13 I also saw under the sun this example of wisdom that greatly impressed me: 14 There was once a small city with only a few people in it. And a powerful king came against it, surrounded it and built huge siegeworks against it. 15 Now there lived in that city a man poor but wise, and he saved the city by his wisdom. But nobody remembered that poor man. 16 So I said, “Wisdom is better than strength.” But the poor man’s wisdom is despised, and his words are no longer heeded. (NIV)
Since Solomon says “I also saw…,” we will take his words at face value; we won’t assume that this is a little parable, although he applies it in the way that a parable would be.
Let me retell the story in another way—also perfectly true.
I know a man who became the fire commissioner of his town. One of the concerns of the volunteer fire department was that they didn’t always know the water pressure at the various hydrants in the town, and sometimes this caused unnecessary delays when they were fighting fires. The commissioner had every hydrant in town repainted in two colors from a set of six or eight possible colors. One set of colors would show how distant (in thousands of feet) the hydrant was from the water tower. Another set of colors would show the usual water pressure at that location. So whenever there was a fire, the firemen could tell simply by looking at the hydrants exactly what the pressure would be. This and a few other actions from the commissioner gained the village’s fire department a newer, better rating. This had the added effect of lowering everyone’s insurance premiums in that town for several years, until he had finished his term and stepped down, and other people petitioned the village to paint all the hydrants red once again, since they said that looked better.
Sometimes what we do will benefit some people for a while, but it may well be forgotten. But don’t despair—the people who are helped will be truly helped. And we know that God watches over us day by day, whether the world knows who we are, or whether the whole might seem to have forgotten us completely.
Jesus is always there.
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. His wife, Kathryn, attended Chapel from 1987-1990 while studying Secondary Education (Theater and Math) at UW-Madison. Kathryn’s father, John Meyer, was also the first man to serve as a Vicar at Chapel.
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