The Story:We recall Solomon’s attempt to inject a little folly into his quest for wisdom. Well, OK, a lot of folly. It was the end of his wisdom and beginning of his wandering (Eccl. 2). He learned his lesson the hard way; now he wants to protect Rehoboam from his mistake. The fool thinks he can have just a little folly in his life and still get by. But folly will out; it will ruin all that is beautiful, incline our hearts increasingly in wrong directions (“left” is equated with evil in many cultures), and betray us for what we really are to everyone who sees us. The best course, therefore, is not to see how much folly we get away with, but how much we can get rid of.

The Structure:We don’t know if these proverbs are original with Solomon. Most likely, at any rate, they were well-known bits of wisdom and common sense. The effect of piling them up here together is to intensify the lesson. Our age offers its own share of proverbs and sayings which can be used in an effort to lead people to evaluate their chosen course in life: “play with fire and you’ll get burned”; “never trust a Greek bearing gifts”; “look twice before you cross”; and more. With a little imagination and some more careful attention to our conversations, things people take for granted in our own day can be driven home pointedly and, in the process, perhaps create a path for the Gospel to follow.

The mere fact of “common sense” – things “everybody knows” are true and reliable – tells us something about truth itself. How might you use a “common sense” saying – such as one of the above – to encourage someone to take a closer look at his chosen course in life?

Each week’s studies in our Scriptorium column are available in a free PDF form, suitable for personal or group use. For this week’s study, “It’s Common Sense! Ecclesiastes 10,” simply click here.

T. M. Moore

Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.