Join Dr. David Jeremiah as he delves into the depths of Ecclesiastes in this intriguing episode of Turning Point. Uncover the profound lessons on wisdom and folly as shared by Solomon, particularly focusing on the pitfalls faced by leaders and laborers alike. Learn how the misuse of language can reflect the foolishness within, and why sharpening the mind is as crucial as sharpening one’s tools.
00:00:05 Introduction to Ecclesiastes and Fools Rush In
Are you really living wisely, or are you just wise in your own eyes? The difference between the two is enormous, and the consequences are eternal. Today on Turning Point, Dr. David Jeremiah returns to the book of Ecclesiastes, where Solomon has identified foolishness in some areas of life you might not have considered. Listen as David introduces the conclusion of his message, Fools Rush In. Have you ever had anybody say, be careful?
SPEAKER 02 :
Be careful where you’re going. Be careful what you’re doing. Solomon is doing that for us. He’s saying, okay, friends, let me tell you what I’ve learned. Here are some places where you can get in trouble and be foolish. And we’ve talked about a couple of them already, and we’ll finish that discussion today as we turn in Ecclesiastes to the 10th chapter. I’m so glad you joined with us. Many of you have been with us for the entire series. I hope you’re one of them. And if you missed a few things along the way, let me help you recover them. There’s a book that has every word I’ve spoken written in it and a lot more words, too. It’s the book 31 Days to Happiness. It is the exposition of the book of Ecclesiastes. You won’t find too many of these around the country. It’s a book that’s often avoided. but it’s a book filled with truth and help for all of us. And I’d love for you to have this 323-page book for a gift of any size during the month of February. Just a few days left, so make sure you don’t delay too long. Ask for your copy of 31 Days to Happiness when you send your gift to Turning Point today. And now, here we go with Part 2 of Fool’s Russian. Solomon says, sometimes foolishness falls into ego-driven leaders and sometimes it falls into easygoing leaders, verses five through seven. He said, there’s an evil I’ve seen under the sun as an error proceeding from the ruler. Folly is set in great dignity while the rich sit in a lowly place. I have seen servants on horses while princes walk on the ground like servants. Here is another folly, according to Solomon, an easygoing leader who puts unqualified people in office while he ignores those who should be leading under him. Perhaps he does what he does because he’s so insecure and he doesn’t want anybody to threaten him. So he puts in all of these people who shouldn’t be in leadership. They’re riding the horses. while the people who are leaders are walking around like servants. Really qualified people are placed where they cannot possibly be challenged or encouraged while the servants are given the positions of honor and you know that there is no way that can ever work. Ultimately, it will fall into disrepute and defeat. So we got the ego-driven leader and we got the easygoing leader. Now here’s one that’s really interesting in this passage, the engineered leader. Verses 16 and 17, watch this. Woe to you, O land, when your king is a child and your princes feast in the morning. Blessed are you, O land, when your king is the son of nobles and your princes feast at the proper time for strength and not for drunkenness. Now let me just kind of unpack all of that for you so that you can get the nuance of what Solomon is saying. He’s talking about the kind of leaders that sometimes get into office. They are not experienced leaders. They are put in office by the help of their friends. Their leadership is orchestrated, arranged, or negotiated. They don’t have a clue what they’re doing. And consequently, they don’t do anything. In the morning when they should be caring for the matters of state and government, they’re already feasting and drinking, and the implication is they party all day long. They are not deserving of leadership and office. And Solomon says, woe to you when your king is childish, when your leader’s like a little kid when he’s immature. Well, let me go on to the last one, the ego-driven leader, the easygoing leader, the engineered leader, and the last guy is the evil leader. He doesn’t have anything good you can say about him at all because he’s just plain out lazy. Because of laziness, the building decays, and through the idleness of hands, the house leaks. A feast is made for laughter, and wine makes merry, but money answers everything. Here’s a guy sitting at home, with a bottle of beer in his hand watching television. He’s supposed to be doing work, taking