Ecclesiastes 2:14

The wise man’s eyes are in his head; but the fool walketh in darkness.

The advantage of wisdom over folly

Wisdom possesses the same advantage over folly that sight does over blindness. The man of wisdom, having all his wits about him, in the full possession and the appropriate exercise of all his faculties, “guides his affairs with discretion,” looks before him, thinks maturely of what he is doing, and by his knowledge of men and things, is directed to the adoption of plans which promise to be profitable, and to the prudent and successful prosecution of them. He “foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself.” He aims at worthy ends, and employs suitable means for their accomplishment. But the fool--the ignorant, and inconsiderate, and improvident man--is continually in danger of stumbling, or of going astray, like a person overtaken by darkness, who “knoweth not whither he goeth.” He is ever prone to run blindly and heedlessly into absurd and injurious projects, or to destroy such as are in themselves good, by blundering in the execution of them. The fool’s eyes, it is elsewhere said, are “in the ends of the earth,” roaming vainly and idly abroad, without serving his present and needful purposes; gazing, as the organs of a vacant mind, on far-off objects, and allowing him to stumble over what is immediately in his way. Without foresight to anticipate probable evils, without even sagacity to avoid such as are present, the fool is in perpetual hazard of iniuring and ruining both himself and all who are so unfortunate as to stand connected with him, or to be exposed to his influence. (R. Wardlaw, D. D.)

The wisdom of the eye

I. To understand this proverb, notice, first, the contrasts which it suggests. One of these is expressed in the context; the other is to be readily and clearly inferred.

1. First, there is a contrast between persons. We have before us the believer in God and the unbeliever, the child of light and the child of darkness, the converted and the unconverted, the spiritual and the natural. Whatever may be their relative state of knowledge or ignorance, of wealth or poverty, in the sense of the Bible of truth, and in the judgment of the God of truth, the one is wise and the other a fool.

2. Secondly, there is a contrast implied: “The wise man’s eyes are in his head, but the fool walketh in darkness.” And why is his path in darkness? Because, unlike the wise man, his eyes are not in his head; if they had been there, he would have walked in light, surely, safely. But they are in his heart, and so he walks foolishly, erringly, darkly. The eye in the head--the wise man’s eye, sees under the direction of reason, and faith, and of right understanding. The eye in the heart--the fool’s eye, sees under the direction of the affections, the disposition and the feelings. And so, while the one man walks in light, the other man walks in darkness.

II. But now let me more pointedly and practically set out the meaning of this verse. Let us take by itself each part of this proverb and consider it.

1. First, then, it is implied that the fool’s eyes are in his heart. He sees all things through the medium of his own wishes and inclinations; his reason and conscience do not control, but they are possessed by his inclinations.

(1) Hence I believe, because the eye of many is in the heart, the scepticism which obtains in our day, especially the scepticism which obtains in the minds of young men. No man, I believe, ever became an infidel against his will. Inclination, not evidence, has been deficient to the man. The evil heart of unbelief is at the root of scepticism.

(2) Hence I believe the prejudice with which many professed Christians turn away from the doctrines of evangelical religion. They do not question their reality, but they just dislike their practical consequences.

(3) A fool’s eyes are in his heart, because his bondage is to things present and temporal, and he is indifferent to thinks unseen and eternal. The Bible, though not a fable, is as another book to him, and nothing more. Truth, if not a fiction, is not a fact. Earth is a loved present, possessed; heaven is a forgotten, distant future.

2. But “the wise man’s eyes are in his head.” The light of a holy knowledge shines upon them, and in this light the eye of reason and of faith, the eye, not of blind inclination, but of Christian consciousness and confidence, sees light.

(1) Hence a Christian man feels the right and the responsibility of private judgment on the truth and the service of God. The authority of Christ is supreme authority unto him. He will allow no interference with it; he will allow no usurper to take its place.

(2) Hence the Christian man prays for the light of Divine teaching, The possession of truth has taught him the possibility and the peril of error. He would be found never trusting in man, but he would always pray--“That which I know not, Lord, teach Thou me!”

(3) Hence the impression which he receives of the things around him and before him. The rule of duty, read by the eyes in his head, is just this--his Father’s will. The measure of goodness, admired by the eye in his head, is just this--his Saviour’s image.

(4) Lastly, when our eyes are in our head, under the government of an enlightened reason and a Christian faith, they will always be doing a holy and a godly service to our souls--never an injurious one. They will not, then, wander lustfully where they should not even steal a glance; they will be turned away from all vanities. Looking ever, will they be found, unto Jesus; ever, will they be found, setting the Lord before them; single will they ever be, full of light, turning the whole body into light also. (J. Eyre, M. A.)

One event happeneth to them all.--

Wisdom and folly compared

Looking simply at knowledge as such, and looking merely at the brief span of our existence “under the sun,” we must confess that the wise man is sometimes as powerless as the fool. Two men take their seats in a railway train. The one man is an accomplished scholar, or mathematician, or philosopher. He has disciplined his mental powers, and has amassed large stores of knowledge. He has even acquired, it may be a certain reputation as a man of learning, or as a leader of the thoughts of others. The man who is sitting beside him cares nothing for intellectual culture. Animal enjoyment is his ideal. Give him a good dinner, and you may keep your books to yourself! He could never see any good in racking his brains over hard problems. There sit these two men in the railway carriage, side by side: the one, perhaps, reading the latest book of science; the other, perhaps, glancing through some “Sporting Gazette.” Suddenly, in a moment, there comes the collision which it was utterly impossible for either of them to foresee: the train is a wreck; and these two lie together, crushed, mangled, and dead! “One event, one chance, has happened to them both!” Now, shut out the thought of God, and the thought of immortality, and what “advantage” has the one man over the other? The student has had his intellectual enjoyments: the votary of pleasure has had his enjoyments also. The scholar, along with his enjoyment, has had much fatiguing toil, and, it may be, painful thought; the pleasure-seeker also has doubtless, on his part experienced some of the penalties of self-indulgence. The lover of knowledge has, indeed, had this advantage, that his “eyes” have been “in his head”: he has had a wider and clearer vision; and he has lived a higher kind of life. But to what purpose? Where is the permanent advantage? These two men have lived their short span: and here has come Death, as the great leveller! For a few years, perhaps, the scholar may be spoken of; his name may even get into some “biographical dictionary” but, unless he is one of a very select few, it will be little more than a name, and, in the ages to come, he will be altogether forgotten. To what purpose, then, has he “scorned delights, and lived laborious days”? Can he be said to have made the best use of human life, if he has simply spent it in acquiring a “wisdom” which leaves him, in the end, indistinguishable from the fool? Thus, then, we seem to be driven to the same conclusion as Ecclesiastes. Whatever advantages earthly wisdom has, it cannot be regarded as the chief good for man. The amassing of knowledge as the one supreme object of human existence is a vain delusion: it is a “feeding on wind”: it fails to satisfy the deepest cravings of the human soul. (T. C. Finlayson.)