A Son Learns True Wisdom

Daniel Norman

TGP A Kingdom Provided • Sermon • Submitted 5 years ago

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Wisdom is found in recognizing the futility of pursing the things of the world

Notes

Transcript

Introduction

Good Morning Church...

Last week we were introduced to the reign of King Solomon and the unique opportunity that the LORD offered him. Solomon had some large shoes to fill as his father was the great King David and so in a dream, God asked him what it is that He would want God to do for him. Solomon’s answer pleased the LORD. He didn’t ask for wealth or power or honor or even protection from his enemies. He humbly asked God for wisdom to govern God’s people well. God was so pleased with Solomon’s request that he gave him all the rest of these things.

The wisdom, wealth and works of the great King Solomon are included in many books, some that we have and some that we do not. But the Bible includes several of these books, and this morning we are going to take a look at one that is often horribly misunderstood. This book has come to have a bit of a reputation as being one of the more depressing book in the Bible. This is largely due to the fact that over and over again the book references a Hebrew word that our English versions translate “meaningless” “futile” or “vanity”.

In this book we find Solomon declaring Wisdom to be meaningless. Pleasure is meaningless. Wealth is meaningless. Hard work is meaningless. It just seems like all of life is meaningless. You can see how it appears to be so depressing.

The reason is that many of our English translations repeat the word “meaningless” over and over again in this book. Wisdom is meaningless. Pleasure is meaningless. Wealth is meaningless. Life is meaningless. Kind of a “Debby downer” isn’t it. And what adds so much weight to this words is that they were written by King Solomon who was wiser, wealthier and more powerful than anyone else in his day. So we can’t dismiss his positions on these things as simply the bitter ramplings of someone who has never experienced them. He had all of these things and more.

Tension

But what I have found is if we take a look at Ecclesiastes through the lens of who Solomon is, then it becomes one of the most hope-filled books of the Old Testament. And when we find the bridge between Ecclesiastes and the message of the Gospel, it illuminates this book to an entirely different level. That is my hope for us today, so open up with me if you will to , p. 283, we are going to hang out there for a little while to better understand Solomon’s perspective before we attempt to tackle the book of Ecclesiastes.

To lay a good foundation in this endeavor, I want to direct your attention to the screen where our friends from the Bible Project are going to give us a good overview of the book of Ecclesiastes. Check this out

so to lay a good foundation let me direct your attention to the screen where our friends from the Bible Project are going to give us a good overview of the book. Check this out

Bible Project: min

Tension

Of course we are not going to have time to go through the entire book this morning, but hopefully we will be able to unpack the hope found in it in such a way that when you go back to read the rest of the book you will be able to understand it so much better. So open up with me if you will to , p. 283, we are going to hang out there for a few minutes before we get into Ecclesiastes.

As you are turning there, I’ll pray and we will get to the heart of all this “meaninglessness” that Solomon is declaring.

Truth

So God, in his wisdom, has chosen to give Solomon resources beyond anything that you or I could imagine, but I wanted to take you to 1 Kings to at least try and give you a picture of the life that he led and the unique perspective that he has is writing the book of Ecclesiastes.

Bible Project: min

. Of course the effect of the great wisdom that he asked for and that God provided for him rolled out in such a way that he was able to govern his life, decisions and the kingdom in ways that were expansively fruitful. Kings gives us a little of the picture of life under Solomon’s rule, and it...is..sweet.

Tension

1 Kings 4:20–21 ESV

20 Judah and Israel were as many as the sand by the sea. They ate and drank and were happy. 21 Solomon ruled over all the kingdoms from the Euphrates to the land of the Philistines and to the border of Egypt. They brought tribute and served Solomon all the days of his life.

4:20-21

Proverbs are not promises, but they are mostly how the world operates…but not always. When we expect it to be always then we get very dissapointed and may even reject it all as false.

Example Proverbs:

[Slide of Solomon’s rule] - biggest the Kingdom ever was?

I have a map that will help us see this a little, the red is Israel before King David, the Orange is what King David added in conquest and the light yellow is what Solomon added simply through desired allegiance. His wisdom and wealth were so prominent that other nations wanted to come under his rule so they just kept sending him tribute like this in order to benefit from his leadership.

