Fools Rush In

Automated transcript of the sermon audio, generated with OpenAI Whisper (small.en). It has not been checked against the recording and may contain errors, especially in names and Scripture references.

Anybody recognize the phrase fools rush in? Have you heard that before? Do you know that’s a song? I forget who first recorded the song. I know Elvis has covered it. It’s also a movie from 1997 with Matthew Perry and Salma Hayek. I’ve never seen it. But you can go to Wikipedia, that bastion of all information that is true. You can see all about fools rush in. However, the phrase fools rush in originated from the English poet Alexander Pope. Anybody even heard the name Alexander Pope before? Okay, good. He wrote near the end of his an essay on criticism, fools rush in where angels tread. By the way, that essay, an essay on criticism by Alexander Pope, is also where we get the phrases, to err is human, to forgive divine.

He’s the one who wrote that. He is also the one who wrote, in that very essay, a little learning is a dangerous thing. Pope’s point in his poem, and I actually read, it’s a long poem, it’s available free on the internet, you can get to it by going to Wikipedia, searching for Alexander Pope, and then list some of his literary works, but you can actually go get an essay on criticism. I actually read more than half of it to try to find the the context of the original phrase, fools rush in where angels tread. I know context.

How valuable is that? Pretty valuable. But anyway, Pope’s point in his poem is that bad writing is bad, but bad criticism of bad writing is even worse. Fools are quick, that’s why fools rush in where angels tread. Fools are quick to find fault and pick apart and do more damage than they do good, it causes harm when fools rush in. In Ecclesiastes chapter 10 verses 8 through 11, the preacher Solomon addresses the very same problem, bad things happen when fools rush in. Even though you won’t find the word fool or the word folly in verses 8 through 11, the previous section which we talked about last time we were together in Ecclesiastes, the previous section, chapter 10, verses 1 through 7, we talked about four facts about folly. It was all about fools and their folly. And then the following section, which we’ll look at hopefully next Sunday morning, verses 12 through 15 at least, talks about the fool and his words. And so the section immediately before 8 through and the section right after 8-11 is all about the fool.

Things that describe the fool, the way the fool speaks in the next section following. And so the context leads me to believe that these proverbs in verses 8-11 also concern fools, and specifically fools at work. Verses 8-11 seem to have their own cohesiveness. They seem to go together as a unit. For example, in verse 8, you see the serpent and then verse 11 at the end. So bookending these four verses is discussion about a snake or about serpent, as well as the fact that the two middle verses connect the idea of splitting logs in verse 9 and then the axe or the iron getting dull in verse 10. So, whereas some commentators suggest these verses really have very little to do with each other and they think that the verses altogether in chapter 10 have little to do with each other.

I think that there is a specific connection, a clear connection, in chapter 10, number 1, about fools. And then I think specifically even in verses 8 through 11, it’s talking about the fool at work and how the fool rushes in. Wisdom while you work. Maybe that’s what the little guy should have sang instead of whistle while you work. Maybe they should have been singing something about wisdom while you work. And there’s really two things that we’re going to learn from the four verses today. First of all, take appropriate precaution. And then secondly, make appropriate preparations. Take appropriate precaution and make appropriate preparation.

And those are the two things I want you to learn from the passages. Those aren’t necessarily the outline. So let me give you the first point in the outline. fools rush in without caution in verses 8 and 9. Read those with me. He who digs a pit will fall into it, and a serpent will bite him who breaks through a wall. He who quarries stones is hurt by them, and he who splits logs is endangered by them. Verses 8 and nine share four snapshots of the consequences of working without caution, without making and taking the appropriate precautions. You are bound to get hurt if you don’t pay attention. I know this will have no immediate application for young people who are always making sure to think about what they’re doing, especially before they do it and then while they’re doing it.

I think junior high as in high schoolers are pretty much our society’s models of taking precaution and preparing ahead of time thinking about and being careful in what they do.

