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I shared this back in August. Wanted to share it again tonight. My son, Jonathan, wrote this for me on my birthday. I am sure he did not intend it, but this song brings Luke 15 to my mind. The line near the end - "You said, 'Son, I'm glad you're home'" - brings me to tears every time I listen. What can this teach us about Father's love for us? 'OH, HOW HE LOVES US!"

I love you, son.

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What To Do when Fools Rule

Wisdom from Ecclesiastes 10
What To Do when Fools Rule

Wisdom and folly are incompatible.  

·   Wisdom = to see life from God's perspective and adjust our life to His view.

·   Folly = to see life from our own perspective and live as if ours is the right view.

^10:1 Dead flies make a perfumer’s oil ferment and stink;
so a little folly outweighs wisdom and honor.

Beware of the influence of a fool.  Just one fool can spoil the sweetest fellowship.

Sometimes the fool is a co-worker, even our boss.  Sometimes the fool is a church member.  Sometimes the fool is a leader.  Sometimes the fool is a family member - the most painful reality, especially if your child is the one playing the fool.  Remember:

·   A fool lives without regard, respect, commitment, or conformity to wisdom.

·   A fool contaminates and ruins by their folly the pleasing purpose of that which is wise or honorable.

Understand:

·   The overwhelming majority of the world's population are by definition fools.  They do not see life from God's perspective and adjust their lives to His view.

·   Fools prefer to follow fools.

·   So, fools rule the world, as Solomon puts it, "under the sun."

So, what do we do when fools rule?  Here are seven strategies:

1.Stay clear (vv 2-3).

² A wise man’s heart ⌊goes⌋ to the right,
but a fool’s heart to the left. 

If I were a politician, this would be my tagline!  :) 

³ Even when the fool walks along the road, his heart lacks sense,
and he shows everyone he is a fool.

We should be able to discern a fool.  We should be able to see them coming.  Do not get entangled with a fool.  Pray for them.  Love them.  Help them.  But do not get entangled with them and their folly.  A fool cannot help but to stink up their life and the lives of those who do not stay clear.

2.Stay calm (vv 4-7).

⁴ If the ruler’s anger rises against you, don’t leave your place,
for calmness puts great offenses to rest.

Don't panic.  Don't run for the hills.  Keep your wits about you.  Better yet, keep focueed on God's view.

⁵ There is an evil I have seen under the sun,
an error proceeding from the presence of the ruler:
⁶ The fool is appointed to great heights,
but the rich remain in lowly positions.
⁷ I have seen slaves on horses,
but princes walking on the ground like slaves

When fools rule, common sense, to say nothing of godly wisdom, is turned on its ear.  The wise and godly person must fight the urge to run away and determine to stay and to stay calm with the hope of being a constant influence for truth and right.

3.Stay cautious (vv 8-9).

⁸ The one who digs a pit may fall into it,
and the one who breaks through a wall may be bitten by a snake.
⁹ The one who quarries stones may be hurt by them;
the one who splits trees may be endangered by them.

Be careful.  These endeavors can be dangerous.

4.Stay competent (vv 10-11).

¹⁰ If the ax is dull, and one does not sharpen its edge,
then one must exert more strength;
however, the advantage of wisdom is that it brings success.

We need to keep our minds and methods sharpened.

¹¹ If the snake bites before it is charmed,
then there is no advantage for the charmer.

The best medicine is preventative medicine.  If the snake has already bitten, it is too late to seek a charmer.

5.Stay content (vv 12-15).

¹² The words from the mouth of a wise man are gracious,
but the lips of a fool consume him.

To be consumed is to be exhausted.  Such is the impact of foolish talking.  A fool's speech exhausts him, it sucks the marrow out of life.

¹³ The beginning of the words of his mouth is folly,
but the end of his speaking is evil madness.

The road to “evil madness” begins when a fool gives words to his folly, his ignorance of or his rebellion against God's wisdom.  His words represent the first steps onto that proverbial slippery slope.

¹⁴ Yet the fool multiplies words.
No one knows what will happen,
and who can tell anyone what will happen after him?

So many words - so little meaning!  Sounds like all the political speak and spin that dominates our news media these days.  

The wise person does not need more words that turn out to be no more than wind.

¹⁵ The struggles of fools weary them,
for they don’t know how to go to the city.

The constant dedication to live life our own way without regard to God's perspective is fruitless, futile, and fatiguing. Moreover, these struggles do not produce answers - only more questions without answers.

When we employ wisdom it is like using a lantern in a dark forest.  We may not see the entire forest or the whole path through the forest; however, as we take the steps made visible by wisdom's torch, we will discover additional steps being revealed.    

6.Stay controlled (vv 16-17).

¹⁶ Woe to you, land, when your king is a youth
and your princes feast in the morning.

Morning was the time for princes and rulers to govern, to hear the people and judge their cases.  To feast when they should be serving is the height of arrogance and self-indulgence.

¹⁷ Blessed are you, land, when your king is a son of nobles
and your princes feast at the proper time –
for strength and not for drunkenness.

A noble man is a free man, a man free from slavery to self and free from the bondage of handlers.  This nobility leads to propriety, to doing what needs to be done in timely fashion.

7.Stay conscientious (vv 18-20).

¹⁸ Because of laziness the roof caves in,
and because of negligent hands the house leaks.

Industrious and diligent, though demanding, hard work is the foundation that provides solid footing upon which a man, a family, and a nation can stand.

¹⁹ A feast is prepared for laughter,
and wine makes life happy,
and money is the answer for everything.

