Ecclesiastes 10:11-15

Text: Ecclesiastes 10:11–15
Theme: Words reveal wisdom or folly

Main Ideas

• The Danger of the Tongue (v. 11)

  • Foolish words are like a serpent’s bite—sudden, poisonous, and dangerous.

  • Even the skilled “snake charmer” can still be bitten; wisdom requires humility and caution.

  • When faced with biting words, the biblical response is prayerful dependence on the Lord (Psalm 140).

• Gracious Words of the Wise (v. 12a)

  • The wise person’s speech is marked by grace, kindness, and life-giving truth.

  • Words reflect the heart; transformed hearts produce edifying speech.

  • Jesus is the perfect model—full of grace and truth, speaking even hard words for the good of others.

• Self-Destructive Speech of the Fool (vv. 12b–14)

  • Foolish words eventually consume the speaker himself.

  • The fool multiplies words, moves from nonsense to madness, and claims knowledge of the future he does not possess.

  • Excessive talking does not equal wisdom; restraint is often the wiser path.

• Foolish Words Lead to Fruitless Works (v. 15)

  • The labor of fools exhausts them because it lacks direction and understanding.

  • The fool boasts but cannot even “find the city”—his efforts lead nowhere.

• Gospel Connection

  • By nature, we are all fools with unclean lips.

  • In Christ, we are given new hearts and empowered by the Spirit to speak words of grace.

  • Sanctification includes the ongoing renewal of our speech.

Title: Words That Bite or Words That Heal
Primary Text: Ecclesiastes 10:11–15

1. Biblical Context

• Ecclesiastes contrasts wisdom and folly in everyday life.

• Chapter 10 focuses on leadership, speech, and practical living.

• Words are not neutral—they shape communities and reveal the heart.

2. Key Themes

• Speech as Moral Action: Words can destroy or give life (Prov. 18:21).

• Humility and Restraint: Wisdom knows its limits (James 1:19).

• Folly’s Self-Consumption: Sin is self-defeating (Prov. 26:27).

• Grace-Filled Speech: Redeemed people speak differently (Eph. 4:29).

3. Cross-References

• Psalm 140:1–5 – Poisonous tongues and prayerful refuge

• Proverbs 10:19 – Many words increase sin

• James 3:1–12 – The untamable tongue

• Isaiah 6:1–7 – Cleansed lips for God’s service

• Matthew 12:34 – The mouth speaks from the heart

4. Christological Focus

• Jesus never spoke careless or corrupt words.

• His rebukes were loving, purposeful, and redemptive.

• United to Christ, believers are being renewed in speech as part of sanctification.

5. Westminster Standards Connections

• Westminster Confession of Faith

  • Chapter 13 (Sanctification): Sanctification affects the whole person, including speech.

• Westminster Larger Catechism

  • Q. 145–146 (Ninth Commandment):

    • Requires preserving truth and our neighbor’s good name.

    • Forbids lying, slander, gossip, and rash judgment.

• Westminster Shorter Catechism

  • Q. 77: Repentance includes grieving over sin—including sins of speech—and turning from it unto God.

6. Practical Applications

• Pray before responding in tense or emotionally charged conversations.

• Ask whether your words impart grace or merely assert dominance.

• Practice intentional silence when you lack knowledge or clarity.

• Cultivate speech shaped by gospel gratitude rather than pride or fear.

Will you please turn in your Bibles with me to Ecclesiastes, Ecclesiastes chapter 10. This morning we'll be looking at verses 11 through 15. Ecclesiastes chapter 10. If you're using the Pew Bibles provided for you, you'll find that on page 594. Ecclesiastes chapter 10 verses 11 through 15. Let's hear God's word now.

A serpent may bite when it is not charmed. The babbler is no different. The words of a wise man's mouth are gracious, but the lips of a fool shall swallow him up. The words of his mouth begin with foolishness, and the end of his talk is raving madness. A fool also multiplies words. No man knows what is to be. Who can tell him what will be after him? The labor of fools wearies them, for they do not even know how to go to the city.

On the reading of God's perfect word there, let's pray together. Father, we thank you for your Word, perfect and true. Father, we pray that your Holy Spirit might attend to the preaching of your Word, that you would indeed teach us, Lord, that we would be those who would have hearts able to be corrected, able to be rebuked, But Lord, also that you would train us for righteousness. Lord, we pray that your spirit would equip us for every good work. Lord, we pray that you would please be with us this morning. Give us ears to hear, hearts to believe that we might live for your glory. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.

