Knowledge is meaningless

Ecclesiastes 1:18 For with much wisdom comes much sorrow;

the more knowledge, the more grief.

Today, we live in what is called the information age, knowledge is everywhere. We cannot avoid worldly knowledge no matter how hard we try. Our children learn to operate computers and cell phones before they learn to brush their teeth, they grow up on instant movies, instant video games, and information that flows before and around them like air. They absorb knowledge on so many things that they can program electronics almost before they can spell their names, and adults aren't much different. We think nothing of looking up this or that. 'Google it' has become the standard response to just about anything. There is nothing we can't find information, and therefore knowledge...wisdom...on, in a matter of seconds.

Not all that long ago there was something circulating on social media asking what 'we' thought would be the most difficult thing for someone brought from the past into today to grasp. A tiny device with the ability to access more information than all the books in all the libraries, forecast the weather, monitor our homes, and connect you, through voice or video, to your mother all the way across the country or across the world, a device we carry in our pockets and can use in seconds, was the answer. No one in past times would ever believe such a thing existed and today we have that and so much more.

Whether we want worldly knowledge or not, it bombards us from the minute we open our eyes till we fall asleep at night. There are electronic products geared toward babies. Teenagers can't seem to live without them. Adults forego time with husbands and wives, ignore children and miss important family happenings because they are focused on their electronics instead.

If we would, could even, just turn off the electronics, give up all the worldly knowledge and turn to the wisdom of Christ. 

When given the chance to ask God for anything, Solomon did not ask for health or wealth, he did not ask for things that would better his life, but instead he asked for wisdom and knowledge to govern the people that God had put him over. And God granted that request. That happened in a dream but Solomon did want wisdom and he did get wisdom. Trouble for him was that once he got wisdom that very wisdom he had longed for gave him grief in sorrow.

Today, our children are expected to know what they want to be when they grow up when they are in kindergarten. They are asked what college they will go to almost before they are out of diapers. Human education, worldly education, and learning are pushed at them despite the fact that biblical knowledge is presented as being useless and outdated. Public schools allow only so many missed days a year, that has to do with finances for them but it teaches kids to value school (education) over their own health and needs. Children go to school with sore throats, colds, fevers, aches, pains, broken bones...things that put many adults in bed, kids must endure while going off to their place of forced knowledge because it is required by law and parents must choose whether to let them stay home with this illness or save that missed day for a worse illness that may come up later in the year. And it's all done under the guise of imparting worldly knowledge to children.

We are in an election year, or so I've heard it called. Personally I pay less than no attention to politics, in fact I deliberately avoid anything and everything having to do with politics. I don't care to listen to any person that spews ideas, thoughts, and opinions, makes promises and yet, historically, is a part of a group of people that consistently proves to be liars at best, breaking most, or all, of those promises and never fulfilling the ideas, thoughts, or opinions that they put forth to gain themselves a position of power. So I deliberately, consistently, turn away from anything political in nature, even if it's only slightly political. I don't buy into the belief that our ideas matter and so I choose my own peace of mind and heart over the political condition of this country, a condition I have less than no control over whether I follow politics or not. But...we are in an election year. This year will see the end of one presidential term and usher in another one.

Like knowledge, no matter how hard we may try to avoid it, the politics are there. They bombard us whether we ask for it or not. Just yesterday, as I took my grandsons home, a leisurely trip through the country, on an old, windy, country road, overshadowed by tall trees that offered a peace and reprieve from daily life, I passed a house, set back off the road, with a small but colorful sign promoting a presidential candidate. There went the reprieve. Or it would have if I had let it.

But what's worse than not being able to avoid it, is the way it is pushed at us, as if we should spend the better part of an entire year focused on this one event.

