“Dead flies make the perfumer’s ointment give off a stench; so a little folly outweighs wisdom and honor.” -Ecclesiastes 10:1
Studying through Ecclesiastes is hard. That is one thing I have learned for sure over these past few weeks as I have listened to Mark Driscoll’s sermon series covering the whole of Solomon’s great reflective book. However, among the imagery and metaphor that is laced through the 12 chapters of this book, we certainly find as many pearls of wisdom as can be found in the more celebrated book of Proverbs.
That said, one interesting little pearl I observed called me back to an earlier post I did on the danger of “small” sins. The above verse, Ecclesiastes 10:1, talks about how the presence of dead flies, the presence of small insects who have passed away, how the smell of their rotting in the sweet perfume is enough to ruin the whole batch of ointment. I personally have never even noticed dead flies to have a stench, and this brings about the question of what do dead flies draw (?), but I think that is the point. Dead flies are something that we don’t even notice as smelling that bad, but their stench is enough to overwhelm a strong smelling lotion.
This can be taken even further if we connect the above passage with God’s command to Moses in Exodus 30:22-38 concerning the construction and application of the holy anointing oil. In Romans 12:1 we are called to “present [our] bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is [our] spiritual worship.” Yet, if we allow those dead flies, those small sins to rot in the anointing oil of our sacrifice then it will bring shame to our worship. If we allow for those “small” things, that “minor” disobedience or those “pet sins”, which God has convicted us of but we have ignored because they didn’t seem like a big deal, if we allow for these to fester in our lives, unrepented and not dealt with, then before long we will find that what was previously an almost unnoticeable smell will soon become an unbearable stench every time we come into God’s presence.
Christ asks for us to deny everything before coming to follow him (Matthew 10:37-39). It is about a complete change of life, about turning from the ways we used to walk, according to what the world wants (Ephesians 2:1-3), and instead walking in the light and allowing God to forgive all of our sins (1 John 1:7-10) so that when we come to present our bodies, the smell of our unrepentance doesn’t overwhelm the worship we are giving to God.
