Ecclesiastes 7:23

SOLOMON'S DESIRE TO PROVE WHAT GOD HAD SAID

"All this have I proved in wisdom; I said, I will be wise; but it was far from me. That which is, is far off and exceeding deep; who can find it out? I turned about, and my heart was set to know and to search out, and to seek wisdom and the reason of things, and to know that wickedness is folly, and that foolishness is madness."

"But it was far from me" (Ecclesiastes 7:23). Why would the wisest man of his day have failed to find wisdom? He was searching for it by 'experience,' rather than trusting God for the truth. "This line is an honest confession of Solomon's failure to find wisdom,"[32] and the failure was due to his method of seeking it. "He found out here that wisdom (derived from earthly experience) cannot answer the ultimate questions."[33]

"My heart was set to search out ... and to know (find out) that wickedness is folly, etc." (Ecclesiastes 7:24). Instead of taking God's Word for it that the multiplication of wives to himself and the acquisition of horses from Egypt, and all such things, were both wickedness and folly, Solomon here announced his purpose of `proving' whether or not all this was the truth. He found out, all right; but in doing so he lost his relationship with God, was seduced into paganism, and laid the foundation for the destruction of Israel. Today, there are men who take this same approach. They will try everything out for themselves; they will discover their own religion; they will choose what is wise, etc., etc. Barton, in these verses, credited the author of having actually found out that, "Wickedness is folly, and that folly is madness";[34] but that information came from God, not from Solomon's experience."