Ecclesiastes 2:12-17--The Relative Value of Wisdom

Ecclesiastes 2:12-17​
Christian Standard Bible

The Relative Value of Wisdom
12 Then I turned to consider wisdom, madness, and folly, for what will the king’s successor be like? He will do what has already been done. 13 And I realized that there is an advantage to wisdom over folly, like the advantage of light over darkness.

14 The wise person has eyes in his head,
but the fool walks in darkness.

Yet I also knew that one fate comes to them both. 15 So I said to myself, “What happens to the fool will also happen to me. Why then have I been overly wise?” And I said to myself that this is also futile. 16 For, just like the fool, there is no lasting remembrance of the wise, since in the days to come both will be forgotten. How is it that the wise person dies just like the fool? 17 Therefore, I hated life because the work that was done under the sun was distressing to me. For everything is futile and a pursuit of the wind.

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Solomon realizes he has no control over what his son will be like, be he hopes to persuade him with this book and the other books of Wisdom literature that he wrote to be wise.  Solomon concludes that wisdom, madness, and folly while all real possibilities are not all equally good outcomes.  Wisdom is superior to folly in the same way that light is superior to darkness.    This is because the wise person has "sight" that the fool does not have to truly understand what is going on in a situation--to be able to think and reason and identify truth and error.  However, the fool has a "darkened" mind that believes lies and fables and myths without giving them a second thought yet discards the truth because it offends him.  Romans 1 speaks of this.  "19 This is the judgment: The light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. 20 For everyone who does evil hates the light and avoids it, so that his deeds may not be exposed. 21 But anyone who lives by the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be shown to be accomplished by God.”" (John 3:19-20).

That being said, both the wise man and the fool will live and then will die (speaking of natural, not spiritual death, for the one who is in Christ will never die spiritually, and his body will live again, though it will be transformed).  So, what earthly advantage is there to being wise?  Remember, we're only trying to evaluate things from the perspective of "under the sun" in this book.  It appears that if we only focus on the here and now, there is no advantage to wisdom--in fact, it might seem to be a disadvantage as the fool may seem to have more fun in the few days of trouble that he has.  Don't worry, we will come back to consider eternity at the end of the book, but we need to be honest with those who don't believe in an afterlife and think that living for the moment is the best choice for them.  Their difference in worldview will lead them to this difference in conclusion.  However, that won't mean that both worldviews are equally valid or correct.  There will be some advantages to being wise and being a good person too--it usually goes better for you when you are moral and good, and it is harder for people to take advantage of you when you are wise.  You will have more money if you work hard and invest wisely, but none of these things can buy true happiness or salvation or eternal security.  Therefore, we need to not just be wise in the eyes of the world, but in the eyes of God, and we'll figure out what that means as we continue our study of this book.