bittersweet… knowledge…

And I applied my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also is but a striving after the wind. For in much wisdom is much vexation and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow.

Ecclesiastes 1:17-18 ESV

The pursuit of knowledge and wisdom begins with the fear of the Lord… a wonder… a good thing to be sure…

When we begin to know Him… see things as He does… we are brought out of the darkness and into the light…

Our whole worldview changes…

But Solomon… the wisest man ever… discovered the sharp side of knowledge… he found as wisdom and knowledge increase… so does grief…

I perceived that this also is but a striving after wind.

And I wonder… question… What grief comes with knowledge…? wisdom…? truth…?

Then I saw it… perceived it… experienced it…

Not that I claim to know anything… but I do know Him… and have walked deeper into the light of His truth…

What becomes clear… with increased knowledge… is the number of those who are lost… walking in the dark…

Some claiming with absolute certainty… a lie is a truth… and a truth a lie…

Others who don’t seem to care… one way or the other…

I saw a few this week… ones I know… walking in the dark… ones I desire… so desire… to see the light… to know… to grow to know more than me…!

The deeper grief and sorrow comes… when I know there is absolutely nothing I can do… to bring them into the light…

Not one thing… can I do to show them… the darkness in which they stand…

Only He opens eyes of faith…

Only the Father blesses with the gift…

And I wondered about Jesus… fully man… fully God… perfect in wisdom and knowledge… What kind of grief did He experience…? walking among all of us…? in the dark…?

He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Isaiah 53:3 ESV

The two-edged sword of knowledge…

A joy to be near Him… in right relationship… loving Him…

Yet in the loving Him… increased knowledge in His love for us… we enter into His grief… His sorrow… over the ones still lost… because loving Him leads to loving them too…

Bittersweet…

We identify with Him in both sorrow and joy… patience and trust… as we wait for the Father… to determine the times and places… for those who are lost… or wandering… to be found…

“But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. …”

Matthew 24:36-37 ESV

Increased knowledge… increased joy… increased grief…

Increased reasons… to hope… trust… intercede…

Amen…