A truism found in today’s Word that is proven throughout history: 

Ecc 9:18  Better to have wisdom than weapons of war, but one sinner can destroy much that is good.

Focusing in on the first part of that verse, “better to have wisdom than weapons of war”, takes us back to World War 2.  If we remember Hitler who had the largest most industrious military in the world, and was prevailing all over Europe, he conquered Poland, France and would also have prevailed on England, but he foolishly went against Russia, so he had a war on two fronts, from the West and then The East.  As a result, Hitler ended up cowardly hiding a bunker, and the tables swiftly turned when both Stalin and the allies crushed Germany and suddenly the invaders found themselves being invaded, a great example of what Solomon is talking about when he says it is better to have wisdom than weapons of war.

Ironically the second half of the verse, “one sinner can destroy much that is good “could also be applied to Solomon, Solomon was the beginning of the end of Israel.  He is often considered the apex of wisdom, he has three books in the Bible that he was inspired by God to write, but Solomon had his own troubles too, when he started taking wives from foreign nations that sucked him into idolatry, as a result the Kingdom was later divided and then ultimately conquered.  

While today’s example give us two starkly different rulers, Solomon who was the wisest of the wise, and Hitler who was the most evil of the evil, they were both sinners of varying degrees, just like we are, maybe not as good as Solomon or as wicked as Hitler, but we are sinners none the less.  Humanity can’t ever get it right no matter how hard we try, but the One who did get it right was Jesus, His work is what makes our wrong right when we put our trust in Him.

Leopard 2 A7