So unlike your budget and mine, the more that Solomon spent the more that he ended up with. Everyone just kept rolling into town with more and more gifts.

Then the author of 1 Kings goes into his daily supplies - and they are incredible

Truth

1 Kings 4:22–24 ESV

1 Kings 4:22–25 ESV

22 Solomon’s provision for one day was thirty cors of fine flour and sixty cors of meal, 23 ten fat oxen, and twenty pasture-fed cattle, a hundred sheep, besides deer, gazelles, roebucks, and fattened fowl. 24 For he had dominion over all the region west of the Euphrates from Tiphsah to Gaza, over all the kings west of the Euphrates. And he had peace on all sides around him. 25 And Judah and Israel lived in safety, from Dan even to Beersheba, every man under his vine and under his fig tree, all the days of Solomon.

1 Kings 4:22–26 ESV

(1 “cor” is like a 55 gallon drum. So picture 90 drums of grain each day)

-124

1 Kings 4:26–28 ESV

26 Solomon also had 40,000 stalls of horses for his chariots, and 12,000 horsemen. 27 And those officers supplied provisions for King Solomon, and for all who came to King Solomon’s table, each one in his month. They let nothing be lacking. 28 Barley also and straw for the horses and swift steeds they brought to the place where it was required, each according to his duty.

1 Kings 4:26-

No one had faster, leaner, stronger or better treated horses in all the world. Anyone who has, or has had horses knows the expense involved and Solomon’s horse barn was more like a city than a stable.

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.

1 Kings 4:29–33 ESV

1 Kings 4:29

There was not a school of thought for which Solomon’s wisdom did not have something to blow you away with. He would speak with the practical, the poets, the musicians, the botanist, the zoologist, the geologists, the arborist and the astronomer…whatever your specialty Solomon not only understood your language he could school you in it.

And this is what brings us to the motivation behind Ecclesiastes, for the next verse says:

1 Kings 4:34 ESV

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.

1 Kings 4:

So why am I spending all this time bragging on this guy who has been dead for a couple thousand years? I want us to understand the unique position that God placed Solomon in.

God gave Solomon the resources to accomplish things in a very short period of time that would take us 2 or 3 lifetimes to accomplish. Whatever our area of study, or expertise or interest - Solomon would have already mastered it.

It was like God gave him “the google” way before we even had computers, and it was even better than that because you know that the internet can be the “mis-information” highway just as often as the information highway.

So because of the role that God gave him, he was able to use his wisdom, wealth and influence to to do an elaborate experiment on the human condition. He set out to leverage all that he has been given to see if any lasting substance and happiness can be gained through it.

see if there is any lasting and he can reach the ultimate potential of human existence on this side of heaven.

This is what the book of Ecclesiastes is all about. It is, in essence, the report of his experiment that he wanted “people of all nations” and “the kings of the earth” to know.

So the book of Ecclesiastes is in some ways is like a seminar on human wisdom with Solomon as the keynote speaker. It’s like an extra long “Ted talk” where Solomon describes his experience with all of these things and then comes to a conclusion on their value for all people.

So with that in mind, lets take a look at , p. 553 starting in verse 12 where we find Solomon first of all declaring...

The Futility of Human Wisdom ()

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.

This last statement seems to be Solomon’s way of saying that sometimes, ‘ignorance Is bliss” which is quite a notion from the wisest man who ever lived.

I remember this statement spoken vividly the traitor in the first Matrix movie. Do you remember that guy? Cypher was his name. He had been awakened to the true nature of the world that he lived in, and he did not like what he found to be the truth. He desperately wanted to go back to sleep, living under the lie. So he sat there with the enemy eating a juicy steak, knowing that it was just a figment of his imagination, but he no longer cared. To his thinking the truth was so bleak that he preferred to live in the lie. And so as he munched on his fake steak, he says “You know what I have learned over all these years? Ignorance is bliss”.

But Solomon, taking here the moniker of “The Preacher” doesn’t have the luxury of ignorance. He has been given the weight of wisdom and and he has applied that wisdom to observations, study and research and he has concluded, much to our disappointment, that this world “under the sun” does not operate on a strictly cause and effect basis.

The more time you spend trying to fit all of life into lanes that you can understand and control the more frustrated you will be.

It’s like chasing after the wind, as soon as you feel like you are getting close, something unexpected hits and everything you worked so hard to set in motion tumbles to the ground. And the more wisdom you have the more you can see the glaring gap between the way that things should be and the way that they are. So it doesn’t bring more contentment but more frustration.

how things should , but theyhaving greater wisdom does not bring the greater contentment that we would expect.

And we have probably experienced some level of this haven’t we. Maybe we worked hard to be wise and disciplined in many areas of our life, counting on the sacrifices we are making today to bring us success tomorrow...but then something happens that seems to turn the future we had set in our mind and were working so hard for upside down. This could happen many different ways.

Our company where we have seniority, a pension and decades of faithful service, suddenly declares bankruptcy or...

The Dr. calls and we hear that the growth is not benign, and treatment will be lengthy or...

You are certain that you signaled but the oncoming truck wasn’t paying attention or...

The sonogram shows that great joy and great challenges await your growing family

But wisdom on it’s own is not the only resource that Solomon has. So he decides to test his wisdom in other areas of life. He unpacks for us...

We get thrown a curve ball, and all of the sudden the “wisdom” you we depend on for all those plans, preparation, and sacrifices seems to let us down. And we realize that sometimes in this there just isn’t a satisfactory answer to the question “why?”, even if you had the wisdom of Solomon to find it.

In those moments wisdom does seem futile, or meaningless, or like chasing after the wind.

But wisdom on it’s own is not the only resource that Solomon has. So he decides to apply his experiment to other areas of life. The second area he dives into for us he declares to be ...

The Futility of Pleasure ()

Ecclesiastes 2:1–3 ESV

1 I said in my heart, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure; enjoy yourself.” But behold, this also was vanity. 2 I said of laughter, “It is mad,” and of pleasure, “What use is it?” 3 I searched with my heart how to cheer my body with wine—my heart still guiding me with wisdom—and how to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was good for the children of man to do under heaven during the few days of their life.

It seems that since Solomon hasn’t found meaning in the Library, so now heads up the street to the frat house. He sets out to party like no one has ever partied before - and he has the resources to do it. And we are not talking about a snooty, dignified little gathering of like minded aristocrats. Solomon wanted to know what if any value there was in acting a fool, to “lay hold on folly” as the text says.

So we are talking something closer to a music cranking, alcohol flowing, girls dancing pool side, while the idiots belly flop off the balcony kind of party. The kind where you risk waking up with a lamp shade on your head in an unknown city with people and tatoos that you don’t remember…acting “a fool” like this...or whatever the ancient equivalent of these things would have been.

He observed that some people are drawn to these things, that they seemed to find something pleasurable in them, so he went all in, to discover if there is anything to them...

…but let me make sure that I am clear this morning. Some of you parents are looking at me like “what...” the stink eye right now, so let me clarify that whenever we read God’s Word it is vitally important that we distinguish between those things that are descriptive and those things that are prescriptive. This

But let me make sure that I am clear this morning. Some of you parents are looking at me like “what...” Whenever we read God’s Word, especially the Old Testament, it is vitally important that we distinguish between those things that are descriptive and those things that are prescriptive. This passage is “descriptive” in that it is a description of what Solomon did. It is not “prescriptive” or something that God has called - or even allows - all of his children to do. So don’t come home late some night and try to use the excuse “I am just researching like Solomon”. He already did the research, so that we don’t have to, plus he was equipped in ways you are not. You might be pretty smart but you are not Solomon.

Solomon conclusion is that we will never find contentment in things like this. They may be fun for a season, but they are empty wells that will never satisfy. They too are like chasing after the wind…but still people chase them.

But crazy parties

So after experimenting with the pleasures of foolishness, Solomon sobers up and decides to go after the pleasure found in investments, developments and economic growth. Here he discovers...

The Futility of Possessions ()

Ecclesiastes 2:4–6 ESV

Actually if you travel to Jerusalem today you can see these huge pools that Solomon built as they were carved out of bedrock so they still stand today.

Ecclesiastes 2:7 ESV

7 I bought male and female slaves, and had slaves who were born in my house. I had also great possessions of herds and flocks, more than any who had been before me in Jerusalem.