There is a television show that I saw years ago and was recently reminded of by relatives. In this show, the people of a pioneer town, for reasons I can't remember, come to the conclusion that the world is about to end. They spend the entire episode focused on the world coming to an end. They determine what last things they want to do before the world, and themselves, are no more. They figure out where they want to be, and with whom, when the world ends. Some of them build shelters, hoping to be saved when the day comes. Some of them do things they would never have done if not faced with what they believed to be a life ending situation. Whatever they did, though, they did with the complete belief that the world is about to end.

Well...the world is going to end.

And so is my life. So is your life. From the moment you (I) were conceived we had a date with death. There is no escaping it. The world will end because Scripture says the Lord will destroy it with fire. Our lives will end because Scripture says there is a time for us to die and that time cannot be changed.

And yet...we spend our earthly lives seeking knowledge that gains us nothing. NOTHING. We want to learn about the electronics we buy, we research cars and insurance companies, we desire to understand how this and that works, we even feel as if we need to know the reproductive life cycle of cockroaches.

WHAT has all this knowledge gained us? America is a country that has put men on the moon, we have created vehicles, airplanes, and who knows what all else. We have come up with amazing things, using knowledge to do so.

And today the people of America can't even tell what gender they are.

Where did knowledge get them? What did they gain? From the beginning of time people have known their own gender. Adam and Eve knew what gender they were. They knew they were male and female. They knew it when they were naked...because...well, because who can't tell male from female without clothes? And they knew it when they were clothed.

I must ask...what knowledge did Adam and Eve possess? Before they ate the forbidden fruit...what knowledge could they have possessed? But even after they ate it...by today's standards, Adam and Eve had to be pretty ignorant. No matter what they knew, they simply could not have known the many, detailed, things that we know today. Unless God gave them that detailed knowledge. For the sake of this article I'm going to assume that Adam and Eve simply did not know the things people of today know. It's not putting assumptions into Scripture to assume that they did not know how to program a computer, drive a car, or run a washing machine.

By our standards, Adam and Eve would have been considered primitive people. They lived off the land, probably couldn't read or write, may not have understood, at least until it happened to them, how babies are made, and even if they did understand, it's highly unlikely that they understood the intricacies of conception. They didn't know about germs or antibiotics. Couldn't have understood how an engine works. The list goes on and on of what they didn't know.

But they knew what their genders were.

Where has knowledge gotten us? What have we gained? What does it profit a man to gain the world if he loses his own soul?

What good does it do a man to know how to program a computer if he does not even know that he is a man?

Claiming to be wise, they became fools... Romans 1:22 ESV

Scripture clearly lays out what good wisdom is... 

But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. James 3:17 NIV

This, however, is not the wisdom sought after by men. This is not the wisdom that our country, our world, pushes at us on a daily basis. The world's wisdom, wisdom that has our children shoved into making adult decisions while they should be living carefree without any thoughts to what will become of them as adults, wisdom that has us turning to a computer to look up how cockroaches mate or the wind blows but does not have us asking who made the cockroaches and the wind is wisdom of the world. So is the wisdom, wisdom of people, of their thoughts, feelings, and innermost...imagined...workings, that has educated people in our country unsure of what a boy and a girl are.

This wisdom is also spoken of in Scripture...

This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic.  James 3:15

For a better understanding of wisdom, both Scriptural and worldly, the verses surrounding the two I just gave are enlightening...

Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. 14 But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth.15 This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. 16 For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. 17 But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. James 3:13-17 ESV

Scripture is full of verses on wisdom, some for it, some against it. But Scripture also shows that it is Godly wisdom that is good and earthly wisdom that is bad. And yet we live our lives by earthly wisdom. I once had someone dispute to me whether or not Scripture tells us to seek after earthly wisdom. This person informed me that Scripture tells us to seek it, while I maintained that Scripture tells us to seek a Scriptural wisdom. We never did come to an agreement on that. It was simply a conversation on wisdom where we both came at it from different viewpoints. But at least we both came at it from a Scriptural view point, this person had verses that they used to support seeking worldly wisdom and I have verses I used to support that it isn't worldly wisdom we should be seeking. The world in general doesn't even go that far, it,and the majority of the people in it, go at wisdom with a human mindset, seeking nothing of Scriptural wisdom.

