Sunday, October 18, 2015

King Solomon, Something Stinks

 

What do you do when you smell a foul odor? 
Most people today will spray a deodorizer to temporary rid a room that smells foul, or take a bath to remove body odor. However they should know to permanently remove an odor from a room, they have to find the source and clean up the source same as when they bath or shower.

King Solomon wrote this statement to compare a fine perfume to a foul smell as an analogy of the difference between wisdom and folly.
As dead flies give perfume a bad smell,
so a little folly outweighs wisdom and honor. (Ecclesiastes 10:1)
In other words, a swarm of flies will also find the sweet and pleasing smell of a perfume pleasant and become attracted to the source. However, when flies die near a perfume source, the stench of their carcasses had caused the perfume to become rancid and emit a foul pungent odor.
The Solomon of the Ecclesiastes never forgot that smell and he uses it here as an analogy for folly. Wisdom is sweet like a fragrant perfume. But it does not take much foolishness to turn things around because folly stinks. Same as one rash word, one rude remark, one hasty decision, or one angry outburst to spoil everything. As Derek Kinder remarks, “it is easier to make a stink than to create perfume.” ( Ecclesiastes, Phillip Graham Ryken)
King Solomon’s purpose was to remind us that all of our wise and righteous actions serve to emit a pleasant odor about our house (us). The pleasant smell will remain with us as long as we remember to keep shutting the screen door so as not to allow the flies (folly) come in. Because by doing so, just like a pleasant perfume will serve to draw people to us rather than repel them away from us. One dead fly in the ointment can ruin the best perfume.
Regards and goodwill blogging.

No comments:

Post a Comment