Ecclesiastes 7:21 Also take no heed unto all words that are spoken; lest thou hear thy servant curse thee.
Is ignorance bliss? Sometimes we say that and sometimes you wonder. We are living in a day of a 24/7 news cycle, meaning we get news twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. There was a time when basically you had three major networks on television that gave you the news in thirty minutes. They determined what was important, and if there was news that couldn’t fit into a thirty minute slot, then you didn’t even know about it. I’m not arguing for that to be virtuous or negative. I am simply saying that we are bombarded. We don’t even realize how much we are going through sensory overload in our eyes and ears. We are getting information all the time.
Sometimes it is better not to know and not to listen. Let me quickly say that it was King Solomon in the Proverbs who often talked about the importance of listening. Notably, a wise person is someone who does listen, who spends more time listening than speaking. Yet, in Ecclesiastes 7:21-22 you find one example where it is better not to listen. Verses 21-22 say, “Also take no heed unto all words that are spoken; lest thou hear thy servant curse thee. For oftentimes also thine own heart knoweth that thou thyself likewise hast cursed others.” Sometimes it is better not to listen.
Notice that heeding is different than hearing. We hear more in a day than we can possibly process and more than we can possibly pay attention to, but it is almost impossible not to process anything that we heard that pertains to us. If we hear our name, we are instantly all ears. If it is good and flattering, we want to hear it. If it is bad, we feel defensive and want to know that. So, it is impossible not to heed what we hear.
But, there is a difference. “Also take no heed unto all words.” It is not saying we should not pay attention to any words; it says “all words that are spoken.” The reason is “lest thou hear thy servant curse thee.” I don’t need to know all the bad things in this world and I don’t need to know all the bad things that are being said about me. I can certainly learn from constructive criticism and things that are said about me that would help me to be a better person, but I need to be careful not to be on the alert, to not hear everything that is ever said about me. Your own experience should bear this out.
Verse 22 says, “For oftentimes also thine own heart knoweth.” Think about all the times you don’t necessarily curse people, but you speak ill of them or toward them. Let me give you three examples. You are in traffic. It’s busy and someone pulls out, breaks, or doesn’t go fast enough. You may not even know what you say because you are not even hearing it, but you say, “What a dumb driver!” I have to confess that I am guilty of this more often than I care to admit, and probably more than I’ve even taken heed to. Think about phone calls or messages where you think, “Why did you call right now?!” or “Why did you give me this problem?!” Maybe the other person doesn’t hear it, but for you it is just automatically something you say. Think about careless gossip, or even something you don’t consider gossip. You are speaking to someone about someone.
The bottom line is to begin by heeding what you say. We tend to hear everything almost involuntarily that is about us, but we tend not to hear what we say about others. You can’t make people stop speaking, but you can help yourself not hear what is said every time it is said. Perhaps today, we would be better off by beginning to heed what we ourselves say and not to take so much time listening to every little thing that is said about us. This is a path to living wisely and with happiness today.