And why should they? They are lost, seeking for a world that is dying and feeding them all the sin their minds and hearts can handle. There is very little today that is seen as 100% wrong by the majority of people. The world they live in has no right or wrong only shades of gray that become black or white for each individual person.

My husband introduced me to a movie I had never seen shortly after we met. In this movie a man proposes to teach right and wrong without teaching Christ. He claimed that right and wrong could be taught on the basis that they are right and wrong with no higher authority to declare what is right or wrong. In this movie the man is shown exactly what becomes of a world where right and wrong are taught as right and wrong without Christ to define it. And the world that man was shown was tame compared to what we live in now.

But the same concept of right and wrong have been applied to our world today. Right is right, and wrong is wrong, based on human knowledge and not on Scripture. The line between right and wrong is no longer drawn based on the Lord's word and His standards but on what people believe to be right and wrong. It is men's knowledge that now governs what is right and what is wrong. And worse, it has become each man's own knowledge and not a general knowledge embraced by the majority that governs right and wrong.

Worldly knowledge has erased right and wrong. Worldly knowledge has erased boy and girl. And worldly knowledge is erasing people. Does that sound wrong or harsh? Maybe so. But if we stop and think about it, those chasing their own knowledge, drawing their own line of right and wrong, and therefore embracing sin and rejecting God, are signing their own death warrant, so to speak. They are educating themselves straight into the pit of Hell.

Wisdom is good. Knowledge is good. But not the wisdom and knowledge of the world. The only good wisdom and knowledge is that which comes from the Lord. Just yesterday I read a verse that speaks so very clearly of this very thing...

If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know. But if anyone loves God, he is known by God. 1 Corinthians 9:2-3 ESV

If anyone knows something...he does not know as he ought BUT if he loves God...he...is...known...by...God. There is a simply summary of what is important. If we know something...it isn't what we should know. But if we know God, then God knows us. What is more important...earthly knowledge...education...politics...or being known by God?

Solomon sought after the wisdom to lead people. It was what he wanted, what he desired, but when he got it, it brought him sorrow. Adam and Eve had no knowledge, they didn't even know enough to know they were naked. When they gained knowledge, through means that went against God, it brought them sorrow and shame.

Years ago I wanted to be an author. I wrote books with the intention of getting them published. People in the writing and publishing industry knew my name. I was on my way to reaching my desired goal, a published book. I still know people in the writing world. I have regular contact with people that do write and publish books. And I see the knowledge and idolatry that goes in to getting those books published. 

The writing world requires a world of knowledge to even step foot into that world. You must learn so much and you must do everything by their standards. Even in the 'Christian' writing market, they have standards that are not biblical. And they have made an idol of books and the whole writing industry.

I have always enjoyed books. I still enjoy books. I even like the smell of a book. I know that sounds weird but book people will understand. It's just one of those things. A baker enjoys the smell of fresh baked bread, cakes or pies. A reader enjoys the feel and smell of a book. It just happens. I have known many other people that enjoy reading books that say they enjoy the smell of a book. Walking into a library is a wonderful experience for a book reader. Books are like old friends or your favorite, most comfortable, clothes to a book reader. 

Books aren't just a hobby but a part of who the book reader is. And this very mindset comes through when you step into the writing world. Authors base their life around their stories. They take vacations and plot their next book in that location. They encounter someone interesting and plan that person into the story they are writing. They see a picture and imagine the lives of the people living there, or the ones they will write into that place. They talk to each other about imaginary people... they understand exactly what they are saying and who those people are. Because to a writer the person they write about isn't imaginary. Those characters in a book live and breathe for the person that wrote their story. It's all real to the author even as they realize that it is all made up.

