A poor wise man
[Ecclesiastes 9:13-18]
If you choose between "Wealth" and "Wisdom", what would you choose? If you have to choose only one of them, will you choose to be rich or poor but gaining wisdom? When I asked myself this question, I remembered the story of Nabal and the Abigail in Old Testament First Samuel chapter 25. Nabal was very wealthy. He had 1,000 goats and 3,000 sheep (1 Sam. 25:2). But he was surely and mean in his dealings (v. 3), such a wicked man that no one can talk to him (v. 17) and a fool (v. 25). His foolishness was recognized even by his wife Abigail. So Abigail went to David and said: “May my lord pay no attention to that wicked man Nabal. He is just like his name--his name is Fool, and folly goes with him. …” (v. 25). In contrast, the Bible says that his wife, Abigail, was intelligent and beautiful woman (v. 3). When she heard the news that her foolish husband Nabal had repaid David's good for evil (v. 21) and that David had decided to destroy Nabal and his whole household (v. 17), she quickly went to David (v. 20) with 200 loaves of bread, 2 skins of wine, 5 dressed sheep, 5 seahs of roasted grain, 100 cakes of raisins and 200 cakes of pressed figs (v. 18) and prevented David from shedding blood and avenging himself (v. 33). Then David said to Abigail: “Praise be to the LORD, the God of Israel, who has sent you today to meet me. May you be blessed for your good judgment and for keeping me from bloodshed this day and from avenging myself with my own hands” (vv. 32-33). The Scriptures we can think of are the words of Ecclesiastes 4:13-16 that we have already meditated on. King Solomon wisely compared between a poor but wise boy with an old and dull king. But what he is saying is that it is not important that whether he is poor or wealthy, young or old age, boy or king, but what is really important is wisdom. When we think of these two Scriptures, we can see that what we should choose. It is not "wealth," but "wisdom." But here we have one more question to ask. It is "what if you are poor, rather than rich, even though you have chosen wisdom, and if you are rejected rather than to be treated with admittance and praise to men?" Will you still choose wisdom over wealth?
This is what King Solomon says in Ecclesiastes 9:13 – “I also saw under the sun this example of wisdom that greatly impressed me.” What is the example that King Solomon saw here? “There was once a small city with only a few people in it. And a powerful king came against it, surrounded it and built huge siegeworks against it. Now there lived in that city a man poor but wise, and he saved the city by his wisdom” (vv. 14-15). No matter how great the king is and how he tries to strike a small city with the large siege works, no one can be sure of the result (vv. 11-12). Though it is natural to think that the great king can win a war against the small city, King Solomon says that the few people of the small city may win. How is this possible? It is because of the "poor wise man". Look at Ecclesiastes 9:15 – “Now there lived in that city a man poor but wise, and he saved the city by his wisdom. …” King Solomon saw that no matter how rich and great king you are, you still can lose to a poor wise man. A good example is in 2 Samuel 20:14-22. When the ancient city of Abel was besieged by the army of Joab, a wise woman in that city saved the city by wisely speaking to Joab (Park Yun-sun). After all, with this example of wisdom what is the point King Solomon trying to tell us? Look at Ecclesiastes 9:16: “So I said, ‘Wisdom is better than strength’.” That is, 'Wisdom is better than strength”. Look at verse 18: “Wisdom is better than weapons of war ….” King Solomon says, 'Wisdom is better than weapons.' How important is power and weapons in war? However, no matter how powerful and weaponous you are, you can not win a war without wisdom. King Solomon tells us that wisdom is more important than power and weapons. This is what Proverbs 4:7 says: “The beginning of wisdom is: Acquire wisdom; And with all your acquiring, get understanding.” And King Solomon said to us in Ecclesiastes 9:17 – “The quiet words of the wise are more to be heeded than the shouts of a ruler of fools.” It is better to listen to the quiet words of the wise than to the shout of the leader of the fools.
But what is the problem? This wisdom is better than strength and weaponry, but King Solomon speaks in the text today that he saw things that he could not understand under the sun. There are 2 things that he couldn’t understand:
First, look at Ecclesiastes 9:16 – “… But the wisdom of the poor man is despised and his words are not heeded.”
What King Solomon saw, what he could not understand and could not explain, is that the poor wise man often does not receive the treatment of people and is rejected even though he did a great job in saving a city. Why do you think this is happening? Why does the poor wise man not only receive great hospitality, but also be rejected after he has done a great work of delivering a city? I looked for the reason in Proverbs: “The poor is hated even by his neighbor, …” (Prov. 14:20), “… But a poor man is separated from his friend” (19:4). Why do people reject and mistreat the poor wise man who have saved themselves and the town where they live? The reason is because the wise man is poor. If the wisdom was rich, then perhaps many would have approached him and tried to become friends, and have listened to the wise man and praised him. They would never have despised and rejected the wise if he was rich.
Second, look at Ecclesiastes 9:18 – “… but one sinner destroys much good.”
What does this mean? If we read Ecclesiastes 10:1, we may be able to understand: “As dead flies give perfume a bad smell, so a little folly outweighs wisdom and honor.” Wisdom can be easily overthrown, as a small mistake makes the smell of the more beautiful more than the scent of wisdom (10:1). In other words, the great value of wisdom can be destroyed by small foolish actions (Walvoord). A good example of this is the first human Adam in the book of Genesis. In Genesis 3 or Romans 5, we can see sin entered the world through one man Adam, and death through sin (Rom. 5:12) a sinner can destroy many good fully. We can also see in the Book of Joshua when we look at Achan. We know that the Israelites have been defeated in the Ai war because of the crime of one man Achan (Josh. 7). Even the disaster was upon the Israelites because of King David’s crime (2 Sam. 24), his son Absalom started a coup and caused a civil in Israel (ch. 15ff) (Wiersbe). Because of this foolish behavior of Achan, that is his disobedience, the nation Israel suffered. And because of one man Adam’s disobedience, sin entered into the world and death through sin. At that time God did what no one could understand. God sent His only begotten Son Jesus Christ into the world to be crucified so that we may be saved. Just as a poor wise man rescued a small town from a great king, Jesus, who is true wisdom, has saved us from eternal death, Satan, and his forces. Nevertheless, what we can not understand is that people are forgetting Jesus Christ, as if they had forgotten the poor wise man. Also, as people did not listen to the poor wise man and despised his wisdom, many people despised Jesus' wisdom and did not listen to His words. Do you understand that Jesus came to this world to redeem many people, but His people did not accept Jesus (Jn. 1:12). This is what God is saying to us in Proverbs 8: 33-36: “Listen to my instruction and be wise; do not ignore it. Blessed is the man who listens to me, watching daily at my doors, waiting at my doorway. For whoever finds me finds life and receives favor from the LORD. But whoever fails to find me harms himself; all who hate me love death.” We must receive Jesus who is true wisdom. In doing so, we will not only receive eternal life, but will also receive grace from God. I hope and pray that this precious grace be with all of us.