Finding Meaning: Wisdom from Ecclesiastes
In this study we’re going to walk with the richest and smartest person in the world. Solomon built an enormous empire. He established trade with the surrounding nations. He was a living encyclopedia of knowledge. He lived a life of unrivaled luxury and pleasure. Yet with all he had, he shows us that all of it—every single bit of it—is nothing!
Nothing, that is, apart from God.
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Lesson #3 The Problem With Wisdom
I love this picture, it reminds me of how I use to study as a kid - Osmosis...!!
THE BIBLE MEETS LIFE
Military conflicts. Civil wars. Corrupt governments. Violence. Drug addiction. The news is constantly reminding us our world is falling apart. But what can we do?
“Education is the answer!” We hear this frequently. If we’ll just educate people, they will learn to overcome their prejudices. Education will correct their thinking and take them beyond their ethnic hatred, violent temperaments, and addictions. Education will enable us to get along with each other—and with ourselves.
If your perspective is that people are basically good, then education may seem to be the logical solution: good people can be taught to choose what is good and right. Unfortunately, that is not the case; it’s certainly not the biblical perspective. The Bible reminds us that our sin and rebellion are at the root of the world’s problems. Education has its benefits to be sure, but it can only do so much. What we need is the wisdom that comes from God.
WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY?
Ecclesiastes 2:12-17
12 Then I turned my thoughts to consider wisdom, and also madness and folly. What more can the king’s successor do than what has already been done? 13 I saw that wisdom is better than folly, just as light is better than darkness. 14 The wise have eyes in their heads, while the fool walks in the darkness; but I came to realize that the same fate overtakes them both. 15 Then I said to myself, “The fate of the fool will overtake me also. What then do I gain by being wise?” I said to myself, “This too is meaningless.” 16 For the wise, like the fool, will not be long remembered; the days have already come when both have been forgotten. Like the fool, the wise too must die! 17 So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.
No one in the world was wiser than Solomon. So, in his quest to find meaning in life, it’s not surprising that Solomon would turn “to consider wisdom, and also madness and folly.”
Verse 12 is hard to interpret. “What more can the king’s successor do than what has already been done?”
We can understand this verse in two ways.
- No matter what king came after Solomon, he would have to deal with these same issues.
- Since Solomon was the wisest person in the world, no other king after him would be able to do any better.
Both interpretations make sense, and the point stands with either one: Whoever came after Solomon would fare no better in trying to explain the world through human wisdom; he would do well to do as Solomon had done.
But wisdom is right thinking that leads to right living. Wisdom and righteous living are wound tightly together. Conversely, folly results in unrighteous living. Solomon turned to investigate the difference between wisdom and folly and he unearthed three realities:
- Even in this life, there is more to gain from wisdom than from folly. Just as light has advantages over darkness, so also “The wise have eyes in their heads”; that is, he is able to see, “while the fool walks in the darkness.” In a world where wisdom abounds, others benefit from the wise person.
- Whether we live a good life or a wicked life, we all still die and are forgotten. In the end, Solomon said, it doesn’t matter how we live this life on earth because the wise and the foolish, the righteous and the unrighteous, all share the same fate : death! Wisdom may mean a healthier lifestyle, and we might prolong our lives by several years, but still, in the end, we die.
- Trying to live a righteous life apart from God only leads to frustration and grief. When you consider the fate of humanity, whether you live a good life or not, what’s the point? The pointlessness and futility of it all can make someone like Solomon hate life. From a purely secular viewpoint, it makes no difference how we live this life if we can’t escape death.
Ecclesiastes 7:23-25
23 All this I tested by wisdom and I said, “I am determined to be wise”—but this was beyond me. 24 Whatever exists is far off and most profound—who can discover it? 25 So I turned my mind to understand, to investigate and to search out wisdom and the scheme of things and to understand the stupidity of wickedness and the madness of folly.
Even with all its advantages, human wisdom cannot answer life’s ultimate questions. From a secular point of view—a view of life lived only “under the sun”—human wisdom cannot explain: the intelligent design of the universe, order as opposed to chaos, the complex design of the human body, or concepts such as love or joy.
Notice the language Solomon used in verse 25: he endeavored to “to understand, to investigate and to search.” Solomon took care to try to understand and explain all things by human wisdom. This wasn’t just some casual exercise; he worked at it, but it was beyond him.
