The Words of the Wise

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.

The teacher-student relationship is not a new one. In fact, the teacher-student relationship is a very old relationship. For as long as humans have been around, there have been some of those humans that knew more than other humans, and the humans who knew more know more. Or lots of them have taken upon themselves to help out the more ignorant humans by teaching them the things that they need to know. And whether the teacher learns from revelation or learns from experience or learns from study or perhaps all of the above, the point of the teacher is to pass on what he or she has learned to a student, to someone else.

someone else. That was actually a major part of Solomon’s life. I think that’s mind-boggling to consider how much time and attention he would have given to his role as a teacher in light of how busy he must have been. When you think about how many responsibilities a king would have, the daily decisions that need to be made, the internal and the personal and international politics to deal with, the daily to-do at the palace and all of the various relationship, interpersonal problems that undoubtedly the king had to deal with, the laws that need to be written and then enforced, and in Solomon’s case, overall Israel.

Then you add to that how much in addition to all of the regular kingly responsibilities, Solomon himself participated in, namely in all of the projects that he organized and oversaw. He was responsible for building the palace, and even though he had other people doing a lot of that work, obviously he wasn’t probably pounding in a lot of nails himself.

Still, the palace was attributed to him. Whatever it was that he created, came up with, whatever oversight he gave on a regular basis as he walked through and looked at it. The palace was attributed to him even more than the palace. What else was built in Israel during Solomon’s reign and over or underneath his oversight. The temple, all of the detail that went into the things of the temple was part of Solomon’s responsibility. He was part of getting supplies from other countries. For the Temple, he was again providing supervision for the Temple being built and how everything was coming together. Beyond the Palace and the Temple were all sorts of other architectural and agricultural projects all throughout the nation of Israel, all part of his resume. Besides the amount of work that took place, there There was apparently a lot of partying and feasting at the palace, based on how much food was being prepared on a daily basis at the palace, was undoubtedly busy hosting parties and hosting other international dignitaries.

And then you had the thousand women, wives and others who were taking up his time. And I just mentioned all that because in his spare time, in addition to all of those things, In his spare time, he was busy studying and reading and ruminating and writing wisdom to teach to people. In all of his leftover time from running the country and answering a thousand women and their demands, he was a teacher. more than that in the book of Ecclesiastes, he refers to himself as the preacher. In today’s paragraph, we’re not going to find out more about his search for life under the sun. That is pretty much done. He’s told us everything about his search for satisfaction and meaning under the sun.

Part of the reason I say that is because he really began that in chapter 1 verse 2 with vanity of vanity. says the preacher vanity vanities all is vanity and then in chapter 12 verse 8 he bookended that whole search really that sermon with vanity of vanities says the preacher all is vanity and what remains in chapter 12 is for Solomon to give us a brief description about his work as a teacher and that’s in this paragraph verses 9 through 12 and then next week he’ll give us his final exhortation to fear God in verses 13 and 14. So look at chapter 12 verses 9 through 12.

Besides being wise, the preacher also taught the people knowledge, weighing and studying and arranging many proverbs with great care. The preacher sought to find words of delight and uprightly he wrote words of truth. The words of the wise are like goads and like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings, they are given by one shepherd. My son, beware of anything beyond these, of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh.” Now before we interact phrase by phrase or with these verses closely, I to just make a quick comment because so many scholars and commentators, perhaps even you could have a study bible that would give notes about this or you’re going to hear other people talk about this in the future. But there are a lot of people who use these verses as a reason for saying Solomon didn’t write this part of the book. Many people say that Solomon didn’t write the beginning and the end of Ecclesiastes. Some even take that further and say Solomon actually didn’t write any of the book. This is part of what they use

as their reason for that. And the primary reason they give is because of the third person reference to the preacher. Solomon wouldn’t call himself the preacher. He would have said, I did this, is their contention. They assert that it is awkward at best and And that if Solomon wrote this himself, there’s no way he would have talked about himself like this. SKH thinks that’s stupid. SKH thinks most of the people who say that are liberal Bible teachers who deny lots of other things in the Bible.

