(“The More I Learn, The Less I Understand”)¹

Ecclesiastes 8:14-17 (NASU)

(Ecclesiastes 8:16-17)

(A) PARADISE LOST

(1) The Garden of Eden must have been a wonderful place – not just in terms of physical beauty, but in terms of peace and harmony – in terms of true happiness and lasting satisfaction. If the Book of Revelation is any indication, it was a place without wants or fears – without grief or tears – without crying or pain – a place where neither spiritual nor physical death existed (c.f. Revelation 21:4, 8).

(2) The fallen world you and I live in is very different. It’s still filled with wonder and beauty – but it’s also filled with floods and famine – murder and adultery – disease and injuries – frustrations and heartaches – doubts and fears – and, of course, death in all its various forms. There’s greed and gluttony – drunkenness and divorce – immorality and poverty – wars and natural disasters – and a host of other things that fill our days with what Moses called, “labor and sorrow”, and cause us to “finish our years like a sigh” (c.f. Psalm 90:9-10. NKJV).

Indeed, were it not for the hope we have in Jesus Christ, we would either give in to despair or hedonism. As David once said, regarding the former: “I would have despaired unless I had believed … I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living” (c.f. Psalm 27:12) – while a less-inspired author referred to the latter when he said: “Men without God must have it all now, (before) ‘it’ (and they are) gone forever.”²

(3) Scripture says the hope we have in Christ (c.f. I Timothy 1:1b) is “an anchor (to our) soul(s)” (c.f. Hebrews 6:19a) – a hope that enables us to rejoice and persevere at the same time (c.f. Romans 12:11). That enables us to rejoice in God’s blessings, and the evidences of His grace – while also persevering in the midst of trouble – or as Solomon would say, in the midst of vanity and futility.

This kind of hope is something God only gives to His redeemed people (c.f. Psalm 62:5b; Job 8:13b) – which means, among other things, that the world of unsaved men and women have never experienced it – nor will they ever experience it, until or unless they repent of their sins and profess faith in Jesus Christ.

(4) Despite the hope we have in Christ, it would be dishonest for us Christians to say we’ve never been bothered by the inequities that are so prevalent in a fallen world³ – that we’ve never been perplexed by some of the vanities and futilities of life, like the one Solomon mentions in verse fourteen, where he says: “there are righteous men to whom it happens according to the deeds of the wicked … (and) evil men to whom it happens according to the deeds of the righteous” (c.f. Ecclesiastes 8:14). In other words, in a fallen world the righteous and wicked don’t always get what they deserve⁴ – sometimes those who are clothed in the righteousness of Christ aren’t rewarded for their integrity, while the wicked aren’t punished for their iniquity.⁵

(5) These inequities (and others like them) drove Solomon to use his wisdom to try and figure out what was going on – to try and understand what God was doing in the world. He eventually concluded, however (in verse seventeen), that: “man cannot discover the work which has been done under the sun” (c.f. Ecclesiastes 8:17) – that even the wisest man cannot “discover” WHAT God is up to, or even WHY He does certain things.

(6) As Christians, part of our hope is that some day God will set all accounts straight – that the day is coming when justice will be served – that one day “it will happen to the righteous according to their righteousness” (which is not really ours, but Christ’s!) – AND, “it will happen to the wicked according to their evil” (which IS their own, and no one else’s) (c.f. Ecclesiastes 8:14).

But, what are we to do until then? What are we to do while we wait for this portion of our hope to become reality? Solomon answered that question in verse fifteen, saying: “So I commended pleasure, for there is nothing good for a man under the sun except to eat and to drink and to be merry, and this will stand by him in his toils throughout the days of his life which God has given him under the sun” (c.f. Ecclesiastes 8:15).

(7) At first glance, it sounds as though Solomon has succumbed to hedonism – that instead of hoping in Christ, whom he would have known as the seed of Abraham and rightful heir to his father’s throne, (it sounds like) Solomon has adopted the pleasure-seeking philosophy of the rich fool in Luke chapter twelve, who said to his soul: “take your ease, eat, drink and be merry” (c.f. Luke 12:19b).

In fact, Solomon was doing NO SUCH THING – in part because He had already discovered (through personal experimentation) that hedonistic pursuits are ultimately nothing more than “vanity and striving after wind” (c.f. Ecclesiastes 2:1-11).

(8) What he’s actually saying in verse fifteen is this – despite the vanity and futility associated with living in a fallen world, we should enjoy the life God has chosen to give us. As Solomon said earlier – “There is nothing better for a man than to eat and drink and tell himself … his labor is good. This also I have seen that it is from the hand of God” (c.f. Ecclesiastes 2:24) – and again: “Here is what I have seen to be good and fitting: to eat, to drink and enjoy oneself in all one’s labor … under the sun during the few years of his life which God has given him; for this is his reward” (c.f. Ecclesiastes 5:18).

