Ecclesiastes 2:12-17 So I turned to consider wisdom and madness and folly. For what can the man do who comes after the king? Only what has already been done. 13 Then I saw that there is more gain in wisdom than in folly, as there is more gain in light than in darkness. 14 The wise person has his eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness. And yet I perceived that the same event happens to all of them. 15 Then I said in my heart, “What happens to the fool will happen to me also. Why then have I been so very wise?” And I said in my heart that this also is vanity. 16 For of the wise as of the fool there is no enduring remembrance, seeing that in the days to come all will have been long forgotten. How the wise dies just like the fool! 17 So I hated life, because what is done under the sun was grievous to me, for all is vanity and a striving after wind.
INTRODUCTION
Once again, the second half of Ecclesiastes chapter 1 and all of chapter 2 (1:12-2:26) is one larger section. In it the Preacher examines four different aspects of life in his quest to find meaning and significance “under the sun”. We’re on aspect three this week.
The Preacher’s first attempt (1:12-18) to find an “under the sun” life worth living was all about trying to find satisfaction through making sense of the world around him. He did so by examining it with (observational) wisdom. His conclusions were that the world is bad, vain, beyond repair, vexing, and sorrowful.
In his second attempt (2:1-11) the Preacher tried to find genuine satisfaction through mere hedonism; the simple pursuit of pleasure. To that end, the Preacher tried all the laughter, wine, great works, servants, possessions, treasure, and entertainment that money can buy. His conclusion was that “all [is] vanity and a striving after wind, and there [is] nothing to be gained under the sun” (2:11).
And in this third attempt to find a satisfying life under the sun (2:12-17), the Preacher considered whether or not it makes any difference how you live in the world. Neither understanding, nor hedonism worked to provide genuine satisfaction, “So I turned to consider wisdom and madness and folly…” (12). He watched those acting according to each and made a few observations about the results. As we will see, and as you’ve probably come to imagine, the result was very much the same as with his previous attempts.
The big questions are: Is there any discernable difference between the lives of those who live according to wisdom, madness, and folly? Do any of them prosper more than the others? Do any of them have more overall joy in life? Do things end up any better for any of them?
In other words, if you’ve ever known what was wise, but felt like you’d rather do something different; if you’ve ever felt like you know better than what you’ve been told is right; if you’ve ever felt like things that are wrong are just more fun than things that are wise, this is the sermon for you. The Preacher felt the same way. More importantly, under God’s inspiration, we get to see and, Lord willing, learn from his conclusions.
The big idea of this passage is that God moves in mysterious ways. Things simply don’t work in ways that are predictable, but that’s by God’s good design. We need more than our own reason or desires to live a life of meaning and significance. And the main takeaway is to trust God’s Word and promises rather than our interpretation of our circumstances.
WISDOM, MADNESS, AND FOLLY (12)
Look with me once again at the beginning of the first verse of our passage.
12 So I turned to consider wisdom and madness and folly…
At the university I went to, everyone had to take Psychology 101 as freshman. One of the requirements for the class was to sign up for a certain number of hours as a participant for grad student research projects. I don’t remember much besides the fact that they’d have us do certain things and watch how it all worked out. We were never told what, exactly, the project was trying to determine, only that our response to whatever was put in front of us was a key component of it.
In some ways, that’s the picture here. It comes across as a kind of formal sociological research project. The Preacher observed various subjects in order to discover whether or not there was any discernable difference in their quality of life. What was the same and what was different for each group of subjects? What ended well and what ended poorly? Who fared better and who fared worse?
Before we consider the results of the Preacher’s considerations, let’s get clear on the (familiar) participants: the wise, the mad, and the fool.
The Wise
The first group the Preacher examined was the wise. This is the eighth time in less than 30 verses that the Preacher has referred to wisdom. It’s clearly an important theme for him (causing further echoes of Solomon to ring in our ears).
At the same time, we must remember that the wisdom he’s referring to is largely general-revelation wisdom (rather than special-revelation wisdom). That is, it is mainly the kind of wisdom someone gains by being a careful observer of the world, not the kind someone gains from carefully studying the wisdom of God in the Word of God. It’s not bad wisdom; it’s just (as we’ll see) insufficient wisdom.
This is the culturally religious and the altruistic agnostic. This is the generational farmer and the thoughtful grandma. It’s the person who is careful to live according to things as they really are on the horizontal level. It’s the Jordan Petersons or the J.K. Rowlings.
