As dead flies give perfume a bad smell, so a little folly outweighs wisdom and honor. – Ecclesiastes 10:1

Today’s Scripture Reading (May 19, 2013): Ecclesiastes 10

I am on a campaign against certainty. I had a conversation with a friend last week and he started to wax eloquent on all of the things that he believed. He was quoting Bible verses in support of his position – and then he started to put down everyone in Christendom that held a differing Biblical understanding. I smiled, and let him talk – and very little of what was said did I agree with. In fact, he did not know this, but by the end of the conversation he was preaching against me. He was so certain that he was right, but all he left me with was questions. Was he right? I don’t think so, but maybe. He had all of his verses and interpretations lined up and it was well thought through, but it did not convince me of the truth of what he was saying. The only thing that I was sure of was that I would now question everything that he had to say to me.

The scene is played out and repeated over and over again. We make comments of certainty because we believe that we have to know if we are to be respected. But when we make proclamations of certainty and we are wrong, the respect that we are chasing after goes up in smoke. And over and over again it is these people that whine and complain that no one respects them. The Teacher is right, a little folly (or foolishness) really does outweigh wisdom and honor. And I am beginning to really believe that certainty is the height of folly.

A little more than a year ago, I went on a little trip through the Bible and something dawned on me that I had never seen before. And the subject matter was eunuchs (men who had been castrated for some reason so that they will never have children.) And I discovered that Deuteronomy 23:1 makes it very clear – a eunuch will never enter into the assembly of God. And in Deuteronomy, this is a certainty. And so I could preach this with confidence – God says that if you are a castrated male, then you have no place in the church – it is certain. Except that Isaiah 56:4-5 says that to the eunuch who believes in God he will reserve within his temple – inside of his assembly – a place of honor that is greater than sons and daughters. And in Acts 8, Philip is asked by a eunuch why he should not be baptized. As far as I am concerned the answer to that question resides in Deuteronomy 23:1, but Philip baptizes him anyway.

All of this just proves to me that I know nothing. God moves in ways that I would never have guessed and so any certainty that I have is folly and it lowers the things that God can do through me. And that is an area of my life that I want increased, and not lowered. But I know that to do that I have to leave what I know behind – I have to echo the Apostle Paul’s belief that I know nothing but Jesus Christ, and him crucified.     

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Ecclesiastes 11