Today we talk about the fool. And we talk about one of the most difficult things in all of life, the tongue. Words, words, and words. The English dictionary has over a million words. There's these linguists who keep track of all of this. And that's just the English language. We're people who use a lot of words. And they're not always wise words. They're not always good words. But they can be. And so this morning, Solomon has for us this passage about mainly words, but also when they turn into works and what the fool continues to look like with his works. And it gives us this little vignette, this little picture into what a fool is kind of looking like. And I hope that the Spirit will give us the humility to look into the perfect Word of God and where we see our reflection that we would actually learn from it. That we might be changed.

So look with me first at verse 11. on what Solomon talks about with the poison of the tongue. Verse 11, the poison of the tongue. A serpent may bite when it is not charmed. The babbler is no different.

Two things to learn here first. We need to be careful when dealing with a fool. You need to be careful when dealing with a fool because they can be like a serpent who bites. In a moment's notice. The serpent may bite when it is not charmed. Have you ever tried arguing with a foolish person before? You never know when they're going to go on the attack. You never know when it's going to get flipped on you. When the script is going to get changed and all of a sudden things you thought you were making progress and then they're just going to lie inside you and use their words of venom to try to tear you down. It's dangerous. It's dangerous playing with snakes. And it's dangerous talking with fools.

That's really this wisdom thing that I think Solomon is dealing with is that you have to have a certain amount of skill when you're talking to a fool. And the hard thing is sometimes fools are even those who are in power. We're still in chapter 10, we took a break for Christmas and then as well as for the New Year, but this is specifically tied to verse 4 up above in chapter 10. So it's been like a month since we've been in verse 4, but this is about the king, the ruler, whose heart was in his right hand. And Solomon had said, if the spirit of the ruler rises against you, do not leave your post, for conciliation pacifies great offenses. The king himself may be a fool, so you ought to be wise and not huff and puff and just walk out of the room. You have to be wise.

Matthew Henry is the one who tied this together with the idea of maybe the fool, the foolish king in the first four verses is tied together with you need to be like the snake charmer in verse 11 because you never know when you might get bitten. So you need to be careful. You need to be careful on how do we find that path forward?

Psalm 140, I think is very helpful in this. Psalm 140, the first five verses. In Psalm 140, and this is just one example. There are multiple others in the Psalms and throughout the Scriptures. But David cries to the Lord. He says, deliver me, O Lord, from evil men. Preserve me from violent men. who plan evil things in their hearts. They continually gather together for war. And notice verse three. They sharpen their tongues like a serpent. The poison of asps is under their lips. So he's saying, he cries out to the Lord in verse one, God, I need you to preserve me. I need you to save me. I need you to deliver me. Why? Because there are evil men with lips like vipers. They're going to kill me. And he returns in verse 4 and 5 to a prayer for help in this situation. Keep me, O Lord, from the hands of the wicked. Preserve me from violent men who have purpose to make my steps stumble. The proud have hidden a snare for me and cords. They have spread a net by the wayside. They have set traps for me.

What is David's answer when he sees people who are tongues like snakes, full of poison and ready to strike? He goes to the Lord in prayer. He asks God for wisdom and a way forward. And so when we look at verse 11 of Ecclesiastes 10, a serpent may bite when it is not charmed. The babbler is no different. We ought to be careful. And cry out to the Lord to help us, to give us wisdom in these situations, because there is peril, there is danger.

Here's the thing, right? Sometimes you can be a real smooth talker. You might know how to think you can charm every snake you meet. You'll eventually get bit. Because that's what fools do. So don't be surprised when it happens.

Actually, it's interesting in verse 11 when the New King James translates it. Some of you may even have a little footnote or something there, because a more literal translation would be, a serpent may bite when it is not charmed. The master of the tongue is no different. It's not the babbler. I think of the babbler as like somebody who's like a baby, just blah, blah, blah, right? And they don't know how to talk. But it's the master of the tongue can still get bitten. Even the one who's skilled in this art and being able to charm, and being able to have wisdom, conciliation that pacifies, they can still get bit.

