The Foolish Blind Spot Series

WISE LIVING: THE FOOLISH BLIND SPOT

Ecclesiastes 10:1-20

#wiseliving2022

READ ECCLESIASTES CHAPTER 10:1-20 [person from the congregation]

INTRODUCTION…Donkey in Lion’s Skin (fablesofaesop.com/the-ass-in-the-lions-skin.html)

There is an old story about how a donkey found a lion’s skin left in the forest by a hunter. He dressed himself in it and amused himself by hiding in a thicket and rushing out suddenly at the animals who passed that way. All the animals ran away the moment they saw him. The donkey was so pleased to see the animals running away from him, just as if he were King Lion himself, that he could not keep from expressing his delight by a loud, harsh bray. A fox, who ran away with the rest, stopped short as soon as he heard the voice. Approaching the donkey, he said with a laugh: “If you had kept your mouth shut you might have frightened me, too. But you gave yourself away by opening your mouth.”

That fable, told by Aesop in the 500s BC has a great message.

ILLUSTRATION…goodreads.com/quotes/409209-it-s-better-to-keep-your-mouth-shut-and-appear-stupid

It is the same message said by famous American author Mark Twain: “It's better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than open it and remove all doubt”

Our topic today is foolishness as it is presented in Ecclesiastes 10, but foolishness is mentioned often in Ecclesiastes. The topic of foolishness is mentioned often by King Solomon in his writings: 93x in the Book of Proverbs and 32x in the Book of Ecclesiastes. King Solomon had wisdom given to him by God (1 Kings 3) and he wrote down wise ways of living in many areas and encourages all of us still to push away from foolishness.

King Solomon has mentioned foolishness many times as we have read through the Book of Ecclesiastes. We are in our 10th week of Ecclesiastes and foolishness appears in several chapters. Ecclesiastes is not like Proverbs where there are self-contained sayings verse by verse, but Ecclesiastes still has some of those nuggets of wisdom.

For example:

READ ECCLESIASTES 2:14a (ESV)

“The wise person has his eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness.”

As he thinks about fools, Solomon notes that foolish people do not tend to pay attention to the world around them. Wise people watch and learn. Wise people know how the world works because they see what happens around them, but a foolish person is the opposite. A foolish person walks through life not watching and not learning and not using light that is available to them.

READ ECCLESIASTES 4:5 (ESV)

“The fool folds his hands and eats his own flesh.”

Well that’s not a pretty sight! Foolish people are lazy and destroy themselves and bring ruin on their lives. That is not a hard verse to figure out even if the word picture is a bit repulsive.

King Solomon also notes further down in Ecclesiastes 4 after this verse in verse 13 that a foolish person does not know how to listen to advice. Listening to others is wise. Listening to others and acting on wise words they give us and tossing out unwise words they give us is wiser still.

READ ECCLESIASTES 4:13 (ESV)

“Better was a poor and wise youth than an old and foolish king who no longer knew how to take advice.”

Then as we read through Ecclesiastes we come to Ecclesiastes 5 which absolutely echoes the truth written down by Aesop and humorously mentioned by Mark Twain. Foolishness often comes out of our mouths.

READ Ecclesiastes 5:1-2 (ESV)

“Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. To draw near to listen is better than to offer the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they are doing evil. 2 Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven and you are on earth. Therefore let your words be few.”

He says later in verse 6 to not let your mouth lead you into sin. I don’t know about you, but I think probably 50% of my sin comes from my words. Foolish folks just say what they want and don’t care or hope for the best. Foolish folks often have to add, “just sayin’” or “no offense” to their words because they are foolish through and through with words.

We are taking some time to review a bit of Ecclesiastes this morning because, first, these are some verses that we did not cover in previous weeks and all God’s Word is profitable for us and worth digging into. Secondly, these verses earlier in Ecclesiastes about foolishness are all part of the thought about foolishness in chapter 10. It is about context. King Solomon goes on in chapter 7:

READ ECCLESIASTES 7:4-6 (ESV)