Grace for Your Day November 15
According to one Bible Dictionary, wisdom literature can be defined as:
In other words, wisdom literature was not given merely to help you think better but live better. It was written to impact your heart as well as your mind because that is the overall purpose of Scripture. God inspired the Bible it so that it might be a “lamp to our feet and a light to our path” (Psalm 119:105) because this world is a dark place. As we all know, it is frightening at times but the good news is that you have the Word of God to brighten it up. You have books like Ecclesiastes to show you how to navigate it which is what Ecclesiastes 10:1 says:
Dead flies make a perfumer’s oil stink, so a little foolishness is weightier than wisdom and honor.
This statement sounds strange when you first read it but it means that foolishness stinks in the eyes of God. It smells like dead flies in a bottle of perfume because it stays with you wherever you go. In fact, it smells so bad that it often outweighs the influence of wisdom and honor because it leads you down a path of destruction. We often think that a little sin will not hurt us but Solomon says the opposite here because it can ruin the entire course of your life.
Verse 2 says the same thing another way when it states:
A wise man’s heart directs him town the right, but the foolish man’s heart directs him towards the left.
In Solomon’s time, “right and left” were synonymous with good and evil so that to go right meant to pursue good things. On the flip-side, going left meant to pursue evil things and his point here is that there is no middle ground between the two. You cannot compromise with sin because it will lead you the wrong way every time. Many people think that sin will be fun so they give into it in their younger years only to regret it later on because it always comes at a cost. Sin takes you farther than you want to go and it demands more than you want to pay so you have to avoid it any way you can which is what we are going to talk about this week at Grace Fellowship Church.
This Sunday, we are going to continue our studies in the Book of Ecclesiastes with a sermon entitled “Dead Flies & Foolishness” at our 9:30 service. This is an important subject because it has been said that our generation is drowning in information but starving for wisdom. We know so much today but we are foolish because our hearts are consumed with sin. We pursue one lust after another to the point that it ruins our lives but it does not have to be that way. If you want to live differently, you can do so right now if you repent and call out to the Lord.
Please join us as we remember that over the weekend. If you can use a little wisdom, this is the perfect passage for you and I pray that the Lord will bless you as you learn it, study it, and take it to heart. – Jeremy Cagle
A body of literature common in the Ancient Near East in which instructions for successful living are given. There are two types that this body of literature falls into. The first is proverbial wisdom or short, pithy sayings like we find in the Book of Proverbs. The second is speculative wisdom or long, drawn out statements like the ones that are found in the Book of Job or Ecclesiastes. In wisdom literature, comparisons are common as are other poetic devices such as alliteration but the goal in all of it is to teach us how to live in a God-honoring way.
Dead flies make a perfumer’s oil stink, so a little foolishness is weightier than wisdom and honor.
This statement sounds strange when you first read it but it means that foolishness stinks in the eyes of God. It smells like dead flies in a bottle of perfume because it stays with you wherever you go. In fact, it smells so bad that it often outweighs the influence of wisdom and honor because it leads you down a path of destruction. We often think that a little sin will not hurt us but Solomon says the opposite here because it can ruin the entire course of your life.
Verse 2 says the same thing another way when it states:
A wise man’s heart directs him town the right, but the foolish man’s heart directs him towards the left.
In Solomon’s time, “right and left” were synonymous with good and evil so that to go right meant to pursue good things. On the flip-side, going left meant to pursue evil things and his point here is that there is no middle ground between the two. You cannot compromise with sin because it will lead you the wrong way every time. Many people think that sin will be fun so they give into it in their younger years only to regret it later on because it always comes at a cost. Sin takes you farther than you want to go and it demands more than you want to pay so you have to avoid it any way you can which is what we are going to talk about this week at Grace Fellowship Church.
This Sunday, we are going to continue our studies in the Book of Ecclesiastes with a sermon entitled “Dead Flies & Foolishness” at our 9:30 service. This is an important subject because it has been said that our generation is drowning in information but starving for wisdom. We know so much today but we are foolish because our hearts are consumed with sin. We pursue one lust after another to the point that it ruins our lives but it does not have to be that way. If you want to live differently, you can do so right now if you repent and call out to the Lord.
Please join us as we remember that over the weekend. If you can use a little wisdom, this is the perfect passage for you and I pray that the Lord will bless you as you learn it, study it, and take it to heart. – Jeremy Cagle
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