And it requires a great deal of earthly knowledge to accomplish. But even a person that cannot stand the sight of a book cannot, or should not, be able to deny that knowledge, earthly and sometimes, occasionally,Scripturally, is imparted through the pages of many books. I like books. My husband does not. I don't read books very often at all anymore and when I do they are, more often than not, written by reformed writers on matters of Scripture. The few that aren't are usually children's books. This is a far cry from the books I used to devour.

Up until very recently in time, if there was to be a symbol for knowledge it would have been a book. It was well understood that books impart knowledge. Our Lord's words are even given to us in the form of a book. We hold in our hands a book of paper and glue, maybe leather, maybe string, but for sure paper and glue, when we hold our Lord's words. My husband, not a book lover, does not have much of a preference for one type of Bible over another, he has his preferred versions, but he does not care if the Bible is made of paper or leather, hardback or paperback. It's what is inside the Bible that holds his attention. I, on the other hand, love books and this especially extends to my Bibles. I have Bibles made of paper, bibles made of synthetic materials, and hard covered Bibles.

I once heard my husband speak of people that want only expensive, leather bound Bibles. To put it simply my husband does not think highly of this belief and he's  happy to have any Bible as long as it is in an accurate translation. When my husband made that statement, not all that long after we married if I remember correctly, I kept silent. You see, while I do not feel the need to have a high dollar, high quality Bible, I do see the reason to own one. I do not have one but I can see why one would want to. And I would not be opposed to doing so. Because when we hold a Bible in our hands, we hold the word of our God...the greatest wisdom on earth. As someone that has worn out several Bibles, that has taped pages back into falling apart spines...I can easily understand why one would pay for a Bible that can take heavy use and get better with time not worse. But there is one other thing that lets me understand why someone would buy such a Bible, and no, I do not own one, for me, reading my Bible isn't just a time of reading or studying, it is an experience. I feel my Bible as it sits in my hand. I want one that bends and gives, one that fits my hands and feels like a friend bringing comfort when I hold it. Supposedly those high dollar, high quality Bibles do that. But I have found cheap Bibles that do the same thing.

If a Bible can do all that, a Book that represents, that holds, the very word of God, a Book that upon one glance a person knows what they are seeing than how much...power...does the book hold to impart an idea or understanding to a person simply by virtue of being a book? We don't understand that the Bible is the word of God because we see it on the cover, although we have been conditioned to understand that that is what Holy Bible means, a term that isn't found anywhere in Scripture, we understand that a Bible is the word of God because we have learned, been conditioned to know, that Scripture comes in the form of a Book, that it is titled, Holy Bible. 

Likewise, we have been conditioned to know that a dictionary teaches us the meaning and spelling of words, an atlas shows us the world and teaches us how to get somewhere, a cookbook gives us the instructions for making everything from boiled eggs to elaborate gourmet meals, and an encyclopedia tells us everything we need to know about that topic. Books are everywhere. Before computers they were THE way to learn something. Knowledge, worldly knowledge, was given through books, almost exclusively. Gone are the days when doctors became doctors by being and apprentice to another doctor, gone are the days when showing someone you could do a job was all it took to get the job. Today...knowledge rules. Knowledge imparted through schools. A diploma is required to get a job, in a lot of cases even for the most menial of jobs. 

This is what our world has come to. Knowledge of...useless...meaningless...earthly things, things that will never help a person know God, only hinder them from knowing Him, is valued above all else. How would a person that memorized the entire Bible, that understood it and could accurately use what they knew, but could not read, write or work a computer be viewed in today's world?

Knowledge. That is what is valued today. A person buying a car researches the car of choice, they not only want to know price, they want to know gas mileage, performance tests, safety tests, and even what problems that vehicle is prone to having. If it's a used car they want to know the entire history of the vehicle. It's almost as if each car needs not only a users manual but a future happenings manual and a journal of its 'life' from construction to the point at which the person buying said car came along. And it's not just cars. It's everything. We research everything to death. And for what? To gain earthly knowledge and buy more things?

