Ecclesiastes 1:12-18

Ecclesiastes chapter 1 verses 12 through 18 for our text and study this evening. I, the preacher, was king over Israel and Jerusalem. And I gave my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all things that are done under the sun. This sore travail have God given to the sons of men to be exercised their wish. I have seen all the works that are done under the sun. And behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit. That which is crooked cannot be made straight. And that which is wanting cannot be numbered. I commune with my own heart saying, Lo, am come to great estate, and have gotten more wisdom than all thee that have been before me in Jerusalem. Yea, my heart had great experience of wisdom and knowledge. I gave my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceive this, that this also is vexation of spirit. For much wisdom is much grief. And he that increaseth knowledge, increaseseth sorrow. God bless to us His sacred and holy word this evening. Read about a family where there were two brothers, David and Michael, who were just a complete opposite of one another. Michael was a successful businessman, but David took seasonal jobs at Dude Ranches, at parks, at resorts, things of this nature. Michael often tried to entice David into the so-called good life. He would show him photos or send him photos, My New Sound System, or My New Car, stuff like that. It seemed that Michael couldn’t enjoy life unless he had the latest toys, whether it was a sleek sports car or a beautiful new home. David got tired of all these photos and decided he’s going to put it into it. So he decided he decided to do it. to send him a poster. Send a poster to David. Or Michael received a poster from David, which had a breathtaking view of Wyoming’s Grand Teton National Park. And on the back, David had written my backyard. You know, most people do not have a clue about the meaning of life. And there’s something. so desperately wrapped up in the pursuit of happiness and chasing after the latest toy or the latest fad that comes along that their world is controlled by this pursuit of power and pleasure and possessions. And yet any dream that they may manage to chase down and actually capture leaves them disappointed. Still, they eagerly turn to something else and begin to pursue after it when one leaves them empty. So they have this lifetime of this desperate chase after this elusive happiness, and they’re like a butterfly going from one flower to the other, hoping to find something. Solomon wants you to think about why you’re here on Earth. What is the meaning of life? How is it that one finds happy? This is what he’s trying to set forth here in the book of Ecclesiastes. His problem is that he can’t get people’s attention. They’re too busy with the chase. That he can’t get them to pay attention. He wishes to talk about the searchful fulfillment. He knows this is what occupies people’s minds. He knows it’s their chief goal in life, but he can’t get their attention. He can’t seem to take them away from their pursuit long enough to listen to what he has to say. Now, let’s talk about your search for the meaning of life here in verses 12 through 15. You find an unending search for answers to the meaning of life, verses 12 and 13. I, the preacher was king over Israel and Jerusalem, and I gave my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom. wisdom concerning all things that are done under heaven. This sore travail hath God given to the sons of men to be exercised therewith. Now Solomon, first of all, talks about his unique position. We’ve mentioned this before. So far, the preacher has only given us a general view of the world’s vanity. He’s going to get down to specifics here shortly and prove it. from his own life. His royal position as king, gave him this unique position of observation and the opportunity to pursue all these various areas. We find that he’s not an uncultured an ignorant person. It’s not that he’s unfamiliar with all the pleasures of life. He’s tasted of them, as he’s going to tell us. He’s stood in an uncultured. above everybody else in the realm when you think about how cultured and refined and educated that he was and he had the power and ability to explore all these different pursuits there were no limits on him since he was the king and he had great wealth and great wisdom he was not only a king but as he tells us here is the king of Israel he was the king of the nation to whom God gave his sacred word. Therefore, he had true knowledge of the worship of God and was involved in the building of the temple at Jerusalem. He lived in Jerusalem. It was the city that God had chosen to places chicanic glory, his special presence. Therefore, it was a unique city. And he possessed great power and riches and wisdom, a special gifts from God. He had everything, he was equipped to do this search like no one else before him. So having every advantage, more than most who ever dream about, Solomon gave his heart to search and to seek out the meaning of all the things that are done under the sun, that are done with regard to life on this earth. How sad. it is that Solomon, who had such great spiritual advantages when we think about it, should have been lead, you know, he should have had been led into a deep appreciation of God and his goodness, should so badly falter as to begin to seek happiness and satisfaction in all the things of the world. He should have known. The dexterous not. He should have known. No seeking of happiness outside of a relationship with God. He had the truth. Now, it doesn’t matter where you stand in the Christian life. It doesn’t matter how many years you’ve been going to church. How much knowledge of the Word of God that you may possess. It doesn’t even matter how extensive your usefulness