12 I, the Teacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem. 13 And I set my mind to seek and explore by wisdom all that is done under heaven. What a heavy burden God has laid upon the sons of men to occupy them!

14 I have seen all the things that are done under the sun, and have found them all to be futile, a pursuit of the wind.

15 What is crooked cannot be straightened,
and what is lacking cannot be counted.

16 I said to myself, “Behold, I have grown and increased in wisdom beyond all those before me who were over Jerusalem, and my mind has observed a wealth of wisdom and knowledge.”

17 So I set my mind to know wisdom and madness and folly; I learned that this, too, is a pursuit of the wind.

18 For with much wisdom comes much sorrow,
and as knowledge grows, grief increases.

REFLECTIONS

Written by Stephen Shead

On Monday, I raised the question of who wrote Ecclesiastes. For some people, the answer is simple: King Solomon wrote it. In verse 1, he was introduced as “the Teacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.” Here he repeats that, and also describes his great wisdom – which Solomon was famous for (1 Kings 3, 10).

But if Solomon did write it, there are some major puzzles. The name “Solomon” never appears. More puzzling is verse 12: “I, the Teacher, WAS king over Israel.” Why the past tense? Solomon ruled Israel until his death. Then in verse 16 he says, “I have grown and increased in wisdom beyond all those before me who were over Jerusalem” – but there was only one Israelite king who ruled in Jerusalem before Solomon: his father David. Finally, after chapters 1 and 2 there is nothing in the rest of the book that suggests or sounds like it is Solomon – in fact, several passages sound like an ordinary man who has seen and experienced harsh treatment from kings (e.g., 5:8-9; 10:5-6).

Now, Solomon might have been “the Teacher” – that wouldn’t be a problem. But I think it is more likely that the Teacher was a much later wise man who was exploring the limits of the kind of wisdom we find in Proverbs. In chapters 1 and 2 he does that by adopting the persona of Solomon – role-playing being the wisest king in history who wrote many proverbs . If so, he wasn’t trying to trick anyone – Solomon had been dead for many years. His point was to show that not even someone with even Solomon’s famed wisdom could find anything truly lasting in human endeavours “under the sun.”

The problem with purely human wisdom is that it lets you understand what’s wrong with the world, but that doesn’t mean you can fix it! So growing wiser might just increase your sadness and grief (v 18). But God’s wisdom is not just his perfect knowledge, it is also his goodness and his power to save; and God has unveiled his saving wisdom in the cross of Jesus. That’s why Paul says that Christ Jesus “has become for us wisdom from God: our righteousness, holiness, and redemption” (1 Cor. 1:30). Ask God to both give you the wisdom you need for life, and to rest in his far greater wisdom in Jesus.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Stephen is our Senior Minister