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The sore travail of the age is clarion-tongued in its call for Christ. The whole creation
groaneth and travaileth, waiting for the coming of the Prince of peace. "I will overturn,
overturn, overturn, until He come whose right it is." It is for the believer to be spared the
fruitless agony of the gospel of reform, and to fret not himself because of evil doers,
because of him that bringeth wicked devices to pass, but to roll his burden upon the Lord,
and wait patiently for Him.
#8.
The search for "that good" (1: 16 - 2: 3).
pp. 81 - 83
In the opening verse (1: 13) the Preacher tells us he gave his "heart" to the search
concerning the sore travail of men. In the verses that follow, we can see how his heart
went out into all the avenues of human suffering, pleasure and experience in his
endeavour to discover "what is that good?"
A1
|
I communed with mine own heart.
B1
| Greatness and wisdom.
A2 |
My heart.
B2
| Great experience of wisdom and knowledge.
A3 |
I gave my heart.
B3
| Wisdom, madness, folly, grief, sorrow.
A4 |
I said in mine heart.
B4
| Mirth, pleasure mad.
C1 | What doeth it?
A5 | I sought in mine heart.
B5 | Wine, folly.
C2 | What was that good which they should do?
Koheleth had gotten wisdom more than all that had been before him in Jerusalem. His
heart also had "great experience of wisdom and knowledge". He had not only possessed
but he had used his gift. The word experience is given in the margin "seen much". It is
variously translated in Ecclesiastes, viz., "to see", "enjoy", "perceive", "consider",
"behold". Nevertheless Koheleth realized the unplumbed depths that surrounded him.
So with all his wisdom and experience of it, he gave his heart "to know wisdom and to
know madness and folly". In many points chapter 7: echoes these opening verses.
There he shows that his experiences have taught a needful lesson:--
"I said, I will be wise; but it was far from me. That which is far off and exceeding
deep who can find it out? I applied mine heart to know and to search and to seek out
wisdom, and the reason of things, and to know the wickedness of folly, even of
foolishness and madness."
Here Koheleth indicates that by wisdom some things cannot be fathomed, and this is
more positively taught in 8: 16, 17:--