A study of the Book of Ecclesiastes
Finding Satisfaction In Life
Sermon # 2
“The Quest for Wisdom”
Ecclesiastes 1:12-18
As stated in the first message I believe that although some modern scholars believe Ecclesiastes was written by someone writing as Solomon. I believe that the author of Ecclesiastes is Solomon. Yet in verse eleven the writer further identifies himself, “I, the Preacher, the son of David, king over Israel.” Even though the author never outright gives his name but uses the title “Koheleth” or the preacher. “This description only fits the life of Solomon, because although Rehoboam and other descendants of David ruled in Jerusalem, none of them ruled over Israel. After Solomon the kingdom was divided between the north and the south, whoever was king in Jerusalem only ruled over the southern kingdom of Judea, not over the northern kingdom of Israel. So this king must be Solomon.” [Philip Graham Ryken. “Ecclesiastes: Why Everything Matters.” (Wheaton, ILL: Crossway, 2010) p. 36]
First, The Search For Wisdom. (1:13)
“And I set my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all that is done under heaven; this burden-some task God has given to the sons of man, by which they may be exercised.”
• His Quest was Sincere.
One of the misconceptions that I believe that we have (at least I did) was that this marvelous gift of wisdom was somehow magically produced. As if Solomon just “poof” understood everything. I now believe that while he was gifted with a vast “capacity” for the accumulation of wisdom he still had to apply himself to the pursuit of knowledge. And that is exactly what he did – he devoted his life to learning.
• His Quest was Intense. (v. 13)
In verse thirteen Solomon relates, “And I set my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all that is done under heaven; this burdensome task God has given to the sons of man, by which they may be exercised.” To convey the how comprehensive his effort was Solomon says that he set his heart “seek and search out” or “to study and to explore” indicating the serious-ness of his efforts. Koheleth was the original Renais-sance man. He wanted to know as much as he could about everything he could.
• Under Heaven.
His effort was to be all encompassing “all that is done under heaven.” Koheleth says he applied himself to search for wisdom in “All that is done under heaven” which is another way of saying; "under the sun." The Preacher uses this term “under the sun” more than twenty-five times in Ecclesiastes to describe the world we can see the material world – life without an eternal perspective.
“This wisdom is that of those who guide us to a better life in the here and now; how to live a healthier, happier and more prosperous life. This wisdom… has its value and many lives would be better for following it. Yet it excludes a true appreciation of eternity and our responsibilities to the world to come, this wisdom has no true answer to the meaninglessness of life. It only shows us how to live our meaningless lives better.” [David Guzik. David Guzik Commentary On The Bible. Ecclesiastes 1. www.studylight.org/commentaries/guz/view.cgi?bk=20&ch=1 ]
“….this burdensome task God has given to the sons of man, by which they may be exercised.”
This is the first time God is mentioned in Eccles-iastes and the name used here (and everywhere else in Ecclesiastes is Elohim not Yahweh, the covenant name God had given Israel. Most likely the reason is that Ecclesiastes was aimed at reaching an audience beyond just Israel. Therefore Elohim (the God of creator- Gen-esis 1:1) is used. The phrase “sons of man” is liter-ally the “sons of Adam” – so the reference is not to the mass of humanity but to nature of man. The task is made all the more difficult because of man’s fallen condition.
All man's work, accomplishment, and searching for wisdom seem to amount to nothing. In fact God has deliberately built a system where life seems meaning-less and empty - without the understanding of a living God to whom we must give an account. It may seem cruel of God to devise such a system, but it is actually evid-ence of His great love and mercy. He built within us the desire and need for that which brings meaning and fulfillment to life. As Augustine wrote, “the Creator made a God-shaped space in each of us, which can only be filled with Him.”
Many people, even those who are rich and well-known, can attest to that void. For example, H.G. Wells said at age 61: “I have no peace. All life is at the end of the tether.” The poet Byron said, “My days are in yellow leaf, the flowers and fruits of life are gone, the worm and the canker, and the grief are mine alone.” Thoreau said, “Most men live lives of quiet desperation.” Ernest Hemingway, said this about his life: “I live in a vacuum that is as lonely as a radio… when the batteries are dead, and there is no current to plug into.” Hemingway lived his life in a way that would be the envy of any person who has bought in to the values of this world. But on a Sunday morning in Idaho, he shot himself in the head.
A cartoonist named Ralph Barton left this note pinned to his pillow before taking his own life: “I have had few difficulties, many friends, great successes; I have gone from wife to wife, from house to house, visited great countries of the world, but I am fed up with inventing devices to fill up twenty-four hours of the day.”
