Ecclesiastes 1:12-18

 

Book Overview

Extra Bible Project Video (Wisdom)
Series Setup

A Miserable Task?

  • Who in your life would you consider wise? What makes them wise in your eyes?

“The Teacher” let’s us know a little bit about himself: he’s a king over Israel who applied himself to figure out the wisdom of everything happening under heaven.

  • This might seem like a silly question to ask, but what is wisdom?

  • How does someone gain wisdom and/or become wise?

    • Why does this Teacher say that exploring and examining everything under heaven is a task given by God?

      • …and why is gaining wisdom a miserable task according to him?

The Sorrow of Wisdom, Grief of Knowledge

The Teacher says that this misery can literally show up as sorrow or grief as our awareness of the world and how it works grows.

  • Have you found this to be true about yourself? What about the world as a whole? Why or why not?

    • Are sorrow and misery the only things that increase with wisdom and knowledge? Is there anything good?

  • Read Proverbs 8. This proverb “humanizes” wisdom itself as a woman. How does this chapter - traditionally attributes to King Solomon, as well! - speak of wisdom?

    • How can you mesh Ecclesiastes and Proverbs 8 together? Are they “in conversation” with one another?

  • Read Ephesians 1:8, 1:17, 3:10; Colossians 1:9, 2:3, 3:16; 2 Timothy 3:15. How does the New Testament speak of wisdom?

    • Is there a different between a wisdom about the world, from the world, that only knows the world and a wisdom about the world, from the Lord, that knows what God has done, is doing, and will do?

    • How does Jesus let us see all the misery, grief, and sorrow of the world like in Ecclesiastes, but also embody the wisdom we hear about in Proverbs 8?

 
EcclesiastesScott O'Donohoe