It’s not just the good things that the wisdom of this world cannot explain. Human wisdom also has no explanation for “wickedness.” Human wisdom may be sufficient to “understand the stupidity of wickedness and the madness of folly,” but it can’t explain why.
Life “under the sun” (2:17) and wisdom apart from God want to assume all people are good, but the environment, lack of education, or absence of first-world perks ruins them. Even highly educated people living in the ideal first-world environment do evil things, and the world is left wondering why.
Ecclesiastes 7:26-29
26 I find more bitter than death the woman who is a snare, whose heart is a trap and whose hands are chains. The man who pleases God will escape her, but the sinner she will ensnare. 27 “Look,” says the Teacher, “this is what I have discovered: “Adding one thing to another to discover the scheme of things— 28 while I was still searching but not finding—I found one upright man among a thousand, but not one upright woman among them all. 29 This only have I found: God created mankind upright, but they have gone in search of many schemes.”
1. Sin affects our relationships. On the surface, Solomon sounds extremely “anti-woman” in verses 26-28, but from a male perspective, he was addressing the continuing conflict between men and women. Because of sin, the marriage relationship can often be a place of conflict.
2. Wisdom is rare in this world. Solomon confessed that he only found “one upright man among a thousand” who was wise, and “not one upright woman among them all.” Again, this sounds biased against women, but remember Solomon didn’t have the best experience with women. Solomon had disobeyed God’s command by marrying hundreds of pagan wives (1 Kings 11:1-6).
2. Wisdom is rare in this world. Solomon confessed that he only found “one upright man among a thousand” who was wise, and “not one upright woman among them all.” Again, this sounds biased against women, but remember Solomon didn’t have the best experience with women. Solomon had disobeyed God’s command by marrying hundreds of pagan wives (1 Kings 11:1-6).
3. All humanity is sinfully corrupt. Only when we pursue God will we find the wisdom we need to answer life’s questions and to live righteously in this world. Divine wisdom is a gift from God that gives us insight into His character, His will, and His ways. When we embrace His wisdom, it results in righteous living.
But that’s not the end of the story! God came to earth to bring us back to Himself. The wisdom we need comes from pursuing God through faith in Jesus, and that wisdom leads to righteous living.
LIVE IT OUT
When we pursue God, He promises to give us the wisdom we need that leads to righteous living. How will you pursue God this week?
- Consider God’s good creation. On a clear night this week, go outside and look up at the stars. Read Genesis 1 and Psalm 8, and thank God for His wise and creative work.
- Memorize Scripture. Memorize a passage such as Proverbs 3:5-6. This week, think of ways you can pursue God and trust in His wisdom, rather than relying on yourself.
- Have a conversation. Spend time with unbelieving friends, and ask them how they might explain the problems in the world and the nature of sin and evil. As you listen without judging, pray and seek the opportunity to share the gospel and the wisdom of God.
With all the information available to us, it’s easy to lean on our own wisdom. Instead, let’s pursue God and the wisdom He offers. That’s the only wisdom worth possessing.
Hope to see you on Sunday!
In His Love,
David & Susan
Teacher Notes:
In His Love,
David & Susan
Teacher Notes:
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THE PROBLEM WITH WISDOM
How to Learn from Solomon, the Wisest Fool in the Bible
Solomon – one of Israel’s kings, whose life is depicted in the Bible’s Old Testament – is known as the wisest man who ever lived, apart from Jesus Christ. Yet despite his incredible God-given wisdom, Solomon still made many foolish decisions. Why?
Each time, Solomon turned his attention away from God and toward the world’s temptations, such as privilege, power, riches, sex, and the accolades of others. As he did, he fell into sin that led him into destructive situations that ruined his life.
Solomon’s life shows that no one is wise enough to outsmart sin. No matter how smart you are or how much you love God, sin can seduce you if you don’t intentionally guard yourself against it and pursue more of God’s wisdom every day.
From the earliest age, we were taught the value of education – not just “book smarts,” but “street smarts” also. No matter how much we know, the greater value is in knowing how to apply and live out what we know. Solomon certainly was wise, but even he discovered that living by wisdom itself was not enough. The greatest wisdom comes from trusting God. The wisdom God gives passes the test imposed by life’s most critical situations.