in Christ’s service has been. It doesn’t provide any security here against backsliding, and in a sense, doing the same thing that Solomon did, and drifting away from the Lord, and beginning to seek your satisfaction of the things of this world. So there’s a danger for the most experienced Christian to be like a babe in Christ in the same area and falter. Neither is for us to watch and pray that we wouldn’t fall into that. So Solomon has this unique position. Now, he says that God has laid a heavy burden on man. Do you see what he says here in verse 13 in the latter part of it? This sore travail, have God given to the sons of men to be exercised their way. This pursuing of the frontiers of knowledge, this blazing a new trail, if you would, which few have been able to. pursue. And yet there’s some questions that defy answer, despite tremendous effort and expenditure and exploration, people still don’t understand. Solomon says that God has placed a sore travail upon men to be exercised. Why is it that man, who is the noblest of God’s creatures, is exercised with such a terrible burden during his short existence on this earth? Why is there such a thirst, an inner compulsion which aches for answers to life and cries out for relief? What is this that troubles man? Why are men’s? desires unsatisfying? Why is there such a weariness to life? Why this unsuccessful search for happiness that it eludes all man’s efforts? Why is it with all the sources of gratification that you could pursue in life, if you pursue them all, you end up at the same dead end? Unhappy and unsatisfied. It’s because God has placed a limit on man. Solomon’s going to explain it later, but God made man upright, but they have sought out many inventions. In truth, the fall of man, the curse which lies upon this earth, still has its powerful influence, and man is alienated from God. alienated from the very source of happiness. And so God has placed a sore travail upon one man to cause man to seek the reason for his unhappiness, for his unrest. His darkened mind, however, causes him the search in vain. He cannot see what he needs to see. He’s on a wild goose chase that’s fruitless. So there’s an unending search for answers to the meaning of life. And this is what God has placed as it travail upon man. Now you find any search which leaves God out is useless. Verse 14, I had seen all the works that are done under the sun and behold all his vanity and vexation of spirit. He has already alluded to this previously, but whatever the world has to offer, and he evaluated all in his mind’s eye from A to Z, he says it all ends up the same. And when you weigh it carefully, he tells us, indeed, all is vexation of spirit. When you limit yourself to an under-the-sun search, you come up empty, because God’s the missing piece to the puzzle, and you don’t know that in many cases. You’re simply vexation. your soul. Years ago, during the royal ruckus that took place in England, seems that Princess Diana was desperately seeking happiness. Her storybook marriage to Prince Charles, with the grand royal wedding that was watched by people around the globe, with all the attention and the fame and the fortune. that went with it. Didn’t end with the fairy tale ending they lived happily ever after. Prince Charles loved another woman, and their marriage soon began to unravel. British tabloids reported that Charles was less than amused at Diana’s his estranged wife’s shopping therapy to address our unhappiness in life. Diana reportedly spent, and this is a strange wife’s shopping therapy, to address our unhappiness in life. in one year, 1994, $4, $4,500 a week on looking and feeling marvelous. The breakdown for the year was $137,400 for clothes, $33,420 for beauty treatments, and $14,070 for her care. And yet, consider the unhappiness that continued on in the man. marriage that persisted, the bitterness, the separation, the unfaithfulness, the sadness associated with the divorce and so forth. In Solomon’s words, keep being fulfilled, all his vexation of spirit. It’s all vanity. Any search that leaves out, God is useless. Notice that you will find a perplexing search because of twisting. human behavior. Verse 15. That which is crooked cannot be made straight. And that which is wanting cannot be numbered. You know, some problems are incapable of human solution. In our scientific age, we expect answers, not immediately, then pretty quickly. We expect doctors to heal all diseases, whether it be AIDS or cancer, or maybe COVID-19. We expect doctors to heal all diseases, whether it be AIDS or cancer, engineers to build better cars and bridges and aircraft and everything else. We think that modern scholarship, you know, has the limited, limitless answers to man’s problems. But it’s really quite different. This world, in its present condition, because of the fall, is crooked. It is defective. It’s interesting. In Deuteronomy 32-5, we read a perverse and crooked generation is spoken about. Proverbs 2.15, the evil man whose ways are crooked. Man is crooked. Because of his crookedness, his pursuit is always useless. Fram, empty. Physically, man is subject to a wide variety of diseases, some of which he may never be cured of. but spiritually, he’s depraved. Now, a lot of people don’t want to hear that term used today with regard to man. Some people tell us they always look for the best that’s in man. But man is under the thumb of Satan. Unwittingly, you end up doing the very things that are most against the best interests of your soul because of this. In the important area of human behavior, darkness exists. and even deepens. Evil continues to grow in our society. Why, we have more psychiatrists and specialists in human behavior than we probably ever had. And guess what? Man is no better off. No better off. Man cannot take