So I realize that you may not have a lot to apply from today’s passage, but if you could know that at least there are Bible verses for why you’re already doing what you do, then you can share that with other people that you’re trying to teach, okay? So, you’re bound to get hurt if you don’t pay attention, and there are, like I said, four snapshots. The first snapshot is digging a pit, the first part of verse 8. This is the first snapshot of the unmindful, that is the not paying attention fool. He who digs a pit will fall into it. Now most of the time, and if you have read through the book of Proverbs, in particular Proverbs chapter 26 verse 27, and then in Psalm 7, especially then in verse 15, this illustration of digging a pit and falling into it is actually a pretty common illustration in the Old Testament, and most of the time in the Old Testament it refers to retribution, and that is you get what you deserve. And so in many other Old Testament passages, wisdom recognizes that what goes

around comes around. That when you try and trap or hurt someone else, more than likely you are going to be trapped or hurt by that very same thing that you are trying to trap or hurt someone else with. Perhaps the perfect example of this is in Esther, and you remember where Haman builds this huge gallows to hang Mordecai.

And I was just rereading it last night and Haman builds this 50 qubit high. A qubit is 18 inches. So this is like some huge gallows to hang his enemy Mordecai. And he builds it near his house. Apparently Haman wanted everybody to know that this hanging was taking place, and he wanted everybody to know that it was associated with him. Like he was the one that should receive the praise for it. I’m guessing that based on how big he made it. Well, what’s a foot and a half times 50? 70, thank you.

75 feet is a little bit unnecessary to hang somebody. I’m just saying. Even Goliath didn’t need gallows that tall in order to accomplish the task. So this is a huge contraption that Haman builds 50 cubits tall, and he builds it near his house. And what ends up happening? Haman is hung in the very gallows that he had specially crafted for someone else. That perhaps is the ultimate example in scripture of this principle of retribution. And so the proverb is, he who digs a pit will fall into it himself. And that’s certainly true, there is sweet irony in much providential punishment. But, in order for us to interpret retribution as what goes around comes around, as the point here in Ecclesiastes chapter 10 verse 8, we are forced to read into the verse ill intentions on the part of this pit-digger.

There’s nothing in the context that suggests bad motives or ill will on the part of this particular pit digger. Whereas, as I mentioned before, in Proverbs 26, verse 27, where you find out about digging pits and falling into it, the context there involves wicked people and lying people. And then in Psalm 7, read all of Psalm 7, especially around verse 15, The context makes it obvious that it’s talking about people who are trying to hurt or trap others, who then fall into the very trap they’ve created for somebody else. But here in Ecclesiastes chapter 10, there’s nothing said about when the pit was dug, or anything about the purpose of the pit.

So I think it’s hard to say that the point here is that you’ll be hurt if you try to hurt others. And instead, I think the point very simply is, be careful when you’re digging a pit. That’s the point. Be careful. You could get hurt. Exercise some caution. The walls might fall in on you if it’s a big enough pit, or specifically as the verse then suggests, if you’re not paying attention, you might forget about the pit and accidentally fall into it yourself. I was trying to think about if that’s ever happened to me. I’m not digging lots of pits. But I did remember there were a few times at least. So this would have been almost two summers ago now.

We were working on, Mr. Wenling in particular was the foreman. We were working on putting in a sprinkler system at my house and my yard. And for a while there, there were just ditches for the sprinkler system pipes all over the place. And there were a few times, I can’t remember something specifically, specifically, but I do remember there were a few times it seems like where I had to go out in the dark and get something, like I had to go pick up the tools so I didn’t have to leave them out overnight and it was dark and I would totally fall into the ditches that we had made. I didn’t dig the ditches to trap anybody.

