The Meaning of Life Part 3


The Meaning of Life Part 3 - Musing From Ecclesiastes


Question - Is the Pursuit of Wisdom and an Education the Meaning of Life?






Recall when the question is asked “What is the meaning of Life”, one of these five responses usually is given 

  1. Get Wisdom – Fill Your Mind, 

  2. To Be Happy, Have Pleasure, The Pursuit of Happiness - Fill Your Soul and Body 

  3. To Have Wealth, Money and Power – Fill Your Pocket and Status, 

  4. To Serve Others and Your Fellow Man – Fill Your Conscience, and 

  5. To Be a Good Person, Religious, Spiritual, Pious – Fill Your Spirit. 

First up – Wisdom. Is the meaning of life to get wisdom? This nominee espouses the virtue of getting an education, not being foolish, or living foolishly. She says if you do so, you would find meaning.

The question is will it truly be long lasting?  Will it overcome pointlessness? The key is can wisdom free us from the rut of short term gains, that really does nothing much to change the pointlessness in the long term? 

Let’s see. Are there any advantages of wisdom?

Certainly. First wisdom is better than being foolish just as light is better than darkness [Eccl. 2:13-16]. It is better to heed a wise man’s rebuke than to listen to the song of fools [Eccl. 7:6]. And if you look at the pop charts and hip hop, there are a lot of fools singing and a lot of foolish songs, and people still listen. 

Any further advantages? Wisdom is like a rich inheritance. It is a shelter like money is and it preserves the life of its possessor. There are extremely good benefits to wisdom. [Eccl 7:11-12] It makes one man more powerful that ten rules in a city [Eccl. 7:19]. Solomon marveled at an example of this.

[Eccl 9:13-18] “I also saw under the sun this example of wisdom that greatly impressed me: 14 There was once a small city with only a few people in it. And a powerful king came against it, surrounded it and built huge siege works against it. 15 Now there lived in that city a man poor but wise, and he saved the city by his wisdom.” 

So it is worth having wisdom (and we will see there is some worth with the other candidates such as, happiness, pleasure, wealth, serving others and being religious or spiritual). But whether it is worth to have is really not the question. The real question is whether it can qualify as the meaning of life to overcome long term pointlessness. 


• Let’s go back to the example of the poor man saving his city by his wisdom.


[Eccl. 7:15-18] “But nobody remembered that poor man. 16 So I said, "Wisdom is better than strength." But the poor man's wisdom is despised, and his words are no longer heeded. 17 The quiet words of the wise are more to be heeded than the shouts of a ruler of fools. 18 Wisdom is better than weapons of war, but one sinner destroys much good.” 


Ahhhh, even wisdom as worthwhile as it is succumbs to pointlessness and to vanity in the long run. In this case it cannot overcome the vanity of “Nothing lasts forever”. 


The city was saved now, but in the future it would fall because his words are no longer heeded. No one remembers him. One president can be great but another president can run the country underground. Wisdom cannot overcome the vanities of “Nothing is really different” and the “Certainty of Death”. For while wisdom is better than folly, in days to come both the fool and the wise will both be forgotten. 


Like the fool, the wise man too must die [Eccl 2:15-16]. You work hard and while you desire to leave your investments and assets to those who come after you, you have no idea if that person or your kids will be wise or a fool. It can lead to anxiousness and grief [Eccl 2:17-23]. Just getting wisdom and knowledge can come with much sorrow and grief. It is like chasing wind [Eccl. 1:14-18]. It is a blessing and a curse. Everybody always seems to call on you for an answer or to help. Your heart is always grave because you can see through things but it seems that the fools are always laughing life off or having all the pleasures without the consequences [Eccl. 7:4-7]. The problem with gathering all this knowledge, all this education, all this wisdom is that, while you have a keen sense of the proper time and procedure for a matter and you can cut to the real issue, you have no idea of the future and what is to come. With all the wisdom, you have no power over the wind, when an emergency occurs of the day or your death. [Eccl. 8:1-8; 10:12-14]. Finally after a lifetime of getting wisdom, extortion can turn a wise man into a fool, and a moment of indiscretion can corrupt the heart. [Eccl 7:7]. As dead files give good perfume a bad smell, a little folly can outdo a lifetime of wisdom and honor. What are really the long term advantages when fools can be put in many high positions while the wise languish?[Eccl. 10:1-7]


• Perhaps we should conclude, in the natural like Solomon, that getting wisdom only has short term benefits. [Eccl 2:24-16] “24 A man can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his work. This too, I see, is from the hand of God, 25 for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment? 26 To the man who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.” 


Yet we get a hint at what would make something perhaps meaningful. It is found in [Eccl 7:23-8:8], that is, while trying to understand both wisdom and folly (and finding out in the process, that death is better than a woman who is a snare), it is the man who pleases God will escape the scheme of things. [Eccl 7:29] “This only have I found: God made mankind upright, but men have gone in search of many schemes." Is it possible that we have stumble on the possibility that life has meaning? We will explore later.


Conclusion: Wisdom – As contender for the meaning of life you are found wanting. You may be advantageous to have but those advantages cannot overcome the certainty of Death, the rut of Time, the Apparent Activity that in the long term even wisdom can;'t escape the, "It is wearisome, the Nothing is really Different " syndrome.  It cannot escape the reality that under the sun Nothing Lasts Forever and the problem of Evil/ Corruption. 


• Next Candidate – The Pursuit of Happiness and Pleasure: Wine Women and Song. Eat Drink and Be Merry. Drink ah rum and a punch a crème… Ah Fêting tonight!!!

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