THE BETTER LIFE, LIVED UNDER THE SON

“A Lie About Education”
Ecclesiastes 1:12-18
Bob Bonner
November 22, 1998

One of our past Presidents said, “At the desk where I sit, I have learned one great truth. The answer for all our national problems---the answer for all the problems of the world--comes in a single word. That word is education.

When President Lyndon Johnson said that, he assumed that ignorance is our greatest enemy. He believed that if only we could increase in knowledge and understanding we would begin to solve more of the problems that curse our lives and our world. Today many people in this country agree with this view. They promise, “Give someone an education and his life will cease to be empty and aimless. Give our best to educating our youth and our society can’t help but be better.”

Education is a valuable tool. Education is a good thing. But education is not the answer to all of society’s problems. It is not what’s needed to cure the ills of the human soul. Education is not the savior of our world. When you educate a liar and a thief, when you educate a sinner, you don’t get a redeemed person. You just get a smarter sinner, a smarter thief and liar. Information in the mind cannot of itself satisfy the needs of the human heart, nor can it tame the unruliness of the human soul.

Just look at the western world. We have had more widespread educational opportunities than any civilization in human history. Are we more deeply satisfied and well-ordered as individuals or as a society? No. The idea that education is the solution to our problems and our hope for the future is a lie. An old lie by the way. One that King Solomon had to learn the hard way. Solomon had to learn through the school of hard knocks that education was not the answer to what ails us. And that’s what he is going to show us in this next section of our study in the Book of Ecclesiastes.

Let’s begin reading at Ecclesiastes 1:12. We are going to be looking at verses 12-18 this morning. These verses appear to break into two parts. The first section is verses 12-15. In those verses, Solomon is speaking generally about using his God-given gift of wisdom to study all that happens on earth to the lives of men and women. He wants to discover what really makes life “tick.” In verses 14-15, we will examine some of the conclusions Solomon comes to as a result of his search.

The second section of this segment of Scripture is verses 16-18. In these verses we discover what motivated Solomon to start his investigation of human life. He tells us specifically what it was that initially led him into his further study of life on earth. Basically, he wanted to understand wisdom and foolishness as it was demonstrated in the lives of people.  He wanted to know what it really benefits a person to live life in a wise manner.

In verses 16-18, we will also discover what it was that led Solomon into his wandering away from God. In addition, as we did in verses 12-15, we will see some conclusions Solomon came to as a result of this specific research.

The key to understanding this whole passage, as it has been in our two previous studies has been that all-important phrase “under the sun” which is used two times in this section, in verses 13 - 14. That phrase reminds us that all of Solomon’s searching and all of his conclusions drawn from his investigations about life, come from one who is not including God in his search. He is like a philosopher studying life from the point of view that we humans are the center of the universe and that God doesn’t exist.

We are given a clue as to who is the author of this book and how it is that he got into this search in verse 12. We read, “I, the Teacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem.” Now, if one feels led by God to teach or preach or lead a group of people in how to do something, such as fixing a car, playing an instrument or how to golf, the teacher needs to study the subject himself, before trying to pass on to others what he has learned. So, Solomon, the only king over all of Israel who lived in Jerusalem that would have fit this bill of educating his people in wisdom to live life, says, “I devoted myself to study and to explore by wisdom all that is done under heaven.” In other words, Solomon sought an education from studying the world, to figure out how he could help others live better. He wanted to discover the secrets about how we can find meaning and satisfaction in this world.

Two words used in this verse describe the length and breadth to which Solomon went to research and examine life: The first word, is translated in my version “study,” and the second word, “explored.” The word for “study” refers to that intense, penetrating, close examination of a subject. It is the study that one would do in examining something through a microscope. It comes from the root word that describes grinding and testing. It would be similar to studying an element through just looking at it closely, then pulverizing it for further testing it under ultraviolet lights and with different kind of washes. It’s looking at something in close detail.

The term “explored,” on the other hand, refers to a much broader investigation. It’s root meaning is akin to surveying the land. It has been used of one who experientially walks the border of a property to understand its limit.

Hence, when Solomon says that he “studied and explored” life, he is saying that he did more than just read books and did a few experiments. He did an exhaustive study that included himself becoming personally involved in both sides of the issues, both practicing wisdom and, for a time, folly.  For instance: in the next chapter he tells us that he didn’t just stand back and study the effects of seeking sexual pleasures at orgies, but he actually got involved and experienced the damaging effects of loneliness, emptiness, and the loss of a sense of personal value or worth that comes with such an immoral lifestyle.

