In this episode of Hope for Today, we dive deep into the book of Ecclesiastes, exploring Solomon’s wisdom on the delicate balance between wisdom and folly. Through real-life examples and biblical insights, our discussion highlights the deep and lasting impacts of seemingly small foolish decisions. Proverbs and Ecclesiastes guide us on how foolishness can tarnish a reputation instantly and why discernment is crucial for Christians in navigating life’s challenges.
As a Christian, we are expected to make wise decisions and it may not be recognized as being so significant. But the moment you decide to violate the lifestyle of a believer and to follow the world’s wisdom, immediately that little folly becomes easily recognized. Why? Because it’s out of character with what Christians should do. That’s why in some respects there’s a certain pressure upon the believer. That should be a reminder that we need to trust God and not ourselves. To not live under the guilt and the pressure of trying to be what we think people want us to be. But it might flow out of the wisdom of God and our trust and dependency on the Lord.
SPEAKER 1 :
Thank you.
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This is Hope for Today. It’s wonderful to have you with us for this Friday broadcast. Ecclesiastes doesn’t pretend. It doesn’t pretend that wisdom is always welcomed or rewarded. In the book, Solomon shows us how wisdom can save a city and still be forgotten while foolishness gets the microphone and the authority. And the damage that flows from that foolishness, it’s real and deep. Today, David Hawking takes us back into Ecclesiastes chapters 9 and 10 and shows us even further why a little folly can undo much good, why discernment matters, and why God’s Word calls us to think clearly in a world that often celebrates, celebrates the opposite. This is day two of Wisdom is Better, and it meets us right where real life is lived. First, Matt, we’ve said this before, but it is such a joyous point in the day here when we get letters from listeners, we get a chance to read them, seeing how they’re growing in faith along with us as we study God’s Word and share your dad’s Bible teaching here on Hope for Today. This note comes from Marilyn.
SPEAKER 01 :
And sure, just a bit of that. Yeah. It says, thank you so much for your Bible studies. I listen on KLT 670 AM. Yeah. Revelation is amazing. I learned so much from you. I have been a Christian for 90 years. I am 95 and still learning. God bless you and your ministry. Praying for you, Marilyn. Yeah. 90 years. Oh, wow. Well, my dad just turned 93 and he’d say amen to that. And you know what? I love the, she ends Jim with, and still learning.
SPEAKER 02 :
Amen. Well, thank you so much, Marilyn, for your note. What a blessing that is to us. And folks, we’d like to hear from you. If you haven’t written us for a while or never written us, you can go to our website, use the contact form there, or you can write a note and send it by mail or give us a call. I’ll have all that contact information for you later in the program. Well, now here’s David with day two of Wisdom is Better, found in Ecclesiastes chapter 9, verse 13, all the way through chapter 10, verse 10.
SPEAKER 03 :
Christians need to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. But verse 18 says one sinner destroys much good. And that phrase leads us into the Proverbs of chapter 10 about folly. What he’s saying is that here’s a wise man. He’s done a fantastic thing. But the general world will not listen to him. They won’t remember what he’s done. And one sinner can destroy much good. He can cause a lot of trouble. One rotten apple in a barrel of apples can destroy the rest of them as we know. And that’s the point of folly. You see, folly is so dangerous because it hurts the work of God. And one sinner can do a lot of harm to the good that God’s wisdom has done. So let’s come to chapter 10 and look at those proverbs about folly. In fact, back up to Ecclesiastes chapter 1, and I want you to quickly see what Solomon has said so far about folly or foolishness. Now, foolishness or folly is not telling jokes or being humorous, even though it could be. Foolishness and folly is dealing with wickedness in the Bible. It is doing things that are wrong. It’s denoting any deviation of the mind from what is true, good, right. It’s the opposite of God’s wisdom. Foolishness is always involved with sin. The fool in Proverbs is adulterous. The fool is also not handling money wisely. The fool is also tearing people down by his words. The fool is also doing things at the wrong time for the wrong purposes and the wrong motives. Foolishness is something God hates. It’s not just a simple matter of someone acting foolishly, as we often say in a moment of time, that was a foolish thing he did. Whether it was or not would be determined on what the Bible says is foolishness. Foolishness in the Bible is a very deep and important subject. It is not acting silly. It is talking about a person that’s devoid of the wisdom of God and deciding to do what he wants to do. There’s a way that seems right unto such a person, but the end thereof are the ways of death. Foolishness or folly? Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes 1.17, I set my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. Solomon had studied it. Chapter 2, verse 3, I searched in my heart how to gratify my flesh with wine while guiding my heart with wisdom and how to lay hold on folly. Solomon was trying to put a foot in the world and a foot in his commitment to God. He was riding the fence. and getting more and more frustrated in the process. In chapter 2, verse 12, I turned myself to consider wisdom and madness and folly. He was really considering it. He was studying it. Is that the way to go, the way of the world? Verse 13, I saw that wisdom excels folly, as light excels darkness. There’s no comparison. In verse 19, who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool? This was constantly in Solomon’s mind. Turn to chapter 7, chapter 7 of Ecclesiastes, and look at verse 17. Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, also studied folly, foolishness, and engaged in it. only to his hurt, as he tells us himself. In verse 17 of chapter 7, he said, Do not be overly wicked, nor be foolish. Why should you die before your time? Verse 25, I applied my heart to know, to search and seek out wisdom and the reason of things, and to know the wickedness of folly, even of foolishness and madness. And in chapter 10, we have a little opening passage Interesting remark, illustration of folly or foolishness. It says, 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. He talks about folly all the time. The Hebrew word translated folly or foolishness consistently through Ecclesiastes literally means thick-headed. And I think that’s a great definition. A foolish person is thick-headed. He is not evaluating what God says. He decides he’s going to go his own way. He’s going to do what he wants to do. And he winds up doing that which is wrong. He doesn’t listen to God. He listens to the world. The world is attractive to him. So a fool, he goes after. Like a dog returns to his vomit, says the scripture, graphically portraying, so is a fool who goes after the allurements of the world. How easily we do that. The world tells us some big thing, attractive, hey, this thing is neat, man, you get this and you got it. And we go, hook, line, and sinker, and we are sucked into their system. God’s wisdom in our brains will cause us to stop and think. and to evaluate all that is happening. Foolishness is condemned in no uncertain terms in the Bible. And so Solomon gives a series of Proverbs to show us that wisdom is better. And he really says four things about folly. If you’re jotting down or taking notes, here they are. Number one, in verses one to three, he tells us that it damages your reputation, just a little bit of it. Now, you’re a Christian. You say you walk with the Lord. You say you want to do what’s wise. But all of a sudden, you see the attraction of the world, and you’re tempted by certain things. And so, you decide that a little folly is okay. That’s the devil’s trap. The devil’s trap is to say to a Christian, hey, I’m not going to ask you to get involved in a whole big deal. It’s just a little folly. That’s all it is. And Solomon writes, verse 1, a little folly to one respected for wisdom and honor is the same thing as dead flies in a perfumer’s ointment. It will eventually bring off a foul odor. It smells, it stinks. A good way to cause a Christian’s testimony and reputation to stink is by engaging in a little folly. So harmless, we say. Oh, no. As a matter of fact, the insights I learned from this are in verse 2 and 3, and they’re twofold. One, the first insight I learned is the presence of folly is already in my heart. Let’s don’t get arrogant, people, or overly… Self-righteous here. The Bible teaches that folly, foolishness, doing that which is contrary to God is in our hearts. It’s not simply out there. It’s in our hearts. Verse 2 says, A wise man’s heart is at his right hand, but a fool’s heart is at his left. And what he’s warning us about is here on the one hand, we’re doing wise things and we’re following what the Lord wants us to do. But on the other hand, there’s that constant temptation to have a little folly in our lives. The folly is present in our heart. Another little insight deals with the practice of folly. In verse 3, it says, “…even when a fool walks along the way, he lacks wisdom, and he shows everyone that he is a fool.” What that means is that contrasted to wisdom, which not everyone sees quickly, folly is easily recognized. And it produces immediate effects upon our testimony and our reputation. As a Christian, we are expected to make wise decisions and it may not be recognized as being so significant. But the moment you decide to violate the lifestyle of a believer and to follow the world’s wisdom, immediately that little folly becomes easily recognized. Why? Because it’s out of character with what Christians should do. That’s why in some respects there’s a certain pressure upon the believer. A pressure to be what God wants you to be. And sometimes that is frustrating and we fail under it. Actually, that should be a reminder that we need to trust God and not ourselves. To not live under the guilt and the pressure of trying to be what we think people want us to be. But it might flow out of the wisdom of God and our trust and dependency on the Lord. If we’re controlled by the Holy Spirit, we will not carry out the lust of the flesh. Galatians 5.16. And that is a simple summary of wisdom versus folly and foolishness. And the fact that it is in all of our hearts. And we can easily go either way. And when we do have a little folly in our lives, it immediately is recognized by an unbeliever and the world around us. It’s obvious, and it destroys our testimony and our reputation. So the first thing about folly, a little folly, is it can damage your reputation for the Lord. Number two, a second thing that it does is that it demands your patience, a little folly. Have you ever been around a little folly? Probably not. People in other states have the problem, but you wouldn’t. We all know what that is. When we see it, it demands your patience. Let me show you what I mean. In verse 4, if the spirit of the ruler… Here’s somebody who’s over you. Put your boss there. You