Do they get us any closer to the knowledge of Christ? Do they show us the horror of our sins and lead us toward the right path? Do we even pause a moment to question ourselves to see if checking our emails or looking at the news, weather, or...whatever...on the computer is what we should be doing? Do we open our Bibles first thing in the morning or do we pick up our phone or turn on our computer? When we take a break in our day...to what do we turn our attention? When we have a moment to put our feet up...what do we pick up? A Bible? Or our phone?

There is a game that has become very popular lately. It has people on two different sides of a debate, one side says this is the greatest game, the other side says it's awful and they wouldn't go near it. I won't get into what the game is, or what it teaches, uses, or does, only the fact that this game is and that it has people up in arms over it. Those that promote it have their reasons, those that speak against it have theirs. But the reality is...is it any worse than anything else in this world that uses entertainment to distract their minds?

People, as a whole, will turn to something to keep them occupied, even believers. My husband enjoys golf. I enjoy writing. My husband likes to read articles on various things, most of them Biblical, some of them not. I have a doll that I enjoy making clothes for and talking to other people that do the same. Next week I may sit the doll aside and move to something else. We, even Christians, fill our time with things that distract our thoughts from our Lord. I often think of Christ, or Scripture, as I sew tiny seams on little garments designed to outfit a doll. I often wonder how much of Christ I can share with the people that share my interest in this doll and her clothes. My husband prays as he walks the golf course. These distractions aren't all bad. But...they aren't all good either. 

My husband has gained worldly knowledge about golf. He tries to share it with me and I have to admit that I have no interest in golf, but I share it with him anyway. My husband says dolls are a girl thing and he has no interest in them but he listened when I told him of the conversation I had with two women at the fabric store, a conversation that happened because of the doll I had with me as I picked material for a new dress for her. A pointless, meaningless, totally useless thing to be doing with my time. But that doll brings me peace as I sew those tiny stitches and joy when I see a miniature outfit completed. And so my husband indulges me, he listens when I talk of material, patterns and dolls, and he even looks at the things I make, commenting on them as he holds my doll, a doll I know he has no interest in, in his hands.

But that doll, like my husband's golf, have required us to gain worldly knowledge. I have to know what size my doll is and how to sew in order to make those tiny dresses. I have to know what kind of doll she is in order to talk to other ladies that enjoy that same doll. My husband must know what kind of golf club is needed to hit a ball a certain distance, he must know where golf courses are and what they require of him in order to be able to play. We are Christians but we are people too. We have found things in this life that make this time on earth a bit more enjoyable, that bring peace after a day of living in a world that does not bring peace. And so, even Christians, must acquire knowledge. We acquire it on the things we like. We acquire it on the things we must do. My husband had to have the knowledge to replace our kitchen faucet recently, without that knowledge all he would have done is create a bigger problem when he tried to fix it. My husband needs the knowledge to do the job he does. I need the knowledge to run the washing machine, to fix meals, even to clean takes knowledge of how to do it.

Knowledge is everywhere in life, even if we remove books and electronics, but what does Scripture say about this earthly knowledge? 

"Meaningless! Meaningless!" says the Teacher. "Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless." Ecclesiastes 1:2 NIV

All earthly knowledge, while it may be helpful to navigate this world, is meaningless when it comes to eternity. Paul said it best when he said, 'I have decided to know nothing but Christ and Him crucified'. What do we gain by having knowledge of this world, if we do not have knowledge of Christ? What do we gain by having knowledge of this world, even if we have knowledge of Christ? We must know Christ above and beyond all else. That is the only knowledge that matters.

I used to know someone that often said she wished she lived in the 1800's. Her reason for wanting to live in that time was because she said there was so much less to compete for people's attention back then, so much less to take their focus off of Christ. I'm not sure I agree with that. I'm pretty sure they spent a good deal of their time focused on cooking, cleaning, making clothes, growing food, storing food, and what the neighbors thought of them. They may not have had hobbies and electronics to distract them but the human heart is sinful above all else. I have no doubt they could come up with plenty of distractions.