SKH thinks they say that in order to not have to believe what the Bible says and the challenge that it gives by discrediting various authorship in the Bible. So SKH thinks that’s wrong. SKH thinks there’s no reason we are forced to conclude that because Solomon refers to himself as the preacher, we are not backed into a corner and forced to conclude that somebody else must have written that. It is not irregular, especially in written material, an author to refer to himself in the third person. I just started a book this week written by a guy in the late 1800s who multiple times in his introduction refers to himself as the writer. The writer of this present volume believes this or that. I remember even when I was in English class growing up, I don’t know if it’s still the same today, but when I was in English class, we were almost never allowed to write in the first person or the second person, we always had to write in the third person. And one of the reasons I did so poorly on all those is because I didn’t know the difference between first,

second, and third person until I was a sophomore in college and I was failing Greek because of my lack of understanding of grammar. So first person is when you say, I, or plural is we. Second person is when you say, you or you all is plural. Third person is just the way to describe he, she, or it, or plural is they. So we were never allowed to write in the first person. Even if we were telling a story about ourselves, we had to figure out how to say it in the third person. I hated that. And again, part of my problem was I didn’t really understand what the persons were all. Who’s the third person? It was just me in the story, it’s not a second, let alone a third person. I had issues and I went through all that right there just in case some of you like me are not familiar with those differences.

Even on your Facebook status, it gives it in the third person. It says whatever your name is, you know, this person is doing such and such. And so when you write your Facebook status, when it shows on your page, it says in the third person, such and such a person is now sitting in an uncomfortable plastic chair listening to a vain repetition on a sermon from Ecclesiastes. That’s the kind of thing it would say, even though it was you who wrote it. So third person is a regular way, especially in written things, to refer to yourself. Now I understand it’s a little bit awkward when you talk like that to somebody else in the third person, like SKH did just a little bit earlier. There’s a whole Seinfeld episode, at least one, about the confusion that comes from somebody who’s talking about themselves in the third person in just a conversation. But in written form, it’s quite appropriate.

There are other parts of the Bible, lots of other parts of the Bible, that are written by a person who refers to himself in the third person. I think one of the most memorable descriptions, autobiographical descriptions of a person, is in the Gospel of John where the Apostle John writes and talks about himself as the disciple whom Jesus loved. He could just said, me, or I, or myself. Jesus loved me. But instead he says, the disciple whom Jesus loved as a way to talk about himself, as a way to take the center of attention off of himself. Perhaps if you’ve read a book and you come to the end of the book and there’s a little page with a paragraph that maybe says about the author, you realize most of those are written by the author, but that would be kind of weird. I wrote this book and I’m cool. I’ve got three kids and 18 grandkids and I’ve graduated from all these schools and here’s all the other books I’ve written. Aren’t I cool? Most of the time they’re not in first person. It’s third person description. Here’s the things about the author, oftentimes

written by the author himself. So like I said, that’s not weird. And so back in Ecclesiastes chapter 12, I think you have to do more work to say it’s somebody other than Solomon writing this part, even though he’s referring to himself in the third person. It takes more work to talk yourself out of Solomonic authorship than it does to just recognize Solomon is writing this end part, the about the book part or about the author part here at the end of his book without taking attention off of the body of the rest of his book. All that to say, here in Ecclesiastes chapter 12 verses 9 through 12 we see the preacher’s work, his words and a warning, and I think as we consider these things, his work, his words and his warning, as we think through those things, as Solomon describes those things to us, ought to cause us to appreciate and even appropriate, that is, realize its application to us even more all that we’ve studied so far in the book of Ecclesiastes. All of the book of Ecclesiastes is words of the wise. And they have a benefit for us. So first, verses 9 and 10, the preacher’s

