Solomon (a..k.a. Koheleth) sets out his great quest for wisdom in these verses, but all of the wisdom that the wisest man of all time managed to collect, wasn’t worth very much. Here’s an example:
Suppose you went to the movies, and when you got to the front of the ticket line you said, “One please,” and then handed the cashier your American Express card.
“I’m sorry,” the cashier says, “But we don’t take American Express. We accept cash, VISA, MasterCard and Discover.”
“But I only have American Express,” you reply…
Guess who isn’t going to the movies today?
Like an American Express card, human wisdom is nice to have; certainly, wisdom beats stupidity any day, but it doesn’t get you into heaven, nor will it bring you into God’s presence: That simply is not something human wisdom can do for you.
Solomon notes that after seeing all of the things that go on under the sun, none of them are much good for anything. Again the NIV uses the word “meaningless.”
I can’t help but think “meaningless” isn’t quite strong enough, “futility” seems more on the mark here to me… or just plain “worthless.”
Take particular note of verse 15:
What is crooked cannot be straightened;
what is lacking cannot be counted.
Do you see the construction here? Notice the two poetic clauses separated by a semicolon? This is called a Hebrew parallelism, and it is very important in interpretation. Those two clauses are parallel which means that they mean the same thing, and this is quite handy to keep in mind if one or the other isn’t quite clear. The first of these is simple enough at first glance: “What is crooked cannot be straightened” except for the fact that “crooked” is rather ambiguous, don’t you think? Crooked in what sense? Does he mean that it’s curved somehow, or maybe he means corrupt… or maybe its curve signifies corruption… or who knows what he means?
Since these clauses are parallel, we can look at the second one: “what is lacking cannot be counted” and here we find a little riddle we can solve easily. If something is lacking, then it isn’t there, so you can’t count what is lacking, since it isn’t there. If you have $20.00 in your hand, then you can’t count $30.00 since the other $10.00 isn’t in your hand. Thus, we can see that he means that “you can’t straighten what is crooked” means that it just isn’t straight, say a stick of wood, and you can’t make it straight with all of the wisdom in the world, because it is what it is: crooked. Now that we have the parallelism figured out, go back to verse 14:
I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind.
To explain the totality of the meaning of this verse, the author used the parallelism in verse 15, and when you put these together here’s what you have:
After examining everything that is done in this world apart from God, all of them are meaningless, futile, vain, of no account… and nothing is going to change that.
(Pretty cool, don’t you think? These Hebrew parallelisms are found throughout the poetic books; Psalms, Proverbs, Job and the prophets)
In the remaining verses of our text, the author uses this same technique again to tell us that not only is all of the activity he found “under the sun” meaningless, but so is the pursuit of wisdom itself.
For with much wisdom comes much sorrow;
the more knowledge, the more grief. (1:18)
The wiser he became, the more he realized that none of this mattered, and that made him even more miserable than ever.
As the next chapter begins, our Teacher examines the pleasures of life; what will we discover there? Much pleasure, or maybe much folly?
Do you know anyone who doesn’t like pleasure? To be sure, that is a loaded question because it is not possible to say “No” to that one. Everyone likes pleasure… by definition, although not everyone has the opportunity to experience it. Pleasure is fun, it is… pleasurable. We can do all sorts of things for pleasure; we can enjoy fine foods, drink good wines, read good books, watch good movies and listen to good music. Solomon, using the great wisdom he has gained, seems to have conducted an investigation into pleasure, to determine whether or not it would add meaning to life.
In verses 1-9 he tells us of his investigation, and then he sums up his conclusions in verses 10-11. In the first two verses, he goes after amusement, in 3 it is wine. In 4-6 he pursues pleasure in great accomplishments, then he goes for wealth in 7-8a, and then in 8b he pursues the pleasures of sex; the number of his wives and concubines (sex slaves) was in the thousands! (1 Kings 11:3). In verse 9 he sums this all up by pointing out that in all of this, he became far greater than anyone who had come before “in Jerusalem”. Then he gives us his conclusions:
I denied myself nothing my eyes desired;
I refused my heart no pleasure.
My heart took delight in all my labor,
and this was the reward for all my toil.
Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done
and what I had toiled to achieve,
everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind;
nothing was gained under the sun.
Ecclesiastes 2:10-11
Verse 10 begins with another parallelism that clearly tells us that there was absolutely nothing that he didn’t try, and that he utterly indulged his every fancy. He had a great time; his “heart took delight” in what he was doing, and that delight was his entire reward: Fun.
Yet when it was all said and done, what had he really accomplished? With the great wisdom he had received, he came to realize that all of his fun and frivolity was “meaningless” (vanity), chasing after the wind. He sums this up in a parallel construct this way: “nothing was gained under the sun.”
Have you ever looked forward to some big event in your life, say a party or a trip or a concert or… whatever, and then felt let down afterwards? Maybe that big day was great, but now that it’s over…blah. I do most of the cooking in my house, and there have been many times when I work 3 or 4 hours (or more) preparing a meal. I pull out my entire bag of culinary tricks and really try to create something special. Then comes the moment of truth as everyone sits down at the table and lo and behold a culinary triumph! Yippee!
After a few minutes I survey the scene. I put heart and soul into my creation, and now all I have left is a mess to clean up. Usually, what passes through my brain is something like: It would have been a lot easier to have zapped a few hot dogs!
Vanity of vanities.
Our Teacher now examines wisdom and folly, and in so doing he comes to the conclusion that wisdom is better, but it only goes so far. A wise person walks in light, while a fool stumbles around in the dark: Fine. Yet they both end up in the grave, so what’s the real difference? Oh yes, this is quite an optimistic message!
In verse 12 he points out that his successor will have nothing left to do that he (Solomon) hasn’t already done, implying that we can re-examine his conclusions, but we’ll still get the same results. Yes, wisdom is better than folly, but then we already knew that.
Here’s my own illustration:
If you are old enough to recall the 1970’s, then you will no doubt recall that all of the new things that went on in that period were cutting edge, really great, and of course in all cases cool in the extreme. Now, ask yourself: How are the cool things of the 1970’s looking now? Do you still go to the store and hope to buy an avocado green refrigerator? Hey guys, do you miss wearing bell bottoms? Been to a disco lately?
Yuk.
Now look at things as they are now; you do realize that all of the latest and greatest cool things of today are going to look just as stupid as the latest and greatest of the 70’s 35 years from now, right?
A wise person sees right through all of the latest and greatest styles and fads; a fool jumps into them with both feet thinking they have found the “ultimate”.
Wisdom enables a person to think several steps ahead and avoid many problems in the process, while a fool jumps into everything that comes along and gets burned over and over. This, I think, is the heart of what Solomon is teaching us. It is good to be wise, but in the end, it really doesn’t matter all that much, since the day is rapidly approaching when the wise and the foolish will be dead and gone… and forgotten.
Before I wrap up on this uplifting note, please notice that he is still speaking of life “under the sun”; can it be, that there is more to our lives than just that which goes on “under the sun”? I sure hope so!
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