Wisdom v.s. Volume

Daily I receive an emailer from GLCC (my church) with a verse and some notes – meant to be daily nuggets of truth I suppose. Its called the TTB (Thru The Bible) series. Although I must admit that I normally do not read it, in fact I almost always delete it immediately, I decided to do so today.

The passage discussed was Ecclesiastes 9:14-18 (I guess that this is the main reason why I decided to read this particular one – Ecclesiastes happens to be my favourite Old Testament book). The passage is as follows (I apologise that it is in the KJV – I couldn’t be asked to type it all out in another version):

“[There was] a little city, and few men within it; and there came a great king against it, and besieged it, and built great bulwarks against it: Now there was found in it a poor wise man, and he by his wisdom delivered the city; yet no man remembered that same poor man. Then said I, Wisdom [is] better than strength: nevertheless the poor man's wisdom [is] despised, and his words are not heard. The words of wise [men are] heard in quiet more than the cry of him that ruleth among fools. Wisdom [is] better than weapons of war: but one sinner destroyeth much good.”

Here’s a little city facing a siege by a neighbouring king. Of course our good sense will tell us that there’s no hope – they’re almost certain to be broken down and overrun. There is however a poor but wise man (Why is it that wise men always seem to be poor?!) who ‘single-handedly’ saved the city from an impending doom (the passage doesn’t say how exactly but it certainly had to be brilliant). It didn’t matter that the enemies had superior weapons of war (implied in v.18) or that they were more aggressive (implied in v.17). This little city managed, because of this poor wise man’s wisdom, to fend off the attack.

The surprising thing is that it seemed that almost immediately, he is not acknowledged. In fact, its not clear whether there was even an acknowledgement that he was the reason the city survived their ordeal. There was certainly no ‘key to the city’ presented to him, no celebration in his honour, no monetary rewards, no call to office. Nothing. Dido.

What makes things worse is that this poor chap’s ‘wisdom’ is despised and his words/advice not heeded. He’s completely ignored. ‘Those stupid and ungrateful wretches!’ you might think (I do).

There is also another dimension to this story. It is often the case that the counsel or counselors who are the most prominent, respected and perhaps the loudest, get heard the most. In the bible passage above, the equivalent group would be the little city’s political and military leaders. They would have adopted a strategy and commenced its execution although this would certainly prove inadequate and futile. But most people will listen to them and follow orders. This is partly due to the fact that the majority of people do not exercise their minds and think hard enough about (or verify or test) the advice they receive, but rather accept everything wholesale, as gospel truth.

However, as I think about it, I’ve come to realize that most people are like that. When they are in a dire situation (e.g. depression, overwhelming financial need) they will be receptive towards help (of course, they don’t really have much choice). But the moment that they are ‘out of the rut’, all is forgotten. No thanks and/or appreciation. Some, to make things worse, suddenly have an epiphany of sorts and miraculously experience a complete 180 degree change. From knowing absolutely nothing, they become ‘experts’ in everything. Worse still, they attempt to ‘lord’ it over the person who helped them in their time of need. They argue, they retort that the helper is not in the position to ‘teach’ them anything. Suddenly they speak with arrogance and moral superiority.

The troubled person mentioned above would originally have sought counsel from this type of counselor. However, when it proves useless and ineffective, he may be willing (as a result of his desperation) accept the advice of the poor wise man. But as is almost always the case, the instant that the problem is over, he will go back to the original counselor and forget the poor wise man. In time he might even begin to resent the poor wise man and his words.

But alas, the poor wise man’s wisdom is ignored, despised (and he is despised) to the proud man’s own peril. As he’s not learnt anything (or enough to sustain himself) he will inevitably fall again, this time deeper than before.