Part 2 - The Quest for Knowledge (Ecclesiastes 1:12-18)

Pre-Introduction

Introduction

Does flossing reduce gingivitis?

Does sunscreen protect you from skin cancer?

You might think the answer is obviously yes to both of those, but one writer points out that some major studies and research reviews in the last couple years have said the evidence is inconclusive. Flossing “may” reduce gingivitis, and sunscreen “may” protect you from skin cancer; both studies said more research was needed.

Commenting on the fact that our scientific knowledge is so often in a state of constant flux, this writer makes an insightful comment:

“What sustains me now is neither certainty nor hopelessness, but a determined, humble optimism. The right answers are often simply unknown, and I might die without getting to know the truth. And yet the truth will be known one day. Just as we solved many of the mysteries that befuddled our ancestors, our descendants will solve many of the mysteries that befuddle us.”

Underneath the uncertainty, in many of us there’s an unstated belief — that if we just give it enough time, eventually human beings will crack the code. We’ll find the answers. We’ll finally know.

All of us on a quest for knowledge. We need answers. Not just about science, but about everything else.

We’re looking for meaning.

We’re looking for purpose.

We’re looking for significance.

In our passage this morning, we’re going to see that this quest for knowledge is very, very old.

People have been trying to figure out the world as long as we’ve been around.

And this morning, we’re going to hear from one traveller on this quest and hear his take on what we can expect from the journey.

Post-Introduction

As we saw last week, the book of Ecclesiastes is one of the wisdom books in the Old Testament connected to King Solomon.

In Chapter 1, verses 1-11, we’re introduced to the character called “the Preacher,” or the “Teacher.” And so far, we’ve heard that life under the sun and even the whole world is circular, repetitive, transient, and futile. “Vanity,” says the Preacher.

This morning we’re moving to verses 12-18. And if you look at your Bible or your handout to see some clues on how to read this section.

Two parallel units of text.

So in verses 12-14, there’s some straight lines, but then in verse 15 there’s a poem. So, he makes some observations and then gives us a poem.

And then we see the same thing happen again: some observations in verses 16-17, followed by a poem in verse 18.

In this section, Solomon is at the beginning of a big research project. He needs some answers to life’s big questions.

And he’s going to start with a research question and a hypothesis.

Illustration

You remember what those are from elementary school when you learned about the scientific method?

If you need an example of that just look up the 2007 True Crime documentary Meet the Robinsons, when Lewis, the main character, is presenting the Memory Scanner to the judges. And his research question is “Where do all the memories that we forget go?” And his hypothesis is “I think they are stored somewhere in the brain.” And so he builds this machine to try and retrieve those memories.

So you’ve got the research question and the hypothesis.

Here,

the Research Question: “How can I find the meaning and significance of my life?”

the Hypothesis: The quest for knowledge

Let’s listen in:

Ecclesiastes 1:12–18 (ESV)

12 I the Preacher have been king over Israel in Jerusalem.

13 And I applied my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven. It is an unhappy business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with.

14 I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind.

15 What is crooked cannot be made straight, and what is lacking cannot be counted.

16 I said in my heart, “I have acquired great wisdom, surpassing all who were over Jerusalem before me, and my heart has had great experience of wisdom and knowledge.”

17 And I applied my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also is but a striving after wind.

18 For in much wisdom is much vexation, and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow.

Research Question: “How can you find the meaning and significance of your life?”

Hypothesis: Maybe, the quest for knowledge is the answer

As we work our way through, I want you see Four Tests that you should apply as you’re seeking to answer this question of whether the quest for knowledge can help you find meaning and significance in your life.

Four Tests

Test #1: Your Credentials (vv.12, 16; cf. 1 Kgs. 4:29-34; 2 Chron. 9:1)

Ecclesiastes 1:12 (ESV)

12 I the Preacher have been king over Israel in Jerusalem.

Ecclesiastes 1:16 (ESV)

16 I said in my heart, “I have acquired great wisdom, surpassing all who were over Jerusalem before me, and my heart has had great experience of wisdom and knowledge.”

