Daily Devotions
Ecclesiastes
"An error proceeding from the ruler"
Text: Ecclesiastes 10:5
ERRORS FROM FALLIBLE MAN
Man is prone to error. Being finite and sinful as well, man is very prone to making mistakes. But there are some mistakes that have grave or “evil” consequences!
“There is an evil I have seen under the sun,
As an error proceeding from the ruler:
Folly is set in great dignity,
While the rich sit in a lowly place.
I have seen servants on horses,
While princes walk on the ground like servants.”
Ecclesiastes 10:5-7
1. “There is an evil I have seen under the sun”
a) This was an experience that Solomon had.
b) This may not be a mistake of his own.
c) It was an observation made in life.
d) His vast contacts with many countries would explain how this experience came about.
2. “As an error proceeding from the ruler”
a) When a ruler makes an error.
b) The consequences can be astonishing!
3. The following observations were made:
a) “Folly is set in great dignity”
i) Wrong people were promoted to high places.
ii) In those places of great dignity, folly was found.
Meaning: Fools were sitting in high places of authority and power.
b) “While the rich sit in a lowly place”
i) The rich would represent the successful.
ii) They are not found in “high places”.
iii) They are made to sit “in a lowly place”.
c) “I have seen servants on horses”
i) Servants do not own or sit on horses.
ii) But in this kingdom where folly was found in high places,
servants sit on horses as a sign of their status.
d) “While princes walk on the ground like servants”
i) Princes were the ones who sat on horses.
ii) They are now reduced to being servants.
iii) They walk on the ground as servants normally do.
Errors of the kind described above would create havoc in any country!
Wisdom must ever be extolled as of highest worth and importance.