Series: Youth for Jesus
Number: Vol. 8, No. 20
“Better a poor but wise youth than an old but foolish king who no longer knows how to heed a warning.” (Ecclesiastes 4:13NIV)
What is Solomon saying to us in our opening bible text? Is he telling us that young people are by all means better than old people? No! Truly, youthfulness has its own advantages. But that does not mean that old age does not have its own advantages as well. It does.
Therefore, it is faulty reasoning to simply say that it is better to be old than to be young or that it is better to be young than to be old. Both are good. And what can make the one better than the other is the measure of wisdom that is applied in handling it.
Now that, of course, is one of the points Solomon is communicating to us through what he says in that text. He is saying that the fact that you are old, rich, powerful and influential does not mean that you are better than any young person around you or in your life. If you are not walking in wisdom, then, any young person around you that is walking in wisdom is better than you, even if he is poor and unknown.
What, then, does it mean to walk in wisdom? That, actually, is not a simple question to answer. But thankfully, Solomon tells us one of the things that will show that a man is walking in wisdom in that text. He refers to it as the willingness to take and act on counsel, godly counsel. And as he points out, the moment we arrive in that place in our lives where we no longer respect godly counsel, we have become nothing but fools, irrespective of our age or position in life.
Remember that Solomon himself, at some point, arrived in that place in his life where he no longer yielded to godly and scriptural counsel concerning the many strange women in his life. And even though God appeared to him twice to warn him, he still did not listen to Him. So, in his old age, the strange women in his life led him into the worship of idols. That, of course, was the foundation for the loss of the larger part of the kingdom by his household. (Cf. 1Kings 11)
So, when this man is telling us that it is better to be young, poor and unknown and receptive to godly and spiritual counsel than to be old, rich, influential and powerful and be deaf to godly counsel, he knows what he is talking about. That is because that poor and unknown young person can become rich, known and powerful by acting on the godly counsel coming to him. But the one who is already rich, powerful and known can lose everything and be put to shame, even in his old age, if he should begin to despise and reject godly and spiritual counsel.
Never arrive there, then! No, never arrive in that place in your life where you think you already know it all and begin to do away with spiritual and godly counsel. That is because it is a foolish place to arrive in. And once you are there, regardless of how old you are or how far you have come in life, all that you have done or accomplished in wisdom may soon be lost.
So, mind yourself.
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