Ep 475 – Ecclesiastes 10:1-7

Solomon had a lot to say about wisdom. On the pages of his two books, Ecclesiastes and Proverbs, he promotes the positive attributes of wisdom repeatedly. But as a wise man himself, Solomon had learned the sobering lesson that wisdom alone was not enough. Even wise people suffer. They can even make dumb mistakes. Wisdom is not an anecdote to life's problems or some kind of get-out-of-jail-free card that guarantees a success. And in Ecclesiastes 10, Solomon is going to sing wisdom's praises, while exposing its weaknesses. In the first seven verses of the chapter, he uses some interesting comparisons in order to warn against the weakness of wisdom. By itself, it proves to be an insufficient resource for understanding life, let alone for navigating the ups and downs that life can throw at us. Underlying his thoughts in this chapter is the premise with which he opened this book. He stated, "I applied my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also is but a striving after wind." In essence, Solomon concluded that as he grew wiser, he simply became sadder and more disenchanted with life lived under the sun. But what he had failed to remember was that wisdom began with a healthy reverence for God. It's not a commodity God doles out like candy, but the result of a vibrant relationship with Him. He is wisdom, which makes Him its very source. Wisdom comes from God, but only as we get to know Him for who He really is and as we allow Him to reveal to us who we really are, especially without Him.