The Foolish Wise Man

When Solomon set out to research the roots of human behavior, he started by getting the finest education available in his day. Despite that fantastic education, however, there was still an emptiness in his life. He wrote, "So I set out to learn everything from wisdom to madness and folly. But I learned firsthand that pursuing all this is like chasing the wind" (Ecclesiastes 1:17). Why was that? Because Solomon sought wisdom without God, and that left him empty. It always will.

Academic pursuit wasn’t doing it for Solomon, so he decided to check his brains at the door and just party. He concluded, "Laughter is silly. What good does it do to seek pleasure?" (Ecclesiastes 2:2). Then Solomon became a wine connoisseur and got into every kind of alcoholic drink he could think of. But he saw how empty that was too.

Solomon shifted gears again. With unlimited resources at his disposal, he decided to build the coolest palaces and the most lavish homes ever seen. But even that, he concluded, was empty.

Like Solomon, so many people today think God doesn’t know what He’s talking about. They have to go out and learn everything the hard way. How many more people will have to make this mistake? How many more marriages will be destroyed? How many more children will be deprived of both parents? How many more lives will be destroyed by substance abuse? How many more people will choose to simply chase after material things and never think of others?

Don’t waste your life as Solomon did. He self-destructed, but in the end he came around. That is why he had something to say to all of us in Ecclesiastes. It is his account of what he learned the hard way. Solomon was indeed the foolish wise man.