When the Asylum is Run by the Inmates Text: Ecclesiastes 10:5-7
Introduction: The Great Inversion
The book of Ecclesiastes is a long look at a world out of joint. It is a diagnosis of life "under the sun," which is to say, life in a fallen world considered apart from the direct, saving revelation of God. And what the Preacher sees is a world gone topsy-turvy. He sees a world where the natural order of things has been inverted, where wisdom is ignored and folly is celebrated, where the righteous suffer and the wicked prosper. It is a world, in short, much like our own.
Our age is one that prides itself on its rebellion against all established norms. We are a generation of professional norm-busters. We have decided that up is down, right is wrong, male is female, and that the best qualification for leadership is a demonstrated incompetence in every other area of life. We are committed, with a religious fervor, to the great project of egalitarianism, which is the devil's own parody of justice. Egalitarianism does not seek to lift the lowly; it seeks to drag down the exalted. It is fueled by envy, and its goal is not a level playing field, but a barren one, where every mountain has been laid low and every valley has been exalted into a featureless, meaningless plain.
This is not a new phenomenon. It is an ancient evil, a recurring vanity that the Preacher observed thousands of years ago. When a society turns its back on God, it does not become godless. It simply starts worshipping other gods, foolish gods, and it begins to arrange its society in accordance with the character of those gods. A society that rejects the God of order, hierarchy, and distinction will inevitably embrace the chaos of folly, inversion, and confusion. The Preacher here gives us a snapshot of what such a society looks like. It is an evil, a mistake, a grotesque parody of a rightly-ordered world. It is what happens when the asylum is run by the inmates.
The Text
There is an evil I have seen under the sun, like a mistake which goes forth from the one in power, folly is set in many exalted places while rich men sit in humble places. I have seen slaves riding on horses and princes walking like slaves on the land.
(Ecclesiastes 10:5-7 LSB)
An Error from the Throne (v. 5)
The Preacher begins by identifying the nature and source of the problem.
"There is an evil I have seen under the sun, like a mistake which goes forth from the one in power, " (Ecclesiastes 10:5)
First, notice that this state of affairs is not presented as a quirky alternative or a different but equally valid lifestyle choice. It is an "evil." The Hebrew word is ra', the same word used for evil throughout the Old Testament. Social and cultural chaos is a moral problem. It is a sin. It is an offense against the way God made the world to function. When we see society unraveling, we are not just observing a sociological phenomenon; we are witnessing the outworking of rebellion against the Creator.
Second, this evil is like a "mistake" or an error. It proceeds from the ruler, the one in power. This is a top-down corruption. When the leadership of a nation, a culture, or even a church, abandons wisdom, the folly inevitably flows downhill. Bad ideas at the top lead to disastrous consequences for everyone else. The ruler has one primary job, which is to praise good and punish evil (Rom. 13:3-4). When a ruler gets this backward, when he starts punishing the good and rewarding the evil, the entire society becomes disordered. This "mistake" is not an oopsie, not a slip of the tongue. It is a calculated error, a willful embrace of folly that has catastrophic consequences.
This is precisely what we see in our own day. Our ruling class, our cultural elites, have made a fundamental error. They have rejected the cornerstone and have decided to build their house on the sand of human autonomy. They have declared war on the created order, and the result is a society-wide cascade of folly. This error proceeds from the halls of government, from the lecture halls of our universities, and from the pulpits of our apostate churches, and it floods the land.
The Great Replacement (v. 6)
Verse 6 gives us the specific nature of this disastrous mistake. It is an inversion of the natural and right order of things.
"folly is set in many exalted places while rich men sit in humble places." (Ecclesiastes 10:6 LSB)
Here is the heart of the inversion. "Folly is set in many exalted places." The fool, the man who says in his heart there is no God, the man who is morally and intellectually bankrupt, is promoted. He is given a seat at the table. He is made a department head, a senator, a celebrity, a pastor. The high places of the culture, the positions of influence and authority, are handed over to men who are manifestly unfit to hold them. Competence, wisdom, and character are not the qualifications; rather, the key qualification is a willingness to play the fool, to parrot the insane dogmas of the age.