work. As I said at the beginning, Solomon was a busy and wise king. He worked hard on a lot of things, but he worked hard when it came to wisdom as well. And he had a reason for working so hard. In verse 9, he’s going to describe his activity. The part of his work that he did, and then in verse 10 he’s going to tell us the aim, his aim in his work, but first in verse 9, his activity. Public teaching requires a lot of private effort. You put in, at least if you’re going to be a good teacher in public, you have to put in a lot of private, hidden effort. Verse 9, besides being wise, the preacher also taught the people knowledge weighing and studying and arranging many proverbs with great care. Not everyone who has wisdom is eager to share it. It’s entirely possible, and there are groups of people like this today as well, but it’s entirely possible that during Solomon’s time, there would have been schools for sages or schools for wise men that believed it was beneath them, once they got all this wisdom and knowledge, it

It was beneath them to then hang out with people who didn’t have that, at least eagerness to get the wisdom, who weren’t a part of their school. And so they would gain all this wisdom and basically keep it to themselves. They were above other people. They were the educated elite. And so they wouldn’t pass on that wisdom to other people, not so with Solomon. It says, besides being wise, the preacher also taught the people knowledge. He wasn’t wise for himself. He wanted to pass that wisdom on. Now, sometimes you hear people make a big distinction between the words wisdom and knowledge. And there’s probably a place for that kind of clarification.

Typically when you hear people make a distinction between those two words, they try to clarify like this, they would say that knowledge are the facts. Knowledge includes the information, but wisdom is actually having the skill to use that information or those facts well. And like I say, I suppose that it’s possible that you could make that distinction. However, That’s not a distinction that is in Solomon’s mind here in verse 9. Solomon is not saying that he was wise and then he gave the people knowledge. Like he kept back what was better for himself. He had the knowledge and the ability to put it into practice. He knew how to do that. He knew how to do both.

But he only told the people the facts, the information. That’s definitely not his point. One of the reasons I say that is because the Hebrew word knowledge here is dahat. If you look it up in any Hebrew dictionary, it includes the idea of skill, knowledge with moral quality. And so in verse 9, it’s just a synonym. It’s another word for wisdom. Besides being wise, he taught the people about being wise. You could equally have said besides being knowledgeable, he taught the people knowledge. So it’s not a way to say he was trying to keep something back from the people, just the opposite. He wanted the people to get it.

And he worked hard so that they would get it. And he studied hard for that purpose. I think it’s easy to think about 1 Kings chapter 3 and you remember in 1 Kings chapter 3 that as Solomon becomes king, God comes and asks Solomon, what do you want? What is it that you most want and I’ll give it to you. And Solomon, his request is for wisdom. And rather than asking for riches or for power or for whatever it was. He asked for wisdom and God graciously honored that request by saying, not only am I going to give you wisdom, I’m going to give you more wisdom than anybody ever, anywhere. And by the way, I’m going to give you lots of riches and power too.

And it’s easy to remember 1 Kings 3, see God’s promise to make Solomon the wisest man ever and think that the spirit gave Solomon wisdom in some kind of magic way. Like the spirit came and sprinkled pixie dust around Solomon’s head. And that somehow, through osmosis, got in and made him the most wise person ever. I have no doubt that part of God’s promise to make him the wisest person ever includes the Spirit’s direct work of providing wisdom to Solomon. But I also have no doubt that part of the way God fulfilled his promise to make Solomon the wisest person ever included the Spirit’s motivating Solomon to keep his rear in the chair and read and study and think and write and then consider wisdom. It’s not that wisdom comes because you sleep on a book or because you ask God to give you wisdom and then you don’t have any more work to do. That was not the case for Solomon. He worked weighing and studying and arranging many proverbs with great care.

For whatever direct wisdom God gave him, God gave him a lot of wisdom to study. And God God gave him the diligence to work hard at his study so that he would increase in his wisdom. The word wagging could also mean to open one’s ears, to pay attention, to ponder and think about. The King James translates it, he gave good heed. He listened. He paid attention. It’s to think things through. It’s to compare and contrast. It’s to assess the truthfulness of things and the importance of things. You can’t do that without giving it time. Most weighing, balancing, considering, pondering attention giving to something doesn’t happen with a snap of the fingers.

