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Scripture Reading
Introduction
When I was young, my parents would often tell me that I had a very determined spirit when there was something that I wanted to do.
Whether it was riding on a bicycle, or learning to walk on the set of stilts that my dad made us as children, I would work and work and work at the aspect until I finally got it right.
I would be determined to achieve what I had set my mind to, and I wouldn’t give up until I had achieved it.
Thereafter I would very quickly become bored, and get on to learning the next thing.
Not such a good quality in me!
In our text this morning, we look again together at Solomon’s search for wisdom and meaning, and his earnest attempts to find this wisdom and meaning.
But while the goals that I had set for myself were at least for the most part attainable, what we find is that Solomon’s goals are somewhat more difficult to reach.
Nonetheless, valuable lessons were learned, and we would do well to consider what Solomon teaches us here through his own endeavours.
1.
The Difficulty of the Search (vv.23-24)
As we consider Solomon’s search for wisdom together, the first thing that we see is “The Difficulty of the Search” for wisdom.
We know from this book as a whole thus far, that Solomon was in pursuit of meaning in life, and one of those aspects of his attempt to find meaning was through wisdom.
In fact, even in his evaluation of all other possible sources of meaning in life, he sought to guide all of those testings with wisdom - so wisdom was at the core of all he did.
At this stage, he returns to this topic of wisdom, and says:
The “All This” that he refers to at the beginning of this verse refers to all that he’s looked at in his search thus far.
All of the facets of life, or places of possibly finding meaning in life, that he was evaluating, was done through a basic sense of wisdom (although at times lacking true God-fearing wisdom).
Back in chapter 1:13, Solomon said...
Recall also that as we’ve worked our way through the book of Ecclesiastes, we’ve seen this search for wisdom and through wisdom has been a time-consuming exercise!
In fact, it was a life-long commitment from Solomon.
Not only this, but in our verse here this morning (Ecc 7:23) he says that he was determined to be wise.
But we must ask the question of ourselves here: in all his determination to be wise, and in this life-long endeavor to find wisdom, was he successful?
According to his own observations, he was not.
He says in this verse that this wisdom was beyond him.
But does this not raise the question of the wisdom that God had given to Solomon?
The Scripture is clear that Solomon was the most wise person on the face of the planet, at the very least in terms of worldly wisdom.
Indeed, we’ve looked at some of those verses (e.g. 1 Kings 10:6-7) as we’ve studied the book of Ecclesiastes that portray and clearly record the profound wisdom of Solomon in the eyes of all people.
So Solomon was exceedingly wise in all that he did.
But that then begs the question.
If this man Solomon, being the most wise person ever, finds himself to be so lacking in wisdom, if this man Solomon says that wisdom was so far beyond his own grasp and reach, then where does that leave us?
In answering this question, we need to keep in mind what Solomon is getting at, and what he’s measuring up against as he evaluates his wisdom.
Solomon was indeed an exceedingly wise man by the grace of God.
And yet, in all His human wisdom, he was led to the humbling conclusion that even he, as the most wise person on the face of the planet, was not able to fathom and understand everything that happened under the sun.
The more that he evaluated and searched out things under the sun, the more that he sought to grow in wisdom through his searches and testings, the more pitiful he recognised himself to be.
Recall that Solomon was trying to find ultimate meaning.
He was trying to find out why things happened in life the way they do - what is the meaning of it all; what is the purpose of it all.
And as he evaluates these things, he realizes that such things are too marvelous for him - they are beyond searching out.
With this in mind, let us just consider for a moment our current context of life in the world.
For all the advances in science and technology, for all the new discoveries that have been made in the world around us since the days of Solomon...
Think about the advances of medicine also in the last century alone.
We would say that there have been such significant gains in our understanding of things, that we almost consider the people of Solomon’s day (or even of 100 years ago) to be a little bit backwards...
But for all of these advances and gains, man is no closer to having a full and complete knowledge or wisdom in the world.
As people, we are still scratching the surface in terms of what there truly is to know about the world around us.
As people, everyone is still searching for meaning and a place in society and in the world around them.
Even though we’ve had the collective research and searching by billions of people over the course of history.