The Mad
The second observed group was the mad. This is the third time the Preacher used the word madness; another familiar idea in Ecclesiastes. And as I’ve mentioned each time, it is a madness of morality, not sanity. He was not watching the insane, the crazy. He was watching the lives of those who lived according to their base desires; according to the desires of their flesh. The Preacher observed those characterized by immorality.
This is most of Hollywood and late high school – 20 something guys.
The Fool
And the third group explicitly named by the Preacher is the fool. Like madness, this is the third time he has made reference to folly. Folly is different than madness in that it is more about being determined to choose one’s own path than it is about conscious, willful rebellion. Fools don’t think of themselves as rebels, just as rightly confident in having discovered a better path. Fools are wise in their own eyes (and only in their own eyes).
This is the godless wealthy and well educated. This is the arrogant atheist. It is Jr. High boys. It’s the confident advocate of any world in which Christ is not King.
The Preacher watched an untold number of people whom he determined to be living lives of wisdom, madness, and folly, and did his best to keep track of how it went for them. As we’ll see, he ends up lumping the mad and the fool into the same category. Some have called it “mad fools”. Without explicitly saying so, it seems that through his observations, the Preacher recognized that there really are only two ways to live—the way of wisdom and the various ways of folly.
At the end of v.12 he mused, “For what can the man do who comes after the king? Only what has already been done.” To be honest, trying to work through this clause on my own and then wading through the commentators’ attempts was somewhat dizzying. It’s a hard passage to translate and a harder passage to interpret.
In the end, I think the gist of it is this: “I, the Preacher, considered many people who were wise, many who were mad, and many who were fools. I did so to determine which, if any, of these groups of people lived the most satisfied, meaningful lives. Having done so, you can trust my conclusions because I used all my unmatched wisdom and kingly resources to answer that question. And for that reason, everyone who follows, anyone who repeats my efforts, anyone who tries to answer the same questions, will only be doing what I’ve already done, but in a less-informed, less-thorough, and less-rigorous way. I am giving you the final word on the subject. Trust the science”
With that kind of personal endorsement, we’re right to wonder what conclusions he came to. What were the results of his considerations?
THE RESULTS (13-17)
The Preacher came to three main conclusions: (1) There are important differences between the wise and the mad fool, (2) The wise and the mad fool experience the same things in the end, and (3) All is still vanity, which the Preacher despised. Let’s consider each from the text.
There Are Important Differences Between the Wise and the Fool (13-14a)
In verses 13-14 the Preacher speaks to a couple of differences between the wise and the fool. Look at v.13.
13 Then I saw that there is more gain in wisdom than in folly, as there is more gain in light than in darkness.
The wise are different than fools in that there is more (or a certain type of) gain in wisdom than folly. There is more to gain in the sense that life generally goes better for those who walk according to well-grounded wisdom than it does for those who continually reject that path or invent their own. And that, in the same way that it is better to walk in the (literal, not moral) light than the darkness.
It’s easy to prove this obvious point. We just need two volunteers; one to run through the fellowship hall as fast as you can, with all the tables, chairs, spilled crayons, walls, and doors in the total dark of night and another to do so in the full light of day. Who do you think is going to fare better? The answer, as we all know, is the one who does so in the day.
I remember being a foolish teenager at a ski resort. We got our hands on some sleds one night and decided to try to bomb the back of a ski hill with them. It was awesome for about 25 yards and then I hit a large, sharp rock. It tore my pants and cut my leg pretty severely at the knee. I honestly can’t believe that I didn’t break my leg. It left a scar for many years.
The thing is, it was dark enough that night that I couldn’t even really see what I’d hit. It wasn’t until we went back the next day and saw how ridiculous it was. In fact, in the light of day, I saw that I was probably lucky to have hit the rock since it only got worse from there. If I’d seen the hill in daylight, I’d never have tried to sled down it.
With that kind of picture in mind, the Preacher concluded, “14 The wise person has his eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness…”.
In considering the lives of the wise and the fool, the Preacher saw that it was like comparing those who walk in the light vs. the dark. There is almost always a more desirable outcome for those who walk in wisdom and light (who have eyes to see), than for those who walk in folly and dark (who are blind). Often, it’s not all that close.
You’ve experienced the same thing, right? You have found, like the Preacher, that in general…
Proverbs 12:4 An excellent wife is the crown of her husband, but she who brings shame is like rottenness in his bones.
