June 2 Daily Devotional

Scripture for Day 33—Ecclesiastes 10:13–14

¹³The beginning of the words of his mouth is foolishness,
     and the end of his talk is evil madness.
¹⁴A fool multiplies words,
     though no man knows what is to be,
     and who can tell him what will be after him?

Devotional:

10:13 reminds us of how foolish words can only produce more folly, so that the fool's speech goes from bad to worse. What begins as relatively harmless foolish talk eventually turns into "evil madness." The picture here is of a person who literally talks himself into a frenzy. If the root of the matter is rotten, how can any good come of it?

This saying places an important caveat in front of us. We tend to entertain the notion that a fool is more like a clown, someone whom you may not take too seriously. After all, what can he do? But the biblical definition of the fool is far from innocuous. At heart, a fool refuses to submit to God's authority, even though he may well be able to profess religious sentiments (cf. 5:1). There is nothing innocent about him, and "evil madness" is a healthy reminder of the sinister nature of the fool's speech. It points to an opposition to order, yes, ultimately the moral order of God's creation.

Finally, a fool likes to hear his own voice (10:14). He keeps talking, no matter what. And the second part of 10:14 indicates that fools like to ramble about the unknowable, in this specific case the future. When a fool multiplies words he speaks with undue confidence about things that he does not know or understand. In this sense, the fool's speech is marked by a certain arrogance that feeds on its own ignorance. You can think of this as a vicious cycle propelled by an incorrigible spirit. "I cannot possibly be wrong!" thinks the fool—and keeps talking.

Well, no one can say that we have never spoken like a fool. Our words have at times not only made us look like fools (10:12), but we also know how one thing can lead to another, and how our words go from bad to worse (10:13). And who can claim that we have never opened our mouths when we had better been silent, or that we never spoke in matters that required more humility on our part (10:14)? All too often we have been a stumbling block instead of a blessing.

Every word we say is motivated by some desire. What are the desires, motives, emotions, or attitudes of the heart that come to expression in the way we talk? Cussing or gossip are never just isolated sins that can be dealt with through the mechanical application of some principles. They are the fruit of a deeper disorder, and it will find another outlet if the root problem remains unidentified. Where there once was fear, there must come faith; where there used to be anger, one must learn kindness and patience. In other words, the fruit of the Spirit has to grow in us and consistently inform the way we use language, so as to "speak the truth in love" (Eph. 4:15). A good place to start is the simple prayer, "Set a guard, O LORD, over my mouth…" (Ps. 141:3).

There is no aspect of human existence that God cannot heal, and we are not doomed to forever live with our failures in communication. God (and only he) can change the heart. We must cry out for him to change us. Paul says, "Walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh" (Gal. 5:6). "If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit" (5:25). Or rather, as we might suggest, "If we live in the Spirit, let us also talk by the Spirit."

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.