And so, friends, the argument of Solomon certainly remains perfectly in tact.
By comparison with any other man, Solomon was exceedingly wise.
But by comparison with Almighty God, Solomon was but a spec of dust....
Utterly incapable of fathoming the mysteries of the world around him, and finding meaning in life.
It doesn’t matter how wise you may think that you are, you will not, you cannot even begin to come close to the supremacy of God in terms of His infinite wisdom.
Through all time, there are those who would claim to have great and powerful wisdom in the world.
The question is: by what standard are they measuring their wisdom?!
We must pause here and consider just the extent of the deceptive nature of sin.
Solomon rightly recognised his own inadequacy in terms of wisdom (even though he was exceedingly wise by human standards).
But in the world today, the world rages against God, and rages against the ways of God, rages even against the very thought of the existence of God, claiming that such is utter foolishness.
Man is so deceived by the power of sin, that they are unable even to acknowledge or confess this all-wise God.
Indeed, even the Gospel message is foolishness in our world.
But let us return to Solomon’s evaluation of wisdom, and searching it out.
He says in verse 24...
Therein is the real question: Who can discover the ultimate wisdom of the meaning of life, and how things are working in this world?
Certainly, he couldn’t.
Commentator James Smith writes:
When he sought to comprehend the grand scheme of the universe and God’s government thereof he was seeking to reach out to the unattainable.
Practical rules of life he had mastered; but essential, absolute wisdom was beyond mortal grasp.
Man’s knowledge and capacity for knowledge are limited
2. The Goal of the Search (v.25)
While Solomon has acknowledged that wisdom is far off, and that he has been utterly unable to grasp hold of it, to discover it, he nonetheless continued in his pursuit of wisdom...
In verse 25, we read...
Solomon speaks here about turning his own mind to understand things in the world.
He’s just been speaking about the things in life that are incredibly deep - in fact beyond searching out.
And so as we read these words, he cannot be speaking again about these very deep things of God which are unsearchable, but rather the things relating to people in everyday life.
So what precisely does he now turn to evaluating.
“First, he made every effort “to search, and to seek out wisdom.”
There are these words that he uses here - in the NIV - “understand, investigate, search out.”
They demonstrate once again Solomon’s careful study from every angle.
He is turning from profitless theoretical speculation about issues in life, to a practical inquiry.
(Smith, 1996)
Secondly, he is going to investigate the “scheme of things” (NIV translation).
The word could also be translated as “the reason for things” or the “explanation of things”.
What he plans to do here is to present a summary of his own conclusions as to why life works the way it does.
Then he speaks about the third aspect that he is evaluating, and that is the stupidity of wickedness and also the madness of folly.
In essence, Solomon recognises that to be wicked, and to act in a way that is contrary to the ways of God, in contradiction to His laws, is stupid.
Furthermore, he recognises that to live a life of foolishness is no only unhelpful, but it is in fact madness.
The person who chooses to live a life in contradiction to God, and the person who chooses to continue in life in their foolishness, not wishing to grow in the ways and paths of God is living in stupidity and foolishness.
Friends, what Solomon is speaking about here is self-delusion.
Man deceives themselves into thinking that they can live without God, or can live outside of the will of God.
There are many who live this life as if there is no God, and they are indeed foolish and self-deceived.
But let us also remember that there are those times where we live with little regard to God.
We do things which we know ought not to be done.
We engage in activities which are destructive to us.
We engage in sinful practices where in the moment we know how contrary they are to God’s will and His ways, but we shut God out.
Friends, this is foolishness.
Our desire as Christians should always be to growing in our knowledge of God and to be increasing in our obedience and submission to Him.
To fail in this area is to willfully continue in folly.
How foolish we are to do this.
3. The Result of the Search (vv.26-27)
At this point, Solomon turns his attention to a very specific instance of the stupidity of wickedness and the madness of folly.
While there may be many examples in the world of such stupidity and madness, Solomon focuses on “the woman who is a snare.”
As we consider these words, we might wonder who Solomon is referring to here when he speaks of this “woman who is a snare”.
There have been various suggestions put forward.
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