Ecclesiastes 1:13 And I applied my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven. It is an unhappy business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with.

I want to talk about what we get busy doing.

1 Kings 3:5-12

5 At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night, and God said, “Ask what I shall give you.” 6 And Solomon said, “You have shown great and steadfast love to your servant David my father, because he walked before you in faithfulness, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart toward you. And you have kept for him this great and steadfast love and have given him a son to sit on his throne this day. 7 And now, O Lord my God, you have made your servant king in place of David my father, although I am but a little child. I do not know how to go out or come in. 8 And your servant is in the midst of your people whom you have chosen, a great people, too many to be numbered or counted for multitude. 9 Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, that I may discern between good and evil, for who is able to govern this your great people?”

10 It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this. 11 And God said to him, “Because you have asked this, and have not asked for yourself long life or riches or the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right, 12 behold, I now do according to your word. Behold, I give you a wise and discerning mind, so that none like you has been before you and none like you shall arise after you.

God granted Solomon the wisdom required to rule Israel. God did not grant Solomon the wisdom to rule his own life. All we have to do is read Ecclesiastes to discover the torment of Solomon’s personal life.

Ecclesiastes 1:14 I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind.

Vanity is defined as emptiness as to results. We get busy trying to make ourselves happy and in the end all our striving ends up being “an unhappy business”.

Solomon used the wisdom granted him to build the greatest and most successful Israel that ever existed. It was his personal life that brought national division and ruin.

1 Kings 11:1-3 Now King Solomon loved many foreign women, along with the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women, from the nations concerning which the Lord had said to the people of Israel, “You shall not enter into marriage with them, neither shall they with you, for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods.” Solomon clung to these in love. He had 700 wives, who were princesses, and 300 concubines. And his wives turned away his heart.

1 Corinthians 2:10 these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.

I know what I know because God has revealed it to me.

1 Corinthians 8:2 If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know.

Everything else is imagination. The root word of imagination is image. It is perception, how we “see” things, the mind’s interpretation of sensory input. When I had my stroke, the translation centers of my brain that renders optical signals from the eye and allows the brain to understand what is seen, I discovered I had blind spots due to dead brain cells. My translation was broken.

The mind is a wonderful tool and takes what is missing and fills in the blind spots to make sense of what is seen. One day as I looked at the trees in the distance at a curve in the road the trees parted like a curtain and a truck appeared through the opening. What I imagined was replaced by another image. Ahead on the road, following traffic, I saw an RV and as I approached that vehicle I discovered it was not an RV but rather a colorful box truck.

I had to learn not to trust what I saw until I was close enough to cause those blind spots to be small enough that they did not need to be filled in by my brain’s memories.

In the same way, I know what I know because the Holy Spirit reveals it to me and everything else is just my mind trying to make sense of what I do not know to be true.

Daniel 2:19 Then the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision of the night. Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven.

No matter how the truth is revealed to us, praise God. Blessed be our true God.

Matthew 16:15-17 English Standard Version

15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” 16 Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 17 And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.

Be not proud when we think we have it all figured out. God the Father alone reveals in our hearts that the Son is the Christ.

Again, intellect does not save us. God does. Our eyes can deceive us.