The Futility of Wisdom
For Meditation
Last week we were introduced to Qohelet, the teacher, who invites us on his journey to find meaning in a baffling world. We hear his voice for the first time in 1:12. as he introduces us to his quest and begins to narrate his search for meaning. Throughout the next few chapters, we’ll see that Qohelet experiments with a number of different human endeavors to discover if through any of them he is able to find meaning and purpose for his life.
The first endeavor he embarks on is the pursuit of wisdom. Perhaps, he figures, if I can learn enough about how the world works I can figure out this messy business of being human and get it to work better for me. But after much learning, he discovers in the end that all his wisdom amounts to hebel. There are ways that the world seems to work as it should; but more often than not, life doesn’t turn out the way we hoped, planned, or expected it would. And even if you live as the best, wisest person who ever lived, you still end up dying like everyone else and will soon be forgotten (2:14). What’s the point in even trying to be moral or wise?
This section speaks to our efforts to become “expert” in life in order to control it and make being a human more manageable. But as we find time and time again, the world is so broken and bent, that even the rules that we think will result in the good life often don’t end up that way. This section ultimately calls us to humility, to recognize that the best way to live is not to try to understand and explain and control everything, but to surrender to the God who does hold ultimate power over our lives and the world.
In preparation for worship, prayerfully meditate on Psalm 131 and consider how it speaks to the truth of this lesson in Ecclesiastes.
Ecclesiastes 1:12–18
12 I, the Teacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem. 13 I applied my mind to study and to explore by wisdom all that is done under the heavens. What a heavy burden God has laid on mankind! 14 I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind.
15What is crooked cannot be straightened;
what is lacking cannot be counted.
16 I said to myself, “Look, I have increased in wisdom more than anyone who has ruled over Jerusalem before me; I have experienced much of wisdom and knowledge.” 17 Then I applied myself to the understanding of wisdom, and also of madness and folly, but I learned that this, too, is a chasing after the wind.
18For with much wisdom comes much sorrow;
the more knowledge, the more grief.
Ecclesiastes 2:12–17
12Then I turned my thoughts to consider wisdom,
and also madness and folly.
What more can the king’s successor do
than what has already been done?
13I saw that wisdom is better than folly,
just as light is better than darkness.
14The wise have eyes in their heads,
while the fool walks in the darkness;
but I came to realize
that the same fate overtakes them both.
15 Then I said to myself,
“The fate of the fool will overtake me also.
What then do I gain by being wise?”
I said to myself,
“This too is meaningless.”
16For the wise, like the fool, will not be long remembered;
the days have already come when both have been forgotten.
Like the fool, the wise too must die!
17 So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.