This incompleteness apart from God is not only found not only in us as people, but also in all of Creation. God also subjected creation to this futility until He one day brings the promised fulfillment. Paul described this to the church at Rome when he wrote, “For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope.” (Romans 8:20). But one day when the Lord Jesus returns, creation will be delivered from this bondage. “When we witness life ‘Under the sun” scarred by suffering, overflowing with oppression, infected with injustice, crawling with crime, traumatized by terrorists, polluted by impurity, we know that this is not just the way things are…On the contrary, it is not what it could have been” – it is what sin has made. [Douglas Sean O’Donnell. “Ecclesiastes.” Reformed Expository Commentary. (Philipsburg, NJ: P & R Publishing, 2014) p. 37]
Second, The Discovery About Wisdom. (1:14-15)
“I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and indeed, all is vanity and grasping for the wind.” (15) What is crooked cannot be made straight, And what is lacking cannot be numbered.”
• Grasping For the Wind. (v. 14)
Perhaps you have heard the phrase “That is as difficult as herding cats.” This was illustrated a few years ago in a commercial during a Super Bowl that was called “cat herding”? The commercial featured several thousand cats running in every direction except the direction in which the ranchers on their horses wanted the cats to run. The Hebrew word for “grasp-ing” or “striving” is very similar to “herding.” And so the Preacher is literally saying that everything that is done without taking God into account is like herding the wind—it cannot be done!
• Wisdom Cannot Change Reality! (v. 15)
The first part of verse fifteen says “what is crook-ed cannot be made straight” is the realization that there are some things in life that will not straighten out. Some of our circumstances cannot be untangled no matter how hard we try. No matter how great an effort we exert we cannot bend them back in alinement. One of the great frustrations of life is that no matter how hard you try there are some things you cannot set straight! Solomon is saying that “the past cannot be changed and it is foolish to fret over what might have been done….We must remind ourselves, however, that God has the power to straighten out what is twisted and supply what is lacking. He cannot change the past, but He can change the way that the past affects us.” [Warren Wiersbe. “Be Satisfied: Looking For the Answer to the Meaning of Life.” (Wheaton, ILL: Victor Books, 1990) pp. 30-31]
Verse fifteen “what is lacking cannot be numbered” means simply “we cannot count what we do not have!”
Third, The Disappointment Concerning Wisdom. (1:16-18)
“I communed with my heart, saying, “Look, I have attained greatness, and have gained more wisdom than all who were before me in Jerusalem. My heart has understood great wisdom and knowledge.”
Solomon’s statement in verse sixteen may sound like simple braggadocio when he says, “I have attained greatness, and have gained more wisdom than all who were before me in Jerusalem” but in fact it is a simple statement of fact. He is merely echoing what Scripture says about him in I Kings 3:12, “Behold, I have done according to your words; see, I have given you a wise and understanding heart, so that there has not been anyone like you before you, nor shall any like you arise after you. And in 1 Kings 4:29-34 we read, “God gave Solomon wisdom and exceedingly great understanding,… (30) Thus Solomon’s wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the men of the East and all the wisdom of Egypt…. (34) And men of all nations, from all the kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom, came to hear the wisdom of Solomon. Finally in 1 Kings 10:23-24, we read the summary, “So King Solomon surpassed all the kings of the earth in riches and wisdom. (24) Now all the earth sought the presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom, which God had put in his heart.”
• Madness and Folly. (v.17a)
Verse seventeen, “And I set my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also is grasping for the wind.” The Preacher is not suggesting as Felix did to the Apostle Paul “that much learning has made him mad” (Acts 26:24). When Solomon refers to “madness and folly” (v. 17) he in not talking about insanity but about immorality. The Preacher is using “madness” and “folly” in the way that they are usually used in the Old Testament – to refer to the mad foolishness of living in disobedience to God.
• Wisdom Increases Sorrow. (v.18)
“For in much wisdom is much grief, And he who increases knowledge increases sorrow.”
We have all heard the statement, “Ignorance is Bliss.” And to some degree this is true! Old Testament scholar H.C. Leupold stated this in a scholarly manner, when he said gaining wisdom, “leads a man to find out many disturbing things that may militate strongly against his peace of mind.” [H.C. Leupold. “Exposition of Ecclesiastes.” (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1952) p. 55]
So it is in the world at large, we learn so many things we had rather not know at all – things about the cruelty of other human beings – about the many kind of human suffering there are in the world. It is also true of our relations with others. For example when you join a new church you have certain perception of people as you meet them and then… with time you find out that some are not what you thought they were. That’s why I don’t understand people who like to hear gossip. After thirty-five years in the ministry I have heard more than I ever wanted to know about people. That may sound callused but it is true there is a lot of stuff in this world that for your peace of mind it would better not to know.