Edward Reynolds put it like this: “there is no better remedy for the present vexations of life, than to compose our hearts in a holy calmness and security … and with cheerfulness and thanksgiving, to enjoy the present blessing which (God’s) bounty has bestowed upon us.”⁶

(B) THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY

(1) Before Solomon came to that conclusion, however, he engaged in a protracted and intense investigation, saying in verse sixteen: “… I gave my heart to know wisdom and to see the task which has been done on the earth (even though one should never sleep day or night)” (c.f. Ecclesiastes 8:16).

(a) King Solomon already possessed great wisdom, thanks to God’s gracious answer to a prayer he offered at the beginning of his reign, saying in part: 9“give Your servant an understanding heart to judge Your people to discern between good and evil” – to which the Lord replied (in part): ^{12“Behold, I have given you a wise and discerning heart, so that there has been no one like you before you, nor shall one like you arise after you”} (c.f. I Kings 3:5-13).

So when Solomon says, “I gave my heart to know wisdom” (c.f. Ecclesiastes 8:16a), it means he poured his energy into the project at hand – that he brought all the powers and resources of his great, God-given wisdom (and wealth) to bear on the question that was bothering him. As one writer said, he “applied his mind and made it his business”⁷ to find an answer, and/or understand the matter.

(b) Solomon describes the subject he investigated with such energy and intensity as: “the task which has been done on earth” (c.f. Ecclesiastes 8:16b) – nor is he merely talking about man’s “task on earth” – rather, he’s talking about what God is “doing on the earth”, as the first part of verse seventeen makes clear (c.f. Ecclesiastes 8:17a).

To put it another way, Solomon wanted to understand what God was doing, and why. Edward Reynolds, writing some four hundred years ago, put it very well when he said Solomon wanted to “discover and get a clear, distinct, and satisfying account of all the works of God’s providence in the world – to comprehend the reasons (behind God’s) administration and government thereof – to have a rational view of the … whole … of human affairs – to reconcile all the seeming absurdities and incongruities which appear in them – (and) to look exactly into the temperament and composition of (the) many infinite and contrary events, (that go into) making up … (each) exquisite and beautiful work.”⁷ As Solomon himself said back in chapter one: “I set my mind to seek and explore by wisdom concerning ALL that has been done under heaven” (c.f. Ecclesiastes 1:13a).

(2) It was an honorable (but utterly impossible) task Solomon set for himself – one ultimately doomed to fail, as he acknowledges in verse seventeen, saying: “(when) I saw every work of God, I concluded that man cannot discover the work which has been done under the sun. Even though man should seek laboriously, he will not discover; and though the wise man should say, ‘I know,’ he cannot discover” (c.f. Ecclesiastes 8:17).

(a) I’ve often told you that repetition is one of the ways Scripture draws our attention to truths that are especially important. For example, God’s holiness is emphasized by the familiar phrase: “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of hosts” (c.f. Isaiah 6:3; Revelation 4:8) – and when Jesus wanted people to pay special attention to something He was about to tell them, He prefaced His remarks by saying: “Truly, truly” (the old King James says, “Verily, verily”) (c.f. John 3;5; 6:47; 10:7; etc.).

(b) Hopefully you noticed, then, that Solomon repeats a certain phrase in verse seventeen three times – the phrase “cannot” or “will not discover” (c.f. Ecclesiastes 8:17). Moreover, the thing man “cannot discover” is the very thing Solomon poured his wisdom and wealth into investigating – namely, “the work which has been done under the sun” (c.f. Ecclesiastes 8:17b) – meaning, the work God is doing on the earth, and why! Even if a man threw himself into the task “day and night” and “never (slept)” (c.f. Ecclesiastes 8:16c), he would still not be able to “discover” (c.f. Ecclesiastes 8:17) (or understand, or comprehend) every aspect of the work God is doing on earth among men.

(c) Obviously Solomon isn’t saying men and women can’t understand ANYTHING God is doing, or why – for we know that’s not true. After all, Scripture says: “those who seek the Lord understand all things” (c.f. Proverbs 28:5b) (an example of hyperbole) – and again: “By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible” (c.f. Hebrews 11:3) – and once more: “since the creation of the world (God’s) invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made” (c.f. Romans 1:20).

One of God’s attributes is His omniscience – which means He knows everything there is to know. You and I reflect His “image” (c.f. Genesis 1:26-27) in this area in that we are capable of knowing – capable of acquiring knowledge, and remembering what we’ve learned, albeit to not perfectly – and certainly not omnisciently. As the Scripture says: “now we see in a mirror dimly” (but we do “see”) – “now (we) know in part” (but we do “know”) (c.f. I Corinthians 13:12).

(d) This is what Solomon came up against. Despite his wisdom he found that the finite cannot fully understand the Infinite – that no man (no matter how wise or how energetic, no matter how committed, or how great his resources may be) (no man) can fathom ALL the things God is doing,⁸ or why He does them. As one writer said: “what God has not revealed cannot be discovered by human wisdom, no matter how extensive a man’s knowledge or understanding may be.”⁹ That’s because Scripture says: “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons” (c.f. Deuteronomy 29:29). In other words, there are some things God has chosen to reveal to us – and these are the things we can learn and know. But there are many more things He has not chosen to reveal to us – and these are things we cannot “discover” (c.f. Ecclesiastes 8:17) no matter how hard we might try.