Like that, that was not the goal. There was good reason to dig those ditches and nevertheless, because I wasn’t paying attention, I fell into them. That happens in all kinds of other things as well. proverb is a principle. I was trying to think of something else maybe that I had done recently where I had intended something good by what I had done and it came back to bite me. For example, a couple weeks ago, Mo has not been feeling that great in her pregnancy here at the beginning. She had went to bed early and I kind of shut the door a little bit so that it would keep the noise out, but that I could still hear because I was back in the room and I was doing some reading while she was sleeping. So I kind of shut the door a little bit. Then I went to bed and in the morning I got up. It was an early morning.

It was totally dark and I had gone into my little study. If you know the floor plan back at that end of the house, you may be able to picture this in your head. So I went into my study because I had to get my keys and some things like that. And I walked right out of my study and just bam right into the end of the door that I had left half open and half closed, trying to do something nice in helping keep the noise out. And yeah, I ran into it so hard right with my face. I bent my glasses. I had to go get them re-tweaked because that’s how hard I hit the end of the door. I wasn’t paying attention. Now it was pitch black.

I would like to think if the lights were on, I would have not walked right into the door. would have been paying attention enough, but nevertheless sometimes you can do things that have good intentions behind them that can still come back and hurt you if you’re not paying attention and being cautious. Even when you’re trying to do something good it may hurt you later if you don’t use your head. So digging a pit, that’s the first snapshot. Breaking a wall from the second part of Verse 8 is the second snapshot of the oblivious fool. It says this, a serpent will bite him who breaks through a wall. Now again, there are some who suggest that there are ill intentions on the part of this person who is breaking through the wall.

Namely, like this guy is trying to break into his neighbor’s house. as a thief, as a robber to try to steal something, and so while breaking through the wall, he gets bit by this snake. But just like with the pit digger, we have to read bad motives into the verse in order to make that conclusion. And there’s nothing in the context which says this is for bad motives or for thievery.

And I wondered, was this really like the typical pattern of thieves, was to try to break through the wall, like just to get their hand into the wall. What was that actually doing? I don’t think they had doorknobs with locks, deadbolts like we do, so they were trying to break through the wall right by the door so they could reach in and then unlock the door. That wouldn’t have been the common setup of walls and doors for them some 2,500, 3,000 years ago. I don’t think that was at least based on everything that I know of Israel’s history of thievery. So let’s take the verse as it is. If you’re breaking through a wall for whatever reason, good or bad, likely for some kind of demolishing purposes, good or bad though, be careful. Obviously remember that the walls in ancient Israel were not like ours today. They didn’t have concrete blocks or bricks or a mortar that was fine enough and that dried tight enough that it would be surprising to us, not impossible if a snake or a serpent got into the middle of our walls. But it’d be much more difficult

today with our setup than it would have been for them where the walls were typically held together by small stones and pebbles, a looser kind of filler where a snake could easily make his nest. And the point is, if you know it’s a possibility that when you’re breaking up a wall you might find a snake, don’t just stick your hand in there and let your fingers do the walking. Use a tool or wear some gloves or look around before just sticking your hand into the wall and rushing in when you know there’s the potential of danger, of difficulty, fools just rush in instead of taking the proper precaution. So, digging a pit, breaking a wall, the third snapshot is corrying stones. At the beginning of verse 9, he who quarries stones is hurt by them. This is another common activity, just like digging pits, I suppose, is common for the various reasons, maybe whether that was a man-made cistern or whatever it is. Obviously, if you’re doing remodeling, you might have to break down the walls. And so corrying stones is another common activity that they might have done. Unlike the first

two, though, nowhere did any commentator that I read suggest that corrying stones had a negative connotation, like that would have been used for some bad purpose. Like He who quarries stones is hurt by them because he’s trying to cut stones to throw at other people. You are going to be hurt by throwing stones because they’re rubber and your glue and whatever bounces off of them hits you. Nobody suggested that there are bad intentions going along with this one. So this is just a person who’s cutting rocks. Who knows the reason? It doesn’t say. Who knows whether they’re trying to cut big rocks or small rocks? Who knows what kind of rocks?