He also said he was studying or the New American Standard says he searched out. That means he explored and examined what was out there. He devoted time and attention to acquiring more information. He investigated things in order to get insight. And then he was arranging his findings. Weighing, studying, and arranging. The word arranging means he put in order, or perhaps even he made things straight so that they would line up. took the results of his study, of his weighing, of his studying, of his searching out, and he put together many proverbs, arranging, weighing, studying, arranging many proverbs with great care. Of course, a proverb is a short, pithy statement, generally connected to something that’s obvious or visible that everybody could see. Solomon was very busy with Proverbs in 1 Kings chapter 4 verse 32 it says, He also spoke, this is Solomon, He also spoke 3,000 Proverbs and His songs were 1,005.

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 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. This guy was at the top of his class when it came to wisdom, and that’s not just because he was naturally gifted, it’s also because he worked hard. He gave a lot of his energy and effort and time to study. In fact, it says he did it with great care. Now, the ESV appears to be the only major English translation that includes this last phrase, with great care.

I think the ESV, I think it’s a fine translation. There’s a word at the end of verse nine. It’s the Hebrew word, harbei. And it can mean many. So some people just say many proverbs, and then they end it there. But the Hebrew word, harbei, can also mean gave attention to or with much respect to. And so the ESV takes this, since it comes after the word proverbs, instead of coming before many proverbs, proverbs with great care or with attention to detail or with much respect to how he did it. And so either way, the point is he gave a lot of energy and devoted a lot of attention to this activity of studying and arranging words of wisdom.

And here’s his aim in verse 10. Verse 10 is not just a continuation or a simple repetition of what he just said in verse 9. I say that because the repetition of the preacher is a grammatical clue that makes us think about the fact he’s telling us something in addition to. So the preacher did this, verse 9, the preacher had this aim in verse 10.

This is the goal or the aim of his work. The preacher sought to find words of delight and uprightly he wrote words of truth. Two parts to this aim. The first part is the preacher sought to find words of delight or he sought to find delightful words. It’s not like you can go to the dictionary and turn to the section that says delightful words. The point of delightful words is a way to to describe words that are pleasant to hear, words that are delightful to listen to. It’s a description not of content, but of form, of how you choose words and put them together in order to cause some kind of effect. Solomon wanted to find words that were well crafted, just sloppily, willy-nilly haphazard thrown into a pot and mixed up and then, you know, dumped out on the table.

He applied his craftsmanship to the words that he chose to communicate wisdom. He was looking for words that would grab you by the throat and grab your attention and shake you around a little bit rather than words that are going to lull you to sleep. He was looking for words that would wake you up from a nap rather than words that are going to make you want to take one. So this was a craft to Solomon. He applied artistry and skillfulness.

It says he sought, he looked for and explored his thesaurus so that he could turn heads with a turn of the phrase. His preparation included not just finding the wisdom, but figuring out how he could present it in a way that would make it memorable, that would make it attention getting the right word for the right time, but never at the expense of accuracy. Look at the end of verse 10. The preacher sought to find words of delight, uprightly he wrote words of truth. I prefer how the NAS translates this part to write words of truth correctly, though I think both of them come out the same when the wash is done. The point is that correct content was just as crucial to him as much as a smooth sentence falling off of his tongue. He didn’t sacrifice exactness just to entertain people or precision. He didn’t give up precision just to make something more palatable or more memorable. His aim was to speak truthfully and to speak memorably in a way that would get your attention, in a way that would be delightful, in a way that would help you

get wisdom. That was part of his work. So the preacher’s work, his activity and his aim in verses 9 and 10. Verse 11 tells us more about the preacher’s words. There is a reason that Solomon worked so hard at that work of teaching, privately and publicly, of preparing and studying and then presenting or writing what it is that he had learned.