The second thing I want to say from this verse, bring our attention to, is we want to think about ourselves as a snake charmer. But sometimes we need to stop and ask, how often are we those who have biting, poisonous, foolish words to speak? And I'm not here just trying to beat you up. I'm not here trying to say, oh, you wicked sinners and you're just like a bunch of vipers. That's not what I'm trying to do here. What I am trying to say is what Jim read for us just a few minutes ago. If you think you've tamed your tongue and you don't have any foolish things you ever say, you must be the perfect person. And I know I'm not the perfect person because just yesterday, one of my kids was crying because of the way I talked to them. And I thought I was being clear and I thought I was being helpful and I ended up making them cry.

So we have to be careful. Even a step back and evaluate and ask in our lives, where is my words coming across like a biting snake? Am I the type of person that when people get around, they don't know when I'm just gonna go on the attack?

More on words, Solomon contrasts this though in verse 12. Verse 12, the words of a wise man's mouth are gracious. This is what Proverbs chapter 18 verse 21 is getting at. Death and life are in the tongue. This is not just an Old Testament wisdom type thing either. This is a Holy Spirit filled, grace filled life changed by Jesus type thing. Because in Ephesians chapter 5, we're told to put off the old man with his corrupt words. But instead, what are we supposed to do? Let no unwholesome word or let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but only that which is good for necessarily building others up, necessary edification, that you might impart grace to those who hear.

The lips, the words of a wise man's mouth, are full of favor, of grace, of kindness. When people walk around you, do you get the sense that the words that come from your mouth leave them like pollution or like honey? Like gold or the toilet? What are the words that come out of your mouth? Because we're naturally inclined towards speaking the things that are deep down in our hearts. And sometimes those things are bitterness and anger and hatred and wrath, impatience, annoyance. Our old man, our old heart was marked by gossip and slander and envy. That's why God had to command the people in the Old Testament with the Ninth Commandment, not to bear false testimony against your neighbor.

I love our catechism that says that one of the requirements of the Ninth Commandment is to preserve our own and our neighbor's good name. When you speak about others, even in your heart, because Jesus is clear here, it's from the overflow of the heart that the mouth speaks. When you consider people in your heart, even when you speak to yourself about them, is it with grace? Is it with true love? Do you have patience, kindness, gentleness towards people in your heart? And does that come out in your speech?

Again, this is not just, people take this in wrong ways, right? I'm not here saying you just need to become a flatterer. You're not ever able to hold your ground or tell someone when you think they're wrong. That's not what this is saying. But even when you disagree with somebody. All right, we just live in a snarky age. If you just spend five minutes on social media, everybody wants the gotcha, everybody wants the mic drop moment, everybody wants to say the most biting, cutting, sarcastic thing that they can just make you look like a fool in front of everybody else. And it may get you a bunch of followers online, but it sure isn't going to build up the people around you.

Do your lips impart grace to people even when you disagree with them? You still show them respect and kindness. And at the same time, there may be times to say hard things to people. I'm not just giving you the gospel of niceness here. Jesus was full of grace and truth. And yet he could look at the Pharisees who are laying heavy loads on people, unwilling to even lift a finger to help them. who thought they were so full of their own perfect words and thoughts and ideas and righteousness that he would say to them, you brood of vipers. You whitewashed tombs. You're the children of those who killed the prophets.

Jesus had hard things to say. But even when he said the hard things to them, he was trying to teach them, to rebuke them, to correct them, that they might turn from their ways that were leading unto the path of death. So yes, even though the thing he was saying to them was hard, he was saying it to them for their own good. Turn. You don't have to be this way.

Jesus came full of grace and truth. Full of love. Jesus never said any of those things because he hated those people. Jesus perfectly kept the first and second commandment. He loved the Lord as God with all of his heart, mind, soul, and strength, and he loved his neighbor as himself. So every word that proceeded out of Jesus's mouth was for necessary edification. It was imparting grace to the hearers. It was for the good of all the people who were within earshot.

So my question is, are you so full of the Holy Spirit Do you so savor the good news of Jesus? Is your life so hidden in Christ that the words that come out of your mouth are overflowing from a heart that has been transformed by the grace of Christ? That people come away from you thinking, that's a gracious person. That's somebody who reminds me of Jesus.

The words of a wise man's mouth are gracious. And so we get on the gracious wise man. He goes on in the second half of verse 12 all the way through verse 14 on the mouth of the fool. Look with me at the second half of verse 12 through verse 14.