Who knows how they’re doing it? Because there is potential harm involved, the rock cutter should be careful. Don’t stand right underneath the huge rock you’re trying to cut away from the face of the rock wall. Don’t stand right underneath that. I think that’s a good thing. Don’t stand right on top of it. And then try to do the walking down the rock as it rolls down the hill. Don’t do that. Maybe they needed to learn to cut away from themselves as opposed to cut towards themselves. Your mom always teaches you that when you’re using a knife. The point here is that even though you can’t guarantee to avoid hurt, you can at least do some things to minimize the potential risk, minimize the danger, minimize the hurt.

Fools rush in. They don’t even think about it. Solomon’s saying pay attention. The fourth snapshot of the unconcerned fool is splitting logs. The last part of verse 9, he who splits logs is endangered by them. Likewise, there are no criminal suggestions for log cutters like there are with pit diggers and wall breakers. Just another simple daily task. Somebody’s got to do it and it’s possible to get hurt when you’re doing it. Now in Deuteronomy chapter 19 verse 5, there is a law. God gives a law for what to do if two guys go out into the woods and they’re chopping down trees and the head of the axe flies off the handle and lands in the other person’s head and they die.

Gotta do something about those loose axe handles if there’s an entire law for a nation about what to do if that happens. a nail on the top or soak it in water, a bucket of water before you go out and let the wood swell up and hold the axe head on because that’s bad news. If you’re swinging back and the head flies off into somebody else’s head, there’s a law about that because that’s obviously an accident and therefore then it was not the same thing as murder. So there was a particular way to handle that. However, this verse doesn’t say anything about another person. It seems unlikely to me, I was trying to imagine how this could happen, that you would be out in the woods cutting logs by yourself and the head would fall off the handle and land on your own head.

It’s more feasible to imagine that happening to somebody else who’s out in the woods with you than like you’re swinging straight up and it flies straight up. Because even at that point you’d think you’d be watching out for the head coming down. I don’t know, in fact I’m sure that that’s not really what it’s suggesting based on the fact that it’s not the axe that he suggests could hurt you. It seems like he’s saying he who splits logs is endangered by them, by the logs. Maybe you’re chopping wood and you come down and a piece of, you know, a chip of wood shoots off of the log and just stabs you right in the leg in a major artery.

that happens or maybe you’re like on a stack of logs and then they roll on top of you. It doesn’t really say how it could happen except that you should be careful. Fools rush in. And in all four of these activities, I said it just a moment ago, but it applies for all four of these activities. You can’t guarantee your safety. You can’t guarantee that you’re not going to get hurt and that you can avoid every accident, but the answer is not to then just stay home all day and sit on the couch and be like, well, I don’t want to go cut down the logs because I might get hurt. Solomon hates laziness and inactivity and excuse makers as much as anything.

So that is not the point of these proverbs, to then just stay home and be fearful and chew your nails until there’s nothing more to chew because whoa, you might get hurt if you go do something. That’s not his point. The point is to keep your head up and pay attention to what you’re doing. I think that probably has application for every day of your life. your head don’t rush into things without any caution, you might get hurt. So, fools rush in without any caution, and then that leads to the second major point, fools rush in without preparation, verses 10 and 11. Here we just have two illustrations that point out wasted energy and potential danger of not making adequate preparations.

Both of these begin with if. Both require skill to get things ready, to get things done. Verse 10, so two illustrations, two pictures. Verse 10 is chopping trees. Verse 11 is charming snakes. So the first picture here, verse 10. This verse actually leads to one of my favorite time management stories of all time. I’ll tell you about that. Verse 10, if the iron is blunt and one does not sharpen the edge, he must use more strength, but wisdom helps one to succeed. The Hebrew word is actually iron. I know that the NAS translates it as the head of the axe. is undoubtedly what it’s referring to, but the word itself in Hebrew is just the word for iron.