If we would enjoy good food and goof friends, we must be conscientious in our labor in order to secure the means to secure the stuff for the feast.  The fool wants a handout, they want to enjoy the pleasures of this life but are not willing to work for them.

²⁰ Do not curse the king even in your thoughts,
and do not curse a rich person even in your bedroom,
for a bird of the sky may carry the message,
and a winged creature may report the matter.

Is this the origin of the saying “A little bird told me”?  

I think the point is not beware what we say lest the authorities find out and get us.  Rather, our speech betrays attitudes and thoughts dominated by complaints and gripes.  Don't be that person.  Whiners never win, and winners never whine!

Finally, please note the common imperative in all seven of these strategies - stay, stay the course.  When fools rule, stay the course.  Even when the people playing the fools are people we care very much about, stay course.  Stay the course, that course revealed by seeing life from God's perspective and adjusting our life to His view.

Selah.

I Love My Church, but ...

In Experiencing God, Henry Blackaby observes:

God speaks by the Holy Spirit through the Bible, prayer, circumstances, and the church to reveal Himself, His purposes and His ways.

I have learned that God also speaks by the Holy Spirit through my wife. She is, after all, God’s gift to me designed to complete me. Moreover, she is absolutely one of the godliest people I know. Not the saccharine, pie-in-the-sky, religionist some people confuse with godliness. No, my wife sincerely applies herself by God’s grace to be and become a genuine incarnation of Jesus Christ and His Word, one of those christianoi or “little Christs” (Acts 11:26) to her world – in our home, in our neighborhood, in her work, and in our church. So, when she suggests to me – from the other room where she is in her own quiet time of prayer and Bible study no less – that I should bring a message to our church from Isaiah 29:13, well, I take notice and hasten to that text.

¹¹ For you the entire vision will be like the words of a sealed document. If it is given to one who can read and he is asked to read it, he will say, “I can’t read it, because it is sealed.” ¹² And if the document is given to one who cannot read and he is asked to read it, he will say, “I can’t read.”

¹³ The Lord said:

Because these people approach Me with their mouths
to honor Me with lip-service —
yet their hearts are far from Me,
and their worship _⌊consists of_] man-made rules
learned _⌊by rote_⌋ —
¹⁴ therefore I will again confound these people
with wonder after wonder.
The wisdom of their wise men will vanish,
and the understanding of the perceptive will be hidden (Isaiah 29:11-13).

Uh-oh. What do I do with this, Lord? What am I to make of Your Word here?

Which is worse – to ignore or disobey God flagrantly on the outside where everybody can see our sin, or to ignore God quietly, secretly on the inside while on the outside we appear to follow Him by doing certain respectable religious acts? The truth is, both are an insult to God, both are direct and intentional insubordination to His authority, both are sin, and both incur His judgment.

As consequence, both paths clearly lead to spiritual incapacitation. Whether externally or internally in defiance, were the rebel to take up God’s Word to read, the prophet reveals they would find Scripture sealed or closed to their understanding. Though they sit in on or even feign to teach 52 Sunday School lessons a year, they cannot begin to comprehend truth. Though they hear 1000 biblically sound sermons, they will not and cannot listen. So, how then would anyone, either worldling or worshipper, mistake them for useful members of the Redeemer King’s global disciple-making force?

Back to my question about which is worse, the deliberate dissident or the secret sinner. The latter seems to me to be the more dangerous to the advance of a fervent, faithful, and fruitful walk with Jesus Christ and His people. Whether they be intentional partners with the enemy or inattentive and, thereby, unintentional pawns of the same, their effect on Christ’s church and our mission would seem to be the same as that about which Paul warned Ephesians elders in Acts 20.

²⁸ Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock that the Holy Spirit has appointed you to as overseers, to shepherd the church of God, which He purchased with His own blood. ²⁹ I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. ³⁰ And men will rise up from your own number with deviant doctrines to lure the disciples into following them. ³¹ Therefore be on the alert, … (Acts 20:28-31).

Here are three courses of action I propose in response to Isaiah 29:11-14 and these contemplations.

1. Let us examine ourselves.

We tend to think of certain other people when we are confronted by truths that may convict us. I asked my wife, “Am I one of those people who rebels on the inside while I wear the good Christian mask on the outside?” I asked her because she has no qualms about telling me the truth, pleasant or not. So, I likewise encourage you, dear reader, ask the people who know you and love you enough to tell you the truth to help you see yourself.

2. Let us examine our church.

I read an uncomfortable statement today made all the more unpleasant because it is so obviously true yet avoided in polite Christian conversation. Daryl Dash writes: “The North American church is languishing” (from Daryl Dash – “Pastoring: The Toughest Job?” http://bit.ly/pmh4tE). Virtually every metric we might employ from practically any serious student of the church in the United States confirms this status.

I encourage you to be so bold as to ask: “Is this true of our church?” If it is, I further exhort you to ask: “I love my church, but why are we languishing so? Are we perhaps out of sorts with the Head of the church and His mission and His provision? Have we become numb and dumb? Have we been less than alert as Paul warned, and have we become then arrested by those whom some regard as leaders who are in actuality secret rebels blind to truth?”

3. Let us encourage one another.

No witch hunts, please! Much could be said at this point. Let us allow Scripture to guide us.

²⁴ And let us be concerned about one another in order to promote love and good works, ²⁵ not staying away from our _⌊worship_⌋ meetings, as some habitually do, but encouraging each other, and all the more as you see the day drawing near (Hebrews 11:24-25).

Selah.