(e) Job once marveled at the power of God, saying in part that: 7“He stretches out the north over empty space and hangs the earth on nothing. 8He wraps up the waters in His clouds, and the cloud does not burst under them. 9He obscures the face of the full moon and spreads His cloud over it. 10He has inscribed a circle on the surface of the waters at the boundary of light and darkness” – and then he says: 14“Behold, these are the fringes of His ways; and how faint a word we hear of Him! But His mighty thunder, who can understand?”(c.f. Job 26:7-14). In other words, what we see (as great as it is!) only represents a tiny fraction of His power!

In the same way, what we do understand of God’s “works” – what mankind has been able to “discover” (c.f. Ecclesiastes 8:17) through science and exploration is just “the fringes of” (c.f. Job 26:14a) what He’s doing – just a tiny fraction of His “work under the sun” (c.f. Ecclesiastes 8:17)! Furthermore, when it comes to “discovering” the reasons thereof⁷ (as Reynolds put it), that fraction is even smaller!

(f) Scripture contains many passages having to do with man’s inability to “discover” the work God is doing under the sun (c.f. Ecclesiastes 8:17). Here are some examples.

In the Book of Job, Zophar asks rhetorically: 7“Can you discover the depths of God? (No!) Can you discover the limits of the Almighty? (No! Why not? Because) 8They are high as the heavens, what can you do? Deeper than Sheol, what can you know?” (c.f. Job 11:7-8). Later, Elihu asks: “Why do you complain against (God) that He does not give an account of all His doings?” (c.f. Job 33:13) – and then he adds: “God … (does) great things which we cannot comprehend” (c.f. Job 37:5b). In other words, even if God did “give us an account of all His doings”, we wouldn’t be able to understand a tenth of it – for as Job himself said: “(God) does great and unsearchable things, wonders without number” (c.f. Job 5:9).

In the Book of Psalms, Solomon’s father (David) said of God: “Your judgments are like a great deep” (c.f. Psalm 36:6b). The comparison is still good today. For despite advances in knowledge and technology, man has not yet fully explored the “depths” of the oceans – indeed, he can’t because the pressures are so great he (and whatever vessel he might be in) would be crushed. How much less, then, has man been able to explore the “depths” of God’s works and ways?! Hence, another psalmist wrote: “How great are Your works, O Lord! Your thoughts are very deep” (c.f. Psalm 92:5).

In the Book of Isaiah we’re reminded that God’s ways and ours are quite different.⁸ Specifically, our Sovereign says: 8“‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,’ declares the Lord. 9‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts” (c.f. Isaiah 55:8-9). In other words, what God does – and how He does it – stands in a completely different category that’s beyond our reach!⁸

(g) One thing true wisdom teaches a man is that in a fallen world there are some questions for which no finite mind can find the answer¹⁰ – that in a fallen world, man’s ignorance is far greater than his knowledge – that his confusion far outstrips his comprehension – especially when it comes to God and the “work He does under the sun” (c.f. Ecclesiastes 8:17). This fact led Charles Bridges to write that “the most profound inquirer can only stand upon the ocean’s shore, and cry: “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways” (c.f. Romans 8:33)!

(h) Let us rejoice, then, in what God HAS revealed to us regarding Himself, His works, and even (to some extent) the reason why He does some of things He does. BUT, let us also bow in awe and submission before Him¹ regarding all the things we do not know, and “will not discover” (c.f. Ecclesiastes 8:17) this side of heaven.

Let us enjoy the life He has given us (c.f. Ecclesiastes 8:15) – and leave the “secret things” (c.f. Deuteronomy 29:29) He has chose to keep from us to His wise and holy purposes.

Let us strive to learn all we can about Him – from creation – His inspired written word – and the One who is “the exact representation of His nature” (c.f. Hebrews 1:3a). Let us rejoice in what He enables us to learn – and not worry about all the things we “cannot discover” (c.f. Ecclesiastes 8:17). For what we DO know – and can know – is enough to keep us worshipping Him and serving Him, with awe and reverence, all the days of life!

1 Keddie: The Guide – Ecclesiastes; p. 232.

2 IBID; p. 230.

3 IBID; p. 231.

4 The New Geneva Study Bible: Footnote on Ecclesiastes 8:14; p. 997.

5 Longman: The New International Commentary on the Old Testament; The Book of Ecclesiastes; p. 220.

6 Reynolds: A Commentary on the Book of Ecclesiastes; p.181.

7 IBID: p. 182.

8 Pritchard: Something New Under the Sun; p. 224.

9 Morris: The Remarkable Wisdom of Solomon; p. 214.

10 Unger: Unger’s Commentary on the Old Testament; Vol. I; p. 1095.