Eld Ko Swee Chay

Introduction

In Ecclesiastes 10:8-10, Solomon shared his observation of man’s actions and their repercussions. He gave us four proverbial expressions that warn against scheming harm, lawlessness, removing landmarks, and hidden dangers to avoid getting hurt or adverse repercussions. Solomon also showed us that to be successful in life or ministry, one needs to be equipped with good and proper “tools”, and wisdom from above is this much needed “tools”.

In Ecclesiastes 10:11-15, Solomon highlighted the danger of a babbler, contrasted the words of the wise man with those of the fool, and pointed out the foolishness of the fool.

The danger of a babbler

¹¹ Surely the serpent will bite without enchantment; and a babbler is no better.

Solomon made a profound statement – A serpent will surely bite when it is not charmed; and a babbler is no better than an uncharmed serpent.

The charming and taming of poisonous snakes by the power of music, and rendering them harmless for a time, is being practised in Egypt and the East till today. The secret of this power has not been accurately determined. It is not known whether it belongs especially to persons or relates to certain words or intonations of the voice or musical sounds. The practice of charming the serpent is mentioned in the Bible. The Psalmist described the wicked speaking lies as a deaf serpent, “Their poison is like the poison of a serpent: they are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear; Which will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming never so wisely.” (Ps 58:4-5). Jeremiah warned that the Lord will send uncharmed serpents to punish the wicked and unrepentant Israelites, “For, behold, I will send serpents, cockatrices, among you, which will not be charmed, and they shall bite you, saith the Lord.” (Jer 8:17).

A “babbler” is a whisperer, backbiter, busy gossiper. It is his nature to babble and talk a lot like a fool, and as dangerous as the uncharmed serpent to bite and cause hurt. The babbler is a dangerous person capable of causing serious injury and destruction. James described the babbler’s tongue as “the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.” (Jas 3:8). He goes around spreading rumours and speaking evil of others. He defames men and sows seeds of discord privately and secretly, in the workplace, at social gatherings, and even in the church. Such a person is like, or even worse than, a venomous viper, a poisonous serpent or adder. We need to be mindful to guard and control our tongues through prayer and reflection in order not to become a babbler ourselves: “Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile.” (Ps 34:13).  We also need to find a way to help and charm the babblers around us, as the charmer charms a snake. These are necessary to maintain our testimonies and peace and harmony in the church.

The contrast between the speech of the wise and the fool 

¹² The words of a wise man's mouth are gracious; but the lips of a fool will swallow up himself.

Solomon gave us a simple contrast here: the speech of the wise is gracious, while the speech of the fool is destructive even unto himself.  

Verse 12a – “The words of a wise man's mouth are gracious”; literally, they are grace. The essence is grace, which is mightier than intellect. The gracious words from the wise man are pleasing in content, form and manner. They encourage and build up others, conciliate favour, produce approbation and goodwill, convince and persuade. A man whose speech is seasoned with grace will be ready with a gracious answer to every man (Col 4:6). In the book of Proverbs, Solomon gave praises to the tongue and lips of a wise man: “The tongue of the just is as choice silver.” (Pro 10:20a). “The lips of the righteous feed many.” (Pro 10:21a). “The lips of the righteous know what is acceptable.” (Pro 10:32a). “The tongue of the wise useth knowledge aright.” (Pro 15:2).

Verse 12b - “The lips of a fool will swallow himself up”, meaning the fool will say unwise and silly things without forethought, which will cause his own hurt and lead to his own destruction. Thus, he is a man who does not know how to control and guard his tongue or when the right time to say the right words is. In the book of Proverbs, Solomon condemned the mouth of the fool: “the mouth of the foolish is near destruction.” (Pro 10:14b); “the mouth of the wicked speaketh frowardness.” (Pro 10:32); “the mouth of fools poureth out foolishness.” (Pro 15:2).

We all know of the foolishness of Rehoboam in speaking grievous instead of gracious words to pacify his subjects who asked for the lightening of their burden. He “made his own tongue to fall upon himself.” (Ps 64:8). His subjects were angry and revolted against him, which resulted in 10 of the 12 tribes of Israel abandoning him to form the Northern kingdom under Jeroboam and leaving him with 2 tribes in his Southern kingdom (1 Ki 12).

The foolishness of the fool

¹³ The beginning of the words of his mouth is foolishness: and the end of his talk is mischievous madness. ¹⁴ A fool also is full of words: a man cannot tell what shall be; and what shall be after him, who can tell him? ¹⁵ The labour of the foolish wearieth every one of them, because he knoweth not how to go to the city.

In these three verses, Solomon described the foolish features of the fool both in his speech and deeds.

Verse 13 - As soon as the fool opens his mouth, the words that come out are full of foolishness.  He utters folly and silliness. But he does not stop there. His frenzied and depraved speech will go on and on with nothing good. Right to the end of his speech is “mischievous madness”, meaning annoyance, wickedness, injuriousness and senselessness.

Verse 14 - The fool is known by his many words, and by his presumption about the future – when no man knows and can tell what and when about the future (cf. Eccl 3:22c and 8:7). The distinctive feature of the fool is his torrent of words – full of words, having many words but few ideas. He says far more than what he knows. He speaks confidently as though he knows the future and is wiser than the wise. It is generally observed that those who talk a lot often lack substance, knowledge or intelligence, as per Willam Shakespeare’s quote, “The empty vessel makes the loudest sound.” Surely people with a right mind would not want to listen to a fool advising them on what’s to come to them in the future.

Usually in a group discussion some person who likes to talk will take over the discussion, and often, not only will he say foolish and absurd things, he will also say too much. This is the main reason the church came up with guidelines on “Responsibilities and Duties of Facilitators and Bible Study Leaders” to ensure that group discussions are managed wisely and judiciously for the glory and honour of God and the blessing of the participants.  

Verse 15 - The fool has no desire to work; or when he does, he quickly becomes wearied. He can’t see that it is wise to work now to prepare for the future. The phrase “he knoweth not how to go to the city” is a proverbial comparison for anything very plain and conspicuous, referring to extreme stupidity or gross ignorance upon the most ordinary and apparent matters. The fool has no sense of direction or goal in life. He lives his life as if it is meaningless and directionless.

Conclusion

The fool is described as a babbler not better than a biting serpent without enchantment. The babbler is a dangerous person capable of causing serious injury and destruction. His tongue is unruly evil, full of deadly poison. The tongue of a babbler must be controlled, like a snake that is charmed. We must be mindful to guard and control our tongues, lest we become babblers.

Words have tremendous influence and power. Gracious words can build up and bless others while unkind and foolish words can cause discord, division, destruction and ruined lives. Speaking foolishly without due forethought will bring about our own shame and destruction.

The fool is known by his many and foolish words. He is unable to control his mouth. He speaks as though he knows everything. He is stupid and ignorant of the most apparent matters and lives without direction and meaning.

The Word of God has a lot to say about the sins of the tongue and the hurt and destruction it can cause. May the Lord help us to be wise, know the danger of an uncharmed tongue, and to be mindful to guard and control our tongues so that our speech is seasoned with grace to bless others. AMEN.