Genesis 3:6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
Ecclesiastes 2:12-17
12 Then I turned my thoughts to consider wisdom, and also madness and folly. What more can the king’s successor do than what has already been done? 13 I saw that wisdom is better than folly, just as light is better than darkness. 14 The wise have eyes in their heads, while the fool walks in the darkness; but I came to realize that the same fate overtakes them both. 15 Then I said to myself, “The fate of the fool will overtake me also. What then do I gain by being wise?” I said to myself, “This too is meaningless.” 16 For the wise, like the fool, will not be long remembered; the days have already come when both have been forgotten. Like the fool, the wise too must die! 17 So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.
According to Solomon, how are the wise different from the foolish? How are they similar?
How does trust in God’s wisdom bring value to your life?
I. Wisdom has its advantages, but by itself, it is not enough.
· Living wisely is to be desired over behaving foolishly.
· Death will claim both the wise and the foolish; it is the great equalizer.
· As advantageous as it is to act wisely, even the wisest person cannot know the full meaning of life from God.
2:16 Solomon realized that wisdom alone cannot guarantee eternal life. Wisdom, riches, and personal achievement matter very little after death – and everyone must die. We must not build our lives in perishable pursuits, but on the solid foundation of God. Then even if everything we have is taken away, we still have God, who is all we really need anyway. This is the point of the book of Job. See intro: Trees snap like toothpicks or fly upward, wrenched from the earth. Whole rooftops sail, cars tumble like toys, walls collapse, and a mountain of water jumps the shore and engulfs the land. A hurricane cuts and tears, and only solid foundations can be used for rebuilding after the storm. For any building, the foundation is critical. It must be deep enough and solid enough to withstand the weight of the building and other stresses. Lives are like buildings, and the quality of their foundation will determine the quality of the whole. Too often inferior materials are used, and when tests come, lives crumble. Job was tested. With a life filled with prestige, possessions, and people, he was suddenly assaulted on every side, devastated, stripped down to his foundation. But his life was built on God, and he endured. As you read Job, analyze your life and check your foundation. And may you be able to say that when all is gone but God, He is enough.
2:16 Is death the ultimate equalizer of all people, no matter what they attain in life? While this appears to be true from an earthly perspective, God makes it clear (as Solomon later points out in 12:14) that what we do here has a great impact upon our eternal reward. (“For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.”)
Ecclesiastes 7:23-25
23 All this I tested by wisdom and I said, “I am determined to be wise”—but this was beyond me. 24 Whatever exists is far off and most profound—who can discover it? 25 So I turned my mind to understand, to investigate and to search out wisdom and the scheme of things and to understand the stupidity of wickedness and the madness of folly.
What are some things you’ve found human wisdom alone not to be able to answer?
What are some of the best ways a person can gain wisdom in life?
II. Wisdom has its limits in our finite minds.
· Our best efforts at trying to live wisely in our own strength or by our own ability will come up short, for we are flawed beings.
· Absolute wisdom is beyond our ability to comprehend in all its fullness, no matter how hard we try.
7:23-25 Solomon, the wisest man in the world, confessed how difficult it had been to act and think wisely. He emphasized that no matter how much we know, there are always mysteries we will never understand. So, thinking you have enough is a sure sign you don’t.
Ecclesiastes 7:26-29
26 I find more bitter than death the woman who is a snare, whose heart is a trap and whose hands are chains. The man who pleases God will escape her, but the sinner she will ensnare. 27 “Look,” says the Teacher, “this is what I have discovered: “Adding one thing to another to discover the scheme of things— 28 while I was still searching but not finding—I found one upright man among a thousand, but not one upright woman among them all. 29 This only have I found: God created mankind upright, but they have gone in search of many schemes.”
What is the relationship between human wisdom and human sinfulness?
What strategies have you used to pursue Godly wisdom?
III. The wisdom we need comes from pursuing God and living righteously.
· Our search for wisdom can become railroaded by many distractions, at least one being the way we relate to one another, especially illicit or unhealthy relationships with those of the opposite gender.
· When we live daily in right relationship with the Lord we can be equipped to escape whatever would deceive, trap, and destroy us.
· Not that we are seek them out or desire them, but painful experiences can become good teachers that make us wise.
· The wisdom we need to live life and face life issues comes from pursuing God and striving to live righteously.