But there is still much truth to what this person said. Today we are distracted by televisions, cell phones, computers, and all manner of other things. We turn on our smart phone to check the weather and get sucked into reading a long debate on presidential candidates, no that is not one of the things that grabs my attention, or on how to make a ball gown for a doll, that is. We sit at the computer to read an article on Scripture and find ourselves reading the news when we are finished. We go online to pay a bill and check our email despite our intention to only pay a bill. It happens. To all of us. And it's not just electronics. We run into the grocery store for a gallon of milk and wind up spending and hour searching through clearance clothes because they fit those we love and they are only a dollar...or whatever. Distractions grab our attention despite our best intentions.

And why? Why do we get distracted? Because we have been conditioned to think we need those things. Those clearanced clothes are more than likely not needed by our loved ones, we just think they are because our loved ones only have five...whatevers. Five...whatevers...are more than enough to get anyone with a washing machine through each week. We stop to read that article because it's something we are interested in. And...we gain knowledge whether we want to or not because it is splashed across our computer screen, fills our inbox, and is shoved at us through social media.

"Meaningless! Meaningless!" says the Teacher. "Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless." Why don't we pay heed to the words of Scripture? Why can't we see that it is all meaningless, even the gallon of milk and the bill that must be paid, and see that only Christ matters. Who cares if the bills get paid if our souls whither and die for lack of connection to our Savior? What does it matter if our children's belly's are full if their hearts are empty of the love of Christ? What good does a television, computer, smart phone, do if they separate us from our Lord?

Turn them off!

Put them down!

Pick up your Bibles and read the Scriptures for yourself. Don't say...well, I read them online, or well, I read this article and that. What of the many, many 'Christian' books that fill the shelves of 'bookstores'? What of the books that line your own shelves, claiming to teach you what the Bible says? 

Meaningless. 

What good are the words of man (or woman) when you have the words of the Lord at your disposal?

Books abound on every topic under the sun, the topic of Scripture is no exclusion. Books fill shelves and overflow onto floors, they fill libraries and great halls, they languish on tables, hide in corners, and rest comfortingly in hands, imparting their knowledge to anyone that will pick them up. Teachers stand before students, filling their minds with predigested information, imparting knowledge that may or may not be true. Preachers stand before congregations teaching things of the Bible that are more often than not filled with errors and heresy. The internet waits, beckons even, from the seemingly safe screens of computers, phones, tablets, even television sets, waiting to throw all the knowledge at you that you can handle...and for what? What does it all come to? What purpose does all the earthly knowledge in the world do anyone?

What does it profit a man if he gains the world but loses his soul?

What gain do we get from this world if our eternity is spent in hell? 

What good is it all?

Earthly knowledge fades away. Time and age slowly steal even the smartest of peoples knowledge, little by little, bit by bit. Dementia will snatch away the professors understanding of physics, math, science, evolution...or how to blow a bubble with bubble gum. It matters not what the knowledge is on...age will take it away. And if somehow age does not steal that earthly knowledge...death will.

We pick up books from our earliest days of childhood, and today we use the internet from those earliest days, to learn knowledge of this world. The little boy that is interested in dinosaurs reads books about them, watches movies about them, and researches them online. The college student studying nursing, reads on how to give a shot, take blood, and...whatever else they study. Knowledge. Everywhere, in everything, we are bombarded with knowledge whether we want it or not. 

But knowledge of Scripture will tell us what the Lord thinks of this earthly knowledge...

Of making many books there is no end, and much study wearies the body.

Now all has been heard;

    here is the conclusion of the matter:

Fear God and keep his commandments,

    for this is the duty of all mankind.

 

For God will bring every deed into judgment,

    including every hidden thing,

    whether it is good or evil. Ecclesiastes 12:12-14 NIV