The beginning of each of these two units of text is a reminder of the Preacher’s credentials.

The book never explicitly says that Solomon is the Preacher, but there’s a reason the traditional view holds is that Solomon is behind the teaching of this book.

Solomon was the smartest person who ever lived.

Listen to how a couple passages in the Old Testament describe Solomon’s intellect:

1 Kings 4:29–34 (ESV)

29 And God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding beyond measure, and breadth of mind like the sand on the seashore,

30 so that Solomon’s wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all the people of the east and all the wisdom of Egypt.

31 For he was wiser than all other men, wiser than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman, Calcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol, and his fame was in all the surrounding nations.

32 He also spoke 3,000 proverbs, and his songs were 1,005.

33 He spoke of trees, from the cedar that is in Lebanon to the hyssop that grows out of the wall. He spoke also of beasts, and of birds, and of reptiles, and of fish.

34 And people of all nations came to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and from all the kings of the earth, who had heard of his wisdom.

Solomon was the ultimate scholar. Wiser than all the brightest minds of the Ancient World.

He had Ph.D.s in every subject.

History. Philosophy. Linguistics. Literature. Music composition. Every branch of science: Chemistry. Bontany. Biology. Zoology. Ornithology. Herpetology. Ichthyology. Theology. Not to mention all the rest of his achievements in architecture and engineering and design that we’ll see in the next sections.

He spoke 3,000 proverbs and wrote a thousand songs.

He had it all.

His IQ was off the charts.

He was smarter than Stephen Hawking and Albert Einstein and Marie Curie and Isaac Newton and Cleopatra and all the rest.

2 Chronicles 9:1 (ESV)

1 Now when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon, she came to Jerusalem to test him with hard questions . . .

The nations of the world would travel all the way to Jerusalem just to hear Solomon spew knowledge and answer all their tough questions.

He was the ultimate professor. The most knowledgeable expert in every field.

Did you ever have a teacher in school who would make boring subjects come alive? That was Solomon.

His academic and intellectual credentials were unmatched.

If anyone in the world can find meaning through a quest for knowledge, it’s gunna be Solomon.

So, Test #1, Your Credentials.

Test #2: Your Efforts (vv.13a, 17a)

Ecclesiastes 1:13 (ESV)

13 And I applied my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven. . .

Ecclesiastes 1:17 (ESV)

17 And I applied my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. . .

He doesn’t just have the right credentials. He also works really hard.

He says, “I applied my heart.”

That word “heart” is the center of the human personality. It’s the engine the drives the whole person. It includes the mind, the will, and the emotions.

He’s not taking a lackadaisical or haphazard approach to his quest: He’s applying his whole person!

He has access to some of the best sources in the world, and he has nearly unlimited time, energy, and resources for his quest.

Think about it, in Solomon’s day, he didn’t have any wars or conquests like in the days of King David. Solomon presided over the Golden Age of Israel.

So he spares no expense and devotes himself completely to the quest.

The first test is Your Credentials. The second test is Your Efforts.

Test #3: Your Questions (v.15)

As the preacher is doing his research, he asks some of the big questions.

We don’t have an exhaustive list of the questions he asks, but given the book as a whole and the kinds of questions we ask as human beings, I think the questions might have sounded something like this:

(1) What’s really real?

(2) What’s the nature of the world around us?

(3) What’s a human being?

(4) What happens to someone after death?

(5) Why’s it possible to know anything at all?

(6) How do we know what’s right and wrong?

(7) What’s the meaning of human history?

(8) How should I live?

Application

Actually, these are questions that every single of us should ask. In fact, the way you answer them will shape your whole life.

But at this point, the Preacher isn’t considering what God has to say on these subjects. He’s not looking from God’s perspective; he’s looking at everything from an “under the Sun” perspective.

