The Vanity of Wisdom (Pt 1)

Automated transcript of the sermon audio, generated with OpenAI Whisper (small.en). It has not been checked against the recording and may contain errors, especially in names and Scripture references.

Take out your copy of God’s word and turn to Ecclesiastes chapter one. I Love being with you guys whether that’s Sunday morning or Wednesday nights or visiting your small groups or when you stop by my office or other different places One of the things I enjoy doing with you the most is singing And that’s why I’m always trying to say how much I appreciate our worship team or Mr. Sar when he leads us. There is something very special about our singing together corporately. I think that’s one of the things that those of you who went on the snow retreat last year got to experience and to appreciate even a little bit more.

I thought you guys did an excellent job singing this morning and you know what? It is very hard to sing vigorously if your heart is in the wrong place. Not necessarily impossible. I mean, you can be putting on a good show, I guess, and have your heart in the wrong place. But for the most part, it’s hard to sing songs like this and have your heart be somewhere else. You know, even as you guys sang, I was in the back of the room and you sang strong, it seemed like, and most of you were paying attention to that part of our worship together. That’s very encouraging to me. There are not as many things other than maybe individual conversations where I hear, you know, what you’re learning and what is, you know, taking up your mind.

Those things encourage me, but to listen to you sing together, songs with content like that is something that very much so makes my heart happy. What at the very same time though is going through my heart this morning is a significant degree of sadness because in fact without that singing together, that’d probably be the majority of it would be sadness. Now I’m going to address this more a little bit next week two before our small group times. But it really seems to me that so many of you have given your heart to pursuing loves that are found in this world. I came across some things on the internet this week written by some of you.

And I’m not this week or next week gonna name names. They are things written by some of you that are so disturbing to me that I will actually be, I’ve thought about it, I’ve talked to Mo about it. And it’s such a degree of loving the world and the things in the world that as a shepherd, as one who’s gonna give answer to you, I really have, I think no other response than to go to your parents who must, I’m praying your parents must not know. Because I would imagine that if they knew they would have to stop you. Absolutely unbelievable. Like public proof and evidence. Some of you in your own words of looking for life in all the wrong places.

to varying degrees of out and out immorality, sin kind of stuff. And obviously, that’s not everybody in here. Not all of you even have internet connection. So that can’t be everybody in here. And yet part of what I am afraid about is that if some of you are willing even to go to the extent of making your pursuit of life in all the wrong places public, that it’s pretty likely that some of the rest of you, not all, but some of the rest of you are probably pursuing some of the same things you’re just smarter than to put it on the internet. And that’s really scary, because you’re combining your pursuit and your loves of the world with secrecy and lying and lying, and we might not even know about it.

And that honestly, when I found, and it’s not just one person, one place, one statement, and really, that ruined my day. That ruined my day. I mean, I believe in the sovereignty of God, and I trust that he is in control, And I believe that, you know, we have people who are not Christians in here. And if you’re not a Christian, obviously you’re not going to be pursuing the righteousness and pursuing, you know, holiness and God and loving Him above all things. I understand that.

And yet putting on the face when you’re around me, apparently when you’re around your parents, Apparently, when you’re at small group, that you’re claiming to love other things. You’re claiming to be a lover of God and His things. When, again, that’s just not evident in your life. And for any of us this morning, whether you’re putting, you know, you’re parading your pursuit immorality for everybody else to read on the internet or whether you’re not, you know, making it public, but that’s exactly where the loves of your life are. That’s bad. And ultimately, part of the point of even studying Ecclesiastes is just to remind you that it doesn’t matter what it is under the sun.

You’re not going to find eventual, long-lasting, truly satisfying happiness. As I was preparing for the message this morning, I found this kind of extended quote. I don’t actually know who wrote it or what the context is, but seems interesting. I thought it might be helpful to again start with, give me, most of us have stood toe to toe, eyes popping, neck veins bulging, saliva flying. That’s kind of a funny picture. your head is whipping from side to side and your saliva is, you know, shooting out of your mouth. Saliva flying, screaming at life. Most of us have grabbed life by the throat, slammed it up against the wall, sunk our thumbs into its jugular and shrieked.

