M: Ecclesiastes 2:10-16

So today, while meeting with a newer church friend, she invited me to ask God to show some clarity on a question that had been bugging my mind a lot recently. She, being a firm believer in drawing lots and God leading your fingers to where you need to read in the bible, had us both pray with our hands on the Bible before opening it and reading the first thing my finger landed on. It landed on this passage.

Ecclesiastes 2:10-16
New King James Version (NKJV)
10 Whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. 
      I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure, 
      For my heart rejoiced in all my labor; 
      And this was my reward from all my labor. 
       11 Then I looked on all the works that my hands had done 
      And on the labor in which I had toiled; 
      And indeed all was vanity and grasping for the wind. 
      There was no profit under the sun.
The End of the Wise and the Fool
    12 Then I turned myself to consider wisdom and madness and folly;
      For what can the man do who succeeds the king?—
      Only what he has already done.
       13 Then I saw that wisdom excels folly
      As light excels darkness.
       14 The wise man’s eyes are in his head,
      But the fool walks in darkness.
      Yet I myself perceived
      That the same event happens to them all.
       15 So I said in my heart,

      “ As it happens to the fool,
      It also happens to me,
      And why was I then more wise?”
      Then I said in my heart,

      “ This also is vanity.”
       16 For there is no more remembrance of the wise than of the fool forever,
      Since all that now is will be forgotten in the days to come.
      And how does a wise man die?
      As the fool!

It took a few seconds for the information to register after reading it aloud, but even outside of the context of the questions I was asking, it's a very thought provoking passage. The idea that even a wise man will die, in the same way a fool will die, what is the purpose of wisdom?

Is it because we like to feel smart? Be better than our fellow man? Feel that we are making all the right steps and choices?

Even the wisest of the wise in all their wisdom appear like fools to the incomprehensible knowledge of God. So why do we feel we are smart? Or right? Or genius'? Or that we have a right to be a know-it-all?
We really don't. I need to learn and recognize that even in the massive amount of information I know, I have no right to judge or look down at someone else because they might not know the same amount I do. Certainly I may be more knowledgable in the arts than an engineer, but that doesn't give me the right to feel he or she is stupid and is a fool for not knowing what I do. The engineer could look the same back about me not knowing how a doorknob works!

But most important is the recognition that God knows everything. Only He is truly wise. So why don't we go to Him more often? Why don't we ask Him about things that happen in our life? Why do we feel that all of that universal knowledge is something we must attain without any help, guidance, or teaching from Him?
My lesson to learn, is that even when I think I am wise enough to know what I need to do, to continue to lean on Him for support and knowledge, since He knows better than I.

God bless,
-Matthew


((Note: Written by Matthew, posted by Gabrielle for him because currently Matthew is unable to directly post to the blog.))