Kind of an interesting transition going from reading in Proverbs for almost the past two months to starting up in Ecclesiastes. Same author . . . but something’s not quite right. For the past 7 or 8 weeks I have been encouraged to pursue wisdom . . . to call out to her . . . to seek her . . . to add her voice to my toolkit for life. Wisdom’s voice has told me not to play with the fire of sin and temptation . . . has to me to be a friend . . . to not be loose-lipped and to choose my words carefully . . . to work hard . . . to watch my heart . . . and to love knowledge and store it up.. But I start in on Ecclesiastes and I read this, “But in much wisdom is much grief, and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow” (Eccl. 1:18) . . . huh?

In Proverbs Solomon wrote that “happy is the man who finds wisdom, and the man who gains understanding” . . . that wisdom is better than silver and gold . . . that she is “a tree of life to those who take hold of her, and happy are all who retain her” (Prov. 3:13-18). He says that we are to “Get wisdom! Get understanding!” . . . not to forsake her but to love her . . . and she will preserve and keep us . . . that she will “place on your head an ornament of grace; a crown of glory she will deliver to you” (Prov. 4:5-9).

And then, this same Solomon, says that with lots of wisdom comes great vexation and frustration . . . that the more knowledge you acquire the greater the sorrow experienced.

So what’s the deal? What happened? Have I come across one of those “contradictions” that many would claim are found in the Bible? I’m thinking no. I’m thinking that a hint to what causes wisdom to “go bad” is found in the set up to Solomon’s conclusion. Check it out . . .

“I communed with my heart, saying, ‘Look, I have attained greatness, and have gained more wisdom than all who were before me in Jerusalem. My heart has understood great wisdom and knowledge.’ – Ecclesiastes 1:16

Rather than communing with the God of wisdom concerning wisdom, Solomon talked to himself . . . communed with his heart . . . made it about him . . . how great his understanding had become . . . how wise he was . . . how smart he had made himself. He had lost contact with Wisdom’s voice . . . of it’s source . . . instead taking credit for how he had come to understand great wisdom and knowledge. Solomon received the mind of God and then claimed it as His own . . . how miserable for mortal man to deal with the high and lofty things of God apart the God who is high and lofty.

His focused had shifted to that which was “under the sun” . . . no profit from labor . . . nothing new to get jazzed about . . . everything a vanity and grasping for the wind . . . “under the sun” (1:3, 9, 14). You take heavenly thinking and confine it to “under the sun” and it sounds like you get vexation . . . and frustration . . . and sorrow. Solomon, it seems, lost sight of the fact that the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord (Prov. 1:7) . . . that it isn’t us who “noodle” our way to wisdom but the LORD who gives wisdom (Prov. 2:6). And, to take a lesson from Moses & Co., when you take bread from heaven and try and use it according to your own wisdom and not according to the Master’s instruction, it starts to stink (Exodus 16:19-20). When you start thinking you contain the manna, it goes bad. Instead we’re to gather it every morning . . . we’re to continually go back to the Source for more rather than commune with our own hearts on how smart we’ve become under the sun. Apart from the fear of the Lord . . . apart from a fresh pursuit of His mind and ways on a daily basis . . . wisdom can go bad . . . understanding can be a curse.

Oh, that I might continue to pursue wisdom . . . and the Wisdom-Giver . . . the One who dwells “above the sun” . . . the One who delights to give fresh food every morning to those who will receive it and consume it . . . the One to whom all glory is due . . . amen!