But the lips of a fool shall swallow him up. The words of his mouth begin with foolishness, and the end of his talk is raving madness. A fool also multiplies words. No man knows what is to be. Who can tell him what will be after him?

The lips of fools. The lips of fools eventually swallow themselves up. The fool is like a snake eating its own tail. Eventually it's going to consume itself. Do you know what happens if you're just the type of person who's constantly ripping other people down with your words and backbiting and gossiping and slandering about people? You end up without having many friends, and the friends you do have won't be the type of friends who actually impart much grace to you. You consume your own joy, you consume your own happiness, you consume your own friend circles. And eventually, you know what happens? People don't speak well of you either. I don't want to talk with that person. They're just going to gossip. I don't want to tell this person these things because they're just going to go and they're going to slander me to the whole community.

You end up isolated because gossip comes back to you. Trust is lost. And when you assault everybody's good name, when you drag their good names through the mud, eventually your good name, well, you're not going to have one. So Solomon's getting at them, but the lips of a fool shall swallow him up. And then verse 13, the words of his mouth begin with foolishness. And the end of his talk is raving madness. And the insanity that comes on the fool's own head. By just talking and talking and talking and building up a giant tower of words, but it's like a... giant tower of Jenga blocks that are gonna fall on him instead. The heaping up of words doesn't equal wisdom.

Actually, that's... How much you can trust these types of things, I don't know. But they have these different studies and things like that about different ways you know if somebody's lying to you. And the multiplication of words, right? The telling and telling and telling and the spinning of the story is one of the key things that I often think, hmm. I wonder how much of this is true.

I know a guy who leads a ministry that just cares for downtrodden and poor and destitute type people. And as they come through the doors, they'll give him these big, huge stories. And he'll tell them, okay, you don't need to give me the big, huge story. What's your need? And they'll tell him his need, and he'll say, okay, here's exactly what I can do for you. And they'll tell him the resources they can provide. And then they'll try to get more resources, because they'll start fabricating an even bigger story, and even a more story. And he's just like, this is the most I can do for you. You don't need to keep spinning the story.

The words of his mouth begin with foolishness, and the end of his talk is raving madness. The fool just keeps on talking. spinning the story more and more, and then it just doesn't even make sense anymore. And then in verse 14, he continues. A fool also multiplies words. No man can know what is to be. Who can tell him what will be after him?

You know, there's a story that I heard somebody talk about one time with Mark Twain. And Mark Twain was no Christian man by any means. And Mark Twain went to a church, and I'm sure I've told this story before, but Mark Twain went to the church and sat under the preacher's sermon. And after the sermon, he said, I've heard every single word in that sermon before. And the preacher tried to justify him. No, no, this was an original sermon. I didn't copy the sermon. And he said, no, no, I've read all those words in a book before. I said, really? He said, yeah, I'll mail you the book. And if you know anything about Mark Twain, he was not the most kind or nice man. His wife often had to steal letters out of the carrier's box because she didn't want them to get to people. But he sent that book, and in it, he wrote a note, and it said, words, words, words. It's just words. And the book was a dictionary. Because see, Mark Twain loved words. And in some ways, Mark Twain had a lot of common sense, but in many ways, Mark Twain was exactly the type of fool that this is talking about.

Flip the script, send Twain a dictionary. It's just words. If your words mean nothing, you're just playing yourself a fool. A fool multiplies words. Sometimes the best thing is just to be quiet.

Man, the book of Job would be so much shorter if his friends just read this first part of the verse. Just sometimes we just talk too much. Sometimes we talk about things we don't have any business talking about because we just don't know. That's the second half of this, right? A fool multiplies words. No man knows what it's to be. Who can tell him what will come after him?

Man, if our culture took this seriously, we wouldn't have the Weather Channel or just constant news television. How many times if you turn on the TV and it's a news channel, they're just pontificating about something possibly that will happen in politics, and they have no clue what people are talking about in closed doors. They have no clue what's going to happen, and yet they'll tell you they know exactly what's going to happen.

Our culture is built off of a society that's just constantly trying to fill you with fear. Why do you need the weather channel 24-7? You don't need to know what's happening in the weather two weeks from now, because guess what? Nobody can accurately predict the weather two weeks from now. They may be able to give you a general sense of it, some historical data, But if you, I mean, I feel bad for weathermen, right? They're put in an impossible situation. But all I'm saying is you just need to check it like once a day.

