[Ecc 7:23-25] I Am Determined To Be Wise.(Lim)

John C Lim

             by wallyg from flickr.com

Ecclesiastes 7:23-25

²³ All this I tested by wisdom and I said,
       "I am determined to be wise"—
       but this was beyond me.

 ²⁴ Whatever wisdom may be,
       it is far off and most profound—
       who can discover it?

 ²⁵ So I turned my mind to understand,
       to investigate and to search out wisdom and the scheme of things
       and to understand the stupidity of wickedness
       and the madness of folly.

                 Solomon continues to impart his wisdom to us in perplexing soliloquy.  The passage we have before us seems disjointed as he jumps from one thought to another.  He shares openly his own frustration in defining wisdom that seems so difficult to grasp.  He would like to put his arms around the concept of wisdom that he may live wisely without numerous pitfalls and traps in life.  This is much easier said than done.  Life is not as predictable as we would like it to be.  Many times, our plans are thwarted and what we wanted to see happen does not come to fruition. Solomon shares in that common bewilderment that we all experience in life.  The minute we think we figured out what life is all about, we are stumped as things happen which we didn’t expect.  Look at verse 23.

 All this I tested by wisdom and I said, "I am determined to be wise"—but this was beyond me.

                Solomon candidly confesses that all the axioms he has made about life through his keen observations are not sufficient to make him truly wise.  Solomon is determined to be wise but it is nearly impossible to attain this life of wisdom.   Solomon, truly the wisest man who ever lived is humble enough to announce that as much as he is determined to be wise, he is not able to attain it.  As we think about pursuing life of wisdom, we should take to heart what Solomon says here.  As much as we would like to live as wise person, it is not something we can attain but it is something that we constantly work at until our days here on earth comes to pass.  It is a lifelong pursuit, not something we can achieve in short time and boast about it.  If Solomon the wisest man humbly acknowledges his inadequacies, how much more are we inadequate in all that we do?   Look at verse 24.

Whatever wisdom may be, it is far off and most profound— who can discover it?

                Solomon defines wisdom as most profound concept that is not so easily found or explained.  Pursuing wisdom requires dedication and commitment that takes lifetime to achieve.  We can think of this wisdom as a goal that takes lifetime to reach it.  It is almost like a journey that takes a lifetime to get to the destination.  Solomon continues to elaborate on this front in verse 25. 

So I turned my mind to understand, to investigate and to search out wisdom and the scheme of things and to understand the stupidity of wickedness and the madness of folly.

                Solomon dedicated time in thinking through the vastness of wisdom and what that entails.  He turned his mind to understand, to investigate and to search out wisdom.  That shows a lot of effort on Solomon’s part.  We live in day and age where we don’t dwell on thinking about too many important things.  We are content with media highlights and well packaged news blurbs we can chew on.  We are not very interested in thinking things through and utilizing our mind to grasp what is happening around us. We depend on professional media outlets for how we should think and what we should think.  And because of our tendency to merely receive what we are given, we don’t do very well in assessing what is going on in our world today.  But Solomon used his mind to navigate through the maze of life and intentionally sought out wisdom and the scheme of things. 

                It is not easy to live as a Christian in our world today.  We can easily become lazy and rely on others to basically lead us in whichever direction they see fit for us.  From going to church to getting involved with various well intentioned activities, we can quickly become lost in shuffle.  We wind up doing things that seem to be the right things but not really knowing where we are going with those things.  If we become lazy in our mind, we can put our mind on auto pilot and go along with the crowd from one Christian movement to another, forever chasing after the next and the greatest fad in the name of Christianity. 

                We ought to stop and spend some quality time thinking about the scheme of things as Solomon suggests here.  With the Scripture in hand and with a prayerful heart, we ought to give sometime in figuring out just what is going on and what we should pursue in midst of our busy life with all kinds of well meaning people pushing their various agendas.  

                When we actually take the time to think things through, we would be surprised how wonderful it is to arrive at our own conclusions about different matters that relate to us.  Solomon in particular mentions two things.  He first talks about the stupidity of wickedness and then madness of folly.  Wickedness covers many areas. 

                Pursuing something that is considered wicked is a losing proposition.  There is nothing more unwise than to pursue wickedness.  There are people in this world who actively pursue wickedness in their dealings with people.  Either by commission or by omission, people carry out their wickedness.  When we are pursuing that which is not noble to benefit ourselves, we are choosing extremely foolish path.  In the end, nothing good can come out of it.  We have seen people who carry out this wickedness in their dealings with people.  In order to better themselves, they are more than willing to throw people under the bus.  They may get the promotion and they may seem to advance ahead of their peers in the short run but in the end, God who is just sees all things will judge in His time.   

                Pursuit of folly is also anything but madness.  When we start to make our own the value system of this world, we are pursuing folly.  As Christians who have been redeemed by the blood of Christ, we view the world in radically different way from the rest of the world.  The world’s value system and the value system Christ left us is diametrically opposed.  We cannot pursue the folly of the world and claim that we are following Christ.  Everything we do must be viewed in light of God’s Word.  We allow ourselves to be led by the Holy Spirit rather than the spirit of this world.  When people fall into this pursuit of folly in our world, they become mad.  All they see is what the worldly eyes see and cannot see what a folly this is.  This world with all its beauty and grandeur will come to an end.

                Recent deaths of famous icons are glaring reminder that no matter how good life may seem to some, there is an end and judgment after that.  Our life here on earth is quite brief.  To pursue wickedness in dealing with people or chasing after folly can only be described as truly foolish and mad.

                As Christians, we remind ourselves how our Lord Jesus Christ lived in this life.  He lived among us and in this world but His focus was always heavenward.  While He did not neglect the demands of this world while He lived, His priority was always on things that mattered in eternity. 

                So we need to turn our mind to understand with the help of the Holy Spirit what our life here on earth is all about.  Sooner we understand and grasp the true wisdom of life that is to come, more fulfilled we will be as we go on with our lives here on earth.