“Wisdom is better than weapons of war.”
– Ecclesiastes 9:18
That’s a good verse, isn’t it? What a brief, potent verse. “Wisdom is better than weapons of war.” Let’s just memorize that verse. Let’s hide it in our heart so that we can meditate on it all day long. Just say it maybe out loud with me.
“Wisdom is better than weapons of war.” What is that, seven words? Let’s say it again. “Wisdom is better than weapons of war.” This is part of what biblical meditation is about, really letting the words of scripture soak into our minds and our hearts so they’re just second nature. “Wisdom is better than weapons of war.”
Ecclesiastes 9:18 Shares the Power of Wisdom
Think about what this is saying. Think about the power of wisdom. Think about weapons in warfare even as we see war happening around us in the world, in Ukraine right now, and we see news about missiles and guns and we think about advancements in technology that have created just weapons that people a century ago couldn’t have even imagined, but what’s better than the best weapon, the most strategic weapon, the most advanced weapon? What’s better than any weapon of war? Wisdom. “Wisdom is better than weapons of war.”
Reminded that We are in Constant Warfare
Use this imagery that we see in other places in the Bible, places like Ephesians 6. We live in constant warfare. There is a spiritual battle raging around every one of us today. There is an adversary today who wants to destroy your life, who wants to destroy your marriage if you’re married, your family, who wants to destroy not just your life but people’s lives around you, wants to destroy the church you’re a part of.
Ephesians 6 makes clear with the spiritual weapons that God has given us and one of those spiritual weapons, Ecclesiastes 9:18, is wisdom and it’s better. It’s better than any physical weapon could be. “Wisdom is better than weapons of war.”
Ecclesiastes 9:18 Leads Us to Pray
So let’s pray for this. God, we pray amidst the spiritual battle we are in in our lives and for other people’s lives around us. God, we pray that you’d help us to live wisely today. God, we pray for wisdom. I look at my life and I need your wisdom at every turn. I can’t be the man, the husband, the dad, the pastor, the friend, the family member, person in this community that you have called me to be apart from your wisdom. I am so prone to foolishness in all these areas.
God, I need your wisdom. I can’t do these things without your wisdom. God, I pray that on behalf of others who are listening right now. Whatever roles you’ve given them, whatever you’ve called them to, I don’t know them and I don’t know all that you’ve called them to, but I do know that they can’t do it without you. They can’t do it without your wisdom. So God, I pray for your wisdom over them. We pray together for your wisdom.
Helps Us to Think in Alignment with God’s Ways
Help us, God, to see things as you see them, not as we see them. God, help us to think in alignment with your ways, to desire what you desire, God, to make decisions that are wise, not foolish. God, we pray for your wisdom. We praise you for your promise to give it to us when we ask.
What a gift, O God, that amidst spiritual warfare all around us today, amidst everything we will face, you have said to us, “If you’ll just ask me for wisdom, I will give it to you,” that you promise to give us that which is better than weapons of war if we’ll just ask and believe that we have what we’ve asked for in James 1. So according to your word, we pray for wisdom and we trust, Ecclesiastes 9:18, that wisdom is better than weapons of war. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
