Ecclesiastes 10:10 If the iron be blunt, and he do not whet the edge, then must he put to more strength: but wisdom is profitable to direct.
I want you to imagine a forest full of huge trees where two trees in particular need to be taken down. Maybe they are sick or in the way. You have got two lumberjacks who have an entire range of tools, everything from a chainsaw to a variety of axes. One man takes a chainsaw and very effectively, efficiently, and with skill has that tree safely down in a matter of minutes. The other man is sweating, panting, and working hard, but is chopping that tree with a small-bitted axe that happens to be dull. Now, which of these two men is working harder? Well, the second man for sure. Which of these men is a better worker? It is the first man.
Hard work is important if you mean giving your effort to what you are doing, but sometimes, and this is not an alibi for laziness, it is important for us to work smarter before we work harder.
Ecclesiastes 10:10 says, “If the iron be blunt, and he do not whet the edge, then must he must put to more strength: but wisdom is profitable to direct.” In other words, a guy with a dull axe has to work a whole lot harder. So, while we all admire hard work, we don’t admire hard work when a guy is not working mindfully. Work smarter not harder.
Here is a more important thing: everything, including interactions with others, takes much more force when wisdom is absent. Verse 15 says it this way, “The labour of the foolish wearieth every one of them, because he knoweth not how to go to the city.” A fool is a guy who doesn’t know how to come in out of the rain or to get to town. Everything is much harder for him because he hasn’t taken the time and effort to figure out how to do the thing that he is doing well.
Now if you replace a dull axe with a dull man, one who is not very sharp, then you kind of get this idea that force without discernment is folly. Here is a guy who needs to have some interaction with somebody. He doesn’t have any wisdom and does not ask God for graciousness. He just goes in like a bull in a china shop, putting force behind every word in order to accomplish his will, in order to force someone else to do what he wants them to do. How much better to have godly wisdom! I’m not talking about being subtle or deceitful. I am talking about discernment from God, wisdom.
Ecclesiastes 10:14 says, “A fool also is full of words.” In contrast verse 12 says, “The words of a wise man’s mouth are gracious: but the lips of a fool will swallow up himself.” So, a wise man not only knows what needs to be accomplished, he knows how to accomplish it. He has gracious words. He thinks through a thing before he goes willy-nilly, pell-mell with the full force of a man with a dull axe.
In short, in our interactions with other people we don’t need to just work harder. We don’t need to be dull and full of force. We need to be sharp in our mind, have wisdom and discernment, and have God‘s grace to help us be gracious when we are dealing with other people.
So, if you have a job today, whether it is a tree or a person, it might do you well to take a few moments before you start chopping to sharpen the axe.