That means he’s just using his own powers of intellect and logic and observation and categorization.

In today’s culture, he might be commended for how neutral and unbiased he is by not allowing his religion to cloud his thinking.

Illustration

Just last week about a mile from here I saw a car with a license plate frame that said: “Religion - because thinking is hard.”

I think that captures the way many people think about religion.

But as the Preacher is asking all these questions, he begins to realize that there’s a problem - He doesn’t have all the information he needs. There’s gaps.

Look at verse 15, the first poem.

Ecclesiastes 1:15 (ESV)

15 What is crooked cannot be made straight, and what is lacking cannot be counted.

There’s some questions that no matter how hard you look, no matter how many angles you approach it from, no matter how many sources you reference, no matter how hard you try, you don’t have all the information you need to answer the question.

There are some things that are just “crooked.” I don’t think that means morally evil, here, I think it just means there’s questions that are all bent up and not straightforward. And no matter how hard you try, it stays bent up.

And more than that, there’s some questions that you really need a vital piece of information, but you can’t get it. There are some pieces of information that will always elude you if you’re only looking under the sun.

Illustration

In C.S. Lewis’s book “Prince Caspian,” there’s this scene when Lucy sees Aslan, and Aslan is beckoning her to follow. But the other siblings can’t see him yet. He hasn’t revealed himself to them. They assume that just because they can’t see him with their own eyes, He must not be really there and Lucy must be mistaken.

They missed some vital pieces of the puzzle — there was more to reality than what their eyes could see.

If you’re only looking under the sun, what your eyes can see and what your ears can hear and what your hands can touch, there will always be gaps. There will always be some questions that you’ll just never be able to answer.

No matter how the thinker ponders, he cannot straighten out life’s anomalies, nor reduce all he sees to a neat system. Thus he reiterates the age-old problem of the wise men of the ancient Near East: awareness of finitude and inability to discover unaided the truth about life. Frustration and perplexity surround the philosopher. His wisdom may help in some things, but it cannot solve the fundamental problem of life.

Michael Eaton

Illustration

All you need to do is look up articles on the internet that try to answer the question, “How did something come from nothing,” and count the number of times the authors say something like, “We’re not completely sure,” or “It’s one of the biggest mysteries,” or “We’re getting close to solving this.”

Maybe you’re visiting this morning and you’d identify yourself as an atheist or an agnostic or maybe a skeptic. First of all, I’m glad you’re here, I hope you’ve felt welcomed.

But secondly, if you’ll let me to poke, this is a crucial weakness of a secular point of view. No matter how advanced our scientific theories have become, and despite the glut of information available to us, modern people are still stumped by the simple fact of our existence. Something has to be eternal. Something has to have had no beginning.

The first test for the quest for knowledge is Your Credentials. Then its Your Efforts. Then its Your Questions. And finally,

Test #4: Your Answers (v.18)

The Preacher tries one more test.

Maybe the point isn’t to try and find all the answers; maybe if I can just find a few answers, maybe those answers will make me happy.

Ecclesiastes 1:18 (ESV)

18 For in much wisdom is much vexation, and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow.

Turns out that even if you can answer some questions under the sun, chances are they’ll crush you.

The more you learn, the sadder you’ll be:

The more you learn about the complexity and beauty of life, the more you’ll be devastated by death.

The more you learn about history, the more you’ll see that the same themes play out over and over and over again and no one ever learns.

The more you learn about science and the humanities, the more you’ll realize that the idea that we emerged from cosmic sludge as a result of nothing but random chance and natural selection and yet we still love classical music and sunsets and ice cream and we still think the Holocaust was morally evil and we still care about the sick and the poor, the ones who consume resources rather than produce resources — the more you lean into those realities, the more you realize that if all we have is under the sun, then even the answers that you think you have won’t work. They’ll crush you.