There’s a reason he worked so hard at this because he knew what words of the wise can do. Look at verse 11. The words of the wise are like goads and like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings. They are given by one shepherd. Two parts again about this verse, the effects of wise words and the source of wise words. Though there are many different effects of wise words, the preacher mentions two very important effects of wise words on they’re here is number one wise words stimulate the first part of verse 11 they get you moving in the right direction the words of the wise are like goads yes I get there are lots of words around us being spoken being written being read most of those words are not wise there’s plenty of bogus fake unhelpful material out there to fill your ears. But when you have wise words, they function like goads. You know what a goad is? A goad is a tool of a shepherd or of a rancher.

It was a big pointy stick. And when you were with your sheep or in particular with your cattle when the big beast was either being lazy or moseying off in the wrong direction, you’d take your big pointy stick and poke him with it to get him moving. And to get him moving back in the right direction, the goat would poke him and prod him along. Now Now as you might imagine, getting goaded was probably not entirely pleasant. Getting a sharp stick in your eye is no fun or your side. But a goad would be hard to ignore even if it annoyed you a little bit. At least a goad would provoke you to do something. And the words of the wise function like goads.

They poke at you and they provoke you and they’re supposed to stimulate you to get moving if you’re not and if you are moving but in the wrong direction to draw your attention and focus you back to go the right way. So wise words stimulate. Secondly, wise words stabilize. They not only prod you in the right direction, they plant you in the right place. part of verse 11, and like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings. This is a further description of the effects of wise words. I don’t think it is, as the NAS translates it, that masters of these collections. It’s not about the educators or about the teachers.

The point is, all about verse 11, the point is about the wise words. It’s the effects of the wise words, and as we’ll see in just a moment, the source of the wise words. It’s not about wise words and those who know them. It’s entirely about the wise words themselves. So the ESV, like nails firmly fixed, are the collected sayings. They are well driven. Wise words nail down the truth in your mind. And they cause you to be secure and to be stable, to keep you from being blown around or overturned. They have a securing, stabilizing effect. In fact, it’s possible that the word translated nails could be translated pegs.

Maybe Solomon is even continuing on the shepherding metaphor like he did with God and like he’s about ready to talk about the shepherd. Maybe this is referring to a well-driven tent peg that keeps your tent secure and stable when the wind picks up and starts to blow things around. It’s possible that that refers to it may just be referring to a well-driven nail itself. The point is that the words of the wise, the collected sayings, which probably includes the book of Proverbs, all of Ecclesiastes, maybe some additional wisdom literature, perhaps even the Old Testament, all of the Old Testament that had been written up to that point. So most of the law, but at least Proverbs and Ecclesiastes and some wisdom literature, these collected sayings, these words of the wise, not only stimulate you and get you moving and in the right direction, but they stabilize you. They make you secure when the wind picks up and start to try to blow you around. That’s the effects of wise words. And a lot of that

has to do with the source of wise words, which is the last part of verse 11. This is an almost unbelievable statement and it really ought to change your opinion and your response to everything in Ecclesiastes so far if you have forgotten about it. Because these these wise words are given by one shepherd. At issue are the words of the wise that are like goads, the collected sayings that are like well-driven nails. That’s what he’s talking about. They are given by one shepherd. He continues this shepherding illustration. More than a few people suggest that this shepherd is Solomon. Verses 9 and 10 he referred to himself as the preacher and And in verse 11 he’s referring to himself as the shepherd.

A lot of people suggest that. I think that that’s bogus. I think that’s bogus primarily because Solomon did not claim to be the original writer of all the Proverbs. He talks about that he gathered and collected some as well as wrote some. Solomon was more wise than to claim that they came from one shepherd who was himself. He didn’t He didn’t write brand new proverbs.

