Ecclesiastes 1:9-18

Ecclesiastes 1:9-11

That which has been is that which will be, And that which has been done is that which will be done. So, there is nothing new under the sun. Is there anything of which one might say, "See this, it is new"? Already it has existed for ages which were before us. There is no remembrance of earlier things; And also of the later things which will occur, There will be for them no remembrance Among those who will come later {still.}

Ecclesiastes 1:12

I, the Preacher, have been king over Israel in Jerusalem.

Ecclesiastes 1:13-15

And I set my mind to seek and explore by wisdom concerning all that has been done under heaven. {It} is a grievous task {which} God has given to the sons of men to be afflicted with. I have seen all the works which have been done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and striving after wind. What is crooked cannot be straightened, and what is lacking cannot be counted.

1. He is seeking: There is something he wants. All of us have restless hearts. We are never really content. Until we find God in a personal and intimate way. We will constantly be lacking and wanting and then wanting more.

2. He is on a quest: He has already determined that what he is seeking can be found in secular wisdom and understanding. We do not seek that which cannot be found or doesn't exists.

In London they had so many people asking where Sherlock Holmes lived that they finally invented a place that they could point to. But the wise detective was only a figment of a writer's imagination.

People do a lot of silly things as they search for that which does not exists. But they go on their quest because they are convinced what they search for can be found.

3. Self initiates the search: We can see who is leading who. Solomon is leading Solomon. He is doing this for self. And so self will do it. And in this he thinks he can pull it off.

Notice: I set my mind . . .

4. His search is limited by his mind: He begins his search with a liability, his mind. And as a result he will never get beyond his own mental ability.

5. His search will be limited by his own experiments: The word EXPLORE means to investigate by experimentation, to try this, test it, see if it is valid, cast it away if it doesn't work. But it is limited to what he can come up with as a possible source of significance.

Ecclesiastes 1:16-18

I said to myself, "Behold, I have magnified and increased wisdom more than all who were over Jerusalem before me; and my mind has observed a wealth of wisdom and knowledge." And I set my mind to know wisdom and to know madness and folly; I realized that this also is striving after wind. Because in much wisdom there is much grief, and increasing knowledge {results in} increasing pain.

1. The more he learned the more reason he had for grief and sorrow. Ignorance, is bliss. But knowledge can be a heavy burden.

(Remember, we speak as Solomon did, on the level of the secular not the spiritual).

2. The more he learned the clearer he could think, and the clearer he could think the more he saw madness and folly.

3. The more he learned the more clearly he saw how easily the things of life could go wrong.

4. The more he learned the more he saw that nothing is permanent.

5. The more he learned the more he learned how little he knew.

We often discover whole areas of thought to which we have not even given a single thought. We know nothing of these things and may never will.

6. The more he learned the more he realized that knowledge is limited.

7. The more he learned the more he saw his inability to control the future.

8. The more he learned the more he saw how easily we can make mistake after mistake.