Obviously, it means the part of a tool that you would use because obviously the activity is sharpening the edge. What would be the point of sharpening the edge if you weren’t trying to cut something down? Seems like that is even connected with verse 9 in the chopping down trees. It is important to sharpen the edge if you want to chop trees successfully. Doug Wilson in his inimitable way likens it to a boy cutting down a tree with a baseball bat.

That’s not gonna work, so sharpen the edge. I heard a story based on this verse one time in a time management class. It’s actually, if you’ve heard of, the seven habits of highly effective people by Stephen Covey, a very time management oriented thing, the seven habits of highly effective people. The seventh principle is actually called sharpen the saw and it’s a whole illustration based off of I think this verse and he goes into this whole thing about how there was this young man, a recent graduate from high school in a small logging town and the goal of the aim of this young man he wanted to be a tree faller, he wanted to chop down the trees for this logging company, that was like his goal in life.

And so upon graduation from high school, he goes and applies. He knew he was a little bit too young, but he goes and applies and he speaks with the foreman and he basically persuades the foreman to just give him a shot, give him one opportunity. He says, I’ll work harder than anybody else. I’ll meet the quota that’s required on a daily basis. Just give me a shot. And so the foreman eventually decides that that’s something that’s acceptable and so he gives the guy an assignment, sends them to a particular spot in the forest. The young man goes out with his axe and he is there early. He starts chopping down the trees.

The morning break comes, works right through it. Everybody else, all the older guys, they stop, they ask him coffee, whatever it is, they take their break. He keeps working right through that. Call for lunch time. He stops long enough to eat his sandwich. That’s all he does. right back to work, takes the rest of his hour and gets back to chopping down trees, works right through the afternoon break. And by the end of the day, he’s totally exhausted and he’s however many trees behind everybody else. He goes and he talks with the foreman, he can’t believe how under the quota he was. He’s exhausted, he was working hard all day long, he can’t figure out how it was that he came so short.

So he’s talking with the foreman and the foreman’s asking him some questions. The guy’s explaining, I worked through the morning break, I worked through the afternoon break, I worked through the majority of my lunch. I still couldn’t catch up with the rest of the guys by the end of the day. The foreman asked him the simple question, did you ever stop and sharpen your axe? The young man said, well, I didn’t have the time. The foreman explains, well, it’s no wonder because with your dull blade, you spent more energy and were less successful than if you would have taken an appropriate break and sharpened the edge of your axe.

Stephen Covey’s sharpen the saw is that whole idea. He goes into how that applies personally. You have physical things and emotional things and mental things and spiritual things that you need to do as a person to make sure that your saw is sharp. I think about that sometimes. So you as a person, like your life, you are the saw. And you want to make sure that as you’re trying to accomplish things in your life, manage your time, that you are as sharp as you could be. The point obviously though is that the more your blade is dulled, the more effort you waste. And sometimes it’s necessary to work smart, not just hard.

Sometimes you just need to put more elbow grease and more sweat into what you’re doing. Sometimes you need to stop and sharpen the blade. Solomon puts this into the wisdom category. He says wisdom helps one to succeed. A little preparation can actually save you a lot of time and potentially a lot of effort. That’s true in many areas of life. Use your head, think ahead. Fools rush in. If you want to keep eating when you’re 80, I recommend brushing your teeth now. You may not think it’s going to be a big problem, but you should do some preparation. Now, you’ll be glad that you did later. Not necessarily sharpen your teeth but at least keep them clean. Change the oil in your car before the light dings and certainly before the smoke comes out. Like is that a good time to change the oil in your car? Yeah, it might actually be a little bit too late.

Fools rush in, they’re not thinking about it, they’re not doing any preparation and it causes them harm. So sharpen the saw, sharpen the edge. The second picture of the importance of preparation is charming snakes. Verse 11, if the serpent bites before it’s charmed, there is no advantage to the charmer. And you’re like, awesome. It does actually make a good point though, I think snake Snake charming is a little bit different than all of the other activities. Most of the time snake charming would have been something done for entertainment, for a show, as opposed to like really necessary in life. Perhaps you were wandering through the desert and you came across a snake and you happened to have a snake charmer traveling with you and that worked out good.

