Solomon was the wisest man who ever lived. God gave him that wisdom as a gift. He didn’t earn it. He just asked for a heart that could judge right and wrong, and God poured it out. People came from all over the world just to hear him speak. Kings and queens brought him gifts just to sit in his presence.
But somewhere along the line, things went sideways.
Instead of using that wisdom to stay close to God, Solomon used it to build a kingdom for himself. He collected wives, horses, gold, and everything a man could want. And the more he saw, the more he understood the more it hurt.
By the time he writes Ecclesiastes, he’s an old man looking back. He says in Ecclesiastes 1:18, “For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.”
That’s not just poetry. That’s personal. He was warning us. Wisdom without God will weigh you down. It will make you question everything. It’ll turn joy into frustration. And it’ll push you further away from the One who gave you the mind to think in the first place.
Now go back with me to the garden.
Adam and Eve were told to stay away from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Not because knowledge was bad—but because they weren’t ready to carry the weight of it.
They ate anyway. And just like Solomon later, their eyes were opened—but not in a good way. They saw their nakedness. They saw their shame. They saw what it was like to live with regret. That’s the sorrow Solomon talks about. When you know too much, and your heart isn’t right with God, it doesn’t lift you up it pushes you down.
Paul said it plain in 1 Corinthians 8:1: “Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth.”
Puffed-up knowledge is what the serpent offered in the garden. It’s what Solomon chased in his older years. It’s what leads people to pride, to self-destruction, and to thinking they’re smarter than God.
But there’s one more thing.
Jesus came down from Heaven knowing everything. He had all the wisdom of God. He knew every sin we’d ever commit. He knew every evil thought in every man’s heart. He knew how heavy this world was going to be.
Yet He still came.
Isaiah 53:3 says: “He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief…”
That’s the difference.
Jesus had perfect knowledge but no pride. No selfishness. No sin. He didn’t use wisdom to build Himself a name. He used it to carry our shame. He didn’t puff up—He laid low. He didn’t run from sorrow He stepped into it, for us.
So here’s the lesson:
Knowledge without God will break you.
But knowledge with God will make you more like Jesus.
You don’t need to know everything. You just need to stay close to the One who does.
