Folly Is Fatal Series

Folly is Fatal

Ecclesiastes 10:1-20

Rev. Brian Bill

November 2-3, 2024

In a 2019 survey, 32% of Protestant churchgoers said they read the Bible every day, and 27% read it a few times a week. However, a 2022 survey found that only 10% of Americans read the Bible daily.

According to the American Bible Society’s annual report, while two-thirds of Americans identify themselves as Christians, only 6 percent of that group have a biblical worldview. Incidentally, it’s no coincidence that biblical literacy and biblical morality have plummeted simultaneously.

Many struggle with Bible reading simply because they don’t know where to read. Pastor Kyle prepares a new Bible reading plan every month, which I find to be very helpful. This month, we’re in the second half of the minor prophets. You can pick up a copy at one of the resource kiosks or access it digitally on our website or app.

With fewer people knowing the Bible, many don’t realize the genesis (pun intended) of the phrases they use. Here are some sayings in our society that find their source in Scripture.

• “A drop in the bucket” comes from Isaiah 40:15: “Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket, and are accounted as the dust on the scales.”

• “To escape by the skin of your teeth,” refers to having a narrow escape. Job 19:20: “...I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.”

• “See the writing on the wall” is a way to say that something bad is about to happen as first described in Daniel 5:5: “Immediately the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall of the king’s palace…”

• “Go the extra mile” is from the Sermon on the Mount when Jesus said in Matthew 5:41: “And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles.”

As we come to Ecclesiastes 10, we find two more common cultural sayings.

• “A fly in the ointment” is from verse 1: “Dead flies make the perfumer’s ointment give off a stench; so a little folly outweighs wisdom and honor.”

• “A little bird told me” comes from verse 20: “…for a bird of the air will carry your voice, or some winged creature tell the matter.”

As a way to get the Bible in our heads and hearts, let’s read Ecclesiastes 10 together.

Dead flies make the perfumer’s ointment give off a stench; so a little folly outweighs wisdom and honor. 2 A wise man’s heart inclines him to the right, but a fool’s heart to the left. 3 Even when the fool walks on the road, he lacks sense, and he says to everyone that he is a fool. 4 If the anger of the ruler rises against you, do not leave your place, for calmness will lay great offenses to rest. 5 There is an evil that I have seen under the sun, as it were an error proceeding from the ruler: 6 folly is set in many high places, and the rich sit in a low place. 7 I have seen slaves on horses, and princes walking on the ground like slaves. 8 He who digs a pit will fall into it, and a serpent will bite him who breaks through a wall. 9 He who quarries stones is hurt by them, and he who splits logs is endangered by them. 10 If the iron is blunt, and one does not sharpen the edge, he must use more strength, but wisdom helps one to succeed. 11 If the serpent bites before it is charmed, there is no advantage to the charmer.

12 The words of a wise man’s mouth win him favor, but the lips of a fool consume him. 13 The beginning of the words of his mouth is foolishness, and the end of his talk is evil madness. 14 A fool multiplies words, though no man knows what is to be, and who can tell him what will be after him? 15 The toil of a fool wearies him, for he does not know the way to the city. 16 Woe to you, O land, when your king is a child, and your princes feast in the morning! 17 Happy are you, O land, when your king is the son of the nobility, and your princes feast at the proper time, for strength, and not for drunkenness! 18 Through sloth the roof sinks in, and through indolence the house leaks. 19 Bread is made for laughter, and wine gladdens life, and money answers everything. 20 Even in your thoughts, do not curse the king, nor in your bedroom curse the rich, for a bird of the air will carry your voice, or some winged creature tell the matter.

This chapter is made up of short sayings, much like we find in the book of Proverbs. While the topics seem random, we can categorize them according to two contrasting ways to live: we can live wisely, or we can live foolishly. Whereas the first nine chapters of Ecclesiastes establish the way of wisdom, chapter 10 warns us about the foolishness of folly. We see this in the use of the words fool, fools, foolish, and folly, which are used nine different times.