Most of the time it seems like snake charming was something done like I say for entertainment for for a show Unlike the other activities which are more daily work. You can imagine people needing to do those kinds of things a little bit more Most snake charmers were putting on a show. It was a mysterious occupation But it was something that took great skill and Solomon points out that you can know someone with great skill to solve your issue, but at some point it’s too late to get their counsel. Imagine that it’s a Tuesday afternoon and I’m really excited to see this particular snake get charmed. I’m in such a hurry that I don’t want to wait for the snake charmer to come, so I just go to the basket and take the lid off, take the snake out to take it to the snake charmer. Well, he’s going to charm it. That’s going to be too late. By the time you get to the person who has the skill to calm down the snake, because you just reach right in and try to grab it, to take it, to get the counsel, to take it to the person who had

the skill, but that’s too late. And so even though someone has skill, someone could have doesn’t something about it, before that skill is applied, before the wisdom is used, it ends up being too late. In this case, haste makes waste of you. Again, you don’t get the appropriate counsel, get the person who has the skill to help in the particular situation. Some situations require counsel before it’s too late. There is no advantage to the charmer. You could be best friends with the charmer. You could hang out all the time. It is of no advantage to you to know the charmer if you’re dead because the snake already bit you.

Get counsel, get the wisdom, get the advice. Find the person with the skill to handle the situation ahead of time before it’s too late. Sometimes it really is better to wait. You’re like, nah, I’ve seen the farmer do that. I can figure that out. I’ll just grab it. I’ve seen the Discovery Channel. I know. You just grab it right behind its head and hold it and it can’t bite you. I can do that. I stayed at Holiday Inn Express last night. Obviously, I know how to do that. Or you can just totally think the snake hasn’t bitten anybody in like three months. It probably isn’t even going to bite me. There’s no need to be concerned.

It’ll be okay. So I’ll just reach in, grab the snake, and take it to the charmer at that point. It’s not going to bite me. You can hurry because you’re unwilling to be patient and wait. You can just not believe that the bad things are going to happen. Solomon puts that in the category of being a fool. That’s why the title for the message is, Fools Rush In. In both cases, verse 10 and in verse 11, in both cases some wisdom in preparation would have helped. In verse 10, it would have saved time, energy, and effort. Would have kept that from being wasted.

In verse 11, the issue actually seems to be life, not just advantage, it is of no advantage that you know a charmer or that you can get a charmer if you’ve already been bitten by the snake. That’s not going to do you any good. And sometimes we would do very well to not only then be cautious and think about what we’re doing, but to make some preparations for it as well. It seems like, especially with verse 11, there are times when we need to get counsel, we need to get somebody who knows more than we do about the situation to help us figure it out. Like parents, or small group leaders, or the people that God has put in our lives who we may doubt, but it probably is true that they know more than we do. And instead of getting into the mess, because we were careless and thoughtless and made no preparation at all before we made a decision or before we said something or before we went to a particular place, took on more than we could handle. It’s better to wait, it’s better to get counsel and listen to that counsel. So work carefully.

Verses 8 and 9, work smartly. Verses 10 and 11, keep your head up and think Take ahead, look ahead. Take appropriate precautions and make appropriate preparations that will save you time, that will save you energy, honestly, that may save your life on a physical level and on a spiritual level from just making really dumb, foolish choices that you pay for the rest of your life. rush in. We don’t want to be fools. Father, thanks for this wisdom from Solomon. Please help us as young people to be quick to hear and slow to speak so that we might get wisdom. Help us to value wisdom and even as we covered this morning help us to take appropriate precautions, keep our heads up watching out for what’s going on. Help us also then to take appropriate preparations so that we’re ready with wisdom for what you bring into our lives. We pray all this in Christ’s name. Amen.