Give me meaning. Give me purpose. Give me peace. Give me happiness. Give me something worth living for. I demand it. I cannot go on without something worth living for. And for many of us, life stares back like a zombie, with unblinking eyes, untouched by our outburst. Nose to nose with us, it breathes its foul, uncaring breath into our nostrils, and its unfocused eyes look past us, unconcerned and even unaware of our presence. It was though it never hurt us. rage, fueled by alarm we wail, but you promised, you promised me meaning, purpose, and love. You led me to believe I could succeed, that I could matter, that someone would care.

You lied, you lied, you lied. Mixed with panic and despair, we slumped to the floor, eyes unfocused, head drooped to our chest, wondering where we go from here. We cannot give up, yet we cannot go on. Meanwhile, life turns its back and shuffles away from us, leaving us alone. We think our heart will break. We think our mind will split. We think our soul will shrivel like weak old roses. And that’s probably a little bit more dramatic and emotion packed than maybe something that I would have written. But I shared it because I do think it’s so extreme and so perhaps even for some of you apropos that is hitting right where you’re at.

Depressed and frustrated and bored, unsatisfied by what this life has to offer. Again, I thought that might hit some of you where you are and your hearts are this morning. By the way, something I haven’t mentioned yet, if you’re looking for a good resource to kind of study on top of our study through the book of Ecclesiastes would be John Piper’s book, Don’t Waste Your Life. I’d mentioned that a couple of years ago, I think at this point, Don’t Waste Your Life. And from an entirely different perspective, different way of going at it than really the book of Ecclesiastes, Piper addresses some of these same kind of issues.

Again, if you’re looking for something to read, you’re looking to find some meaning in life, and maybe we’re not moving fast enough through the book of Ecclesiastes, then that would be a resource for you. Don’t waste your life. We have studied so far in chapter one, verses one through 11. And we have seen the motto and the theme really for all of Solomon’s book. Habel, Habalim, Hakol, Habel.

Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. Everything is meaningless. Everything is vanity. You will find it to not satisfy even if you can get a hold of it. Vanity of vanities, everything is vanity. And maybe some of us are kind of holding out hope that after verses 2 through 11, we’ve seen the motto, we’ve seen the theme, we’ve seen this meaningless monotony, the vain repetitions of life.

We’ve seen that nothing is new, you can’t be original. You’re not going to find something out there that maybe nobody else has thought of. Uh, we’ve hoped perhaps that there is an escape route. Maybe Solomon is just overstating the case in verses one through 11. Maybe this is just, you know, some hyperbole. Maybe he’s just exaggerating. Maybe in fact, he’s lying to us that in life under the sun, there actually are some, some, some routes we could go if we could just find them. And I’m afraid that, again, some of you here this morning are actually still believing that. You hear, all is vanity, and you’re kind of, you know, hoping that maybe that’s not true.

That maybe, you know, the secret is just something that you haven’t found yet. The secret to life is out there under the sun, and you just haven’t come across it yet. Wherever you think you know what it is, and really from chapter one, verse 12 through the end of chapter two, Solomon is going to shut off every possible escape route you can come up with. In chapter one, verse 12, we move into the autobiographical section of the book of Ecclesiastes, where after his introduction, where he said, he’s given us even this poem in form of everything is vanity and then you die. Now he’s going to tell us in chapter one, verse 12, through the end of chapter two, he’s going to show us all the places he went to try to find meaning for life under the sun.

In chapter one, verses 12 through 18, he’s going to tell us he thought maybe he could find life in wisdom. We’ll come back to that in just a moment throughout chapter two. I’d encourage you even to read ahead for the next couple of weeks as we dive into chapter two. And you’re going to see that you are not going to find life, by the way, in fun. You’re not going to find life in girls or boys. You’re not going to find life in pleasure. You’re not going to find life in alcohol and by that extended on drugs. You’re not going to find that in your work. You’re not going to find that anywhere. And Solomon is going to describe to us how he pursued all these different ways, all of these different avenues to find meaning and hope in life under the sun, and he’s going to shut them all off. Say, nope, been there, done that, can’t find life there.