know his name? Write it in. If the spirit of the ruler rises against you, do not leave your post. Don’t quit. Don’t get mad and run off. Conciliation pacifies great offenses. There’s an evil I’ve seen under the sun as an error proceeding from the ruler, your boss. Folly is set in great dignity. Have you seen that down at the local factory? Folly is set in great dignity. How often that happens. While the rich sit in a lowly place, I’ve seen servants on horses while princes walk on the ground like servants. Why does folly demand our patience? Two interesting areas here. One, when the attitude of the one over you is set against you. When the attitude of the one over you is guilty of folly, the assumption here is that the ruler, the person who’s over you, has folly in his life and his spirit has risen up against you for no reason at all. Now, how do you handle that? You see, folly also demands great patience on the part of the believer who’s supposedly trusting in God’s wisdom. So instead of getting ticked off and running away or bowing out and withdrawing or whatever, God says, hey, hold your post. Because, according to the Bible, conciliation, thinking it through, being able to talk it out, to deal with the situation will pacify very great offenses. Take your Bibles and turn to Proverbs chapter 20. Proverbs chapter 20. When the attitude of the ruler is set against us, it demands great patience to handle it wisely. Proverbs 20 says, In verse 2, it says, the wrath of a king, a ruler, is like the roaring of a lion. Whoever provokes him to anger sins against his own life. Do you ever look at the fact that, I know sometimes when you’re, especially when you’re being rebuked by somebody who’s over you down at work and they’re really ripping into you. It is so easy to provoke that person to anger by your response, by your attitudes, whatever. And I wonder how many of us relate that to sin. Most of the time we see that the other person is unjustly charging us. They are criticizing us for no reason at all. Yet God says, don’t provoke him to anger because you are sinning when you do that. Verse 3 says it’s honorable for a man to stop striving since any fool can start a quarrel. It doesn’t take anything to get somebody mad. You’re just talking and they tell you something. You say, why did you say that? What do you mean when I say what? Well, you know what you said. What did I say? You know, before you long, you’re in a quarrel. How did it happen? Just an attitude. That’s all. Well, what did you mean by that? Well, you don’t have any right to tell me that. Well, who do you think you are? Hey, I’ve worked here for 20 years. You just started last week. I mean, you can just see it, man. It can go on and on. And we hear it. You know, we pastors, we hear this kind of stuff. It comes all the time. And guess what? It can happen in a church office. Amen? Hey, it can happen anywhere. A little folly does a lot of damage to people. And I find that if we’re really walking on the wisdom of God, we really believe wisdom is better when we face folly, especially by somebody that’s over us. Oh, hey, when it’s under you, you can handle it better, can’t you? But when it’s over you, that’s when it demands great patience. That’s when we need the wisdom of God. Because conciliation does pacify those great offenses. And it’s not simply when the attitude of the ruler is against you. But here’s another problem, and that’s verse 5 to 7. And that’s when the actions of the ruler don’t make good sense. Is there anything your boss has done that doesn’t make any good sense? All those heads nodding. That happens so often, doesn’t it? It happens frequently to us. Now, how do you handle that? Wisdom is better. This text says in Ecclesiastes chapter 10 that it’s an error proceeding from the ruler. So it is wrong on his part. He’s got folly set in great dignity. He takes a man who’s foolish and he gives him great position and honors him. And that happens frequently, as you well know. What do you do? Turn to Proverbs chapter 26, please. Proverbs 26. A wise man is patient. He knows some principles about God, and he knows putting foolish men in places of honor is not good and not right. Proverbs 26.1 says, As snow in summer and rain in harvest, so honor is not fitting for a fool. In verse 8, like one who binds a stone in a sling is he who gives honor to a fool. It’s going to come back and hurt you. Now we know those principles. They’re there. That’s Proverbs. That’s wisdom from God. Same thing in Ecclesiastes. It’s not right to honor a fool, to set folly in great dignity. We know that. And there are a lot of actions that we see out in our world that we live in that are simply foolish. And we need patience. Interesting that Proverbs 12, 16, if you’ll turn back there, please, gives us an interesting insight into how to handle a fool’s wrath or his anger or ruler against you or doing foolish things. In Proverbs 12, 16, it says a fool’s wrath is known at once. Why? Because what he does is not wise. He’s angry over something that God doesn’t say get angry at. It’s foolish. A fool’s wrath is known at once, but a prudent man covers shame. If you’re wise, folly, when you see it in somebody who’s over you, it demands a certain patience. And we’d also add the word prudence, a good English word, to make good use of my words and my time, to know when to say what. And a prudent man covers the shame of it. It’s a shame, all right, and it’s not right to give honor to a fool. The Bible already teaches that. But a prudent man covers the shame of that. He realizes vengeance is mine. I will repay, saith the Lord. It demands a great deal of patience on his part.
SPEAKER 02 :
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.
