May 29 Daily Devotional

Scripture for Day 29—Ecclesiastes 10:3

³Even when the fool walks on the road, he lacks sense,
     and he says to everyone that he is a fool.

Devotional:

Ecclesiastes offers a variety of snapshots from the life and works of the fool. We saw in 4:5 that the fool may be lazy; in 5:3 that he cannot seem to shut his mouth, but keeps on ranting about this or that. 10:11-15 devotes a longer section to this theme. Again, in 7:5-6 the fool is said to delight in coarse or shallow laughter, he loves noise, screaming, shouting, and rowdy songs. He tends to be choleric, full of anger (7:9). The fool walks in darkness (2:14), that is, he is blind to his own sin, and this is why God hates the fool.

10:3 makes its own contribution to the fool's literary portrait: "Even when a fool walks along the way, he lacks wisdom (sense), and he shows everyone that he is a fool." Of course, the idea of lacking direction is intimately related to the preceding proverb about the fool's heart being in the wrong place. But viewed on its own merits, 10:3 allows for more than one interpretation. It can mean that the fool will not be able to conceal his true nature, namely, that he is a fool. Sooner or later he will be known for what he is. The verse may also mean that the fool cannot cease calling others fools when they try to correct him: "He shows everyone that he is a fool." He will keep criticizing others, but possesses an unteachable spirit, so that he will not be corrected by anyone. Neither gentleness nor rebuke will impress him much. Both of the above interpretations are possible, and both draw plenty of support from other wisdom sayings. I do think, however, that the more likely rendering is that the fool will not be able to conceal himself because foolishness will eventually give itself away.

Qoheleth sees the fool at work in any societal strata. He can be found among the religious who go to the house of God in order to offer the sacrifice of fools (5:1). But he may just as well be sitting on a throne or a seat of power, such as the old and foolish king of 4:13, who refuses to take advice from those who know better than he does. Then again, he may be poor (4:5), he may be rich (10:6), so that there is no place where the unpleasant fool cannot be found. Just like the rodent or the cockroach, he is everywhere and nearly impossible to banish from our midst.

But by far the most infernal and annoying fool is the one who lodges in our own heart. Gossip, laziness, lust, anger, pride, rigid Pharisaism and an incorrigible attitude, and you may add whatever you wish—who among us has not known or seen the fool of his own heart?

To act foolishly is to act outside of what can be known about God's creation and his will. The more knowledge, the more odious foolish behavior becomes. It is only by God's abundant mercy that the stigma of the fool clings to us neither permanently nor fatally. Jesus Christ has taken it away. It is only by his grace that we, when we are corrected, do acknowledge the truth and confess our foolishness to him and each other. And it is only by his mercy that he hears us and forgives us all our folly. If then there is wisdom, let it be found in him, and let us be found in him, so that our heart may be in the right place. And if it is in the right place, we will also know how to walk before him without heaping shame on his name. For just as the folly of the fool cannot be concealed, so the wisdom of the wise will be manifest to all. Be wise, and not foolish, knowing and doing the will of the Lord from the heart.

The author of these devotionals, the Rev. Martin Emmrich, is an ordained OPC minister (Westminster OPC, Corvallis, Oregon) as well as the author of Pneumatological Concepts in the Epistle to the Hebrews, a book on the teaching of Hebrews on the Holy Spirit. We are happy to make these devotionals on Ecclesiastes and other passages of Scripture available to you.