Ecclesiastes 7:25; Ecclesiastes 2:13
I applied mine heart to know, and to search, and to seek out wisdom, and the reason of things, and to know the wickedness of folly, even of foolishness and madness.
Then I saw that wisdom excelleth folly, as far as light excelleth darkness.
CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): The very first part of wisdom is to receive the Gospel of salvation into our hearts. We all need it; nor can any human being be saved without it; and God offers to us all the blessings of it, freely, without money and without price. Were we under a sentence of death from a human tribunal, and were offered mercy by the Prince, it would be accounted wisdom to accept the offer, and folly to reject it. How much more is it our wisdom to accept a deliverance from eternal death, together with all the glory and felicity of heaven! This must commend itself to every man who reflects but for a moment: and to despise these proffered benefits must, of necessity, be regarded as folly, bordering upon madness.
MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): Wisdom enlightens the soul with surprising discoveries and necessary directions for the right government of itself; but sensuality—for that seems to be especially the folly here meant—clouds and eclipses the mind, and is as darkness to it; it puts out men’s eyes, makes them wander out of it.
CHARLES SIMEON: The world gives its voice in direct opposition to the foregoing statement. It represents religion as folly, and the prosecution of carnal enjoyments as wisdom. But its “calling good evil, and evil good,” will not change their respective natures: nor, if the whole world should unite in putting darkness for light, or light for darkness, will either of them lose its own qualities, and assume those of the other. “Sweet” will be sweet, and “bitter” bitter, whether men will believe it or not. “The foolishness of fools is folly,” Proverbs 14:26.
CHARLES BRIDGES (1794-1869): What think we of folly?
MATTHEW HENRY: It is the character of a wicked man that he takes pleasure in sin; “Folly is joy to him,” Proverbs 15:21. The folly of others is so, and his own much more. He sins, not only without regret, but with delight, not only repents not of it, but makes his boast of it. This is a certain sign of one that is graceless.
WILLIAM ARNOT (1808-1875): The best way to know a man is to observe what gives him pleasure. A good man may once, or many times, be betrayed into foolish words or deeds, but the indulgence of them makes him miserable. Folly, like Ezekiel’s roll, was sweet in his mouth, but left a lasting bitterness behind. Fools, on the contrary, “feed on foolishness,” Proverbs 15:14; it is pleasant to their taste at the time, and they ruminate with relish on it afterwards.
CHARLES BRIDGES: He sins without temptation or motive. He cannot sleep without it, Proverbs 4:16. It is “the sweet morsel under his tongue,” Job 20:12. He “obeys it in the lusts thereof,” Romans 6:12. He “works it with greediness,” Ephesians 4:19. He hates the gospel, because it “saves from it,” Matthew 1:21; Acts 3:26.
JOHN GILL (1697-1771): Proverbs 13:16, “Every prudent man dealeth with knowledge: but a fool layeth open his folly,”—or “spreads” it, and exposes it to the view of everyone, by his foolish talk and indiscreet actions.
CHARLES BRIDGES: The tongue shews the man. The wise commands his tongue. The fool—his tongue commands him. He may have a mass of knowledge in possession. But from the want of the right use, it runs to waste. Wisdom is proved, not by the quantum of knowledge, but by its right application. “The tongue of the wise useth knowledge aright: but the mouth of fools poureth out foolishness,” Proverbs 15:2.
JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): “He that is hasty of spirit exalteth folly,” Proverbs 14:29—exalteth folly. He sets it up upon a pole, as it were; he proclaims his own folly by his ireful looks, words, gestures, actions.
WILLIAM ARNOT: “Fools make a mock at sin,” Proverbs 14:9. It is emphatically the part of a fool to mock at sin. God counted it serious, when, to deliver us from its power, He covenanted to give his Son to die. Christ counted it serious, when He suffered for it. All holy beings stand in awe before it. Angels unfallen look on in wonder, and converted men who have been delivered from it, fear it with an exceeding great fear. Only the victims who are under its benumbing power, and exposed to its eternal curse, can make light of sin.
JOHN TRAPP: “It is as sport to a fool to do mischief,” Proverbs 10:23. He is then merriest when he hath the devil for his playfellow.
WILLIAM ARNOT: Those who make a mock at sin are obliged also to mock at holiness. This is the law of their condition. “Evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse,” 2 Timothy 3:13. To laugh at sin and to laugh at holiness are but two sides of one thing. They cannot be separated. Those who make mirth of goodness persuade themselves that they are only getting amusement from the weakness of a brother. Let them take care. If that in a Christian which you make sport of, be a feature of his Redeemer’s likeness, He whose likeness it is, is looking on, and will require it…Let them take care—God is not mocked.
JOHN GILL: “A wise man feareth, and departeth from evil: but the fool rageth, and is confident,” Proverbs 14:16. He fears neither God nor men, he sets his mouth against both; he “rages” in heart, if not with his mouth, against God and His law, which forbid the practice of such sins he delights in; and against all good men, that admonish him of them, rebuke him for them, or dissuade him from them: and “is confident” that no evil shall befall him; he has no concern about a future state, and is fearless of hell and damnation, though just upon the precipice of ruin.
C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): “The wisdom of the prudent is to understand his way: but the folly of fools is deceit,” Proverbs 14:8. They deceive themselves more than they deceive anybody else.
CHARLES BRIDGES: “Though thou shouldest bray a fool in a mortar among wheat with a pestle, yet will not his foolishness depart from him,” Proverbs 27:22. Much is said of the effectiveness of correction. But of itself it works nothing. What can it do for the fool, that despises it? “The rod” ordinarily “will drive foolishness out of the heart of a child,” Proverbs 22:15. But the child is here become a man in strength of habit, and stubbornness of will. As soon, therefore, “can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots,” as those can do good, “who are accustomed to do evil,” Jeremiah 13:23. “As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly,” Proverbs 26:11.
WILLIAM ARNOT: To mock at sin now, is the way to the place of eternal weeping. They who weep for sin now, will rejoice in a Saviour yet. Blessed are they that so mourn, for they shall be comforted.—“Understanding is a wellspring of life unto him that hath it: but the instruction of fools is folly,” Proverbs 16:22. To him that hath it, this wisdom from above will be a well-spring of life; to those who refuse it, life will never spring at all.