SPEAKER 01 :
Matt? Inside Is Life Worth Living, my dad expresses his sincere desire and prayer that his study of Solomon’s messages in Ecclesiastes will powerfully motivate and encourage your life.
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And in the application of its message, you will find wisdom, peace, and much joy as well. Matt, this month we’re offering Is Life Worth Living by David Hawking, together with the complete set of audio messages for our current radio series in Ecclesiastes. The package? For just $40. Well, hey, let’s take a quick look inside. And Matt, this is incredible and so perfect for what our listening friends are facing today. Amen. I see that chapter one is all is vanity. Chapter two, Matt, living for your job. Oh, we got a time for everything. Chapter five, the tragedies of life. Solomon’s reflections on that. Wow. The importance of friendship from chapter six. Chapter seven, Matt, what happened to integrity? Yeah, right. Chapter 12, the problem of authority. Yeah. Is there a problem with authority today? Nowadays, yeah.
SPEAKER 01 :
Right.
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Chapter 13, how to enjoy what you do. Chapter 15, wisdom is better. Chapter 16, the characteristics of a fool. Matt, this and so much more are in store for you inside Is Life Worth Living? David Hawking’s 172-page deep dive into the riches of Ecclesiastes and inside our radio series in this power-packed Old Testament writing.
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Everything you’ll hear in the Ecclesiastes series on radio plus the book Is Life Worth Living? are in our featured resource pack for just $40. The Is Life Worth Living Pack will bless you.
SPEAKER 02 :
And your purchase will bless and help the ministry of hope for today. And if you’re thinking, I got to get a copy of that, you can. This resource is available right now. It’s the Is Life Worth Living Ecclesiastes Radio Series Package. You can receive this, make the purchase by calling us at 875-BIBLE. That’s in the U.S., or 888-75-BIBLE in Canada. And Bible is 24253. You can also order online at davidhawking.org. And as this month comes to a close, let me pull the curtain back for a moment. What you’re hearing doesn’t just happen. Every program, every message, every resource represents real work, real cost, and a real commitment to keep God’s Word front and center without diluting it or dressing it up. Support for Hope for Today, it helps keep these teachings on the air and online. It helps us prepare new series and make Bible resources available to people who may have nowhere else to turn for clear Scripture. It also allows us to keep building a media center filled with both audio and video teaching that people can access anywhere, anytime online. So if this ministry, if Hope for Today has become a steady voice in your life, and if God is prompting you, we invite you to be a part of what he’s doing here, whether through a one-time gift or by supporting the work on a monthly basis. Write to us in the U.S. at Hope for Today, Box 3927. Tustin, California, 92781. In Canada at Hope for Today, Box 15011, RPO, Seven Oaks, Abbotsford, BC. V2S 8P1. You may also get in touch by calling us at 875-BIBLE in the U.S. to make a donation, or 888-75-BIBLE in Canada. And of course, you can give online at davidhocking.org. Well, as promised, here’s David to put the finishing touches on today’s study.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, I hope you’re enjoying our study of God’s wisdom. Really, the whole book, Ecclesiastes, is about that. But what we’re dealing with right now is the remarks of the writer who we believe is Solomon. As an old man, he says wisdom is better, better than all the pursuits of life. We sometimes think that money or education or fame or having everything we want, like pleasure, seeking, is somehow what life is all about. We speak about life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. But the pursuit of happiness is a troublesome area. Happiness is an English word that depends upon circumstances, happenstance. But God’s joy is in the middle of circumstances that aren’t that great. You can have joy, which is our strength, according to Nehemiah 8, verse 10. We’re to rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I say rejoice. Well, God’s wisdom is what we need. There are so many decisions that we must make in life. And is it really to glorify God? Is it really God’s wisdom that we are seeking? I think we need to stop and reflect over and over again, because in verse 14 of chapter 10, he says, a fool is full of words. A man cannot tell what shall be or what shall be after him. Who can tell him? The point is that a lot of us talk a lot, but we really aren’t coming to any sound conclusions or helpful advice to give to anybody. And in a multitude of words, he said back in chapter 5, is much foolishness. Sometimes when you’re listening to somebody talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, and you’re weary with what they’re saying is there’s nothing contributing to a solution. Folks, we need God’s wisdom. That’s what we’re learning here. And I pray that our hearts would be open to it, and we would be in much prayer asking God to give us the wisdom that we desperately need. God bless you. I hope you can be with us for each of these broadcasts.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, next time on the program, Ecclesiastes shows how one small foolish choice can erase years of wisdom and why what the world laughs at can quietly do the most damage. Solomon doesn’t soften it. He exposes how folly often walks in loudly, gets a pass, and then leaves a trail of consequences behind. This passage forces us to slow down, pay attention, and take seriously the choices we brush off too quickly. Be sure to invite a friend to listen along with you as David Hawking brings us day three of Wisdom is Better, right here on Hope for Today.
