The Vanity of Living Wisely

 

 

Ecclesiastic 2:12-17 

 

The Vanity of Living Wisely

So, I turned to consider wisdom and madness and folly. For what can the man do who comes after the king? Only what has already been done.  Then I saw that there is more gain in wisdom than in folly, as there is more gain in light than in darkness.   The wise person has his eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness. And yet I perceived that the same event happens to all of them.   Then I said in my heart, “What happens to the fool will happen to me also. Why then have I been so very wise?” And I said in my heart that this also is vanity.   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 and a striving after wind.

 

Is there anything new under the sun?  Solomon has discovered that knowledge and wisdom are of some value and that madness and folly have no value, he is not saying wisdom is not something one should seek, but that it does not answer these questions; (Why are we here?  What is the purpose of life?  Where are we going?)  Only God can teach a man this type of wisdom.  

 

Solomon comes away thinking both wisdom and folly were vanity, but wisdom did have some value, whereas folly had none.

 

Solomon seems to be consumed with life, a fear that he would not be remembered, and that life had a timeline, for both the fool and the man of wisdom.  He could not understand how both the fool and the wise man had died as their end.  He made it clear that the pursuit of wisdom was vain and like chasing the wind.

 

When we attempt to replace a void, that only God can fill in a person, we end up in futility and chasing after the wind.

 

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice