The world holds great hope for the increase of knowledge, the increase of education and in an earthly way, it certainly does have that hope, But my question this morning is—is greater education and more knowledge key to our progress?

Key to a fulfilled life? Key to a better society?

Is this really true?

Our author will say something about that this morning. Last week we were introduced to our author. He is called The Preacher or in Hebrew the name of the book is Qoheleth.

We were introduced to his perspective on the world and we’ll continue that. His question was and the question that maintains throughout the whole book is: what does man gain by all his toil under the sun? (Ecclesiastes 1:3)

His immediate answer was—

Nothing. All is vanity. All is a vapor. All is a puff of wind. All is useless. Nothing is actually accomplished. Nothing is actually new under the sun. Nothing is ever changed. The fundamental human problems persist and they will always persist and forever will persist.

Today we’ll see that he begins to test his thesis. What is his thesis? All is vanity. That’s his real thesis. For eleven chapters that’s what he’s talking about. All is vanity. He’s going to test his thesis in specific ways. We find this morning that the zealous pursuit of earthly knowledge does not satisfy and therefore is a useless endeavor.

The challenge will again to see the truth of what the preacher says because it is true from a certain perspective. But to look beyond his words, to a fuller picture of life with God. A fuller picture of the life and the truth that God has revealed.

Greater earthly knowledge may help some things. It may create a brighter future. Education is a good thing. But does it actually straighten out what is crooked? Does it actually straighten out what is crooked in your life? Does it actually straighten out what is crooked in the world?

This is the question—does it ultimately satisfy?

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