Searching for Gold (Ecclesiastes 10-11)

It’s dawn. A solitary figure scours the sand. Up and down. Up and down. He pushes through the seaweed. He continues on his well worn path, with little trace as the waves break at his feet.

As the sun sets, he’s at it again. Up and down. Up and down. Persistent, methodical, searching. Confident that his labour will bear fruit, as the sand betrays the day’s comings and goings. Some days he strikes gold in an instant. Other days the faithful forage takes longer but it’s always worth it.

I take in these scattered proverbs. I cast my eye over how they’re placed, how they’re nuanced, why they’re here. I pour over the words, metal detector in hand, searching for the gold. And the more I read, the more I see that these disparate proverbs overflow from the rest of the book.

They overflow from a heart inclining more and more towards the Lord and not away.

They overflow from a heart that has come to see the freeing reality of being a limited creature.

They overflow from a heart increasingly grounded and shaped by eternity.

My heart feels more primed, as we draw near to the book’s conclusion, to accept this wisdom. To listen when I hear that wisdom is truly is better than strength, even if it goes unnoticed. To heed that a quiet and gracious word from our lips will outweigh any competing folly. To grasp that my lack of understanding of the future doesn’t need to spin me into a fret. To consider the natural consequences that spring from idleness. To rejoice that it’s worth making the most of an opportunity even if we don’t know the outcome.

In some ways, these proverbs seem bound by their common sense. But dig below the surface. The gold thread of eternal wisdom running through them all finds their fulfilment in the One who was always wise. The One who was always gracious. The One who was always content to trust the work of God, especially in the face of the steepest folly.

For whilst his opponents’ lips were consumed by folly, descending at a pace into the wicked madness of crucifixion, our wise preacher king stood firm, grounded in the eternal reality that whilst ‘the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, [but] to us who are being saved it is the power of God.’

There is surely no greater gold to be found than Him.