And yet people get wrapped up because somebody's telling them about something that's going to be when that person don't know what's going to be. Talking, talking, talking. Don't know what's coming next, and yet they just keep on yapping. That's how Solomon's describing the fool. Or as one commentator said, this is a person who's just making a lot of ado about nothing. They have a lot of words, but not much substance.

The hard thing in wisdom is knowing when to drown out those voices, when to turn down the volume and walk away. Notice also Solomon talks about, he moves from words in verses 11 through 14 to works in verse 15. The labor of fools wearies them, for they do not even know how to go to the city. A fool often will make himself out to be a lot of something. And yet, when they go into the field and they're able to do some work, they don't even know the way to get to the city to sell their goods. They'll boast about themselves and yet their work comes to nothing.

Fool's words are destructive and also typically pointless. And their works are often like it too. Even when they do build something, it's often not of much value. For their own pride, for their own ego, for their own self-consuming, and not for the building up of others. And notice, the labor of fools, it even wearies them. The labor of fools wearies them. Why? I don't know why they're doing what they're doing. Where's down on themselves? The fool, as one commentator said, the fool makes things needlessly difficult for himself by his own stupidity. If that's in an academic commentary, I feel like it's, okay, that's a good one.

This is the point of fool. Doesn't know what's coming after him and yet keeps talking. Doesn't know the way to the city and yet keeps boasting about himself. Even his own work becomes weird to him. Just keeps up the multiplication of words and everybody else is able to see it's raving madness. Bites other people, swallows other people up. And even when people try to charm them and be nice to them, you never know when you're gonna get bit.

This is the contrast between the words of the gracious and the lips of the fool. So the hard thing for us, the hard thing for me this week, man, my mouth just yaps so much. Let not many of you become teachers, for you know that we will be judged with more severity. God takes words seriously. Words have meaning. Words impart life and grace. God even uses the foolishness of the preaching of the gospel to save people, and he uses sinful people with sinful lips. This is why Isaiah, when he goes into the vision of the court of heaven, And the angels are crying out, holy, holy, holy. What is Isaiah's first instinct? He falls on his face and he confesses that he is sinful and he is a man of unclean lips and of a people of unclean lips. And it takes an angel to come with a fiery coal and press it against his lips to purify him of the sin of his lips.

Do we take seriously what James taught us this morning and what Solomon told us way back? That we have the opportunity, we have the blessing to choose in this life. Will we speak words of grace? Will we learn to restrain our lips by the power of the Holy Spirit? Will we purpose in our hearts to speak no unwholesome words to others but only that which is good for building others up? Will we think more highly of others than ourselves?

We get the blessing of showing love with our words because we get to follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ who is full of grace and truth. So brothers and sisters, this is not disconnected from the gospel, but I'm saying we are by birth naturally fools. But when God gives us a new heart, we don't have to stay the fool. You can impart grace. You can leave drips of honey for people that when you interact with them, they've had conversations of gospel. just pure gold conversations.

Are the words you speak full of grace or the multiplication of words for your own desire? May we abide in Christ and bear much good fruit in the speaking of gracious words.

Let's pray. Father, this sermon can have the possibility of being nothing more than moralism, do-betterism, the gospel of niceness. But that's not what we're after, Lord, and we pray that your Holy Spirit would please convict us of sin where there is sin. Lord, we pray that your Holy Spirit might shine the lights into the dark recesses of our hearts, where there are evil thoughts and desires, impure motives, ways we thought about others.

Lord, we desire the continuing work of your Holy Spirit in sanctifying us. We pray that even here as a church, as a congregation, as an assembly of blood-bought people, that you would give us your Spirit to speak words of life to each other. of grace that we might love each other in thought, word, and in deed. Lord, please let us abide in Jesus and bear good fruits, even with our tongues.

We pray in Jesus's name, amen.

• When are you most tempted to speak rashly or defensively?

• How do your words tend to affect others—do they leave “honey or poison” behind?

• In what ways does social media encourage foolish speech?

• How does remembering Christ’s grace reshape the way you speak to others?

• What would it look like to more intentionally preserve your neighbor’s good name?

• Fool (Biblical): One who lives without reverent submission to God, not merely someone unintelligent.

• Gracious Speech: Words that build up, reflect truth, and flow from love.

• Sanctification: The ongoing work of God’s Spirit conforming believers to Christ.

• Ninth Commandment: God’s law guarding truth, reputation, and integrity in speech.