At this point, some of you might be wondering, “What in the world was a king, with all of his responsibilities of ruling a kingdom, doing taking on such a research project?”  If you remember, during Solomon’s reign, the nation of Israel enjoyed years of peace like it had never known before. There were no wars or serious political or civil problems that required the king’s attention. In addition, the country had become very wealthy so he had all sorts of money to blow on his research. So, with all of that free time on his hands to do whatever he wanted, and no one to challenge him concerning how he spent the hours of his day, and all the money needed to research life, why not do it? Hence, this book of Ecclesiastes is a journal of a man who stopped at nothing and was prevented by no one from exploring, by human wisdom, all the things that happen in human life.

In the rest of verses 13-15, Solomon shares with us his general conclusions drawn from his lifetime of study about life lived “under the sun.” He writes, “What a heavy burden God has laid on men! I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind. What is twisted cannot be straightened; what is lacking cannot be counted.”

In his final analysis, Solomon says of life, “it’s a heavy burden” or as others have translated “Life is a grievous or sorry task.” In other words, just trying to make it in this life leaves one with the feeling that there is very little about life to be desired.  And furthermore, Solomon, in his apostate state of mind having turned his back on God, has the gall to write in his journal that it’s all God’s fault that life is this burdensome! “God,” he says, “has laid this burden on men.” 

If Solomon were here and saying this to me my response to him would be, “Well, pardon me, Solomon, but you are the one who decided on your own to take on this research project. Nowhere does the text say that God directed you to do this investigation or to get this education apart from His leading and teaching. But because you went off on your own, because you put your hopes in your human education, you discovered what a life is like when lived apart from God’s leading ‘under the sun.’ Life is a ‘burden’ when lived apart from or out from under the shadow of God.”  So Solomon, in the middle of running his own life, blames God for his grievous condition.

But isn’t that typical of us human beings, to blame God for our circumstances when we are usually the ones to blame? We ignore God, we ignore His clear-cut directives in our lives, we try to find happiness apart from God and His principles for living and we end up in the pits. We will obey those things God tells us to do when we agree, but those things we don’t want to do, forget it! No sooner do we choose our own path, than we find ourselves at the end of our rope as a result of rebelling against God and blaming Him for the condition we are in! 

I can’t tell you how many couples I find blaming God for the disaster that has befallen their lives as a result of moving to another city to follow after a more lucrative job opportunity or to start their own business, only to lose their job or have their business fail and lose all they have, including their marriage. In many cases, there were some clear-cut biblical principles they could have followed or not ignored, if they were truly seeking God that could have prevented much of their heartaches. That’s not always true of every case of trouble, but often it is.

This situation has just happened recently to some old neighbors of ours. They moved to the Rogue Valley to start their own business with their dreams of getting rich. But those dreams never materialized, they wasted their investment seed money and now they are divorced. From the wife’s point of view, her traditional God let her down, so now she has turned her back on her traditional beliefs and is heavily into New Age.

Or, here is another typical scenario:  The individual who claims to be a Christian, but is tired of being alone, or maybe wants to get out from underneath mom and dad’s control, decides to get married. Does she seek after the Lord first as to the timing and the person?  Not usually. She follows after her hormones or looks for anyone financially stable to attach herself to, never checking in with God, and Boom! A few months after the wedding, they are miserable and already thinking of divorce. And then they have the audacity to blame God for their troubles, just like Solomon is doing here! This scenario is equally true of men as it is women.

Verse 15 is kind of an interesting verse. Originally, the word for “twisted” came from the description of the physically twisted back of an old man. Solomon uses it here to refer to someone who is not only physically twisted and can’t be repaired, but also to those who are emotionally and spiritually twisted.

The word for “lacking” came from the description of someone who is lacking height. It also is used of something missing or the condition of having gaps in a lineup of something. 

When you put these words together with what Solomon said back in verse 14, “I have seen all things” his point becomes clear. He has seen everything there is in life, every difficult problem or challenge that faces human life. His education has been thorough. And yet, even with all of his education, research and wisdom, there are just some things that education--even the best education--is powerless to solve. It cannot untangle the twists of the human heart any more than it can straighten out the twists of the spinal cord. Neither can education or wisdom make up for what is lacking in the human soul. Only God can do that, is Solomon’s subtle, between-the-lines inference here. Apart from God, life is nothing but a heavy burden.

