when thy king is the son of nobles, and thy princes eat in due season for strength and not for drunkenness. How much the happiness, the peace, and the tranquility of a people, the country, depends on the leadership that they have. You can’t be very pleased when your leaders are foolish and bad. My friends, We can’t be very happy when what’s coming out of Washington. When there’s poor leadership, lacking spiritual knowledge, it leads to chaos. Solomon has spoken about incompetent leaders previously in verses 4 to 7. But here he pronounces such a ruler, a curse. Woe to thee, oh, land, when this is the case. It’s like a curse on the land. to have such bad leaders. Talked about, I think, God sometimes gives bad leaders for the very purpose of bringing judgment on a country. Contrast this, he says, with being one who’s a wise leader, it’s a blessing to the land. A king who has noble birth. In other words, there is a historical, we might say a line of people. of the family that have ruled over a period of time and therefore that’s beneficial. It’s sort of like the line of Judah that often had the son of the king would rule for years and years and years this was the case. But we get to the northern kingdom, you have all these assassinations and people taking over and then they get assassinated. And it’s just chaos when that’s the case. better to have somebody of noble birth taking over. What a predicament it was in the days of the judges, when every man did what was right in his own eyes, and you have the wicked man, Bimlech made king. That didn’t help much. He went out and killed all the sons of Gideon except for Jotham. And, you know, he was the son of a concubine. He didn’t have a noble birth. He ended up killing off the Israelites that didn’t follow his cause and so forth. It would be best if we had this continuous line. It would be best if we had those who were wise to lead. The fitness or the unfitness on a monarch is the way he eats. It’s not interesting. It says here that, woe onto a land where your princes eat in the morning. You’re blessed if your princes eat in due season for strength and not for drunkenness. Those who eat in the morning, the first concern they have here is for their own self-satisfaction. The implication of the next verse indicates to us they’re doing it for drunkenness, partying. They’re not focused on the responsibility. of the task, they’re focused on having a good time, satisfying themselves. It’s selfish. They’re acting childish in this regard. On the other hand, the good king and his princes eat in due season at the right time for strength and sustenance not to indulge a gluttonous appetite. I mean, you can be like King Belchazer who is behind the walls of Babylon eating and parting and getting drunk when the country’s falling apart being attacked by the Medes and Persians and being overrun. We see how that ended. So power grabbers and profit seekers and those who here are really in it for making money we find are a curse to any nation. So you will realize the blessing come through a leader that takes responsibility seriously. You will realize that a poor leader misgoverns and brings ruin. Versus 18 and 19. By much slothfulness, the building decayeth, and through idleness of the hands the house dropeth through. A feast is made for laughter and wine maketh merry, but money answereth all things. The drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty. Drowsiness shall clothe the man with rags, Proverbs 23, 21. The slothful ruler given to sensual indulgence that we see here will slumber in the affairs of the state. he will resemble then a decaying house the country will a small amount of damage to a house if not repaired it gets worse and worse whether it’s a small hole or a broken window or whatever the case may be until the house becomes dilapidated so it is with governments so it was with nations diligence is required to keep the nation from falling apart from crumbling that poor leaders are concerned about feasting, but legalized pillage, taking excessive taxation and using the money for themselves, misappropriating funds. The feasting, the food, the wine, the money are all there is for such people, but in the end, it leads to destruction. Feasting away. and your country’s falling apart, all around you, and they perish. So a poor leader misgoverns and brings ruin. Finally, be circumspect in your thoughts about leaders. Verse 20, curse not the king, no not in thy thought, curse not the rich in thy bedchamber, for a bird of the air shall carry the voice, that which hath wings. shall tell the matter. Now, Solomon assumes we’re going to have bad leaders, but he says, be careful what you say about them, because someone’s going to retabletail on you, and it could lead to all kinds of problems. So be cautious about what you say, and they’re like birds, these people, whether they’re spies, or whether they’re servants or passers or neighbors, they’re going to spill the beans, and like birds, they fly, they quickly bring that message back to the king. The law of God forbids us even to speak evil of those in leadership, even when they deserve it, we should honor the position, curve our tongue. So don’t give in to this idea of attacking him. We have to be careful what we say. And we don’t want to be in this look down as opposing the government as though we’re trying to overthrow it or something of this nature. The drunk who pulled up to the back door of the police station thinking it was a Burger King gave away his condition. Fools give away their condition by their words. Wisdom will guide you with regard to leadership. You can evaluate your leaders, but what they say, what they do, even how they eat. Let’s close with the word of prayer tonight.