Ecclesiastes 1:12-15

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Ecclesiastes 1:12–14 ESV

I the Preacher have been king over Israel in Jerusalem. 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. I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind.

Philosophy

King-Philosopher (Proverbs 25:2 “It is the glory of God to conceal a matter and the glory of kings to investigate a matter.” )

Plato/Aristotle (Future to this) :

relentless questioning

probing the nature of reality

pressing human wisdom to its limits.

Solomons Discovery: “The path of the wise ends not in human glory, but in humility before God.”

God has given people this miserable task to keep them occupied. (Curse of The Fall)

Everything under the sun is futile (our main word “Hevel”)

Summary Statement: (Ecc 1:15 )

Ecclesiastes 1:15 ESV

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

After searching things out trying to explore all that is done under the sun, his findings can be summed up in this statement.

1. “What is crooked cannot be made straight”

This is not about:

denying sanctification,

denying spiritual change,

denying the hope of redemption.

Qohelet is not saying:

“People can never change.”

He is saying something more structural than individual.

Crooked = bent by the Fall

Ecclesiastes later explains what “crooked” means (7:29):

“God made man upright,

but they have sought out many schemes.”

What was straight became bent.

What was orderly became disordered.

What was harmonious became fractured.

This is the condition of life “under the sun.”

Qohelet is describing the limits of human wisdom and effort

Solomon is not saying God cannot straighten what is crooked.

He is saying man cannot straighten what God has bent.

This fits the whole chapter:

Solomon the wise king

completed the philosophical investigation

probed the world with all the resources a man could ever have

and discovered the limits of human ability under the fall.

“What is crooked cannot be made straight” = Human wisdom and effort cannot reverse the fall.

It’s anthropological, not theological.

It’s about what we can’t do, not what God can’t do.

Not naturalistic, but observational under the curse

Qohelet is not being “purely naturalistic/materialistic.”

He is being realistic under the curse.

He is looking at life as it actually is in a fallen world:

Death wins.

Injustice happens.

Work frustrates.

Wisdom has limits.

Good people still suffer.

Foolishness still prospers.

And no amount of intellect or effort can fix it.

This is not unbelief —

this is what Romans 8 calls the creation subjected to futility.

2. “What is lacking cannot be counted”

This line deepens the idea.

It means:

“There are missing pieces in this world that you cannot supply.

You can’t complete the equation.”

It is accounting language:

• the books won’t balance,

• the dataset is incomplete,

• you cannot “add up” life and make it come out even.

Human wisdom cannot fill the missing pieces

There are gaps in our understanding, in our control, in our ability to rescue life from futility.

Qohelet says:

“Even if I saw everything under the sun,

the world is still missing things I cannot compensate for.” (Modern Example: The Nuclear Strong Force)

This again points to human limitation, not cosmic meaninglessness

He’s not saying:

“There is no meaning.”

He is saying:

“Man lacks the resources to grasp or control it.

The data we need is missing, and we cannot retrieve it.”

You tied this earlier to the kingly investigation — this line completes that thought:

Solomon searched everything under the sun,

but the world is still “short” on answers,

and human wisdom cannot supply what it lacks.

3. How these two lines belong together

“What is crooked cannot be made straight” = human inability to fix the fall.

“What is lacking cannot be counted” = human inability to comprehend the world fully.

Together they say:

“Even the wisest king, doing the very thing kings are glorified for doing,

runs into the God-ordained limits of human wisdom in a fallen world.”

This is the theological backbone of the whole opening section

Doctrine

“After completing the kingly task of searching out all things, Solomon concludes with this: the world is bent in ways that human wisdom cannot unbend, and it is missing pieces that human understanding cannot supply. The problem is not that God made the world meaningless, but that man’s fall introduced a crookedness that no amount of human investigation can repair. The path of the wise ends not in human glory, but in humility before God.”

Uses.

⸻

USE 1 — INFORMATION (HUMBLE WISDOM)

Little knowledge → loud confidence.

Deep knowledge → quiet humility.

True wisdom sees its own limits. (Socrates: “I know that I know nothing.”)

Prov 26:12 — man wise in his own eyes = deeper folly.

Eccl 1:18 — wisdom increases sorrow (awareness of limits & fallenness).

Lesson: cultivate holy modesty, reverence, humility before God.

Warning: the devil teaches, “Be like God in knowledge.” Scripture teaches, “Remember you are dust.”

Punchline: Don’t walk with the confidence of little knowledge; walk with the humility of true wisdom.

USE 2 — REPROOF (SEARCH THE HEART)

If man cannot straighten the crooked or supply the lack → self-repair is folly.

Ask:

What crooked thing in my life am I trying to fix without God?

What deep lack am I trying to fill with earthly means?

Where am I acting as my own savior?

The Fall bent us beyond human correction.

Sin, sorrow, disorder can’t be healed with human tools.

Punchline: Stop attempting divine work with human strength. Bring the crooked and the lacking to God alone.

USE 3 — EXHORTATION (WISE SUBMISSION)

Some things remain crooked by divine purpose (under the sun).

Learn holy submission: “Where I cannot trace His hand, I trust His heart.”

Don’t fight what God has not given you power to change.

Wisdom = bending your heart to God’s providence.

Prayer: “Lord, straighten what Thou wilt; leave crooked what Thou wilt; only make my heart upright.”

Punchline: Submit to God’s providence rather than striving against it.

USE 4 — COMFORT (GOSPEL HOPE)

What man cannot straighten → God can.

What man cannot count → God remembers and restores.

Gospel reverses the limits of Ecclesiastes.

Crooked heart → straightened by grace.

Lacking soul → filled in Christ.

Bent creation → renewed in the new heavens and earth.

“With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

Punchline: God will one day straighten every crookedness the Fall introduced.