Wisdom is a wonderful gift from God. However, King Solomon
experienced his quest for wisdom as a curse:
- 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. For in much wisdom is much vexation, and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow. (Ecclesiastes 1:17-18 ESV)
Why would wisdom increase sorrow? Solomon had been granted a
great gift of wisdom. Dignitaries came to hear his wisdom from all over the
world. However, when God grants wisdom, He doesn’t just pop ideas into our
heads. Without the right mental preparation, such ideas would appear foolish
and even unusable. It would be like trying to build a roof before the
foundation and the supporting walls. As the roof requires the supportive
structures, so too does wisdom require a foundation of knowledge to recognize
and to use wisdom wisely.
Even more fundamentally, wisdom first requires a hunger for
knowledge and wisdom. Wisdom is a house that has to be built slowly and in
stages, and only an overriding desire for wisdom can properly guide this
process. This is why the Proverbs counsel us to seek wisdom before all else:
- “yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.” (Proverbs 2:3-5 ESV)
Solomon had prayed to God for wisdom so that he would be
able to lead God’s people. He was pleased with Solomon’s prayer and granted his
request. Why then was Solomon disappointed with what he had received?
The fruit of wisdom is the satisfaction of completing a 1000
piece puzzle, but what happens when we cannot complete the puzzle because a
piece or two are missing? Dissatisfaction! This had been Solomon’s problem with
his quest to complete his grand puzzle to understand the meaning of life. From
the perspective of his wisdom quest, he was missing the necessary piece of the
puzzle. It was the piece that wisdom alone could not provide. Therefore, he because
frustrated and angry:
- For of the wise as of the fool there is no enduring remembrance, seeing that in the days to come all will have been long forgotten. How the wise dies just like the fool! So I hated life, because what is done under the sun was grievous to me, for all is vanity ["incomprehensible"] and a striving after wind. (Ecclesiastes 2:16-17)
Without the knowledge of the afterlife, the meaning of this
life remains incomprehensible and painful to the mind. Therefore, from
Solomon's limited range-of-vision, life lacked meaning:
- For what happens to the children of man and what happens to the beasts is the same; as one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and man has no advantage over the beasts, for all is vanity...Who knows whether the spirit of man goes upward and the spirit of the beast goes down into the earth? (Ecclesiastes 3:19, 21)
Solomon’s writing displays the fruit of wisdom. However, his
wisdom comes to an abrupt end, a bolted door, without the missing and necessary
piece of the puzzle - the knowledge of the afterlife. This can only come through
further divine revelation, about which Moses had been mysteriously cryptic.
Consequently, when we reject God, we also reject the answers
to this essential question. It becomes so frustrating that many not only give
up seeking but also become annoyed at anyone who brings up the question of life’s
meaning. It is like buttoning a shirt by starting with the wrong button. Every
subsequent button will be misplaced. The only way to straighten up the
situation is to start again with the first button, but that button is God, and few
are willing to go there.
I thank God that He has led me to re-button my shirt. My
puzzle may not be complete, but I have all its defining contours in place and
have found this to be very satisfying. I know where I am going and I know that
I will be welcomed into eternity by the One who loves me so much that He died
for me, even when I hated Him (Romans 5:8-10).
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