But in contrast to Solomon’s conclusions, look at what our Savior Jesus Christ has to say about untwisting the twisted and filling in the gaps. Two illustrations from the gospels will suffice. The first one deals with the “twisted” in Luke 13:10-13. Here we read this: “And He [Jesus] was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. And behold, there was a woman who for eighteen years had had a sickness caused by a spirit; and she was bent double, and could not straighten up at all. And when Jesus saw her, He called her over and said to her, ‘Woman, you are freed from your sickness.’ And He laid His hands upon her; and immediately she was made erect again, and began glorifying God.” What was the point of Jesus healing this woman? Was it to promise that He would heal every person with a physically twisted spine?  No. But his point was to say that if Christ willed He could and would. But what Jesus came to heal was the twisted heart and souls of men and women. And He promises to do that for all who seek Him. He, not an education, is the only way for me or you to be made into a new creation with a new heart.

There is another incident, recorded in John 6:1-13 that we find a situation where much is lacking. There are gaps to be filled. In that case, what was lacking was enough food to feed thousands of people. Through a miracle, Jesus took what was lacking and fed the multitude. Why? To say that He will always provide for your food? Maybe. But more importantly, I believe He was doing many of these miracles to demonstrate what Luke tells us in Luke 1:37, which says, "For nothing will be impossible with God." 

That is the view from “Above the Sun.” That is the view of life that we enjoy when we make the Lord number one in our lives. When our education says it can’t be done, God does it. When we seek to depend upon, honor, obey and follow Jesus with our whole heart, He does a miracle in our lives that no one with an education can perform. It is only “above the sun” theology that makes this life worth living, regardless of our present situation.

When we come to the second part of our passage, in verses 16-18, we see Solomon tightening his focus. He goes from the general to the specific. In these verses, we see exactly what it was that sent Solomon off on this pursuit to learn more about life “under the sun.” We see what his first course of study was in his new self-education program. We read in verse 16, “I thought to myself,...” In the original language, this is an expression that refers to a sincere, heartfelt idea. Hence, his following words should not be interpreted as bragging, but just an observation about himself that is true, based on the facts that God had gifted him with a special amount of wisdom unusual to most of us. 

He says, “I thought to myself, ‘Look, I have grown and increased in wisdom more than anyone who has ruled over Jerusalem before me; I have experienced much of wisdom and knowledge.’” Notice the emphasis on the personal pronoun “I.” God is not mentioned anywhere in his mental deliberation. He is thinking apart from God, and not considering what God might have to say about what Solomon is considering doing. 

His point in verse 16, simply put: “If someone has to study and give a report as to what makes life tick, who is better qualified than me? I am wiser than all who have ruled before me. Then I applied myself to the understanding of wisdom, and also of madness and folly, ...” In other words, because he deemed himself the best qualified, Solomon wanted to specifically research the different outcomes of a life lived according to wisdom versus one that is lived according to the madness and folly that goes on in the world around him. The question he is ultimately trying to answer is, “Will a person gain more out of life by applying the principles of wisdom or by applying the principles of folly?”

Solomon was not only sincere about this research project, but he was intensely serious about it. In the original language the words in verse 17, “I applied myself” are almost exactly the same as those found in verse 13, “I devoted myself.” The small difference between them is that in verse 17, Solomon is declaring that he really wants to find out for himself the answer to this question: How does a life of foolishness compare to a person who lives a life based on wisdom. He isn’t so much really investigating this issue for the sake of others. But He really wants to find out the facts for himself. He is very passionate about this study. This is not a casual, “I wonder...” It’s that intense sort of strong curiosity that eventually killed the cat. 

So intense is Solomon in his search that the spiritual caution signs and alarms that were going off in his conscience were not even seen or heard by him. Allow me to make this clear. Solomon did not wake up one day and say, “I choose to ignore God and get an education about life apart from Him.” He just had an idea explode in his mind, didn’t bother to include God in his education and from there, it was full steam ahead in his experimentation and study of human existence. As he continued his search, I doubt he even had a clue that he had left God behind and was starting to walk away from God. He was so focused on what he wanted to discover that he never heard God calling to his heart. 

In my opinion, this verse holds the key to this book in that it lets us know what led Solomon down the wrong path. Years before this, shortly after Solomon had become a young king, God asked Solomon what he wanted most in life. Solomon could have asked for anything, but he chose wisdom. God, delighted with Solomon’s choice, gave Solomon the gift of wisdom.  He was smart, filled with knowledge and liked to be educated. All of which were a good thing.