Walk down that road, bend to the end of it, dead end. In our passage that we start with this morning, he’s going to report to us his project of searching for wisdom. And You know what his verdict is going to be. Will wisdom bring him meaning and satisfaction in life? His verdict is Habel, vanity, even wisdom, the pursuit of wisdom for wisdom’s sake under the sun, vanity, empty, useless, meaningless. Before we actually get into the paragraph, let’s read it. I just want to point out a couple things that kind of stood out to me and then we’ll go through it verse by verse. Ecclesiastes chapter one verse 12, 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 unto the Son and behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind. But his crooked cannot be made straight. What is lacking cannot be counted. 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, and I applied my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also is but a striving after the wind, for in much wisdom is much vexation.

And he who increases knowledge increases sorrow. Now the point of this paragraph clearly has to do with the idea of wisdom. Everything in verses 12 through 18 has to do with wisdom. I can tell you that this is one of the keys to Bible study, okay? Trying to, you know, reveal some of the secrets of Bible study right here, right now, telling it to you. One of the ways you can help determine what is the main point of the paragraph is if there is a word that just keeps coming up verse after verse or sometimes multiple times in a verse. That’s one of the ways. One of the ways to know the main point of the paragraph is to look where?

In the first sentence, sometimes it’s in the last sentence, sometimes it’s looking for things emphasized, and one of the ways things are emphasized is by just repeating them over and over and over again. I do that when I’m teaching things I really want you to get. I repeat. And so there is this word that is repeated multiple times throughout the paragraph. It is the word wisdom. Like a verse 13, I applied my heart to seeking to search out by wisdom. Verse 16, wisdom is used twice. I said in my heart, I have acquired great wisdom. I had great experience of wisdom and knowledge. Look at verse 17, I applied my heart to know wisdom.

Verse 18, and much wisdom is much vexation, so on and so forth.

is clear at the point of this paragraph has to do with wisdom. It has to do with the pursuit of wisdom and look again at the commitment to this project that Solomon is making. This is not a half-hearted pursuit of trying to find meaning in life from wisdom, from knowledge. This was a commitment that he made twice he repeats the phrase I applied my heart verse 13 I applied my heart what is the NAS we have at the beginning of verse 13 I set my mind anybody have the NIV I thought to myself okay it’s the idea of giving one self holy to devoting oneself to the pursuit and then obviously the the pursuit is that pursuit of wisdom and knowledge. I applied my heart, I gave myself thoroughly, completely to, I set my mind. It was my one goal, my one mission in life. Three piece pink polyester suit. Anybody out there? Okay. It was his goal, his mission here to find wisdom, to get wisdom, and to see if in wisdom that would provide for him the answers he was longing for. It was a commitment that he made. Look how not only was he committed, but his search was

comprehensive. Verse 13, this is an amazing idea. I think only Solomon probably could say this as the one God said was, you know, given the most wisdom ever. But the comprehensiveness of this commitment, verse 13, I applied my heart to seeking to search out wisdom by all that is done under heaven. And again, my Maybe we would think that’s just hyperbole exaggeration, but he keeps repeating this idea verse 14 I have seen everything that is done under the Sun everything Down in verse 17 then I’m sorry verse 16. He says my heart has had great Experience of wisdom and knowledge this was not again some half-hearted effort that he made towards getting the meaning of life From what he could learn and what he knew from education Wisdom. He was committed to it. His search was comprehensive. His conclusions then are based on observation and experience from everything done under the sun. He’s seen all of it. And yet, what is also a pretty clear emphasis throughout this passage is his cynicism. He was committed

to it. His search was comprehensive. But I mean, very quickly we see that he doesn’t have really anything positive to say about this pursuit of wisdom. He says in verse 13, it’s an unhappy business. One commentator talked about it being a lousy job. It is a lousy job, this idea of living under the sun. He calls it vanity again. There’s our key word really for the whole book of Ecclesiastes. Hebel, all is vanity. Then he adds in this new phrase, we’ll come back to striving after wind. Striving after wind a couple times. Beyond that, verse 15, the crooked can’t be straightened, the lacking can’t be counted. Verse 18, he says wisdom and knowledge is just pain.