care of things. The house is falling down. Nothing’s going on right. He’s not doing his job. He’s just a plain old lazy bum. Yet he’s in a position where he’s supposed to have leadership and Solomon says, he has no excuses. He’s just an evil man who cares nothing about his responsibilities. Through his laziness, his leadership is dissipated and his kingdom is destroyed. Solomon, in the book of Proverbs, has a lot to say about laziness. Have you ever studied that? Sometime take your Bible and just read through Proverbs, read through all 31 chapters and underline all the verses where Solomon talks about being lazy. And you’ll come away with a whole new perspective on ambition and energy in your life. Well, Solomon has given us a little kind of a closing chapter here on wisdom and foolishness. And he says, sometimes you can be foolish in little things and it can have a great impact. And sometimes you can be foolish in leadership. There’s a lot of foolishness in leadership. Can I get a witness? Amen. Now he’s going to talk about another area, and we’ll cover this real quickly in verses 8 through 10, and that’s foolishness in labor. He says you can be foolish when you go to work. Notice verses 8 through 10, and remember this is written in the time of Solomon. He who digs a pit will fall into it, and whoever breaks through a wall will be bitten by a serpent. He who quarries stones may be hurt by them, and he who splits wood may be endangered by it. If the axe is dull and one does not sharpen the edge, he must use more strength, but wisdom brings success. Now this is not really an easy section to interpret, but most scholars agree that Solomon is pointing out the things that can happen in the workplace when laborers are foolish. When you go to work and you don’t put your head on, you can get into trouble. You can make a lot of dumb mistakes. He says, there are five illustrations I want you to think about. Here’s a laborer who’s digging a pit, and because he is not careful and wise, he falls into the hole that he is digging. Look at the rest of these. A laborer is breaking through a section of a wall, and because he’s not careful and wise, he forgets that snakes love to live in the cold caverns of walls, and when he reaches into the wall he just breached, he gets bitten by a snake. That wasn’t too smart. That was pretty dumb. Here’s a laborer who’s quarrying stones in the stone quarry, and because he’s not wise and careful, one of the stones he’s quarrying falls on him, and he gets hurt. Here’s a guy who’s splitting wood, and because he’s not careful, A piece of wood apparently flies off the block, he’s splitting, maybe hits him in the head, cuts his head open, or maybe hits his wife who’s watching him cut wood, who knows? And then he says it’s important when you go to work to be wise. Solomon says, it’s foolish for a laborer to cut wood with a dull axe, and because of that, he has to work twice as hard. You see that passage? If he were wise, he’d take some time off to sharpen his axe, and he would save himself a lot of time and energy. In other words, he’s working harder, and he should be working smarter. Isn’t it hard sometimes when you’re working hard to do the thing that you’re supposed to do to realize that in order for you to really be effective, you need some time away to sharpen your tools? I have to do that sometimes. I have to get away and sharpen my tools so that I don’t have to work so hard to do what God has called me to do. Solomon is just saying, all right, now listen to me, class. He says, before I get into my last little section of this book, I want to just run by some important things. Don’t be foolish in the little things because they can really have a big impact on your life. Don’t get involved in leadership and be foolish in leadership. And don’t get foolish in labor because you can get hurt, make a big mess. Now he concludes with probably the most important point of the chapter. Because I’ve observed in studying the wisdom literature that wherever you have discussion about foolishness and a fool, it’s almost always in the context of the use of his tongue, his mouth. So Solomon’s going to talk now about foolishness in language. And oh, how easy it is for us to be foolish in our language. A deacon… was briefed beforehand on what his role would be in an upcoming missionary banquet, and he was told to be sensitive to the fact that there would be guests in this banquet from foreign countries, and those who were there would not be accustomed to the English language or the American culture. During the banquet, the deacon found himself seated next to an African man who was hungrily devouring his chicken. Trying to think of some way to communicate with the man, the deacon leaned over and