Ecclesiastes 7:23

"I tested all this with wisdom, and. said, 'I will be wise', but it was far from me."

The word "tested" implies careful investigation. Solomon had. strong desire and resolve to truly be. wise man. And yet, apart from divine revelation, Solomon found that human wisdom fails to find the ultimate answers. This verse could be written on the tomb of every philosopher who has ever lived. "The honest admission of failure to find wisdom (apart from God)-of watching it in fact recede with every step one takes, discovering that none of our soundings ever gets to the bottom of things" (Kidner p. 71). The book repeatedly notes that Solomon had attempted to test everything with the best human wisdom available (Ecclesiastes 1:13; Ecclesiastes 2:3). We really need to appreciate what we have in the Bible, so many riddles that would be forever beyond the grasp of man, are revealed within its passages (1 Cor. Ecclesiastes 2:9). Truths and realities that man would have never discovered on his own. So many simple passages that we take for granted, reveal. reality that we could never penetrate on our own (i.e. Genesis 1:1).