Wisdom is a pain in the neck or pain in the head, as may be the case. really two reflections, I guess, as he’s trying to make his point here. He gives us really one, the first reflection in verses 12 through 15, and then he gives a second reflection, basically, which is pretty parallel to the first one in verses 16 through 18. And in both reflections, we’re going to see him describe his position, and then we’re going to see his pursuit, and then he’s going to give a pronouncement of his conclusion, and then he’s going to summarize it with a proverb. You liken the alliteration. I know it. Again, he’s going to describe for us his position. He’s going to tell us and describe for us his pursuit. He’s going to make his pronouncement, his conclusion, and then end each section with a proverb. Both of the reflections have those four elements. And we’re going to look at the first reflection.

By the way, Doug Wilson begins his commentary on this section by saying the descent into hell begins. As Solomon then goes to try to find meaning in life in all of these places from chapter 1 verse 12 to the end of chapter 2. Again Doug Wilson’s comment was the descent into hell begins. Rick Holland who was my boss down at Grace Community has preached the Ecclesiastes. He described it this way. He said, we’re going to follow Solomon as he dies headfirst into the trash can of life, into the trash can of life. He’s diving headfirst in to try to find something substantial, something significant, something meaningful in life.

I haven’t had first in the trash can. That’s a real positive ways to describe this autobiographical pursuit, right? Yeah, not really. In verses 12 through 18, Solomon is looking for life from wisdom. I think we could say in our terminology today, we talk about it as education. Solomon is looking for life in the best education he can get. He’s looking for life in knowledge. And NBC does tell us that knowledge is what? Knowledge is power. power. The star shoots across the screen. Ding, ding, ding.

Knowledge is power. Looking for life in wisdom, looking for life in education. And verse 12 gives us Solomon’s position. I, the preacher, have been king over Israel in Jerusalem. Now, some translations have I was king, and this is just kind of interesting, but the verb there, I was king or I have been king, depending on how your translation has it. Some people have gone so far as to say, this is proof that Solomon wasn’t the author because it’s saying I was king, like it’s past tense and done with. That’s why I think the translation have been, that is something that started in the past and has continued up till now.

I have been, doesn’t say that he wasn’t then still at the point. I have been and now still am as opposed to I was like, I’m not anymore. But some people have used this as a verse to say that Solomon isn’t the, the author. And I’ll come back then in just a second. One commentator went so far in his explanation of how the, how he was saying it was Solomon, but this is what he said. He said, one of the oldest explanations is that given in the rabbinic tradition as exemplified in the Targum. The Targum was a Jewish commentary on the old Testament. The Aramaic translation fills in the narrative gas by stating that the demon, Ashmadi, seduced King Solomon from the throne.

Thus, for a period, it was appropriate for the living Solomon to say that he was king. So someone went so far as to say that some demon seduced King Solomon away from his being king for a while, so that even when then Solomon is writing the book of Ecclesiastes, He was now being possessed or whatever seduced by this demon so that he was no longer king. Now there’s one really big problem with that. It’s not in the Bible. So I thought that was kind of interesting. That’s why I shared it with you. This is Solomon though. Now he’s moving into first person, right? All of verses 1 through 11 have been third person. So from basically chapter one verse 12, all the way up to chapter 12, I think verse seven or eight, it’s all speaking in first person.

I this, I that the beginning and the end are the third person kind of bookends. Which again, I still think is Solomon who was writing those, not somebody else. But as I said before, Solomon is the only one other than David to rule over Israel from Jerusalem. It has to be King Solomon. other people were called King over Israel, none of them were called King over Israel from Jerusalem. Here’s a little bit of history for you. After Solomon, the kingdom was divided, right? There was the northern and the southern kingdom immediately following Solomon. And was Jerusalem in the north or the south? It was in the south. Well, that’s something interesting because it was only the kings of the north that were called King over Israel. The kings of the south would have been kings over Judah. And so the only one, only two who could ever say they were king over Israel in Jerusalem was David and his son Solomon.