We are sure education can save us from all our ills and place us on the road to happiness. The Preacher shows us that this particular pursuit is as old as the hills. Get into the best schools, study hard, achieve the best results, learn and learn and learn, get up the ladder, and you’ll go far. Aim at the top and the sun will shine. Join the academic professionals and you will surely soar on the new heights of your knowledge. It is not so, says the Preacher. The more I knew, the sadder I became.

David Gibson

Four Results

The Preacher has concluded his initial study. He’s run the tests.

And with each test he comes to the realization; it’s futile.

In the quest for knowledge...

Result #1: Your Credentials Are Futile

Result #2: Your Efforts Are Futile

Result #3: Your Questions Are Futile

Result #4: Your Answers Are Futile

And so, like the good scientist that he is, the Preacher brings these four results together and announces his conclusion, a conclusion that we will hear in every chapter of this book except Chapter 10: Vanity! Futility!

One Conclusion

Conclusion: Your quest for knowledge is utterly futile apart from God (vv.13b-14, 17b)

Ecclesiastes 1:13–14 (ESV)

13 . . . It is an unhappy business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with.

14 I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind.

Ecclesiastes 1:17 (ESV)

17 . . . I perceived that this also is but a striving after wind.

The quest for knowledge is Vanity and a striving after wind.

“Vanity” here means “futility.” It’s no use. It won’t give you what you’re looking for. As you soon as think its yours, its gone.

Illustration

It’s like smoke that vanishes once you catch it.

As soon as you think you have the answer, there’s more questions.

It’s a “striving after wind.” How successful do you think you’ll be if you try to catch the wind? Especially if its going all over the world, like he said earlier in v.6.

Remember?

Ecclesiastes 1:6 (ESV)

6 The wind blows to the south and goes around to the north; around and around goes the wind, and on its circuits the wind returns.

Good like trying to catch that. And what would it even mean to catch the wind?

Illustration

“I’m like a dog chasing cars, I wouldn’t know what to do if I caught one.”

No wonder the Preacher says its an “unhappy business.”

The quest for knowledge is utterly futile if we think it will solve our biggest problems.

Conclusion: Your quest for knowledge is utterly futile apart from God.

“No matter your smarts,

Or how hard you try,

There will always be gaps,

And you’ll never know why.”

Application

What are we supposed to take away from this? At the risk of being obvious

Big idea: You need to recognize that your quest for knowledge is utterly futile apart from God

You do not have the capacity to solve life’s problems.

You do not have it within you to figure out every riddle.

No amount of education or study or research or reading or YouTube videos or podcasts will solve your biggest problems.

Don’t misunderstand me - there’s a wonderful place for learning about the world.

But if you think that learning is your ticket to discovering the meaning and purpose of your life, you’ll be crushed when you hit a dead end and the thing that you thought would bring significance fails you and disappoints you.

Below the sun — from the powers of observation alone — you will hit massive dead ends.

Why? - A few clues

(1) First clue, look closely at v.13b

Ecclesiastes 1:13 (ESV)

13 And I applied my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven. It is an unhappy business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with.

This is first time God is mentioned in the book so far.

This is almost a lament — he says the futility of the quest for knowledge under the sun is something God has imposed on humanity, and its an “unhappy business.”

(2) Second clue, look at v.15

Ecclesiastes 1:15 (ESV)

15 What is crooked cannot be made straight, and what is lacking cannot be counted.

compare that with Ecc 7:13

Ecclesiastes 7:13 (ESV)

13 Consider the work of God: who can make straight what he has made crooked?

Let’s put these clues together.

Why is the quest for knowledge under the Sun utterly futile?

Answer: Because God has imposed a decree of futility on this world. It’s called the curse.

The futility is not an accident; it’s a consequence.

It’s a consequence that GOD has imposed on the world because of human sin.

Romans 8:20–21 (ESV)

20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope

21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

In the Garden of Eden, God gave the first humans a blessing and a warning.

