THE PROBLEM WITH WISDOM

Ecclesiastes 2:12-17

Discernment between helpful and harmful, wisdom, is grounded in trust in God. 

From our earliest days we are taught to value smarts.  Not just book smarts, but "street smarts" too.  No matter how much we know, the greater value is in knowing how to apply and live out what we know.  But knowledge and wisdom by itself is not enough.  

Since Solomon has already pointed out that there is "nothing new under the sun", humankind continues to repeat the successes and failures of humanity over and over again.  He points out that there is a distinct advantage of wisdom over folly, just as there is an advantage in light over darkness.  


While he found it depressing to consider that the outcome of the poor fool and the rich wise king were the same, he sought to "be wise" and then realized that one just does not acquire wisdom as one acquires some other tangible thing, one must seek it, one must experience it, one must learn wisdom, and who best to provide it than the creator of the universe?

Solomon apparently had trouble with women.  And with some 700 wives and 300 concubines it is no wonder.  He writes "my soul continually searches for but does not find: among a thousand people I have found one true man, but among all these I have not found a true woman."  Paraphrased, we might word this "one man in a 1000 might be "true", but his observations noted that zero women were "true."  Solomon was disillusioned with humanity in general.  He noted that while created to be just and true, humanity chooses to not follow that plan.  But trust in God will ground one in wisdom – the discernment between helpful and harmful.