"Get a Clue!"

Intro: Have you ever played a game that involved clues? Crossword puzzles to makes sense of spaces and numbers are essential to completing the puzzle. I’m sure that many of us have played the game Clue itself. You search from clues to find out who is the murderer, to find out the scheme of it all. You have to state who did it, with what weapon, and in what room. You have to find the scheme.

The Preacher is searching for the meaning of life, the scheme of it. Yet he seems to come up empty. He’s missing an important piece, one clue that unlocks wherein true wisdom is found, where meaning and purpose is. When the wisdom of our own devices dries up, what are we left with? The Preacher answers this and points us to a clue to find true wisdom and meaning in a seemingly meaningless existence...

CTS: Get clued in to the reality of true wisdom found in Jesus.

Life under the reveals that...

I. We Are Farther Away than We Think (19-24)

Remember the experiment of the Preacher - The Preacher is seeking meaning through wisdom that he has gained over the time of his life. How has he gained it thus far? By not withholding anything from himself. He was going to experience everything, good and bad. He was finding meaning.

This final pieces of wisdom is good advice, but doesn’t ultimately bring meaning (19-22): Verse 1 is wisdom that comes from Proverbs (Prov 21:22, Prov 24:5).

Proverbs 21:22 ESV

A wise man scales the city of the mighty and brings down the stronghold in which they trust.

Proverbs 24:5 ESV

A wise man is full of strength, and a man of knowledge enhances his might,

Wisdom brings strength, even more than a multitude of rulers. Of course, we know Solomon could affirm this. His wisdom far exceeded anyone else, and he was one of the strongest kings that Israel ever had.

(20) We also see that wisdom reveals that even the most “righteous person” still sins. In other words, everyone still has sin to deal with. Paul may have had this in mind when he wrote Romans 3:10 and Romans 3:23.

Romans 3:10 ESV

as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one;

Romans 3:23 ESV

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

(21) This wisdom feeds into the next piece of wisdom: Don’t focus on everything everyone says about you. Why? Even those closest to you will say something that isn’t flattering. Everyone has and will at some point say something about someone that would probably not be beneficial and would hurt that person.

(22) Why? Because our heart has done the same ourselves. Feeding off of the wisdom of verse 20, we are reminded by the Preacher that we, even as wise and good as we live, still fall. We still curse others. We still gossip and talk behind people’s backs, no matter how minor we may think it is.

The test fails (23): Even with such wisdom and experience, here is the conclusion of the Preacher’s experiment. I said I would be wise according to my experience and my own knowledge. And what was the end? He was far off. He wasn’t any close to meaning and true wisdom than he was before he started. Yes, experience can teach us some things, but it doesn’t ultimately give us meaning. I don’t care how old you are and how much advice you can give. That advice will not bring people meaning. And here’s why. There’s this ugly problem. And it’s not a little problem. It’s a big one that truly hinders us from meaning...

Transition: Sin is still a problem.

II. We Are More Sinful than We Realize (25-29)

The heart searches for explanation, a reckoning for all that is (25): To make sense of it all, we all desire this in our hearts. The Preacher desired to make sense, to put everything into an account, to see the scheme of all things. Wisdom. Wickedness. Folly. Foolishness. Madness.

The results (26-28): Instead of coming to a conclusion, an explanation of all that he found, he found something worse, more bitter than death itself (remember that death under the sun is the end, an unfair conclusion to a meaningless life). Even more bitter than death, he found a woman whose heart is snares and nets, whose hands are fetters. The picture here is the seductive woman. This picture is explained in great detail in Proverbs, another portion of wisdom literature. This woman is described as folly. Prov 2:16-19, Prov 5:4, Prov 22:14 communicates that a life of folly is seductive, contrary to the fear of the Lord.

Proverbs 2:16–19 ESV

So you will be delivered from the forbidden woman, from the adulteress with her smooth words, who forsakes the companion of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God; for her house sinks down to death, and her paths to the departed; none who go to her come back, nor do they regain the paths of life.

Proverbs 5:4 ESV

but in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.

Proverbs 22:14 ESV

The mouth of forbidden women is a deep pit; he with whom the Lord is angry will fall into it.

In other words, the Preacher has concluded that in his searching for wisdom under the sun has only ended in heartache and folly, something worse than death itself. Those that fall into folly forget the covenant of God, sink into death. She is bitter as wormwood. She is a deep pit.

Only those who please God escape her temptation. Except we have found that no one can please God through their own wisdom. The sinner falls into folly. We give into temptation and fall into folly.

He sought repeatedly the meaning, the reckoning, the scheme of all things. He didn’t find it, and he didn’t find it in mankind. One man is righteous out of a thousand he tested. And of the woman, he found only folly. NO, the Preacher is not saying that only men are righteous. He is connecting back to the woman of folly. He did not find lady , like in Prov 31:10.

Proverbs 31:10 ESV

An excellent wife who can find? She is far more precious than jewels.

Nothing wrong with using the principles found in Proverbs 31 for godly women. But the bigger picture is that of which wisdom literature of Proverbs points us to throughout. There is lady wisdom and lady folly. Lady wisdom is beautiful in all these things. He only found lady folly. No matter how much he experimented or tried everything out, everything came up empty, destructive, and meaningless.

Who’s to blame? Us (29) This is the depths of sin in man. The Preacher sees something very clearly. He is the sinner taken by folly. He is the one who seeks out schemes on his own terms, not God’s. He fell into folly. This is a declaration of his own depravity and sin, how far he is away from true wisdom. No matter how good we think we are, how much wisdom we have, we still come up empty. We still have brokenness. We still have wickedness abounding.

Romans 1:28–31 ESV

And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.

Why? Not because of God, but because of us. We were created upright, yet we sought our own schemes.

No one seeks God’s schemes, and it started in the Garden.

The tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the temptation of the serpent, the tower of Babel are all examples of us seeking our ways rather than God’s ways. Our schemes and explanations rather than trusting God.

We were created good and upright, yet we chose to rebel, trying to explain our own life, to come to a reckoning of our own. God isn’t enough for us. We have to be in control. This isn’t wisdom. This is folly. This is death.

Christ, Our Wisdom: The Preacher has come to the end of himself. He realizes that for all his observing and experience, it has led to nothing but heartache and everything is meaningless. He is left wanting. Yet we are reminded that he explains that folly can be avoided. The one who pleases God. Since none of us inherently please God, how is this possible? The one man who is righteous, the one who pleases God ultimately is Jesus Himself. He is the clue to our understanding of life. He is the clue to true wisdom. He is wisdom personified.

When we are far from God, he brings us close to Him.

When we seek wisdom by our own schemes, he comes to upend our schemes, obey fully God’s plans and gives us grace, the true explanation of life.

Wisdom in Christ is redemption from our depravity, our distance from God. He is the forgiver of our sins and the reconciliation for us to God.

Death is no longer bitter. Folly is defeated.

Meaning is now found. When my life is in Christ, when He is my wisdom, life begins to make sense in ways that I could not see before. That doesn’t mean its easy. It doesn’t mean we are exempt from heartache. But it does mean that in spite of all that, I rest in the plan of God. I trust Him as king, and not myself, my experiences, my own wisdom. I trust His cross. I trust His resurrection. I trust His kingship over my life, the church, and the world.

This leads to life everlasting, a life of meaning, a life of purpose. Jesus, our wisdom, is the light of the world that overcomes the darkness. He is life everlasting. He is “the way, the truth, and the life.”

Lesslie Newbigin says “Jesus is the clue for understanding all that is.” Have you got the clue yet?