what is twisted by sin and make it straight. Who can make the crooked straight? There’s only one who can do it. And that’s God. You know, as growing up, I think I told you this before, we didn’t throw anything out. My dad went through the Great Depression, and we saved everything. If you bent a nail, when you were hammering it in, you had to throw it in his bucket. And later on, if you needed a nail that size, you get it out of the bucket. And guess what? You try to straighten out with a hammer, but I’m going to tell you this much, you can never make the crooked straight. And every time you try to hammer it, it always bends on the spot. It was weakened before. I don’t know if you’ve ever had that experience or not, but it’s aggravating. You can’t straighten out the nail once it’s bent. It just, you can try to make it straight, but it still has that little weaving part in it, and it never really gets straightened out. Man doesn’t understand the real problem behind human behavior. That which is wanting, that which is lacking, Solomon says here, can’t be numbered. Man is a creature with too many wants. And we read that man in Job 20, verse 22, in the fullness of his sufficiency is in straits. It’s always lacking something. He’s crooked. As an example of this, if you read in stric. In scripture, we read about King Ahab, who is the mighty king of the northern kingdom with this point of Israel. And for lack of a plot of his neighbor’s ground, Nabos Vineyard, he lays himself down in bed, in great vexation, turns his face toward the wall and pounce like a little child. He’s only wanting one thing, but he couldn’t get it. Heyman, the book of Esther, who enjoys the special favor of a king, Hazuaris. And we find that he’s like the special prince, the apple of the king’s eye. He has the adoration of the people. And yet, he cries out, all of this avails me nothing. He has a want. He can’t seem to satisfy it. And it all comes down. the one poor Jew, Mordecai, who will not bow down before him when the chariot goes by. He has something wanting. And it bothers him so much. It is the topic at the dinner table when he’s eating. That Mordecai, he’s taking away all my joy. One one thing! And he’s still unhappy. Nothing wrong with man down deep inside. And because of this, he can’t be cured. And it ruins your habit. your happiness. So your search for the meaning of life. It’s an unending search, and it’s a heavy burden because of it. It is a useless search if God is left out. And it is a perplexing search because of man’s twisted behavior. He’s crooked. And because he has too many wants. But secondly, tonight, gaining wisdom does not solve your dilemma. Versus 16 to 18. Knowledge. cannot control your destiny. Notice verses 16 and 17. I commune with my own heart saying, lo, I am come to great estate, and have gotten more wisdom all they that have been before me in Jerusalem. Yea, my heart had great experience of wisdom and knowledge. And I gave my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also is vexation of spirit. Now, friends, knowledge cannot control your destiny. Solomon has the advantage of being the wisest man on the face of the earth. He had great estate. He has tremendous experience, freedom of time. So he gave himself to know wisdom. And he writes about the flower of the field, the birds, the animal kingdom, the world at large, the behavior of man. He writes about all these things. Because he sought out human knowledge. Pursued education in all fields of endeavor, it seems. People came from all different countries just to hear his wisdom, just to get his advice. In the Bible, there’s a great reward promised to those who seek after divine wisdom. There’s long life. There’s riches, honor, there’s peace, and there’s happiness. Proverbs chapter 3, verses 13 to 18. But Solomon here seems to be thinking more in terms of human knowledge in this passage of scripture. Because he says here he also pursued madness and folly. All these pleasurable activities, even the most fully foolish and loud endeavors you could engage in. And he found himself coming up empty. The soul that wanders away from God can search the world over in vain. It will never find what he’s seeking for. So Solomon learned that even his human knowledge, as great as it was, failed him. Failed him. A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing. A lot of knowledge can be downright depressing, as he seems to indicate to us. How many? times have you wished you knew what was going to happen next in your life? Suppose you could see the future. Maybe it would allay some present fears that you have, move some uncertainty. But strange as it may seem, uncertainty is not your greatest difficulty in life. A greater problem is controlling your destiny. Because even if you have this wisdom, even if you could predict, you may be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to be able to behavior and events. Because of the vast knowledge you have of things. What would you gain by it? How could you, how could this help you? You know, God’s prophet tells King Ahab, if you go up to Ramath Gilead and fight against the Syrians, you’re going to die. So he decides, well, I’ll just disguise myself when I go into battle and they won’t know that I’m the King Israel. But the bow is drawn an adventure and the arrow strikes him between the joints of the armor and lo and behold he dies just as God said. Did it help him to know this ahead of time? Evidently not. He pursued it anyway. This course of action. Suppose you have your foot stuck in a railroad track crossing and you know that the 930 express train is coming and it’s going to be on time. You can hear the, whistle off at a distance and you’re thinking it’s got to be just about a mile away. You know if you remain where you are, you’re going to be