Much Vexation?

What!?!? Wait a minute! Stop the train! Back up the bus! What is going on here!?!?

I’ve just finished taking in thirty-one chapters of wisdom. You know, wisdom — better than silver, more profitable than gold, more precious than jewels, “and nothing you desire can compare with her” (Prov. 3:14-15). Wisdom, the source of long life; the door to true riches and honor; offering the ways of pleasantness and the paths of peace — “a tree of life to those who lay hold of her” (Prov. 3:16-18). Thirty-one chapters of wisdom in the tank and then the same guy that wrote that book writes another one and here’s what he says:

I applied my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also is but a striving after wind.

              For in much wisdom is much vexation,
                            and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow.

(Ecclesiastes 1:17-18 ESV)

In much wisdom is much vexation . . . Much wisdom earns you “much trouble” (MSG) . . . “much sorrow” (CSB) . . . “much grief” (NASB) . . . an “abundance of sadness” (YLT). What!?!?

So, here’s the thing, whether wisdom is sweet or sour depends on the foundation from which she is sought. Back in the book of Proverbs, Solomon’s starting point was that “the fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight” (Prov. 9:10). But the Solomon of Ecclesiastes has a different starting point. Rather than placing his stake in the ground in heavenly places where the Holy One reigns, he instead sets his anchor “under heaven.”

The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.

Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher,
       vanity of vanities! All is vanity.
What does man gain by all the toil
       at which he toils under the sun?

And I applied my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven. It is an unhappy business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind.

(Ecclesiastes 1:1-3, 13-14 ESV)

All is vanity under the sun. Under heaven it is an unhappy business. And thus, in much wisdom is much vexation.

People! We gotta look up! Like, way up!

We are not simply a people under the sun. Rather, we have been raised up with Jesus, the Son of God, and even now we are seated with Him in heavenly places (Eph. 2:6). We are not simply people of the here and now, our hopes realized or dashed on how things play out on this orb. Instead, we live in the context of “the coming ages”, ages when we will fully know “the immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:7). And with that mindset, oh the beauty of pursuing wisdom. Oh, the riches of knowing the ways of God. Oh, the prize that is offered in a “there and then” that is so worth pursuing “here and now.”

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.

(Colossians 3:1-2 ESV)

Minds set on the things of the earth? Frustration. So that in much wisdom is much vexation.

Minds set on things that are above? Now that’s a different story, a story where wisdom brings about flourishing.

A story of God’s ever-present, abundant grace. A story for God’s everlasting, all-deserving glory.