said, chomp, chomp, chomp, good, huh? And the man gazing back at the deacon simply replied, hmm, good. A few minutes later, as the African man savored a delicious cup of coffee, the deacon leaned over and commented, clug, clug, clug, good, huh? The man, a little uncertain, replied, hmm, good. To the deacon’s dismay, when the speaker for the evening was announced, it happened to be the African man next to him. The gentleman got up and he delivered a flawless message in Oxford-accented English. Upon concluding, the speaker headed straight for the deacon, whose face was red with embarrassment, and the speaker simply said, Blab, blab, blab, good, huh? Does that remind you of the most embarrassing thing you ever said or did? Well, Solomon says, if there’s one place where you can really see foolishness, it’s in the way you use your tongue. Now, go with me through this passage and notice the things that he’s going to tell us. There’s five ways your tongue can betray you and demonstrate that you’re a foolish person. Verse 11, the untamed tongue. He says, a serpent may bite when it is not charmed. The babbler is no different. Snake charmers would have a little flute or something and it was quite interesting. They would charm the snake and the snake would sit up. But Solomon says here, the serpent can bite you while you’re getting ready to charm it. And he is saying the babbler is no different. While you’re getting ready to control your tongue, it gets out of hand and it does you in. The word charmer literally means a master of the tongue. And Solomon is saying, watch that tongue of yours. Don’t speak before you think. Solomon has already told us in chapter three, there’s a time to speak and there’s a time to be silent. I guess the babbler didn’t know the silence part. Did you ever know that there’s a time you want to say something, but in your heart you know Almighty God by His Holy Spirit is saying to you, Jeremiah, just keep your big mouth shut. Don’t say anything. And whatever you do, don’t be a babbler because you might get hurt in the process. So, an untamed tongue. is a foolish tongue. Notice, secondly, an unkind tongue. Verse 12, the words of a wise man’s mouth are gracious, but the lips of a fool shall swallow him up. A wise man’s words will be gracious, but a foolish man’s words will destroy others, and they will eventually destroy him. Proverbs 10, 32 says, the lips of the righteous know what is acceptable, but the mouth of the wicked what is perverse. Proverbs 13, three says, he who guards his mouth preserves his life, but he who opens wide his lips shall have destruction. Proverbs 21, 23 says, whoever guards his mouth and his tongue keeps his soul from troubles. You know what? We have no idea really, do we? How much trouble our tongues get us into. James says you can bridle a horse and you can rudder a ship a whole lot easier than you can control your tongue. How many of you have ever been in a situation where you walked away from the situation and you’d bite in your tongue because you know you said the wrong thing, you said it in the wrong way, you said it to the wrong person at the wrong time? Oh, how much foolishness comes out of our language. an untamed tongue and an unkind tongue, now an unwise tongue. Verse 13, the words of his mouth begin with foolishness and end with raving madness. Have you ever been around a person like this? This describes somebody you probably know who talks for the sake of talking. They don’t have anything to say. They just have to say something. And their speech doesn’t even make sense half the time. They just go on and on and on. And they drive you crazy. Have you ever been in a car with somebody and you’re driving down the road and everything you pass, they comment on it? Oh, a stop sign. Oh, a McDonald’s. Oh, please keep quiet. You ever been around a person like that? I hope none of you have been in my car and done that to me, but I mean, that’s just the way it is. Some people just open their mouths and they have to talk and it doesn’t make any sense. They start out foolish and it says it gets worse. They come into craziness. And then there’s the undisciplined tongue, verse 14a. He says, a fool multiplies his words. A fool is full of words without realizing that he is saying nothing. Proverbs 10, 19 says it this way. In the multitude of words, sin is not lacking, but he who restrains his lips is wise. Rocks and lullafs labels an undisciplined talker as harm, H-A-R-M, hit and run mouth. Ever known anybody like that? And she describes in her book that a person who is a hit and run mouth For whatever reason, feels compelled to tell you just what he thinks of you and your actions, regardless of how well he knows you. His desire is to be heard without hearing, to be known