Some of them he collected and gathered in his studies. So he can’t say that they came from one shepherd. The only way to make sense of this verse is to say that the shepherd is God. That’s the only possible accurate interpretation which means that Solomon not only realized that the words of the wise come from God but that the words of the wise come from God through him. Whoa. Solomon was aware to some extent that he was writing down God’s words. He recognized he wasn’t the only one because there were in these words of the wise and these collected sayings. They’re given by one shepherd who was not him, but he was part of writing the collected sayings and the words of the wise, which meant he realized that God not only gives wise words, but that God was giving wise words through him. In some way, Solomon was conscious of God’s work of inspiration. God’s work of giving his word to people through men. He was a channel God’s Word. Not only is that amazing, that puts the weight of divine authority on everything

we’ve studied so far in Ecclesiastes. It’s tempting at times to think that Ecclesiastes is just the random raving of an old man who is disappointed and cynical, maybe even senile. It’s tempting to think that and what it actually is is divine revelation. Now most of us, we don’t necessarily deny that because, well it’s in the Bible so okay, it’s God’s Word. But do you realize that Solomon understood he was writing God’s Word when he was writing Ecclesiastes? He wasn’t just giving you his own wisdom, his own words from the wise, he is giving us God’s wise words. It’s not just that he was off his rocker, he was recording God’s wisdom.

That means that if you have not been paying attention for the previous 58 messages of Ecclesiastes that I have preached, that we have gone through, you are not only missing out on the stimulating and stabilizing effects of wise words, you are missing out on scripture. You are not just missing King Solomon’s perspective, you are missing out on God’s perspective. Those describe the preacher’s words. They have effects, and the effects come because their source is God, one shepherd. That leads to the third large point, the preacher’s warning in verse 12. He gave us a description of his work, description of his words, and now his warning. As is typical of wise words, the preacher not only calls for our attention, but warns of something to avoid. My son, verse 12, be aware or beware of anything beyond these of making many books there is no end and much study is a weariness of the flesh.

At times wisdom seekers get carried away. So Solomon says, my son beware of anything beyond these. He’s personally concerned. My son was a typical wisdom address. Largely from a father to a son, but even from a teacher to his student, a discipler to his disciple, a sage to his pupil, my son, I care like you are my son, typical in wisdom literature. And what he says is, beware of anything beyond these.

is claiming that the words of wisdom he’s written are sufficient for life under the sun. They are sufficient for living well and living to God’s glory. They are sufficient to help you enjoy the process and to bask in youth and to do that righteously while you fear God. This is enough to goad you in the right direction and enough to firmly fix you in truth. He knows what’s available of making many books there is no end. Of course he didn’t have books like we do. Books that are bound with a spine was not available at that point. The word books referred to letters or certificates, maybe even documents. Long documents would have taken the form of a scroll. Maybe he’s even making a little play on words.

Of the making of many books there is no end like a never ending scroll. You just keep trying to unroll that. Maybe that’s a play on words. Doesn’t matter whether it’s thousands of millions of scrolls or just a never ending scroll seems to be no end to that. And can you imagine what he would say about us in 2008 where endless book making and blog posting and email writing and Facebook commenting and whatever is like off the charts. People are writing and producing and publishing more stuff than at any other time in history. And look at how much wiser that has made us. Look at how much more happy we are with all of this endless array of information at our disposal 24-7. It has not actually helped us fear God better. In fact, more times than not it has distracted us from fearing God.

More than helping us seek our satisfaction in God beyond the sun, it has tempted us to look to sources here under the sun, temporal things that are passing away. Solomon says, Beware of anything beyond these of making many books, there is no end. It is a blessing to have access to have so much, to have access to so much information. It is also dangerous. It’s dangerous on a very simple level because we tend to not actually learn anything. It’s why everybody wants it to be an open book test. Hey, well, it’s in the book. Why can’t I just use the book? I’ll just carry this 50-pound science book around with me for the rest of my life in case I need to know it, and so we’ll start with the test.

