In this episode of Hope for Today, Bible teacher David Hawking delves into the timeless wisdom found in Ecclesiastes chapters 9 and 10, exploring the profound truth that wisdom outweighs power, position, and noise. Through Solomon’s compelling parable of a poor wise man who saves a city, David underscores the often overlooked influence wisdom can yield in our lives and communities. Regardless of worldly stature or wealth, possessing godly wisdom is portrayed as the ultimate strength. Join us as we unravel the quiet but powerful essence of wisdom that aligns with God’s teachings. As David Hawking guides us through
How often we go through life ignoring what really makes a person influential. It isn’t your job, sir, ma’am. It isn’t your past. It isn’t your background. It isn’t your bank account. It’s whether or not you have the wisdom of God.
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Ecclesiastes reminds us of a truth our culture hates and I’d say despises. The truth is that wisdom is better. Not louder, not flashier, not more popular, just better. Solomon shows us how a single voice of godly wisdom can be ignored while foolishness takes the spotlight, and yet the consequences never change. On this edition of Hope for Today, Bible teacher David Hawking takes us to Ecclesiastes 9.13-10.10 and shows us why wisdom from God still outweighs power, position, and noise, even when no one is listening. We’ll begin in mere moments. Stay right there. Before we begin, a straight word from David and the Hope for Today team. This ministry moves forward on prayer, not hype. We ask you to stand with us by praying that God’s word goes out clearly, strong, and uncompromised. And if God provides and prompts you, we invite you to also support this work with a one-time gift or by becoming a regular monthly partner. Prayer comes first. Support follows, if and as God leads. Call us at 875-BIBLE in the U.S. to tell us you’re praying or to donate. In Canada, call 888-75-BIBLE. And Bible is 24253. You can also give at DavidHawking.org. And here’s David.
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Take your Bibles and turn to Ecclesiastes chapter 9. beginning at verse 13. Ecclesiastes chapter 9, beginning at verse 13. Verse 13, This wisdom I have also seen under the sun, and it seemed great to me. 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. 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.” Then I said, Wisdom is better than strength. Nevertheless, the poor man’s wisdom is despised, and his words are not heard. Words of the wise, spoken quietly, should be heard rather than the shout of a ruler of fools. Wisdom is better than weapons of war, but one sinner destroys much good. 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. A wise man’s heart is at his right hand, but a fool’s heart at his left. Even when a fool walks along the way, he lacks wisdom, and he shows everyone that he is a fool. If the spirit of the ruler rises against you, do not leave your post for conciliation pacifies great offenses. There is an evil I have 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. 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, then he must use more strength, but wisdom brings success. Join me, please, in a moment of prayer. Father, we thank you for your word, and we ask again that your Lord would open up our hearts to it. We might understand your viewpoint of what really is wise in this world, and that we might desire your wisdom. We know you’ve told us to get wisdom, for that is the principal thing, the wisdom that comes from God. And Lord, I pray that you would teach us about it today. In Jesus’ name, amen. In our last message in Ecclesiastes 9, in fact, right at the last two verses, if you’ll notice them, please, in verse 11 and 12, we really learn that human ability cannot guarantee success. It says the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to men of understanding, nor favor to men of skill. But time and chance happens to them all. Death is a great equalizer. We learned a human ability can’t guarantee success. In fact, more frequently than not, it seems to me, and I’m sure to you, that those who trust the most in their own abilities are the very persons who are caught unsuspectedly and suddenly by their own devices. In today’s passage, we’re told in verse 16 that wisdom is better than strength. Verse 16. In verse 18, we’re told that wisdom is better than weapons of war. In chapter 10, verse 10, we’re told that wisdom… brings success. It’s obviously much better to have wisdom from God than to trust in one’s own abilities and ingenuity. I want you to see that wisdom is better in just two simple ways. In the last part of chapter 9, he demonstrates that wisdom is better in a parable about a besieged city. It’s a But in chapter 10, we have a whole series of proverbs. And in those proverbs about folly or foolishness, we also see that wisdom is better. And sometimes you find out what something is best by finding out what it is not. And so Solomon tells us about folly, foolishness, and demonstrates that wisdom from God is so much better in our lives. So let’s look at that parable first, the last part of chapter 9. Now in verse 13, the impact of wisdom upon Solomon is really emphasized here. In verse 13, he adds a phrase that he’s not said so far. This wisdom I have also seen under the sun, and it seemed… great to me. The New International says, greatly impressed me. New American Standard, it impressed me. The fact is, here’s Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, said, I’ve looked at wisdom under the sun, and it really impressed me. And he gives us an illustration