Ecclesiastes 1:16-18

Rachel Workman: ¹⁶ I said to myself, “Look, I am wiser than any of the kings who ruled in Jerusalem before me. I have greater wisdom and knowledge than any of them.” ¹⁷ 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.

¹⁸ The greater my wisdom, the greater my grief.
    To increase knowledge only increases sorrow.

Again, seems to fit today perfectly. The greater my wisdom, the greater my grief. I know plenty of smart people who reject Christ because they think they are so much smarter than Christians. Oh the grief and sorrow that awaits them.

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John Burnett:  I ^[a]said to myself, “Behold, I have magnified and increased wisdom more than all who were over Jerusalem before me; and my ^[b]mind has observed ^[c]a wealth of wisdom and knowledge.” ¹⁷ And I set my ^[d]mind to know wisdom and to know madness and folly; I realized that this also is striving after wind. ¹⁸ Because in much wisdom there is much grief, and increasing knowledge results in increasing pain.  Solomon wrote Ecclesiastes somewhere around 930 BC but his understanding of wisdom and knowledge is so fitting for today.  Those who think they are wise by the worlds standards are actually condemned by God’s standards.  Depending on one’s knowledge is what the Bible calls self-righteousness.  The grief and pain will come when they realize they have fallen short and will have to pay for those sins they the refused to call sin because they declared themselves to be good people and righteous. 

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Tomorrow’s reading for Ecclesiastes 2:1-4

2 I said to myself, “Come on, let’s try pleasure. Let’s look for the ‘good things’ in life.” But I found that this, too, was meaningless. ² So I said, “Laughter is silly. What good does it do to seek pleasure?” ³ After much thought, I decided to cheer myself with wine. And while still seeking wisdom, I clutched at foolishness. In this way, I tried to experience the only happiness most people find during their brief life in this world.