And
Proverbs 12:8 A man is commended according to his good sense, but one of twisted mind is despised.
And
Proverbs 12:11 Whoever works his land will have plenty of bread, but he who follows worthless pursuits lacks sense.
And
Proverbs 12:18 There is one whose rash words are like sword thrusts, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.
And
Proverbs 12:24 The hand of the diligent will rule, while the slothful will be put to forced labor.
And
Proverbs 13:18 Poverty and disgrace come to him who ignores instruction, but whoever heeds reproof is honored.
Things don’t always work out like this, but they usually do. This world ordinarily works like this.
Again, the Preacher’s first conclusion from his considerations was that there is an important difference between the wise and the fool—there is more gain in living a life of under-the-sun wisdom than one of folly.
At the Same Time, the Wise and the Mad-Fool Experience the Same Things in the End (14b-16)
That kind of sounds like progress, doesn’t it? In 1:17-18 he declared, “I applied my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also is but a striving after wind. 18 For in much wisdom is much vexation, and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow.”
In 2:13-14a, after a second consideration of the three, he sounds more optimistic, doesn’t he?
Well, sort of. At the same time, though, he also observed that the wise and the fool experience the same things in the end. When it matters most, every ends up dead and forgottenness.
Death. Regardless of whatever increased, short-term gain someone might get from living in the light of wisdom,
14 … yet I perceived that the same event happens to all of them. 15 Then I said in my heart, “What happens to the fool will happen to me also. Why then have I been so very wise?” 16 … How the wise dies just like the fool!
The “same event” is death. Everyone dies, no matter what they do in this life. The wisest and the foolishest both, eventually, end up as dust in the ground.
The fact that the Preacher was wiser and richer and more powerful than anyone before him in Israel did nothing to change the fact that he would (and did) die just like the most foolish, poorest, and weakest person.
The Preacher discovered that in the length of time it takes for a puff of smoke to dissipate, every man, woman, and child will die. We’re not here, then we’re here for a short while in a harsh world, and then we die; everyone, always, without exception.
Forgottenness. But it gets worse. Not only do we all meet the same fate in death, but before long, no matter what we do in this world, we’re all forgotten—wise and fool alike; much gain or little; powerful or weak.
16 For of the wise as of the fool there is no enduring remembrance, seeing that in the days to come all will have been long forgotten…
In a far more poetic and succinct way than I’m able, one commentator summarizes the Preacher’ second conclusion, “If one fate comes to all, and that fate is extinction (forgotten in death), it robs every man of his dignity and every project of its point” (Kidner, TME, 34).
Just like that, what appeared to be a crack in the Preacher’s vexation, what appeared to be a ray of light in the tunnel, all but vanished.
Have you ever felt like that? Has it ever seemed to you that it just doesn’t matter what you do? Have you ever thought that everything is simply out of your control and heading toward something regardless of whatever attempts you might make to steer things differently? Oh, how futile it can all feel. And the Preacher, who examined this more than anyone, felt it deep in his bones.
But the Preacher wasn’t done. He has one more main conclusion to share from his considerations. Look at the second half of v.16.
All Is Still Vanity (16-17)
16 And I said in my heart that this also is vanity.
In the end, then, the Preacher came to the same conclusion he had each previous time–vanity. His third attempt led to the exact same conclusion that his first two did. What started out looking like it had promise, eventually ended in the same place.
As you all know, hard things happen in life. One thing that can help mitigate the difficulty of a hardship is hope in a solution. What’s often even more comforting is a number of possible solutions.
In order to really feel the weight of the Preacher’s next words, we need to imagine a real hardship—being diagnosed with some significant ailment, a serious relational strain, paying for a piece of land that you later find out cannot support a septic system, losing your job, etc.
Now imagine that after coming to grips with the reality of the hardship, you start to put together a list of ways to overcome it—and it really does seem like there are a number of possible (maybe even probable) solutions. Then you order the possible solutions from most likely to least and you begin to try them out.
If the first one, the most likely in your estimation, fails, it’s frustrating, but not that big of a deal since you have several more good possibilities. But as the second and third fail, and as the remaining ones decrease in probability of success, what do you think? How do you feel?