and a parable. Now, the illustration really shows us the influence of one man’s wisdom. Have you ever asked yourself the question, what influence do I have as an individual in my world? Whether it’s in my family, which seems to be a smaller unit, maybe I can understand my influence a little bit better, or whether it’s down at work, and if I work in a big company, I get more and more insignificant depending on the size. If I work with computers, I really begin to question my worth. You know what I mean? Numbers, numbers, numbers. Statistics. And they talk about being user-friendly. You know, you’ve got to talk to the thing. And now we can program it to talk to us. You can come in in the morning and it’d say, good morning. Somehow that’s supposed to minister to your heart. You know what I mean? And the people who work with those all day long talk about, you know, they’ve really got a relationship going with this machine. Right? But the truth is that most of us wonder in our hearts what influence we really can have. What difference do we make? You come to an election, you’re going to vote. What influence, what power, what effect does my one little consideration and opinion really have? And we often think that. And what Solomon is saying here is when you’ve got God’s wisdom, you are one powerful person before God. The influence of one person. And I’d like you to notice the description of that person here. It says, there was a poor wise man, verse 15. He’s poor. From the standards of the world, this fellow is not significant. But from the standards of God, he is, because he is wise. The influence of one man. And what was that influence? Verse 15, he delivered the city. Now, a great king comes against a poor man. A great king builds great snares, but by this one man’s wisdom, he delivers the city. We do not know how he did it, but that story could be repeated over and over again. In fact, several years ago, when I was in Jerusalem, shortly after the Six-Day War, I learned some interesting things about the influence of just one or two people. For an example, in the Old Testament, we learn the story that Hezekiah had built a tunnel from the Pool of Siloam out to the eastern side of the city of Jerusalem. Now, most of us would not think that very significant, but at the time of the Six-Day War, it was quite significant. Because, you see, the Jordanians were storming the wall from the east side of Jerusalem. The Israelis had never had the old city up until that point. And I happened to be on a little tour group shortly after the Six-Day War with the captain who led the group of men through Hezekiah’s tunnel. And actually, when they got out of the tunnel, a tunnel they had never been in in their entire life, a tunnel that they found only because they followed what the Old Testament said. And they didn’t know what they would find walking through it. After all these many, many years had passed, they discovered when they came out of that tunnel that here they were right directly in back of the Jordanian army that was storming the eastern wall. And he was the first gentleman, the first Israeli to ever jump over that wall and put his feet on the temple area. And he said the thrill has never left him. And I thought about that, the influence of one man. I said, what made you do that? He said, well, we were fighting down on the south side. And he said, I got to thinking about that. He said, you know, I entered the National Bible Contest. I said, oh, really? Yeah. He said, I really memorized most of the Bible, most of the Old Testament. And he said, I remembered that story. And he said, my hardest problem was telling my troops that it really was true. To believe me that Hezekiah built a tunnel there. And let’s go up the Pool of Siloam and let’s see where it comes out. It should come out on that east side. Can you imagine those soldiers who had to walk in one by one in a dark, dirty, rat-infested tunnel and to believe that it was going to all turn out okay? I mean, anybody could have thrown a grenade or anything into that thing and blown them sky high. The influence of one person. And I thought about the great story of Tiberius. The city of Tiberius is the only one of the ten cities of the Decapolis at the time of our Lord that still stands overlooking the beautiful Sea of Galilee. And that city is a city of hills. That city is filled today with a lot of shops and businesses and etc. And it’s thriving. But you know, at the time of the war, a very interesting thing happened. The Syrians were coming over the Golan Heights, and they had spread around the Sea of Galilee, and the main regiment had left Tiberias and abandoned it. And there were just a few Israeli soldiers there. In fact, just a handful. And they saw the Syrians approaching by land around the Sea of Galilee. And it was really troubling them. What to do? Do we get out of there? Do we run? What do we do? And they felt if they did run, you run right out into the open once you leave Tiberias, so it would be curtains for them anyway. So what they did was they took a little cannon. And they decided that they were going to shoot this cannon off at different intervals on the hills. And the Syrians would not know that the regiment had left Tiberias. The only trouble is they had to keep pushing that thing uphill. And there’s about five or six of them, and they are running that cannon every few yards, firing the thing, then running it a few more yards, firing it, and keep running back and forth. And they were literally exhausted doing this. But you know, the Syrians actually believed that the regiment was there and turned around and went back. Today, when you go to