without knowing. He doesn’t care about getting his facts straight. He wants attention. He’s a hit and run mouth. I have, over the years, collected epitaphs of some wonderful epitaphs that have been a blessing to me over the years. Here lies the body of old man Pease buried beneath the flowers and trees, but Pease ain’t here, just the pod. Pease shelled out and went to God. Isn’t that a good one? Well, here’s one that fits right here. Beneath this stone, a lump of clay, lies Arabella Young, who on the 24th of May began to hold her tongue. Boy, that’s got a long fuse on it, doesn’t it? I mean, oh, and that’s the only way some people will ever stop talking, isn’t it? So there’s an untamed tongue and an unkind tongue and an unwise tongue and an undisciplined tongue. And let’s look at verses 14 and 15, an unreasonable tongue. He says, no man knows what is to be. Who can tell him what will be after him? The labor of fools wearies them for they do not even know how to go to the city. Now watch this. Proverbs 27 one says, do not boast about tomorrow for you don’t know what a day brings forth. Here he’s talking about somebody who’s always talking about all the stuff they’re gonna do in the future and how the future’s gonna be played out and all of that. And you know, I went back through the book of Ecclesiastes. If you have your Bibles open, turn back to the third chapter and the 22nd verse and notice that Solomon has kind of hit on this subject a little bit before. In verse 22 of chapter three he says, So I perceive that nothing is better than a man should rejoice in his own works, for that is his heritage. Now watch this. For who can bring him to see what’s going to happen after him? He can’t know the future. Notice chapter 6 and verse 12. Just turn over to the 12th verse of chapter 6. For who knows what is good for man in life all the days of his vain life, which pass like a shadow? Who can tell a man what’s going to happen after him under the sun? And chapter eight, verse seven, it’s the same thing, basically, for he does not know what will happen, so who can tell him when it will occur? Now, Solomon really forces us to grin. If you like Old Testament humor, here’s one of Solomon’s jokes. Notice he says that this foolish talker is always yakking about the future, and he can’t even figure out how to get back to the city. You see that in the text? That’s kind of an Old Testament put down, like our saying that a person does not know his head from a hole in the ground. Solomon’s saying, this guy’s babbling on about the future, and he can’t even figure out how to get home. And he’s saying, basically, as soon as you open your mouth, if you don’t ask God for wisdom, you can start betraying who you are to people, and your tongue gives way to to identifying the foolishness in your heart. An untamed tongue, an unkind tongue, an unwise tongue, an undisciplined tongue, an unreasonable tongue, and here’s the last one, go all the way down to verse 20, an unfaithful tongue. This ends the chapter. He says, do not curse the king even in your thought. Do not curse the rich even in your bedroom, for a bird of the air may carry your voice and a bird in flight may tell the matter. He is saying, be careful what you say with your tongue. Be disciplined. Don’t be unfaithful. Don’t say something in private that you wouldn’t want someone to hear in public. And then he says, if you do, you might think you’re back there in your bedroom and nobody’s there and you say this. And he says, guess what happens? A bird hears you and carries it. That’s why when somebody says, well, how’d you find that out? Well, a little bird told me. Right? Isn’t that right? That’s where it comes from, right here. Well, where did you hear that? Well, a little bird told me. You know, birds don’t talk. But he’s reminding us with this little illustration that a wise person is an unfaithful even when he is unheard. Now, aren’t these great instructions from this wise man? He tells us that if we’re going to have the ability to negotiate life under the sun, and now he’s brought God back into the picture, we have to be careful about the little things because little concessions can cause great harm. We have to be really concerned about leadership that we don’t get in positions of leadership or allow leadership that is wrong. We have to be careful when we go to work because you can make mistakes that can hurt you in the labor market. But most of all, you gotta watch your mouth. Lord God, put a guard before my mouth that I might not say or do with my mouth something that would be hurtful to you or to others. You know, lots of people have had their reputations destroyed because of gossip. The mouth is a very powerful tool when it’s not yielded to the Lord. You say, well, Pastor