This was the case for the Preacher. He lacked a sense of meaning and significance in his life. He made a list of possible ways to find meaning and significance, but one by one they failed to the point that…
17 So I hated life, because what is done under the sun was grievous to me, for all is vanity and a striving after wind.
Rather than taking a more positive step, the Preacher seems to have taken one large step back.
Living according to wisdom, madness, and folly, living under the sun, is no better than hedonism or understanding. It’s all mystery. It’s all enigma. None of it makes much sense. None of those things make life predictable or allow a person to really shape their lives, much less the end of their lives. No matter what you do under the sun, nothing is really in your control and it all funnels to the same place in the end. It’s hard to imagine something more frustrating than that.
Indeed, the Preacher “hated life.” All of life under the sun was “grievous” to him. Everything that he reached for was impossible to grasp, as if he was continually trying to shepherd the wind (“striving after wind”).
Again, let me ask, can you relate to the Preacher? Have you ever come to the point that you hated life, or at least certain aspects of it, because nothing really made sense? Nothing you did made things any better?
Your sickness just wouldn’t end.
Your marriage just wouldn’t heal.
Your kids just wouldn’t obey.
Your anxiety just wouldn’t lift.
Your loneliness just wouldn’t abate.
Your loved one just wouldn’t get better.
Your boss or coworker just wouldn’t let up on his criticism.
Your finances just wouldn’t get stable.
If you’ve felt what the Preacher felt because of these (or similar) things. Please listen carefully to my conclusion.
CONCLUSION
Once again, the Preacher was spot on in his evaluation and conclusions. There is nothing false in this passage. The flaw was not in the Preacher’s calculus. The flaw was in his methodology. The Preacher’s problem was that he needed to evaluate four groups, not just three. He left out of his study the most important group.
It really was like studying the cause of lung cancer among everyone but smokers, or looking for ice cubes everywhere but in the freezer, or trying to field a winning hockey team with everyone but people who know how to skate. It doesn’t matter that much how thorough your study is, if it’s missing the right subjects.
Again, the Preacher was right in concluding that all is vanity for the earthly wise, the mad, and the fool. But there really is another group. Had he studied that group, he would have found something entirely different. The fourth group, the missing group, is those who live according to the promises of God.
Under-the-sun wisdom, even the Proverbial wisdom of God, are good for their intended purpose, but their intended purpose was never to meet mankind’s deepest needs or answer our deepest questions. More than a way to make sense of this world, to find pleasure in this world, or to live in this world in a gianful way, we need to be forgiven of our sins, to be reconciled to God, and to learn to live according to the promises of God. That (and only that) is where the meaning and satisfaction the Preacher was (and we all are) seeking come from.
As we’ve seen, the Preacher did not have access to the full measure of the promises of God, but he did have enough to be made righteous by God and happy in God through hope in God. He did have enough to know that God promised to provide a way for mankind to be made right with Him. The Preacher couldn’t have known that was Jesus, but he should have known that his hope would come from the Savior God promised to send.
An example of that is found in Genesis 3:15, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”
The Prophets spoke of the promised Savior as well. We see a familiar example of that in Isaiah 7:14, “…the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.”
The Preacher, and most of the OT writers, had access to these promises and many more like it.
And yet, once again, although the Preacher didn’t have everything we have, he had enough for righteousness. That is why it can be said of Abraham that he “believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness” (Genesis 15:6; Romans 4:3).
We do not know how many men and women of genuine faith the Preacher might have considered in Israel at that time, but we do know (from Hebrews 11) that there were many faithful saints
Let’s close then, with a Hebrews 11 call to live, not (like the Preacher) according to our assessment of our circumstances, but in faith in the promises of God (like so many who had gone before and came after the Preacher). God does work in mysterious ways, but His promises are faithful guides through every mystery. And by living out of them, we can have what the Preacher missed.
Hebrews 11:13-16 These all died in faith [the faithful saints the Preacher would have known about and ought to have considered], not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. 14 For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. 15 If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.
The men and women who set their hope in the promises of God are the ones the Preacher ought to have considered. Just two chapters later in Hebrews we find the methodology the Preacher lacked, “Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith” (Hebrews 13:7).
We know that Jesus is the Savior God promised to send. We know that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. We know that there is genuine salvation and satisfaction in no other. And we know that for those who live according to the promises of God for us in Jesus, death is not the end and we will never be forgotten as God’s beloved sons and daughters.
The Preacher was so close. May we learn from his mistake and live according to the Word and promises of God as we turn in faith to Jesus.