So again, this is Solomon reminding us of his position, reminding us that he was king, reminding us that he had the resources and access to whatever he wanted to to try to make his pursuits realized. I mean if anybody then had the money to buy books, I mean I think that would be one good reason to be king. As far as I’m concerned I’d like to be king maybe just for a little while doesn’t even need to be for very long but if I could be king just for a while to buy some books, I’m liking books. Solomon had the money to buy as many books as he wanted to read what other people had to say. I mean books would have been expensive, they would have been rare. Solomon as the most rich king ever probably had access to all the books. He probably had access to fly in for seminars, you know, the world experts on whatever it might be. I mean, undoubtedly he had assembled for himself some wise guys, philosophers, some people who he could interact with. I mean it seems like he enjoyed wisdom and that kind of maybe banter back and forth. Again as king he

would have had access to do that whenever he wanted. Remember that Solomon’s reign was a peaceful reign in the sense of he didn’t have lots of battles to go fight with other nations. His father David had lots of battles but Solomon’s reign was really one of peace for the most part. At least peace towards other nations. So I mean what did the guy have to do? I mean he built lots of buildings and his architecture was amazing. He interacted with other kings and national leaders. But obviously this was a guy who could pursue whatever he wanted. He had time to do that. And so by telling us, reminding us that he was king, it gives us his position. We’re studying his story and he had all the resources there were to make this in-depth investigation. Well, verse 13 tells us his pursuit.

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. As I mentioned before, the phrase I applied my heart or I devoted myself or I set my mind is a phrase that occurs not only again in verse 17, but also even later in the book in chapter eight, chapter eight, verses nine and verse 16. This is actually a regular phrase, not only for Solomon, but a regular phrase in the old Testament. It’s almost even a formula to describe a reflection. You know, you can kind of picture Solomon maybe at this point in time sitting back in his office chair, you know, putting his legs up on his desk and stroking his goatee.

At least that’s what happens for me. You know when I’m really offensive, contemplative. You know when I’m just sitting back and reflecting on, you know, something that has happened. I have to do that. I’m not a really fast, kind of know what I think about something kind of person. So I have to kind of sit there and just be still and be quiet and let it kind of go over in my mind. You kind of get this picture from this phrase as Solomon is then introducing to us what has happened. This is not the beginning of the process. This is the end. This is his reflection on it. I applied my heart to seek and search out. Now these verbs are for the most part synonymous.

It’s just kind of a adding the second one to the first one in order to to say that This was something he applied himself to pretty vigorously. Some commentators have suggested some slight differences. This is kind of interesting. For example, they suggest that the verb seek means to penetrate to the root of a matter. Like the word seek is one that would be used with something that you have in hand and that you kind of put under the microscope. So it’s kind of the detailed search. penetrating to the root is what they say seek means. Whereas the other verb search to seek and to search out had the idea of to kind of go out and explore maybe the unknown. Maybe it wasn’t then something that you put into the microscope and examined so closely that you had but you would go out and try to find new things and explore and learn about them. Perhaps that’s the difference in these two ideas to seek and to search out. The ultimate point of both of them though is just to describe the the deepness or the depth and the wideness of his search here.

He went deep and wide, deep and wide. There was a pursuit of his wisdom flowing deep and wide.

Know how he did this as well. He said, I applied my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom. This was no willy-nilly pursuit. I mean, this was by wisdom. He applied his wisdom even to how he pursued it. I mean, you kind of get the picture of a scientist, you know, who is by trial and error going through all the different options. I mean, I learned a lot of things in my life by trial and error. I give this a shot, that doesn’t work, you know. It’s kind of like those cars that you got when you were a kid that you know you turned on and they continually went forward until they ran into something and you know they ran into something and then they know to back up but there’s no real steering it’s just they back up turn a little bit until they run into something else you know you kind of get that idea but this was running into things backing up and going another way by wisdom scientific observation coming up with a hypothesis, running a test, and then determining your conclusion.