Apparently, several years later, Solomon fell in love with his gift of wisdom and having knowledge and overlooked for a period of his life--the Giver of these gifts. Rather than the Giver of the gift being Solomon's God, the gift of knowledge became his idol or god instead. He looked to become even more knowledgeable and wiser through his own personal search and through his own experiences rather than turning to God for more knowledge and wisdom. He sought an education apart from God.

He reminds me in a way of Adam and Eve. Rather than turn to God to get more knowledge about good and evil, Solomon chose to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He chose to experience it for himself instead. And it got him the same results that it got Adam and Eve--spiritual death: Loss of intimacy with God; Loss of joy for living.

It’s like some guys I know, whom God has given certain spiritual gifts or ministries and who become so focused on their work and not on their Lord who gave them their job or their spiritual gift that they start worshiping their ministries or jobs and lose sight of their personal intimacy with God. It is a very subtle thing that happens. It’s one of our enemy’s greatest deceptions. In the end, it invariably leads to their downfall. God is to be worshiped, not His gifts to us whether those gifts be certain abilities, jobs, or special relationships with kids, spouse or friends, or the ability to acquire knowledge. 

In seeking after more wisdom and not God, Solomon was deceived into living a godless life of ruin for many years. The major tragedy of all of this for Solomon is that it cost Solomon dearly in his personal life. He wasted years of his life and lost the joy of having known God and walked with God. His life bore the scars that come from living foolishly. 

 I believe that it was later that Solomon learned, as he recorded in Proverbs, “The fear of God is the beginning [source and origin] of wisdom.” You keep your eyes and ears tuned to what the Lord says is right and best and you will end up the wiser. Don’t go to the world to look for wisdom or experiment with worldly philosophies to see whether or not they are correct. Come to God, the Father. As a result of not turning to God for insight and answers, it cost Solomon the respect of others, close relationships with family members, and even more notable the loss of an eternal mark on the world. But when he returned to the Lord, he summed up all that he learned while he was away from God. To summarize his thoughts in Proverbs he learned that the key to a meaningful life is to “Fear God and enjoy Him and all that he gives you along the way. But whatever you do, don't take your eyes off God.” Wisdom begins with and grows from fearing and knowing and walking with God.

In the rest of verses 17-18 we see the results of Solomon’s seeking an education about life from the world. Once again, remember his conclusions do not come from a man who is walking with God. They come from a man who is confused about life because he has taken his eyes off of God. He says, “...but I learned that this, too, is a chasing after the wind. For with much wisdom comes much sorrow; the more knowledge, the more grief.”

Solomon states realistically what many law enforcement officers, counselors and ministers have learned down through the years. The more you understand what is wise and how to avoid ruin, the more sorrowful you are when you continue to see people choose folly or foolish ways. Because more often than not, once you sow foolishness, you will reap the harvest of foolishness which can’t be turned around or avoided. And the more you understand what could have been and see more and more forms of evil and suffering that didn’t have to be, the greater your sorrow or grief. If you don’t have the Lord to straighten out your thinking and to give you the bigger picture, pretty soon you become pessimistic, cynical and disillusioned about life, just as Solomon is here.

However, if we look at Proverbs 3:13-18, we read the words of Solomon after he returned to walking with the Lord amidst the same sorrows of the world that he knew while walking apart from God. In these verses we see what Solomon learned about wisdom, not from trying to experience evil through going to the “tree of knowledge of good and evil” but rather discovering wisdom because one seeks God and asks Him for wisdom. When our education begins with and is under God’s supervision, He grants us His perspective of life without the unnecessary pain and sorrow that comes from trying to be educated apart from God through personal experience. When we seek God for answers, His instruction comes with ultimate hope and optimism. All is not foolishness, sorrow, and grief. Instead of vanity, there is meaning, blessing, and fulfillment.

Listen to his conclusions now, that he walks with God, and when his perspective is no longer “under the sun” but “above the sun.” He states in Proverbs 3:13, “Blessed is the man who finds wisdom, the man who gains understanding, for she is more profitable than silver and yields better returns than gold. She is more precious than rubies; nothing you desire can compare with her. Long life is in her right hand; in her left hand are riches and honor. Her ways are pleasant ways, and all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to those who embrace her; those who lay hold of her will be blessed.”

For the one who seeks the Lord, he or she will not always find the answers to life and the why’s of sorrowful events that come to us. Furthermore, there will be times o of sadness and pain. We can’t avoid that because it is the result of man’s rebellion against God shortly after creation. But on the other hand, while some days will be filled with sorrow, not all of them will be. God does promise new blessings and fulfillment in life with each new day.

