Ethical lessons are often taught by contrasting humans against other creatures. Hyenas, wolves, pigs, etc. are symbols of ferocity, filth, and greed while doves and sheep denote virtue, meekness, purity, peace, etc. How about houseflies?
Flies are small insects with an amazing capacity to transmit pathogens. Their hairy bodies and legs pick and drop grime from surface to surface, facilitating the spread of infectious diseases. According to World Health Organization, houseflies transmit around sixty five diseases including typhoid, cholera, diarrhea, anthrax, and a large host of food poisoning causatives.
These troubles aside, flies are persistent irritants that resist every attempt to swat them. If you ever tried barbecuing meat outdoors, you understand. But we aren’t talking flies here. Our objective is to interpret a metaphor in Solomon’s wisdom literature.
As dead flies cause even a bottle of perfume to stink, so a little foolishness spoils great wisdom and honor. Eccl 10:1 ~NLT
A Little Foolishness
When flies enter a perfume bottle, they die and stink, changing sweet aroma into foul odor. Something similar happens when folly is mixed with virtue. At face value, Koheleth’s counsel seems obvious. A little indiscretion can cost you a reputation. To retain honor or wisdom, keep off foolishness. That’s it; problem solved! If it’s so easy, why do we miss it?
When we desperately need to get our act together, common sense becomes exceedingly elusive! To begin with, it’s not easy to define foolishness; how much less a little of it! To a great many people, inability to defend one’s opinions is what constitutes folly, not their words or deeds. So, folks act out bizarre wiles and raise rowdy disputes to justify foolishness.
In the days when Israel was ruled by judges, there arose an extraordinary warrior. Samson was dedicated to God before he was conceived in his mother’s womb. Terms of his consecration were clear—strict adherence to God’s Law. Engaging in forbidden matters nullified consecration. For instance, it was unlawful for a nazarite to touch, or come near a corpse. He wasn’t allowed to drink alcohol or consume any product of the grapevine. Besides, it was illicit for an Israelite to marry outside Jewry. Because it was important to identify nazirites, those who took the vow were forbidden from cutting their hair or beards. There couldn’t have been any greater wisdom for Samson than to preserve the vows of his consecration.
Does safeguarding your Creator’s will seem wise to you?
Samson nursed a weird affinity for women from Israel’s enemies. Besides profaning his nazarite status, such romance was a betrayal to his nation, and his leadership role. Amazingly, that didn’t seem to affect his anointing! Samson still exhibited God’s power. Marvelously! Would the judge repent and forsake his sins? Nope! He broke another of the listed rules. Passing by, he discovered that bees had made a hive out of the carcass of a lion he’d killed. Digging his fist inside, he fetched honey, ate it, and carried some to his parents. Later, while flirting with people he shouldn’t have hung out with, Samson made riddles about ‘the sweet coming out of the eater.’ Yet, for all his failures, Samson did not lose his supernatural strength. None of the rules he broke seemed to affect God’s anointing on his life. Is that how he acquired impunity to live defiantly? Did the ruler of God’s people assume that his actions were inconsequential?
Defective Prototypes
Society has strange scales of gauging morality. People turn deaf ears and blind eyes to evil conduct of the folks they esteem. Because their favorite preachers, politicians, and other leaders exhibit bad manners, they begin to act as if God excuses vulgarities and misconduct!
Can we truly claim genuine Christian faith while attempting to overstretch God’s grace? Is liberty in Christ Jesus without limits? Do you wish to find out how far you could go into prohibited territory to reach the limits of grace?
In his epistle to the Ephesian church, Paul wrote thus, But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints… In other words, “You have been made saints of God [FYI ‘saint’ simply means someone who has been saved]. Peter agrees, 15 But as He who has called you is holy, so be holy in all your conduct. Now, therefore, the saint is called into the highest responsibility; “be holy because I AM Holy!”
God’s Word is a double-edged sword. It dissects mentors as well as mentees.
Samson could only go so far. Though God didn’t approve of his actions, He mercifully extended grace, to give an errant judge the chance to change course. Scripture states, “God …is patient with us, because He does not want any to perish, but all to come to repentance.”
When Samson wouldn’t learn the lesson, his grace period expired. Last of all, he destroyed the identifier symbol; his nazarite locks were cropped. At that point, there was nothing left to associate him with sacred covenants. God’s anointing lifted, and he became an ordinary fellow. With divine protection stripped, enemy forces were able to capture and subdue a mighty warrior!
I’ll Go Out as at Other Times…
After Samson’s hair was shaven, he still thought he could exercise divine power.
20…Then she [Delilah] cried out, “Samson! The Philistines have come to capture you! “When he woke up, he thought, “I will do as before and shake myself free.” But he didn’t realize the Lord had left him.21 So the Philistines captured him and gouged out his eyes. They took him to Gaza, where he was bound with bronze chains and forced to grind grain in the prison. (Judges 16:19-21 ~NLT)
What words could be gloomier than these? Until Philistines captured Samson, put out his eyes, chained, and abused him in contemptuous amusements, he didn’t think his choices mattered. Unable to predict trouble, he paid no attention to personal conduct. All along, he took God’s grace in vain. He didn’t realize a covenant binds signatories to its terms. How could God be expected to continue honoring His promises while Samson violated his?
Does this still happen today? Every day of our lives, we breathe and live by God’s benevolence. Yet, many entertain the notion that they own their lives and can do as they please with no consequences. 11 Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed swiftly, the heart of the sons of men is fully set to do evil. (Ecclesiastes 8:11~MEV)
Had Samson honored God and lived by Scriptural counsel, his end couldn’t have been so tragic. However, these accounts were not recorded for his sake, but for our admonition. The sins that people refuse to learn from finally destroy them! He who is often rebuked, and hardens his neck, Will suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy. Think of the thunderous downfall of social giants in religion, politics, media, sports, etc. Was theirs a sudden fall or the eventual outcome of many ignored warnings?
What’s Your Destiny?
Heeding God’s Word is utmost wisdom. Job 28:28 summarizes it well: 28 And this is what he [God] says to all mankind: ‘Look, to fear the Lord is true wisdom; to forsake evil is real understanding.’” Moreover, the apostle to the Gentile world said it best, Just because something is technically legal doesn’t mean that it’s spiritually appropriate. If I went around doing whatever I thought I could get by with, I’d be a slave to my whims. (1 Corinth 6:12 ~ Message)
Today, ridiculous slogans ring across the globe calling folks to stand up for their opinions (which they call rights). “My body, my choice!” What that means is that we have absolute freedom to conduct ourselves any way we wish regardless of how it affects anybody else. If we were in total control of our lives and didn’t need to be told what was right or wrong, shouldn’t we exercise that power in the most treasurable aspects of life? For instance, why couldn’t we prevent deaths of our loved ones? How come people are taken from us when we least expect it, and all we can do is cry and grieve? Shouldn’t we use the rights we claim to have to fix our highest priorities?
We could think of ourselves as smart, or right. But for all our earthly accomplishments, and arguments, if we neglect the most important matters of afterlife, we leave trails of foolishness behind like the frothy wake of a speedboat.