Introduction: I was camped out in Ecclesiastes 9. Solomon writes the following:

I have also seen this example of wisdom under the sun, and it seemed great to me. There was a little city with few men in it, and a great king came against it and besieged it, building great siegeworks against it. But there was found in it a poor, wise man, and he by his wisdom delivered the city. Yet no one remembered that poor man. But I say that wisdom is better than might, though the poor man’s wisdom is despised and his words are not heard.

The words of the wise heard in quiet are better than the shouting of a ruler among fools. Wisdom is better than weapons of war, but one sinner destroys much good (Eccl 9:13-17).

Observations: We observe several fundamental images in Solomon’s words:

• a vulnerable city
• a powerful and devouring king
• a wise man whose wisdom is used for deliverance
• the abandonment of wisdom
• the persistence of fools depsite the offer of wisdom

It reminded me of “The Fool On the Hill,” one of my favorites ditties from the Beatles.

Day after day, alone on a hill
The man with the foolish grin is keeping perfectly still
But nobody wants to know him, they can see that he’s just a fool
And he never gives an answer

But the fool on the hill sees the sun going down
And the eyes in his head see the world spinning around

Well on the way, head in a cloud
The man of a thousand voices talking perfectly loud
But nobody ever hears him or the sound he appears to make
And he never seems to notice

But the fool on the hill sees the sun going down
And the eyes in his head see the world spinning ’round
And nobody seems to like him, they can tell what he wants to do
And he never shows his feelings

But the fool on the hill sees the sun going down
And the eyes in his head see the world spinning ’round (oh oh oh)
‘Round and ’round and ’round and ’round and ’round

And he never listens to them, he knows that they’re the fools
They don’t like him
The fool on the hill sees the sun going down
And the eyes in his head see the world spinning ’round

I went back and watched the video of the Fab Four and Paul singing this beautiful piano-laden melody with Paul grinning his impish little grin into the camera’s eye. So clever, wise even–how much wisdom is sown in a ditty for all who will hear.

Scripture’s Connective Tissue: I went back and again read Solomon’s words in the verses above from Ecclesiastes 9. The lessons were as clear as those from McCartney in “The Fool On the Hill,” namely, that wisdom is good but it is often suppressed, even when God has sent his truth-tellers into our midst.

The text says in verse 16 that “the poor man’s wisdom is despised and his words are not heard.” He’s treated like the subject in “The Fool on the Hill.”

In Matthew 12:42, Jesus said, “The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here.”

The wisdom, he said, was God’s wisdom. Jesus was delivering God’s wisdom. It was superior to Solomon’s wisdom or any man’s wisdom. Why? Because it was God’s wisdom, God’s revelation.

And if that’s not clear enough, it’s emphasized again in the letters. Paul writes, “And because of him[Christ] you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption,” (1 Cor 1:30).

Takeaway: The fool on the hill in the Beatles tune saw the lay of the land, but few people listened. Solomon taught the same thing in Ecclesiastes, namely, that the wise man is occasionally consulted but, more often than not, discarded, so that the real agenda can continue, an agenda shot through with folly. And Christ and Paul taught the same thing, too, that Christ is the wisdom of God, and that if we are wise, we are wise only insofar as we follow him.