Tiberias, you have to see it. They’ve mounted it on a little monument, and they call it, you ready for this? Little David. Yeah. Isn’t that neat? David with a slingshot and Goliath, little David. And I think, again, the influence of just a few people. And that’s exactly our story here. The influence of one person who has wisdom. How often we go through life ignoring what really makes a person influential. It isn’t your job, sir, ma’am. It isn’t your past. It isn’t your background. It isn’t your bank account. It’s whether or not you have the wisdom of God. Are you wise with God? Are you? And I’d like you to notice the indifference of the people in this story. If you think that the world out there is going to be highly impressed with your influence, you’re mistaken. Look at what it says. Verse 15. Yet no one remembered that same poor man. Wisdom. is despised, and his words are not heard. Actually, what can happen is the world by one sinner, one guy who wants to make a mess of whatever you have done, can do much harm. Look at the end of verse 18. Wisdom is better than weapons of war, but one sinner destroys much good. See, that’s the other side of the story. We need wisdom from God to be the kind of person that God wants us to be in this world, to be influential. But if you think that that means you’ll receive worldly acclaim, you’re mistaken. We need to do what is wise because God says so, and it will be influential. But there’ll be many people who despise what we do because they don’t want to hear about what God wants to do. They don’t want to listen to the wisdom of God. It’s a very critical matter. The indifference of people. No man remembered that poor man’s act in delivering that city. How often that is true in this world. But turn in the New Testament to Hebrews chapter 6, and let me give you encouragement. You know, when you are wise and you follow the wisdom of God, you do what God wants you to do in a tough situation, even though no one else is responding. There’s someone who will never forget. Ecclesiastes says no one remembered. But look at what Hebrews chapter 6 verse 10 says. For God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love which you have shown toward his name, in that you have ministered to the saints and do minister. What a neat promise. God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love. Whatever you have done that you think nobody knows about, you wonder, what influence have I ever had? God will never forget what you have done. Every cup of cold water given in his name will receive a reward, according to the Bible. Back to Ecclesiastes. Let’s just put together some insights from that little parable. What insights do we learn about wisdom being better? And he summarizes that in verse 16 to 18. Then I said, in other words, he’s giving his conclusion of this little parable. And here’s what we learn. One, the superiority of wisdom. In my mind is a host of things from the Bible about what wisdom is. I hope someday that you will take the word wisdom and you will look at the Bible very carefully. Proverbs is filled with it. We talk about wisdom literature being Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon. That’s called wisdom literature. But Proverbs especially was designed, read the opening chapter, to show us exactly what is wisdom. How to live in this world the way God wants us to live. It says so in the opening verses. And I read a statement like this, Wisdom is better than strength. But the world that I live in has a parable also. And their parable brings forth the conclusion that strength is better than wisdom. So strength to them, success to them is something other than what God says. It is better to be poor and wise than to be rich and great and fail in delivering the city. Wisdom will always save the day. Wisdom is what God wants us to have. And when I say the superiority of wisdom, I wonder if we believe that. If we believe that, really, wouldn’t we seek it with all of our hearts? Proverbs says to seek it as though you’re seeking for silver or some precious treasure. Go for it with the intensity of your life to know what God would do in any situation. What He would want you to do, to read, to study it, to learn about it, to pour it into your life. God, make me a wise person in this world to do what you want me to do. Wisdom, I find, is often holding to principles that are in direct conflict with what the world is teaching us. I find that consistently true. And the more I read God’s wisdom, the more confusing it gets, because what’s going on out there is not what I read in the Bible about wisdom. God says wisdom is better. The superiority of wisdom is one of the insights. Secondly, I think one of the insights is the failure to hear what wisdom has to say. That’s a fact, and I have to face it. Not many people are listening. Look, please, at verse 17. Even though he said in verse 16 the words are not heard, he said words of the wise spoken quietly. It doesn’t mean they should be spoken quietly. He’s contrasting it with the shout of the ruler. Even when it is spoken quietly, it should be heard rather than the shout of a ruler of fools. He may have great position, and he’s exhorting us with great eloquence and shouting. But one man who has the wisdom of God speaking quietly is worth more than him. Even though he is kingpin, even though he is the king. And I look at this, what do we learn about this? We learn about the failure to hear wisdom in this world. The world is not listening. In fact, Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 2 that if the world truly listened to the wisdom of God, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory.
