Questioning the Profit in Wisdom - The Book of Ecclesiastes

By Dr. Brian J. Bailey

In Ecclesiastes 1:17-18 the preacher’s own personal testimony concerning his search for wisdom, “And I gave my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly: I perceived that this also is vexation of spirit. For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.”

Some commentators have suggested that this book is a mass of contradictions, or that it presents two wisdoms – that of this world and that of God. However, this belief springs from a misunderstanding of the text and also of Solomon’s own confessions.

Solomon is not suggesting that wisdom is not important, as it may seem in certain verses. If that were so, he would be denying his own writings in Proverbs 4 and 8, where he eulogises wisdom as being the principal thing; wisdom is far more precious than anything that one can desire. Such an inspired writer could never be so inconsistent in his statements.

No, Solomon is describing his own search for understanding and wisdom concerning the works of God. Solomon declares that he has seen all the works that have been done under the sun and knows that they simply do not satisfy the heart. For in much wisdom and knowledge, there is indeed sorrow. One’s eyes are opened to the sadness in the human race. Men and women are toiling with apparently no sense of purpose.

In the days of Solomon, many, including Solomon himself, were enamoured with acquiring vineyards and pools of water for those vineyards. Today, there are many who are seeking satisfaction by being caught up with one pursuit or another such as computers or pleasure seeking.

I have seen those whose minds are like a horse with blinkers without any peripheral vision, totally enthralled with what they are pursuing. They have lost the vision of the larger purpose in life, and in so doing; they miss the point of life.

Pope John Paul rightly observed, “The complexity of the communications system in which we move – Internet is one more proof of it – causes bewilderment about what is real, what surrounds us, and who surrounds us. The question that the new technologies pose to man, who sees himself immersed in a technological world, continues to be the question about the meaning of life: Who am I? Where do I come from and where am I going? Why does evil exist? What is there after life?” (“New Means of Communications Reviving Age-Old Questions, Says Pope,” 2003)