Eccl 2:

Solomon acquired so many people to do all that he wanted done that he really didn’t have to lift a finger if didn’t want to.

Eccl 2:

Ecclesiastes 2:4–11 ESV

4 I made great works. I built houses and planted vineyards for myself. 5 I made myself gardens and parks, and planted in them all kinds of fruit trees. 6 I made myself pools from which to water the forest of growing trees. 7 I bought male and female slaves, and had slaves who were born in my house. I had also great possessions of herds and flocks, more than any who had been before me in Jerusalem. 8 I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and provinces. I got singers, both men and women, and many concubines, the delight of the sons of man. 9 So I became great and surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem. Also my wisdom remained with me. 10 And whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my reward for all my toil. 11 Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun.

Ecclesiastes 2:8 ESV

8 I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and provinces. I got singers, both men and women, and many concubines, the delight of the sons of man.

Here is another “descriptive” event. In this day, men would marry many wives to oversee their households, but Solomon married more than unsual and it got him in big trouble later on. He had 700 wives, all of which were from the right social and economic circles. Concubines, on the other hand, were basically like wives except they didn’t come from the right “pedigree” of family, Solomon just thought they were cute, so he got “unofficially” hitched to 300 of these beautiful women who are described here as “The delight of the sons of man”. Solomon got this pleasure thing down.

Ecclesiastes 2:

Ecclesiastes 2:9-

Ecclesiastes 2:9–10 ESV

9 So I became great and surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem. Also my wisdom remained with me. 10 And whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my reward for all my toil.

Ecclesiastes 2:8–10 ESV

8 I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and provinces. I got singers, both men and women, and many concubines, the delight of the sons of man. 9 So I became great and surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem. Also my wisdom remained with me. 10 And whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my reward for all my toil.

Tell me that this is not a valid description of what has been called the American Dream. If you study hard when you are young you can get into a good college. Get a good job. Work hard. Network well. Get a better job and/or move into management where if you invest “wisely” and make the most of every opportunity then someday, like all the retirement commercials say, your life will have meaning because you can do all those things that you never had time for before. So we sacriice, we invest, we push up to 80 hour work weeks with that “dream” in mind and Solomon is here telling us: “I already have everything you are working for and more - and for all my investment I have gained nothing.

but we all know that it does not always work out that way. You might work very hard and some other schmuck weasles in without the degree, networking or hard work gets the promotion and you get “downsized” right out of the company. Solomon saw this too for what it is under the sun:

Ecclesiastes 2:11 ESV

11 Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun.

Wisdom is meaningless,

Pleasure is meaningless

Possessions are meaningless

So to this point, I have really not made too good on a “hope-filled” message have I? Well let me see if I can head us in that direction yet this morning.

Gospel Application

It is important that you understand that the tone of the book of Ecclesiastes is not “frustrated bitterness”. It is so easy to read that into the words that are there, but that is not where this man of great wisdom is trying to take us. He is not trying to tell us that there is not point in this life, he is trying to show us that the point of this life does not lie within us. We cannot make meaning and purpose in this life, because our Creator God has already set it all in motion to accomplish his purposes. Yes there are hills to celebrate and valleys to mourn but at the end of the day we are not responsible to make meaning out of this life, we are responsible to live in the meaning that God had given us.

Let me rapid fire some verses from throughout Ecclesiastes that are checkpoints that we are meant to circle back to in everything else that we read here:

Ecclesiastes 2:24 ESV

24 There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God,

Ecclesiastes 3:12–13 ESV

12 I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; 13 also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God’s gift to man.

Ecclesiastes 3:12 ESV

12 I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live;

Ecclesiastes 3:22 ESV

22 So I saw that there is nothing better than that a man should rejoice in his work, for that is his lot. Who can bring him to see what will be after him?

Eccl 3:

Ecclesiastes 5:18 ESV

18 Behold, what I have seen to be good and fitting is to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which one toils under the sun the few days of his life that God has given him, for this is his lot.

Ecclesiastes 8:15 ESV

15 And I commend joy, for man has nothing better under the sun but to eat and drink and be joyful, for this will go with him in his toil through the days of his life that God has given him under the sun.

Do you hear the freedom that is found in the roots of the book of Ecclesiastes? It is not a depressing book, it is a life-giving, freedom loving, book of blessed contentment in living in those things you can change and leaving the rest of it at the feet of the only one who can make a difference anyway. Solomon was wiser, wealthier, and more influential than all of us put together and this was his observation on the nature of our existence.

Remember that this was some kind of international “TED talk” where Solomon was addressing the people and kings of many different pagan nations. He was telling them all how he has used the resources that he was famous for to dive into everything that man so vigorously pursues in order to extract some level of meaning from it. After all of that, his conclusion is that everything under the sun is “meaningless”, “futile” or “vanity”. But in limiting the parameters of his “experiment” to those things under the sun, he is recognizing that there are other things that are not “under the sun”.

Solomon also tells us that there a

Solomon also wrote a majority of the book found right before this one in your Bible. It is called the book of Proverbs, and it is full of his “wise sayings” that are helpful to guide our lives. There are 31 chapters in the book of Proverbs so some people have come to read through the book a chapter a day each month. And this is a really good idea, because it fills your mind with the wisdom that is operating in this world - but proverbs are not promises. They are sayings of the way that things most often do work out but the point of Ecclesiastes is that this is not always the case.

Gospel Application

So what conclusions will happen. When we try and claim these sayings as promises we will be horribly dissappointed.

Landing

The true meaninglessness of this world is found in it’s brokenness.

One of the other fascinating aspects of the book of Ecclesiastes is that Solomon is not the only voice in the book. The book seems to be introduced by someone else at the beginning, then Solomon speaks througout most all of the book, and then this other person comes back at the end to bring it to a conclusion. It is almost as if he we are experiencing a seminar where someone invited Solomon in to speak to his class and then wraps it all up with a conclusion based on what we all heard. The last words of the book are these:

Ecclesiastes 12:13–14 ESV

13 The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. 14 For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.

. Solomon also wrote a majority of the book found right before this one in your Bible. It is called the book of Proverbs, and it is full of these “wise sayings” that we truly should live our lives by - but their wisdom gives us only proverbs, not promises. There is a huge difference. Proverbs are sayings of how things should work in this world, but a Promise is something that will definitely be.

There is a vivid foreshadowing here isn’t there? While every other aspect of this book is aimed at how to live our lives under the Sun, at the end of the book we find this other voice pointing us to a different day. A day of judgement where these lives we live will be taken into account.

The true meaninglessness of this world is found in it’s brokenness

While there are things that do sometimes work - Proverbs is full of them - because this world is broken the only thing that you can count on is that fearing the LORD, working hard to obey his commands and enjoying whatever you can here on earth is the most important ...

CHristians are called to be “eternal optimists”

Of course this is where the Gospel comes in. This is the where the message of Jesus is found even in an existential book like Ecclesiastes. In the Old Testament era, God’s people were still under the law, until the Messiah, the Christ would come. When the Christ came then a new access to wisdom came with him. Paul told the Church in Colossae that “all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” are found in Christ.

Colossians 2:1–3 ESV

1 For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face, 2 that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ, 3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

Colossians 2:3 ESV

3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

Colossians 2:2–3 ESV

2 that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ, 3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

Colossians 2:2–3 ESV

Landing

None of us have the wisdom of Solomon to understand the things of this world, but we can all have something much greater. That not only makes sense of this world around us, but that echoes into our eternity. The “treasures of wisdom and knowledge” that comes when you put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ. If you have not yet put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ then today would be a great day. Come talk to me, or the Overseers or someone else you trust understands about these things.

1 Timothy 4:1–5 ESV

1 Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, 2 through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared, 3 who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. 4 For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, 5 for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer.

If you have not yet put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ then today would be a great day.

Maybe the thing that has kept you from trusting in Jesus is that there are things that have happened in this world that you just can’t make sense of. Things that seem “meaningless” in this world and you don’t know how to reconcile these things with a loving God who desires you to know and trust Him. Ecclesiastes was written for you, because Solomon asked similar questions - and the answer his great wisdom brought him was to find our contentment in one who gifted us with life and trust that He is working through it all to bring it to his intended purposes.

Let’s pray.

Colossians 2:2–3 ESV

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