7:27-28 Did Solomon think women were not capable of being upright (wise and good)? No, because in the book of Proverbs he personified wisdom as a responsible woman. The point of Solomon’s statement is not that women are unwise, but that hardly anyone, man or woman, is upright before God. In his search, Solomon found that goodness and wisdom were almost as scarce among men as among women, even though men were given a religious education program in his culture and women were not. In effect, the verse is saying, “I have found only one in a thousand people who is wise in God’s eyes. No. I have found even fewer than that!”
7:29 God created human beings to live uprightly and do what is right. Instead, they have left God’s path to follow their own downward road.
LIVE IT OUT
The problem with human wisdom is it doesn’t work. Oh, yes, it has advantages over acting foolishly, but in the long term, our wisdom does not provide the fulfillment we seek. The New Testament gives another perspective. Paul stated it in a portion of his prayer for his Ephesian friends. He prayed for them “to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God” (Eph. 3:19). While God’s love is so great it cannot be completely known in the sense of being understood, it is knowable in the sense that God allows us to draw on His great resource of love, which enables and equips us to know Him better and live life fuller. Resting in His love is the wisest action a person could ever take.
The apostle Paul was incredibly brilliant, but he said, “For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2).
In the end that’s the only knowledge that matters.
Go ahead and get an education. Learn—and keep learning. Improve your mind, but in the end, know this: what matters in both this life and for eternity is your personal knowledge and relationship with Jesus Christ. The wisest thing anyone can do has nothing to do with education or books. It has to do with trusting Jesus Christ and living under His lordship. “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen” (1 Pet. 3:18).
Can you recall a time when you relied on what you knew in dealing with a life situation only to discover it was not sufficient?
Can you recall an experience when you were sustained in a similar situation by pursuing the things of God and living in right relationship with Him?
How did He make a difference for you?
Added Commentary:
The curse of knowledge refers to the natural psychological tendency to forget what it is like not to know something once we have become expert at it. As a result, it becomes virtually impossible for us to share our knowledge with others since we are incapable of recreating our listeners’ state of mind. Psychologists, therefore, have found that knowing too much or possessing too much expertise in a particular field proves to be a severe drawback when it comes to communicating and sharing knowledge.
The curse of knowledge also proves disastrous in our pursuit of meaning and satisfaction. Solomon’s experimentation of life’s pursuits transitioned from the pleasure-seeking hedonist to the fact-seeking professor. He moved from delighting his senses to testing his mental capabilities. It’s almost as if he were saying, “I’ve tried stimulating my body, now I’m going to examine my mind.” He considered wisdom, or the pursuit of knowledge, to find fulfillment and satisfaction in life. For him, like pleasure, it became a curse.
Solomon discovered the following in the testing of his knowledge.
1. The Fact (2:13-14a, 7:23-29)
· Wisdom is better than folly in some respects. In living life, wisdom has distinct advantages. It does provide incredible benefits. Interestingly, Solomon wrote extensively about the value of wisdom in Proverbs. And, any sane person would prefer wisdom to folly for it leads to a whole and healthy life. In all probability, wisdom does add value and longevity to life. But, in the long run, neither wisdom or folly provide the key to discovering real meaning in life. If all one does is pursue knowledge, and if they do amass great intellect, emptiness and futility are still possible if the spiritual side of life has been left unattended. It’s interesting that Solomon did not acquire what another intellect, Albert Einstein, learned: “The more I learn, the more I realize I don’t know.”
Solomon should have realized that the source of fulfillment and satisfaction came from a source outside the limits of his understanding.
2. The Fate (2:14b-16)
The fate of both the wise and the folly are the same: they die and are forgotten. Solomon concluded that at the end of life the wise and the fool both die and are no longer remembered. He was right.
· All people die. During World War II, C. S. Lewis pointed out that even war does not increase death: death is total in every generation. George Bernard Shaw wrote, “The statistics on death are quite impressive. One out of one people die.” Later in this journal Solomon wrote, “Death is the destiny of every man” (Ecclesiastes 7:2 NIV). Death is inevitable. The wise remember the brevity of life. Exercise may buy us a few more heartbeats. Medicine may grant us a few more breaths. But in the end, there is an end.
· All people are forgotten. Well, maybe not everyone, but most everyone is forgotten. Outside of the heroic—who accomplish great feats, the philanthropic— who give great gifts, the artistic—who create great masterpieces, and a few other noble and historical figures, most people are forgotten, in time. It's not a crime or a sin, and it's not that people don’t make an impact on their part of the world while they are living, it's just that over time their name, mark, and influence is no longer remembered. People die and are eventually forgotten. It is, in a sense, a curse upon humanity.
