The End of the Wise and Foolish

Ecclesiastes 2:12-26

12 Then I turned myself to consider wisdom and madness and folly;
For what can the man do who succeeds the king?—
Only what he has already done.

13 Then I saw that wisdom excels folly
As light excels darkness.

14 The wise man's eyes are in his head,
But the fool walks in darkness.
Yet I myself perceived
That the same event happens to them all.

15 So I said in my heart,
"As it happens to the fool,
It also happens to me,
And why was I then more wise?"
Then I said in my heart,
"This also is vanity."

16 For there is no more remembrance of the wise than of the fool forever,
Since all that now is will be forgotten in the days to come.
And how does a wise man die?
As the fool!

17 Therefore I hated life because the work that was done under the sun was distressing to me, for all is vanity and grasping for the wind.

18 Then I hated all my labor in which I had toiled under the sun, because I must leave it to the man who will come after me. 19 And who knows whether he will be wise or a fool? Yet he will rule over all my labor in which I toiled and in which I have shown myself wise under the sun. This also is vanity. 20 Therefore I turned my heart and despaired of all the labor in which I had toiled under the sun. 21 For there is a man whose labor is with wisdom, knowledge, and skill; yet he must leave his heritage to a man who has not labored for it. This also is vanity and a great evil. 22 For what has man for all his labor, and for the striving of his heart with which he has toiled under the sun? 23 For all his days are sorrowful, and his work burdensome; even in the night his heart takes no rest. This also is vanity.

24 Nothing is better for a man than that he should eat and drink, and that his soul should enjoy good in his labor. This also, I saw, was from the hand of God. 25 For who can eat, or who can have enjoyment, more than I? 26 For God gives wisdom and knowledge and joy to a man who is good in His sight; but to the sinner He gives the work of gathering and collecting, that he may give to him who is good before God. This also is vanity and grasping for the wind.

This lament in the reflections of the preacher seems to show there is only futility and emptiness in both the wise and unwise as he considered wisdom and madness and folly, but that is from the perspective of earthly rewards and not of the eternal.  Though we all face many of the same unpleasant things in life, we do want to walk in the wisdom of God’s light and not in the darkness of foolishness and willful ignorance.  Wisdom far exceeds folly as light shines in the darkness and is not overtaken by it (John 1:5, 3:19-21).  When Solomon was downtrodden at the prospect of who would succeed him as king, he thought all his labor was in vain because that one would only do the same things as he at best, and therefore it all just seemed pointless.  What advantages had wisdom over madness and folly, he wondered in his meditations.  He pondered the question of how could he be more wise than the fool if the same fate awaited them both.  This question was not able to be framed in God’s mercy and unmerited favor which the Messiah would bring; apart from Christ, we truly do love pointless lives of no reward or differentiation from folly and madness in our own wisdom.  We need the mind of Christ by being in Him and the lasting wisdom of His word to have hope (1 Peter 1:3, 13, Romans 5:5, 8:24-25) in all our labors of sanctification towards holiness in lasting wisdom in this understanding.  There is hope in whatever happens to us in life which also befalls the unrighteous who love for folly.  It is not vanity or chasing after wind which cannot be grasped, but the ability to lay hold of wisdom must originate with God’s work in and for us.  Whether others in this life remember us or what we did is not our eternal legacy, for it is all written in a book which the Lord keeps for our remembrance past our deaths.  That is what matters.  If we just believe that all we ever have is what we work for for the here and now, is is very distressing and hopeless.  We leave all our earthly legacies behind for others to misuse or forget, including our human wisdom and philosophy we accumulate.  Yes, even our labor’s fruits for wisdom, knowledge, and skill is a burden lost at death apart from an eternal perspective and purpose.  Should we just eat and drink and enjoy life with no thoughts of anything else because it appears we have no earthly advantage over the sinners who do not seek these things?  No.  We should live for the Lord in pleasing Him and finding hope and peace in following to lay up treasures in heaven, knowing that true wisdom found outside of ourselves is more than enough.  We do not run after the wind which we cannot catch, but the hope laid before us (Colossians 1:5-6)!  The end of the wise and foolish are not the same.  Our labors in Christ do matter after our death.