killed. Perhaps you can even envision what it’s going to be like to be hit by a train. What can you do about it? If you can’t get your foot out. And so man, in his wisdom, can construct these scientific models of things, and he can devise diplomatic policies in dealing with their nations, and he can, with great skill and craft deploy armies. But can he control the results of all this? And the answer is no, he cannot. There may be great wisdom in putting in the wisdom of these models and efforts and the military schemes. But he’s powerless to sovereignly direct what’s going to come out of it. Your knowledge can’t control your destiny. Your knowledge, therefore, is a burden. Verse 18. For in much wisdom is much grief. And he that increases knowledge, increases sorrow. There was a college professor at David Hubbard, who hated to dampen the spirits, the bright, sparkling spirits of the freshman classmen, but he wanted him to face reality. So every year, year after year, he went through the same. experience he addressed the freshman class that came to college Westmont College in Santa Barbara California where he worked and so the entering class came in and sat before him and he would ask him these questions questions like this what do you expect to get out of college spiritual inspiration go to church go to a Bible study you want Good times? Recreation? Hey, it’s cheaper to take a hobby or join a social club. Knowledge? You’re better off biting a encyclopedia and study it. What did he guarantee? Something quite different and something totally unexpected. Here’s what he guaranteed. You can be sure that one thing will happen to you if your college education really takes, your capacity for suffering will increase. There you go. And you pay all that money for education. The more you know, the more difficult life becomes. Why? Because it’s a burden to know an eventuality and not be able to do anything about it. You know, if you, I don’t know if you ever played chess, I used to play a lot of chess when I was growing up in high school and so forth, college. and when your opponent announces checkmate in four moves, you can study the board all you want to. You can try your best, but in four moves, you’re going to be checkmated, and there’s no way out of it. You’re done. You can’t escape it. You remember the story about Heathrow fell in Absalom? Heathrowell was the great counselor that was his counsel was like that of God, you know, like an angel of God. would counsel the king. And his counsel was refused. It was cast aside for someone else’s who was actually deceiving King Absalom, so that David would be spared. And what does Ahithrafel do? puts his house in order and he says, I know what’s going to happen. I know exactly what’s going to happen. He goes out and hangs himself because he knew Absalom was going to lose. And what could he do about it? He could do nothing. So what? What did all his knowledge benefit him in the long run? Nothing. He’s in grief about it. There’s this painful awareness of things certain to come without any ability or influence to change it for your good. You may have terminal illness and you may know, well, in six months, I’m going to die of this cancer. It depresses the average person to know that. Does your knowledge, of man’s depravity make you happy and peaceful? No. It brings you sorrow. Man is capable doing terrible things. I told you earlier, some people look for the good in others. But if you believe what the Bible says, there is no good in others. There’s only evil in man’s heart. And if that’s the case, then you end up being suspicious of everyone because everybody is capable doing the worst possible thing to you. So Solomon sees that most people are wasting your time seeking after the vain things of this life. He knows it’s vexationist spirit. He sees the futility of their efforts. He knows why they are chasing an empty dream. But he knows it’s only going to increase their sorrow when he do so. But what can he do about it? Who will listen to him? There’s a German proverb. it says this, much knowledge gives one a headache. That’s the summary of verse 18. It’s a frustrating reality to be ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. What a sad case that is for most people. Well, I’m going to close tonight by saying this. Solomon is about to talk now about his quest for the meaning of life. He’s going to get into more details about different areas he’s going to search. But he wants you to know that God has placed this heavy burden on man that he has to search things out. He wants to find satisfaction because he’s unfulfilled. He’s unsatisfied. And yet any human search, which is solely confined to the things under the sun, is useless. The search is made more perplexing by the twisted human behavior because man’s crookedness. He can’t see things straight. Getting human wisdom isn’t a solution either because the more knowledge you have, and yet you can’t control things, only makes you more sorrowful. So that with much knowledge is much grief. You see the end of things, but you cannot change the outcome. Not on your own. And so here is what Solomon lays before us. It is an heavy burden. Without the Lord. that’s what you can expect. Keep pursuing your pleasures and your property and your goods here and there and elsewhere. But you’re all going to, everything comes out the same. In the end, you’re going to be unhappy. Solomon says, we should listen to me. You’re wasting your time. You’re not pursuing in the right direction. You need to pursue after God. Seek the Lord in the days of your youth, so forth. Why waste time? You’re, and while you’re young, pursued, pursue the Lord. For the bad days, come on, as he says in chapter 12. And that’s how he’s going to lead us on here to this point. And I hope that we can see that.