I don’t, I don’t need to learn it. I can always go get it. That’s dangerous if we depend on storing our learning somewhere else and not actually getting it into our minds. But it’s even more dangerous for the people who spend all their time gathering the info and never actually learning from the info. That’s in particular what Solomon is addressing. They spend all their time reading the newest stuff, buying the newest books, checking out everything that’s fresh and new and original that they never actually end up learning or applying the wisdom. And that’s tiring. Solomon says much study is a weariness of the flesh. Now there’s some truth to this that works in general, but I think he’s saying it in a specific context. It does actually take a lot of work to read and understand, to think about something well and then to write that out in an understandable way or to communicate that to other people. That actually does take a lot of work. It’s wearisome.

It’s a different kind of wearisome than digging miles of ditches or building big bridges or pulling up your britches. I just had to… That part’s not on my notes, but it just seemed like I needed to finish that. But that mental work is actually considered toil. It will take everything that you’ve got and not just because you have to stay up all night cramming for the exam or writing your research paper that you waited to start to do until the night before. It’s not just saying that that’s what makes it so tiring because you have to stay up all night to shove it all into five or six hours when you could be sleeping.

Especially if you’ve ever had to teach something, prepare to explain truth to other people, you know how true that is, and that’s the kind of effort or energy Solomon’s talking about. It’s wearisome enough, let alone when people don’t come or when they don’t care or when they don’t pay attention or when they read what you wrote but they misunderstand it or misconstrue it. That just adds on more wearisomeness to it. But here’s the context of the whole thing, because excessive study is not only exhausting, it’s exasperating when you keep studying and learning and never actually learn anything. There are people who are always learning but never coming to the knowledge of the truth.

There are people who keep coming on Sunday morning and listening to Ecclesiastes who then can talk about it for a little bit but they never put it into practice.

There are people who read their Bibles, let alone other things, who read it and can show you how many check marks of the days that they’ve been faithful with their Bible reading, but they never actually put it into practice. They’re always learning and they’re always reading about wisdom, but they’re never actually becoming wise. That’s really exhausting. So they keep looking for new stuff, thinking that’ll be the answer, and lo and behold, it’s not the answer. Because most of the time people just need to be reminded of what they already know, rather than needing new truth or new instruction. And in fact, if you came across new truth and a new way to do it, likely it’s not going to be any good anyway because there’s nothing really new under the sun. So if you’re spending so much time gathering information and trying to collect it and arrange it and put it together but not actually letting it make you wise and putting that into practice, you’re going to be really, really tired. And no more wiser.

The reason we have spent so much time in Ecclesiastes is because it contains words of wisdom, not just from the wisest person who ever lived as God promised to make him and as he studied and examined and arranged and makes it memorable, but because this is God’s very inspired revealed word to us about the dissatisfaction that you will find under of the Son and about the need to live wisely and that starts by fearing God. We’ll see that in his final exhortation next week. Father, thank you for your word, for giving it through Solomon even in the book of Ecclesiastes. His wise words are intended to go to us and To firmly fix us in truth, how desperately, especially our young people, need to get this now in the days of their youth so that they can enjoy it, but enjoy it while remembering you for their great joy and delight and for your great glory and praise in this life and and for eternity. Thank you again for Solomon’s work and his words and his warning. May we heed those. We pray in Christ’s name. Amen.

The reason we have spent so much time in Ecclesiastes is because it contains words of wisdom, not just from the wisest person who ever lived as God promised to make him and as he studied and examined and arranged and makes it memorable, but because this is God’s very inspired revealed word to us about the dissatisfaction that you will find under of the Son and about the need to live wisely and that starts by fearing God. We’ll see that in his final exhortation next week. Father, thank you for your word, for giving it through Solomon even in the book of Ecclesiastes. His wise words are intended to go to us and To firmly fix us in truth, how desperately, especially our young people, need to get this now in the days of their youth so that they can enjoy it, but enjoy it while remembering you for their great joy and delight and for your great glory and praise in this life and and for eternity.