Conclusion
In the movie “Annie Hall” the character Alvy Singer makes the comical and tragic comment about the seriousness of life. He says “I feel that life is divided into the horrible and the miserable. That’s the two categories. The horrible are like, I don’t know, terminal cases, - blind people and handicapped people. I don’t know how they get through life. It’s amazing to me. And the miserable is everyone else. So you (ought to) be thankful that you’re miserable, because it is lucky to be (just) miserable.” [O’Donnell. p. 37]
So then if worldly wisdom (education) was the key to understanding the meaning of life, then the college campuses in this country should be bastions of peace and contentment. But this is hardly the case. Charles Swindoll describes them as, “boiling pots of controversy…political activism, try harder humanism… where all kinds of weird ideas, dissatisfied and disillusioned faculty members along with a pile of ‘professional students who do not find satisfaction under the sun.” [Charles Swindoll. “Living on the Ragged Edge: Coming to Grips with Reality.” (Waco, TX: Word Books, 1985) p. 34]
Malcolm Muggeridge said regarding the philosophies of this world and what it does to us, what it has to offer us. “Education, the great mumbo-jumbo and fraud of the ages, purports to equip us to live, and is prescribed as a universal remedy for everything from juvenile delinquency to premature senility. For the most part, it only serves to enlarge stupidity, inflate conceit, enhance credulity [have a tendency to believe too readily] and put those subjected to it at the mercy of brain-washers with printing presses, radio and television at their disposal.” It’s not that education is wrong, but it needs to be done in Christ and not apart from Him.
If the pursuit of earthly wisdom is so futile, what does godly wisdom look like? In the Old Testament the prophet Jeremiah says, “Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, Let not the mighty man glory in his might, Nor let the rich man glory in his riches;(24) But let him who glories glory in this, That he understands and knows Me, That I am the LORD, exercising loving-kindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight,” says the LORD.” (Jeremiah 9:23-24)
James warns his New Testament saints, “Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom. (14) But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. (15) This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic. (16) For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there. (17) But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.” (James 3:13-17) Ecclesiastes is evidence of God destroying the pretense of human wisdom by showing how empty and meaningless all our learning is without Him.
“The Quest for Wisdom”
Ecclesiastes 1:12-18
First, The Search For Wisdom. (1:13)
While Solomon was gifted with a vast “capacity” for the accumulation of wisdom he still had to apply himself to the pursuit of knowledge.
• His Quest was Sincere.
• His Quest was Intense. (v. 13)
When God is mentioned in Ecclesiastes and the name used here (and everywhere else in Ecclesiastes is Elohim not Yahweh- most likely the reason is that Ecclesiastes was aimed at reaching an audience beyond just Israel.
Second, The Discovery About Wisdom. (1:14-15)
• Grasping For the Wind. (v. 14)
• Wisdom Cannot Change Reality! (v. 15)
Third, The Disappointment Concerning Wisdom. (1:16-18)
( 1 Kings 3:12, 4:29-34, 10:23-24)
• Madness and Folly. (v. 17) he in not talking about insanity but about immorality.
• Wisdom Increases Sorrow. (v.18)
What does godly wisdom look like? (Jer. 9:23-24, James 3:13-17)
“The Quest for Wisdom”
Ecclesiastes 1:12-18
First, The _____________________ For Wisdom. (1:13)
While Solomon was gifted with a vast “capacity” for the accumulation of wisdom he still had to apply himself to the pursuit of knowledge.
• His Quest was _________________.
• His Quest was _________________. (v. 13)
When God is mentioned in Ecclesiastes and the name used here (and everywhere else in Ecclesiastes is Elohim not Yahweh- most likely the reason is that Ecclesiastes was aimed at reaching an audience beyond just Israel.
Second, The _________________________ About Wisdom. (1:14-15)
• ____________________ For the Wind. (v. 14)
• Wisdom Cannot Change _____________________! (v. 15)
Third, The _______________________ Concerning Wisdom. (1:16-18)
( 1 Kings 3:12, 4:29-34, 10:23-24)
• ________________ and Folly. (v. 17) he in not talking about insanity but about ______________________.
• Wisdom Increases ____________________. (v.18)
What does godly wisdom look like? (Jer. 9:23-24, James 3:13-17)