Is that how the scientific process goes? You come up with a hypothesis, a theory, and then you test it, and then you make conclusions based on that. People give their entire lives to doing that with rats or whatever else it might be. Solomon was doing that with the pursuit of wisdom. He was seeking and searching out by wisdom to get wisdom. And again, the comprehensiveness here, all that is done in heaven. Now this implies at least that his conclusions are without exception. It implies he has investigated it all and he didn’t miss anything. He didn’t come short of the end of his test. The electricity didn’t go out before he finished the last page of the book.

Or his candle didn’t flicker out. He didn’t hide it under a bushel, no. He finished his investigation. And he can’t get more than one sentence into describing his investigation before he says it is an unhappy business that God has given to the children of men, of man to be busy with.

seen everything under the that is done under the sun and behold all is vanity and striving after wind this is his pronouncement his conclusion it’s vanity it is empty useless his pronouncement then in particular this last phrase and we’ll be finished with it this morning at this point but striving after wind. This is the first time he’s used that phrase. He’ll use it a couple more times again in the book of Ecclesiastes. Even in this paragraph he’ll mention again striving after wind. Now just think about that. That’s a rather self-explanatory phrase. You know I’m trying to think about it. I’ve never tried to run down the wind. I’ve never tried to do that. I’m thinking about trying it just to see you know and to experience for myself how fruitless that would be you know you can just kind of picture the the situation maybe you put your spikes on and you’re running shorts on and that’s a windy day and you go outside and you get in your maybe get the blocks get some starting blocks for all you track people right and you can’t see the wind but you know it’s

there. And so you get down in the blocks and boom you’re off to try to catch it. Trying to catch the wind. Now how do you know when you’ve caught the wind? Hmm that might be the first problem. First thing that goes through your mind as you’re running along at full speed. Are you gonna turn around? Gotcha! Is it at the end? Is it at the beginning? Where is the wind? How are you catching Matt, what are you catching that with? I mean, you’re gonna turn around really quick and like open up a parachute backwards, you know? Gotcha! Now let’s assume that even you’ve done that and then you wrap the parachute up and you’re like, I got the wind.

Poof! And you take it over to the bench and you’re out of breath and then you open up your parachute. Thought I had it. Doesn’t maybe look like I do. Right? I mean, that’s stupid. That’s silly, but it’s a pretty vivid graphic picture of what looking for life under the sun is like. In particular, looking for life in wisdom. Education, thinking that knowledge is going to provide for you all you’re looking for. It is striving after wind. You’re not going to catch it, and even if you did catch it, I mean, what benefit would that be? I mean, your hands would still be empty. And that’s kind of the point. We’ll have to finish the rest of this paragraph next Sunday morning before small groups.

That’ll be great. And I’ll lead into a discussion about it. But before I pray to finish us this morning, I just wanna come back and remind you That even if you’re hiding your loves from me, small group leaders, friends, parents, if you are hiding your loves in this life from all of us, the one that you’ll have to answer to is still God, and there is no hiding from him.

But the end is still the same either way. wants us to love him with all of our heart, all of our soul, all of our mind, all of our strength. I’m praying that you would do that this week. Father help us to get this perspective and to learn from Solomon now as young people rather than to waste our lives and squander the opportunities that we have wasting our lives then diving down into the trash can of life to see what we can come up with. Solomon’s testimony, his message to us through your spirit, something convicting and challenging and correcting. Turn each of us to you this week. We pray all this in Christ’s name. Amen.

But the end is still the same either way. wants us to love him with all of our heart, all of our soul, all of our mind, all of our strength. I’m praying that you would do that this week. Father help us to get this perspective and to learn from Solomon now as young people rather than to waste our lives and squander the opportunities that we have wasting our lives then diving down into the trash can of life to see what we can come up with. Solomon’s testimony, his message to us through your spirit, something convicting and challenging and correcting. Turn each of us to you this week. We pray all this in Christ’s name.