Jeremiah, what do I do with all this stuff? Man, this is a lot of good material, but it’s not overwhelming to me. Let me tell you what I want you to do. James 1.5 says, If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. You say, how can I live and not get caught up in foolishness? There it is. Ask God. Every morning when you get up, and I try to do this every morning in my prayer and in my journal. If you go back and look at the journal where I write my prayers, you’d see me over and over again saying, Lord God, I don’t know what to do. Please give me wisdom. Give me the wisdom I need. I am not competent enough and sufficient enough and smart enough and wise enough to be doing what I’m doing in the kingdom of God. If it isn’t for the wisdom of God, I’m a dead man. I can’t do what God has called me to do in my own strength and I would just be making mistake after mistake, falling into the pit and doing all the kinds of stuff that Solomon talks about if it weren’t for the hand of God in my life in response to my simple prayer. Lord God, please give me wisdom. Do you know that one day the author of this passage of scripture that we studied came before the Lord and the Lord said to him, Solomon, Ask me anything you want and I’ll give it to you. And Solomon said, Lord God, what I want is I want wisdom. I want a wise heart. And the Bible says God gave him a wise heart. Did you ever wonder why he became the wisest man in the world? It was a gift from God. You say, Pastor Jeremiah, I’ve got to go to work tomorrow. I’ve got some of the most unbelievably sticky problems at work. But you know what? They’re not too hard for God. They’re too hard for you. And this whole thing we do here at Shadow Mountain Ministries and Turning Point, it’s way too hard for me, but it’s not too hard for God. Almighty God knows what to do. So I just got to stay in touch with him. Can I get a witness? I just got to come to him every day and say, Lord, I don’t want to be foolish. I don’t want to do some stupid thing that would undercut all that you want to do in my life. So I need your help and I need your wisdom. And Lord God, keep your hand on my shoulder as I walk through this day so that I don’t go the wrong way, do the wrong thing. And most of all, Lord God, put a guard before my mouth. And don’t let me say something that would hurt you. You won’t want to do anything that would hurt him after what he’s done for you. Amen. So let’s covenant together as a family that as we go to our homes, and especially as we get up tomorrow and head out to the workplace, wherever we’re going to go tomorrow, whatever we’re going to do, we don’t start the day without saying, Lord God, I really need you today. You know, we who are men, we have a harder time with that than you women do sometimes. We’re all type A, you know, we can do this. We don’t need any help, but we do. We do. We need a lot of help. And God is able to help us. He is wisdom. personified. Amen. Well, we’re getting very close to the end of our discussion because we’re getting to the end of the book of Ecclesiastes, and we’ll finish it up on Friday. Tomorrow we’re going to talk about the subject before it’s too late, and this is kind of the conclusion that Solomon brings to his discussions so far. He’s going to tell us four things tomorrow. and the next day that we need to embrace as we put a period behind our discussions with Solomon on searching for heaven on earth. We are very excited to tell you that we’re going to Alaska again this year. The date for our Alaska Cruise Conference is July 12th to the 19th. We’ll be cruising the Inside Passage, Icy Strait Point, Hubbard Glacier, Juneau, Ketchikan, and Victoria. We will have some great music and the teaching of the Word of God and fellowship with God’s people there. a wonderful experience that you will never forget. I hope you come and go with us. Find out more about it at davidjeremiah.org, and we’ll see you tomorrow.
SPEAKER 01 :
The message you just heard originated from Shadow Mountain Community Church and Senior Pastor Dr. David Jeremiah. Your notes of encouragement mean so much. We invite you to write to us at Turning Point, P.O. Box 3838, San Diego, California, 92163. Visit our website at davidjeremiah.org slash radio or call 800-947-1993. Ask for your copy of David’s book, 31 Days to Happiness. It’s filled with Solomon’s wisdom and it’s yours for a gift of any amount. You can also download the free Turning Point mobile app for your smartphone or tablet or search in your app store for Turning Point Ministries to access our content. Visit davidjeremiah.org slash radio for details. This is David Michael Jeremiah. Join us tomorrow as we continue Searching for Heaven on Earth on Turning Point with Dr. David Jeremiah.
