Ecclesiastes – Meditations (1)

 

This is the third month of the year, and in my Bible – reading schedule every three months I venture into Ecclesiastes. This morning 1:18 caught my attention.

 

“Because in much wisdom there is much grief, and increasing knowledge results in increasing pain.”

 

In 1:7 Solomon writes, “And I set my mind to know wisdom and to know madness and folly; I realized that this also is striving after wind.”

 

Well now, the Wisdom books lend themselves to much meditation and cultivation if they are to yield their fruit, and I don’t imagine that this crop will ever cease producing if we submit ourselves to the Holy Spirit.

 

There are times I think it is better to be stupid than knowledgeable, blind to what goes on around us than have a measure of insight. Knowing wisdom leads us to see “madness and folly,” but the reverse of course is not true; madness and folly lead to increasing madness and folly.

 

Our Lord Jesus Christ, who is Wisdom, knows the pain of our sorrow and sin and madness and folly. Our Lord Jesus in Whom is found all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Colossians 2:3) has borne our sin and evil, He is that Man of Sorrows who is well acquainted with grief.

 

He calls us to participate in His sorrows, He calls us to intercede for the world, He calls us to participate in His sufferings for the sake of His People (Col. 1:24; 2 Tim. 2:9; 1 Tim. 2:1 – 4).

 

How can we not look around us and experience grief and pain? Superficial wisdom and knowledge can appeal to our egos; the wisdom and knowledge found in Jesus Christ leads us to life in His Cross.