The blessing was that they could enjoy God’s presence and enjoy God’s gifts and enjoy one another and rule over God’s creation together and eat from nearly every tree and plant they could find.

But the warning was that if they ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they would die. And not only them, but all of humanity in them. And not only humanity, but the whole created order would be impacted by the curse, a curse imposed by the Sovereign King, God Himself.

And of course that’s what happened. And so from the moment Adam sinned, representing the entire human race before God, all of humanity and the whole created order was subjected to futility. The curse.]

Vanity, vanity, all is vanity. Futility, futility, all is futility.

And its not just futile “out there,” its futile “inside our minds,” too!

Romans 1:20–21 (ESV)

20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.

21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

Vanity, vanity, all is vanity. Futility, futility, all is futility.

The quest for knowledge that refuses to consider who God is and what God says and what God has done is utterly futile.

Big idea: You need to recognize that your quest for knowledge is utterly futile apart from God

Human rationality, human reasoning, human logic, human observations, they’re all utterly incapable of overcoming the fundamental, basic problem with our world — we live in a cursed world, and its our fault. It’s not the world’s fault, its ours.

And if we’re left to ourselves to hang out under the sun and try to discover ultimate meaning, ultimate purpose, ultimate significance, ultimate answers, we’ll utterly crushed or utterly self-deceived, but we won’t find meaning.

1 Corinthians 2:14 (ESV)

14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.

Vanity, vanity, all is vanity. Futility, futility, all is futility.

So what hope is there?

There’s only one hope: that somehow, someway, someone or something above the Sun will break into our world, and give us what we can’t discover for ourselves.

Enter Jesus.

John 1:14 (ESV)

14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

1 Corinthians 1:27–31 (ESV)

27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong;

28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are,

29 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.

30 And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption,

31 so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

GOSPEL CALL

(1) Jesus is the answer

The good news is that when we were stuck under our Sun in sin and rebellion against God, God sent His Son, Jesus.

He lived a life of perfect obedience to God. He died on the cross in our place, paying the penalty for our sin. And he rose again from the dead, showing that God accepted Jesus’ death as payment for our sins.

And so now, everyone who turns from their sins and trusts in Jesus alone can have all their sins forgiven, and even more than that, they can finally discover real answers to the ultimate questions, not because of their intellect but because of their Savior, who breaks the futility of the curse, and replaces it with blessing, fullness of joy, and eternal life.

Turn from your sin. Trust in Jesus.

Application

(2) Know God’s Word

This also means that for those of us who have trusted in Jesus, we need to continually bring our conversations back to God’s Word.

If the only source of information you have is stuff from below the sun, you’ll never find the answers you need to love God and love others.

In the Bible, in God’s Word, God has spoken. God has entered into our world to give us real, solid, meaningful answers to the biggest questions of life. And the only way we can really know those answers is through God’s Word.

Graduates: whether high school or college — if you can ace your history test or your philosophy test but you don’t know your Bible, let me humbly encourage you to put some work in!

(3) Share Your Hope

Another way we need to apply this to our lives is by sharing our hope! Brothers, sisters, there are people all around you who are dying inside because they can’t find the answers they’re looking for, and you have the answer in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

When was the last time you had a meaningful conversation with someone who is not a Christian?

We don’t need to be intimidated by them asking us questions we can’t answer — they don’t have the answers either! If all you have is life under the sun, the quest for knowledge is futile. But YOU can bring the hope of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to them. If you’ll just start talking about what He has done in your life and what He can do in theirs, if they’ll turn from their sins and trust in him.

Conclusion

Big idea: You need to recognize that your quest for knowledge is utterly futile apart from God

“Wisdom is good, it puts eyes in your head But it’s foolish to think it’ll save you from death Both the fool and the wise man are numbering their breaths And in the end, all this wisdom is just meaningless”

Caroline Cobb