Ecclesiastes 7:24 Commentary and Bible Study

Who can fully search it out, and yet who that knows it would be without it? God has set us no small task in putting before us the prize of wisdom. It is deep, deep, and this is what we need. Our souls long for what is profound, and would be tormented if they had to be content forever with the superficial. It is our joy to know that there are yet future undiscovered wonders ahead waiting for us to explore. God has done this and indeed he has given us himself and his works to explore. He has put all of his infinite wisdom into those works just so that we may search them out and have a task to perform that is worthy of our existence. It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, But the glory of kings is to search out a matter (Proverbs 25:2).If God had set before us some easy task, soon accomplished, then we would cease to have a meaning to our lives, for man must live in hope and hope must be ever satisfied and ever renewed again. The study of wisdom serves this purpose.This passage is therefore a commendation of wisdom which is calculated to spur us on to obtain it and to be content with nothing less. For gaining wisdom is not a task that we will ever complete, but it is a quest that we will pursue as long as we exist. The answer to the rhetorical question, ‘who can find it’, is that the man who fears God can find it, the one who makes God’s wisdom his chief possession. This is not intended to make us give up but to summon all our powers for this greatest of endeavours.