David Bahn – Reflections

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These devotions are part of the Follow the Word Bible reading program at St. John Lutheran Church in Cypress, Texas. This year we are reading through the Scriptures together, listening for how God speaks through his Word day by day. I hope you will join me on this journey.

Today’s readings are Ecclesiastes 8-10, Psalm 148.

Ecclesiastes 10:12-15

The words of a wise man’s mouth win him favor,
    but the lips of a fool consume him.
¹³ The beginning of the words of his mouth is foolishness,
    and the end of his talk is evil madness.
¹⁴ A fool multiplies words,
    though no man knows what is to be,
    and who can tell him what will be after him?
¹⁵ The toil of a fool wearies him,
    for he does not know the way to the city.

I love to ask questions.

Sometimes I am trying to grasp an idea that needs clarification. Sometimes I want to surface ideas that might otherwise remain hidden. Sometimes I ask the question others seem hesitant to ask. And sometimes I ask questions because I want people to wrestle honestly with a difficult reality and come to a conclusion on their own.

Recently, that last reason motivated some questions I asked with a group of church leaders facing ministry challenges and changing realities. A good question can be a powerful tool in helping people face difficult truths. An excellent question can also help people hold on to hope. This has become something of a motto for me: Face the facts. Hold on to hope.

There have also been times when my questions have not landed well. Years ago, while serving on the board of the Lutheran Church Extension Fund – a ministry that helps congregations with hundreds of millions of dollars in ministry projects – I asked questions I thought might be helpful because others seemed reluctant to ask them. Instead, I suspect I came across as uninformed or unprepared. It reminded me of the old saying often attributed to Abraham Lincoln, Mark Twain, or Ben Franklin (take your pick!): “Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.”

Ecclesiastes has something to say about all this: “The words of a wise man’s mouth win him favor, but the lips of a fool consume him…” (Ecclesiastes 10:12)

Words matter. Wise words can help, heal, clarify, and encourage. Foolish talk can confuse, inflame, spread rumor, and cause real harm. We live in a world filled with loud opinions, harmful speculation, and people speaking confidently about things they do not really understand.

Thankfully, God’s Word is different. God never speaks carelessly. He asks questions to challenge, enlighten, and encourage us. He has no need to hear himself talk – but we desperately need to hear him speak. And when he does, his purpose is always to lead us to Jesus, the One who is full of grace and truth. Sometimes his questions confront us with hard truth, but always so that we might know the fullness of his grace.

Click on the graphic below for the Bible Project overview of the book of Ecclesiastes.