3. The Futility (2:17)
The pursuit of knowledge also leads to vanity and meaningless, a grasping for smoke.
And, this futility had a personal curse on Solomon. It led to:
· Depression. Solomon concluded, “I hate life” (v. 17). In spite of his overabundance of possessions and knowledge Solomon didn't enjoy life. He was discouraged, cynical, and in despair. He was like many rich and famous people who keep professional psychologists, psychiatrists, and counselors overworked every year. A proverb states, “You’ll break the bow if you always keep it bent.” It’s as though Solomon kept the bow of his life bent, either through his enterprise, entertainment, or education. And, as a result, his life was at the breaking point. I’m sure he thought, Why go on? What’s the use of living? Let’s end this rat race now. He was a man on a slippery slope, nearing the point of no return. He needed to step back to realize that help and hope would come from outside himself.
· Stress. Solomon wrote, “The work which I have done was grievous to me” (v. 17). Solomon exhibited the outward sign of the knowledge curse by seeking for meaning and satisfaction in the longing for pleasure and the pursuit of knowledge. That sign was stress. His mode of life, the way he threw himself into his search for meaning was the principal cause of his illness. According to the American Academy of Family Physicians, two-thirds of office visits to family doctors are stress-related symptoms. Stress is a significant contributor, either directly or indirectly, to coronary heart disease, cancer, lung ailments, accidental injuries, cirrhosis of the liver, and suicide.
· Emptiness. “I found everything to be futile and a pursuit of the wind” (v. 17) was the refrain for Solomon’s empty life. Pleasure had not filled the void, and now knowledge had not satisfied his yearning for meaning and purpose. He was an unfilled and hollow man.
Conclusion: The curse of knowledge is the root of many people’s problems. We think we know what we need to know to find meaning and purpose. But what we don’t know will destroy us in the end. Or, we have accepted false information—enjoy life, do what feels right, get a good education, establish a career—and you’ll be happy. Ernest Hemingway at age 25, sipped champagne in Paris, and later had well-publicized game hunts in Africa and hunted grizzly bears in America's northwest. At the age of sixty-one, after having it all—wine, women, song, a distinguished literary career, and Sunday afternoon bullfights in Spain—Hemingway chose to end his life, blowing his head off, leaving a note saying, “Life is one damn thing after another.” We need to wake up to the fact, fate, and futility associated with the problem of wisdom before we’re sixty-one-years-old.
The greatest things in life aren’t things.
“A life devoted to things is a dead life, a stump; a God-shaped life is a flourishing tree.”
Proverbs 11:28 MSG
"What is wisdom? What is the difference between wisdom and knowledge?"
Wisdom and knowledge, both recurring themes in the Bible, are related but not synonymous. The dictionary defines wisdom as “the ability to discern or judge what is true, right, or lasting.” Knowledge, on the other hand, is “information gained through experience, reasoning, or acquaintance.” Knowledge can exist without wisdom, but not the other way around. One can be knowledgeable without being wise. Knowledge is knowing how to use a gun; wisdom is knowing when to use it and when to keep it holstered.
God wants us to have knowledge of Him and what He expects of us. In order to obey Him, we have to have knowledge of the commands. But as equally important as having knowledge is having wisdom. Knowing facts about God and the Bible is not all there is to wisdom. Wisdom is a gift from God. James 1:5 states, “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.” God blesses us with wisdom in order for us to glorify Him and use the knowledge we have of Him.
The book of Proverbs is perhaps the best place in the Bible to learn of biblical wisdom. Proverbs 1:7 speaks of both biblical knowledge and wisdom: “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, / but fools despise wisdom and instruction.” To fear the Lord is to start on the path to knowledge, and God can then begin to provide us with wisdom through Christ, who the Bible says is wisdom itself: “It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption” (1 Corinthians 1:30).
Knowledge is what is gathered over time through study of the Scriptures. It can be said that wisdom, in turn, acts properly upon that knowledge. Wisdom is the fitting application of knowledge. Knowledge understands the light has turned red; wisdom applies the brakes. Knowledge sees the quicksand; wisdom walks around it. Knowledge memorizes the Ten Commandments; wisdom obeys them. Knowledge learns of God; wisdom loves Him.
