Ecclesiastes Chapter Seven, Being Cursed

Ecclesiastes 7:21 Also do not take to heart everything people say, lest you hear your servant cursing you. [22] For many times, also, your own heart has known that even you have cursed others.

This passage certainly hits close to home. People talk. People gossip. We all say cruel things about one another, embellishing what is true or outright lying for a multitude of perceived reasons. But the ultimate reason we do it is because we want to. Jesus our Lord once said, “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks,” Matthew 12:34. A person prone to belittle, degrade or insult others has a heart filled with petty malice.

But let us not kid ourselves. We all, from time to time and without exception, think unholy thoughts about others. We get angry, we get impatient, our pride does not like being challenged, being questioned, being insulted or humiliated, even when these things aren’t actually happening. From our own biased perspective we may take something a very wrong way from the spirit in which it is offered. And then we curse that person. Of course, I don’t mean a voodoo curse or the like; I mean we speak ill of them.

When we delight in someone getting a bad turn or mock someone’s misfortune, or play the hypocrite to their face while speaking like the devil behind their back, we reveal what is in our hearts. James writes, “And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature, and it is set on fire by hell,” James 3:6. Listen to the language James employs. The tongue is a fire. It burns; that is the sole purpose of fire, to consume that which it latches onto. The tongue is this fire. Moreover, it is a world of iniquity. A world is a sphere of existence. Earth is a world on which humanity dwells and is bound. The tongue is a world whose gravity pulls in all manner of flattering or horrible words. They dwell there as natural citizens. The tongue, set up as it is among the various members of the body, defiles it. What we say has lasting implications, and words can harm those who receive them long after they are spoken. It defiles the speaker, besmirching their reputation, acumen, and morality. The tongue sets on fire the very course of what is natural. It burns and destroys the natural order. What is natural, or what should be natural as creatures made in God’s image, would be to speak things befitting our position. Finally, the tongue is set on fire by Hell. Now this word, Hell, is the Greek word, “geenna” or “Gehenna.” It is the place of the tormented damned, and the source of where the tongue’s venom is derived. When we speak evil of one another, we are speaking the native language of Hell. If that isn’t a sobering thought, I don’t know what is.

We are not to take to heart everything we hear people say against us, which is what the verse is implying. Employers hear their employees cursing them, and likewise. Husbands and wives bicker, and children curse their parents’ names. Everyone who angers us, or inconveniences us, or slights us in any perceived way is the enemy, and we must vent the whole of the well deserved venom we have in store for them, because how dare they speak that way about me? This is a far cry from the Lord, who commanded His followers, “whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also,” Matthew 5:39.

And really, how exhausting would it be to respond and retaliate against everyone who speaks poorly of you, regardless of circumstance or validity? Sometimes criticism is deserved, because we have done or said something that merits it. Sometimes even harshly framed criticism could be bitter medicine that will shock the hearer from a path they ought not to be walking. But in this instance, in this passage, it is more about rumor and gossip. The human soul thrives on the junk food of gossip. If godly wisdom is the definitive nutriment, gossip is the candy, chips and soda of language. But boy does it taste good when it’s in the mouth, no? “A gossip’s words are like choice food that goes down to one’s innermost being,” Proverbs 18:8, HCSB. While it may begin to taste sweet, it is poison, and it sickens both the speaker and the hearer. No one gains from it.

Verse 22 is simply self indictment. The preacher undoubtedly does not preserve himself from this incrimination. The verse begins with many times. Many times, also, the preacher states. Like one’s servants gossiping about you, so you have done likewise. You are not exempt or immune. We all have sinned this sin, and by the phraseology of this verse, we do so with a frequency that the preacher uses as an instrument to shame us. It’s like a child who refuses to tell the truth about who broke the plate in the kitchen. Only when the parent is certain that the child won’t come clean but pretends innocence do they produce evidence that condemns them as guilty. Why? Because the lesser offense would have been to simply confess that they did it, and were sorry. But the error is compounded with sin because the child refuses to acknowledge what happened or accept responsibility. Victimhood is a comfortable state of being. We pretend innocence, as though rumor, slander and gossip are a one way street, always imported from outside parties, but never exported as our own commodity. But we can’t lie to ourselves. Our own heart knows we have cursed others. We are guilty, the tongue that is a fire has burned others, even unawares. Let us pray the Lord that He delivers us from a heart that possesses this venom so that we, “bless and do not curse,” Romans 12:14. May God quell the wickedness of the tongue, so that we speak peace to one another.