But how do we discover those blessings? How do we turn a troubled world around? Is it through the philosophy of Hillary Clinton that it takes a village to educate and raise a child? No. Remember what Jesus said in His famous Sermon on the Mount? In Matthew 6:33 He said, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and the rest of these things shall be added unto you.” What were those things? Those things that Jesus promised us when we seek Him first are all those things that we need that enable us to live a full and meaningful life here on this earth. None of which is worldly intellectualism. Don’t try to seek meaning in things or diplomas. Yes, a good education does have its rightful place under the Lord. But intellectualism will not be what changes the world and heals the heartaches of people everywhere. What changes heartaches and deep soulish hurts is being given a new heart, not more earthly knowledge.

Bottom line, the major principle I draw from this passage is if everything “under the sun” is meaningless to you, then your only hope is to start looking above it.

When we study American history, we find that many if not most of our forefathers were believers who founded our government on principles that are rooted in Scripture. When the forefathers of our country arrived, do you know how long it took them to establish a school of higher learning? A mere 16 years. That’s not very long when you consider the fact that they had to build homes, settle the land, and set up a government as well. The first educational center was in a little place called Newtown, which was later changed to Cambridge. They named this first school of higher education after a 31- year-old clergyman who had died prematurely. He had left his library and half his estate to the school. His name was John Harvard. It wasn’t uncommon in those beginning years to find our early universities weaving together the practicum of math, science, philosophy and so forth with the study of the Word of God. With that in mind, listen to how the cornerstone of Harvard University reads. It says:

“After God had carried us safe to New England and wee had builded our houses, provided necessaries for our livelihood, reared convenient places for God’s worship, and settled the civil government, one of the next things wee longed for and looked after was to advance learning and perpetuate to posterity dreading to leave an illiterate ministry to the churches when our present ministers shall lie in the dust.”

Think of it. Our first and oldest university was founded to give an education under God. To establish in the colonies a ministry in the churches that was a literate, thinking, biblically devoted and committed body of believers who would stand in the gap. Yet today, this university has gone the way of Solomon. It has slowly but surely through the years turned its back on God and one step at a time moved away from the truth until it can no longer even see the truth. It’s present professors would scoff at that cornerstone. I wonder if they even know what it says. In its theology department, few if any of the professors believe the Bible is the Word of God. Few if any of their theologians believe Jesus is the Son of God. And many question if there is even a god, and they are theologians!!!

How easy it is to either by accident or through rationalization for us to do the same to take one step and then another away from God and to lose our way. Solomon, one who knew God in a very special way, did. It began with one small step away from God. Maybe this morning you find yourself far removed from God. You have been taking little bitty steps away from God in areas that you didn’t think were wrong, but now look at you. Your life lacks joy. Sorrow and grief are the words that describe your every day. Could it be that you have moved away from God. If so, do you want to come home?  There is a way, if you want to take it. Hear from one who has been where you may be and found his way back home to the Lord.

Long Way Home
By Wayne Watson

I took one step away and I thought “Hey, what’s the harm?” 
still feel the heat from here, still see the lights, still feel the warmth.
What’s another step or two...that wouldn’t be so wrong, would it?

Then when I looked for truth, my eye for truth was gone.
Then out of desperation a mercy plea.
The spell of wisdom just came over me.

I took the long way home, back to what I believe.
I took the long way home, You were waiting there for me.
You were always faithful even when my faith was not so strong.
It’s been a long way home.

You know I never intended to get off the track so far.
The lights that turned my head are looking quite bizarre.
It takes so little time for me to be deceived, yeah.
But just the simple things can bring me to my knees.
There are some stones better left unturned,
and some bridges never crossed are better burned.

I took the long way home, back to what I believe.
I took the long way home, You were waiting there for me.
You were always faithful even when my faith was not so strong.
Oh, it’s been a long way home.

For those of you who know Jesus as your Lord and Savior, the way back home begins with admitting you have strayed, confess that to God and turn your back on where you are headed and receive God’s forgiveness.

For those of you who know there is a God, but don’t know how to get back home--where He can love and guide your life and bring wholeness to your broken heart--the way back home begins with Jesus. Why not begin with asking Jesus to reveal Himself to you? Admit to Him and yourself that you have ignored Him or deliberately rebelled against the conscience He has placed in you. Ask Him to forgive, to enter in and take control of your life, and to show you the way back home. God who created you loves you and wants you to enjoy Him and the life He designed you to live.

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