Today Solomon shows us that one misstep can ruin a lifetime of good deeds.  

Ecc 10:1  As dead flies cause even a bottle of perfume to stink, so a little foolishness spoils great wisdom and honor.

The metaphor here is that a tiny yucky fly can wreck a bottle of perfume and a small error can wreck a dynasty.  

Contemporary instances of this could be Joe Paterno, Tiger Woods or Bill Cosby.  All had a seemingly life time of achievements come crashing down around scandals.  

How about marriages that were built on a life time of devotion to one another, only to have one drunken night ruin a family with divorce?  

Even King David had his own troubles, when he had Bathsheba’s husband Uriah killed because he was so obsessed with her.  

This is an important verse to pay attention to, and keep us humble.  No matter how good we think we are doing, one little screw-up can bring the world around us down.  The devil is always trying to trip us up and ensnare us in some kind of sin, no matter how little it might seem at the time, which is a critical reminder that we always need to walk the straight and narrow path.  Or as the Bible tells us, walk in the light, not the darkness, no matter how tempting the darkness might seem. 

Cartoon vector stickman man falling stumble trip hard over stone