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That’s Bible teacher and author David Hawking, and this is Hope for Today. David will be back to bring our time in a word to a close. Some additional teaching and encouragement is just ahead, so do stay tuned. First David’s son Matt’s here, and together we’re going to tell you again some additional detail on a resource that’s going to help you get the absolute most out of our current series in Ecclesiastes.
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Matt? Solomon was the third king under the United Monarchy of ancient Israel. He is called the wisest and wealthiest king among all of Israel’s kings and leaders. And in Ecclesiastes, Solomon lays before the answer to one of life’s most important questions we can ask. Is life worth living? If you leave a personal relationship with a God who created you out of the answer. then the answer is clearly no. Yeah, it’s not worth the struggle, which inevitably comes to all of us. But if you see all of life as God intended and you are rightly related to him, then the answer is an absolute yes. Yes, amen. Well, David makes the biblical case for this inside his book, Is Life Worth Living? Is Life Worth Living is a powerful study guide for the book of Ecclesiastes and a perfect tool for getting the very most out of our current radio series. We’re combining the book with a complete collection of all of the messages
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in the Ecclesiastes series. So the 172 page book by David titled Is Life Worth Living? Plus all 18 messages in our Ecclesiastes radio series.
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And of course, each message covers about three days on radio. To get your copy of the Is Life Worth Living Ecclesiastes Bundle,
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Here’s the easy way to do that. Call 800-75-BIBLE in the U.S., 888-75-BIBLE in Canada. And Bible, again, by the numbers 24253. You can also make the purchase online at our website, davidhawking.org. That’s davidhawking.org. And just before David returns, you know, we’re coming to the end of the month here, and we’d like to take a moment to explain what your support, what your support actually makes possible. Gifts to Hope for Today help keep this program on the air and online day after day. They help cover broadcast costs, produce new Bible teaching, making these resources available to people who are hungry for clear scripture but may not have access otherwise. Your support also helps maintain our media center on our website, expand both audio and video teaching there, and continue offering many resources at little or no cost. If this ministry has been a source of strength, clarity, or encouragement in your walk with the Lord, and if God is leading you, we invite you to share in this work through a one-time gift or by becoming a regular monthly supporter. You can write to us in the U.S. at HopeForToday.org. Box 3927, Tustin, California, 92781. In Canada, write to Hope for Today, Box 15011, RPO7OAKS, Abbotsford, B.C., V2S 8P1. Or call us in the U.S. at 875-BIBLE. In Canada at 888-75-BIBLE. You can also give online or share a prayer request using the contact form at davidhawking.org. As promised, here’s David with his closing comments on today’s study.
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Well, our subject today is to say wisdom is better. Well, it’s better than almost everything you could imagine. We need wisdom, and wisdom comes from God. He says in verse 16 of chapter 9, Wisdom is better than strength. He lays out in verse 18, Wisdom is better than weapons of war. It would be good if our nations today understood that. In chapter 10, He’s laying it out like verse 2, a wise man’s heart is at his right hand, but a fool’s heart at his left. That’s very interesting. We need to go to wisdom first, not to our own initiative and opinions and rationalizations and defenses. We need to go to God’s wisdom. Wisdom comes from above. The Bible’s clear. Like James chapter 3, it says wisdom is from above, and it’s first pure. If we’re not clean morally, we aren’t smart. That’s what God’s Word teaches. And that explains a lot of things about what’s going on in our world. People, whether they’re politicians or movie stars or rock stars or sports heroes, they think because of their achievements in life that somehow they’re smart and wise, and then they live an immoral lifestyle. No, according to God, that won’t work. That is not God’s wisdom. We also know that wisdom… according to James chapter 1, does not exist inherently in the human psyche, in the human will. The Bible says, if any of you lack wisdom, and the Greek text means, if and you do, since you lack wisdom. let him ask of God who gives to all men liberally, doesn’t rebuke you for asking. And that is so very, very vital. I hope these talks about wisdom and about Ecclesiastes bring you a whole new vision of what God wants to do in your life and what is right and what is wrong. God bless you.
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And next time on Hope for Today, we’re going to go from wisdom to warning and see that when foolishness is left unchecked, the damage, it comes fast and it lasts long. Solomon shows us why discernment matters and why small choices are never really small. Join David Hawking for day two of Wisdom is Better. And invite a friend to join you as well, right here on Hope for Today.
