- A fool multiplies words,
though no man knows what is to be,
and who can tell him what will be after him? -
Isn’t it amazing how everyone seems to know everything about everything? Perhaps you think I’m guilty of this as well.
At times I definitely struggle with it. Why? Well, the information age makes us feel like experts. The right answers are only a google away.
Yet, many of us have terrible memories. Rarely, unlike our very recent ancestors, do we commit anything to memory.
We take notes, jot things on sticky pads, take pictures, send emails, or just reread the Wikipedia article for the 18th time.
Why? Does it seem impossible that those who came before us memorized entire epic poems? What changed?
Perhaps the ubiquity of paper and information systems simply reduced the need. Why memorize the story when the blue ray is sitting in the drawer?
This over-confidence that comes from an abundance of information leads us to think we know many topics completely.
We’ve all known (or been) the individual who has an opinion on everything. Yes, from politics, religion, and how to fix your cracking foundation.
What does Ecclesiastes tell us? A fool multiplies his words. What does this mean? For starters, he speaks of everything.
But it is more than that. He speaks of everything and says more than is necessary to explain it. They say nothing yet they don’t stop talking.
Ironically, if given the chance to speak long enough, they may even conclude the opposite of what they initially touted as correct!
Why? Because they are not speaking with any wisdom or intelligence; they simply speak whatever is at the top of their mind, filling in the absence with their most current thought.
What should we do? First, we should learn to be silent. In listening, we may learn and become wiser and more capable.
Second, we should learn something well. What do I mean? Is it not good to help your fellow man? To improve their life and take suffering from it?
How might you do this without some knowledge? Can you be a plumber and not understand vent, water and sanitary lines?
You must learn and in learning you must become a student at the expense of what else you can learn. By limiting yourself, you become more than what you are.
With that focus, you gain the respect the fool wishes to obtain by seeming to know everything. You become someone worth listening to.
You will notice when you speak that others listen. Why? Because they want to hear. They communicate this with their bodies, with their attention.
But what else does Ecclesiastes say? Who can know what is to be? What will come after him?
The first part is instruction in knowledge while the latter is instruction in wisdom. The future is a mystery to every man, hidden behind the veil.
What man can see it? Perhaps one may answer the prophet. Is he not able to speak to us of the future promises of God? Do they not speak of the future of Christ’s reign?
Perhaps, but it is not something they come to by their own. It is rather something shown to them. This presenter is the one who knows what is to be and comes after man, even in finality.
He has seen the end of this heaven and earth, of these forms, and of this pain.
Praise God for the His redeeming vision.
Ecclesiastes 10:14