“The most fruitful and the most joy-filled Christians are the most pruned Christians.”
Bruce Wilkinson
Passage
14I have seen all the works which have been done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and striving after wind.
15What is crooked cannot be straightened and what is lacking cannot be counted.
16I 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.”
17And I set my mind to know wisdom and to know madness and folly; I realized that this also is striving after wind.
18Because in much wisdom there is much grief, and increasing knowledge results in increasing pain.
Ecclesiastes 1:14–18 (NASB95)
Background
Quote- Bruce Wilkinson is a Christian preacher, speaker and writer. He is based in the US.
He is best known for his book The Prayer of Jabez. He also founded Walk Thru the Bible, an evangelical Christian educational organization, with Howard Hendricks, as well as Teach Every Nation (TEN), an Evangelical parachurch organization.
Passage-The book of Ecclesiastes contains Proverbs, maxims, sayings, and is largely an autobiographical story. Solomon wrote it late in his life, approximately 935 B.C. He had become aware of the mistakes that he made throughout his life and began to document them. The purpose of Ecclesiastes is to spare future generations the suffering and misery of seeking after foolish, meaningless, materialistic emptiness, and to offer wisdom by discovering truth in seeking after God.
Lesson Notes
Opening Statement
Our passage today is Solomon at the end of his life reflecting on what he has learned. Arguably, the wisest figure in scripture tells us all the knowledge of Man, what we think is important, or what we think we’ve learned, is nothing compared to what God knows.
Ask: Where does wisdom come from?
Point: We get wisdom from making good decisions, from turning what we learn as knowledge and demonstrate understanding of that knowledge by making good choices. Please read the following:
1The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel:
2To know wisdom and instruction, To discern the sayings of understanding,
3To receive instruction in wise behavior, Righteousness, justice and equity;
4To give prudence to the naive, To the youth knowledge and discretion,
5A wise man will hear and increase in learning, And a man of understanding will acquire wise counsel,
6To understand a proverb and a figure, The words of the wise and their riddles.
7The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; Fools despise wisdom and instruction.
8Hear, my son, your father’s instruction And do not forsake your mother’s teaching;
9Indeed, they are a graceful wreath to your head And ornaments about your neck.
Proverbs 1:1–9 (NASB95)
Ask: Why does Solomon suggest in verse 8 that we should listen to our mother and father? What makes their words worth listening to?
Point: They have lived life and experienced good and bad decision making.
Ask: Is wisdom worth having?
Point: Yes. Please read the following:
24There is nothing better for a man than to eat and drink and tell himself that his labor is good. This also I have seen that it is from the hand of God.
25For who can eat and who can have enjoyment without Him?
26For to a person who is good in His sight He has given wisdom and knowledge and joy, while to the sinner He has given the task of gathering and collecting so that he may give to one who is good in God’s sight. This too is vanity and striving after wind.
Ecclesiastes 2:24–26 (NASB95)
Ask: If wisdom is worth having, where do we find it?
Point: All wisdom comes from God. Please read the following:
36“Who has put wisdom in the innermost being Or given understanding to the mind?
37“Who can count the clouds by wisdom, Or tip the water jars of the heavens,
38When the dust hardens into a mass And the clods stick together?
Job 38:36–38 (NASB95)
Ask: That’s God speaking to Job and the implication is that only God has wisdom. How do we figure out if something is of God or not, wise or not?
Point: We test it. Please read the following:
30There is no wisdom and no understanding And no counsel against the Lord.
31The horse is prepared for the day of battle, But victory belongs to the Lord.
Proverbs 21:30–31 (NASB95)
Ask: How can we be sure what we are testing comes from the Lord?
Point: God created everything including all that is wise. Please read the following:
16The Lord God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely;
17but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.”
Genesis 2:16–17 (NASB95)
Ask: Why should we pay attention to God’s Law and His ways as wisdom?
Point: God’s ways are the easier path in life. Easier, not easy. Please read the following:
1My son, do not forget my teaching, But let your heart keep my commandments;
2For length of days and years of life And peace they will add to you.
3Do not let kindness and truth leave you; Bind them around your neck, Write them on the tablet of your heart.
4So you will find favor and good repute In the sight of God and man.
5Trust in the Lord with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding.
6In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight.
7Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear the Lord and turn away from evil.
8It will be healing to your body And refreshment to your bones.
Proverbs 3:1–8 (NASB95)
Ask: What happens if we don’t want to follow God’s ways?
Point: We can expect life to be harder. Please read the following:
14The teaching of the wise is a fountain of life, To turn aside from the snares of death.
15Good understanding produces favor, But the way of the treacherous is hard.
Proverbs 13:14–15 (NASB95)
Ask: Where is there joy in wisdom then?
Point: Wisdom is making good decisions based on what God says is good and He has promised us following His ways is better.
Ask: What is Solomon’s point from today’s Ecclesiastes passage?
Point: Solomon has seen all that human beings can devise, both good and bad, and he has concluded God’s ways as outlined in Old Testament Law and scripture are better than the ways of Man.
Closing Statement
Solomon was just a man. He could be wrong, but historical documents, scripture, and eye witness accounts of who he was say otherwise. If we take Solomon at his word then, at the end of his life Ecclesiastes provides us with the conclusions from the wisest man to ever live based on what he saw over the course of his entire life. Those conclusions all point back to God. Solmon’s conclusions point back to scripture, to God’s Word, and to God’s opinion about how to live. We can debate and argue with human beings all we want, but to do so with God puts us squarely in the category of a fool, and scripture has nothing good to say about fools.