And the flip side of this is that "rich men sit in humble places." Now, we must be careful here. The word "rich" does not simply mean those with a great deal of money. In the wisdom literature, wealth is often associated with wisdom, diligence, and God's blessing. The "rich men" here are the worthy, the competent, the men of substance and character who have built things and possess the wisdom to govern. In a sane society, these are the men you would want in charge. But in the inverted world of the ruler's mistake, these are the very men who are demoted. They are sent to the back of the bus. They are made to sit in "humble places," overlooked and despised, while the fools are paraded in the high places.
This is the direct result of the sin of envy, institutionalized as a matter of public policy. Egalitarianism cannot tolerate the existence of excellence. It cannot stand the man who is wiser, more competent, or more successful. And so, it must tear him down. It elevates the fool precisely because he is a fool, and it demotes the wise man precisely because he is wise. This is a society committing suicide.
The World Upside Down (v. 7)
The Preacher then gives us a vivid, almost cinematic, image of this social inversion.
"I have seen slaves riding on horses and princes walking like slaves on the land." (Ecclesiastes 10:7 LSB)
In the ancient world, riding on a horse was a sign of nobility, authority, and honor. Walking, especially in the dust and mire of the road, was the posture of a commoner or a slave. What Solomon sees is a world where these roles are grotesquely reversed. The slaves, the men who ought to be serving, are now in the saddle. They hold the reins of power. And the princes, the men who were born and trained to lead, are forced to walk, debased and stripped of their rightful place.
This is not a call for a rigid, unchangeable class system. The Bible is full of stories of God raising up the lowly, like Joseph or David. But those men were raised up because of their character and wisdom, not because of their incompetence. This verse is describing an unnatural state of affairs where promotion is based on folly and demotion is based on worth. It is a picture of a meritocracy in reverse. The unqualified are in charge, and the qualified are disenfranchised.
We see this everywhere. We see it when men who cannot define what a woman is are put in charge of women's sports. We see it when people who believe that wealth is created by printing money are put in charge of the economy. We see it when pastors who deny the authority of Scripture are put in charge of churches. We see slaves on horses, and the result is that the whole caravan is headed for a cliff.
The Prince Who Walked
This picture of social chaos and inversion is a grim one. It is an evil, a mistake, a vanity. And if this is all we had, we would have every right to despair. But this is life "under the sun." We are Christians, which means we look at the world through the lens of the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And when we do, we see this story in an entirely new light.
For there was one who was the ultimate Prince, the King of kings and Lord of lords. He was not a prince by birthright in some earthly kingdom; He was the Prince of Heaven, the eternal Son of God, by whom and for whom all things were created. All authority, all honor, all riches were His by right.
And what did this Prince do? He saw a world full of slaves, enslaved to sin and death, riding their horses straight to Hell. And He descended from His throne. He came down. He did not just walk like a slave; He became a servant. He took on the form of a slave (Philippians 2:7). The ultimate Prince put on the rags of our humanity and walked the dusty roads of this fallen world. He walked all the way to a cross, the ultimate symbol of a slave's death.
Why? He did it to reverse the great inversion caused by our sin. He did it to overthrow the ruler of this world, the devil, who promotes folly and rebellion. Jesus, the true Prince, walked as a slave so that we, who were slaves to sin, might be adopted as sons and daughters of the King. He endured the ultimate debasement so that we might receive the ultimate exaltation.
Because He humbled Himself, God has highly exalted Him and given Him the name that is above every name (Philippians 2:9). He has been given the throne, and He now rules over all things. The world still looks chaotic. We still see slaves on horses and fools in high places. But their reign is temporary. The true Prince is on His throne, and He is putting all His enemies under His feet. He is building His church, a kingdom where the order of creation is restored, where wisdom is honored, and where former slaves are being transformed into princes and princesses, destined to rule and reign with Him forever.
Therefore, do not lose heart when you see the madness of the world. Do not envy the fool in his high place, for his perch is precarious and his end is destruction. Instead, look to the Prince who walked, and walk in His steps. Live as royalty in exile, knowing that your King has already won the victory, and that He will soon set all things right. The great mistake is being undone, and the kingdom of our God and of His Christ will have no end.