The Danger of Knowing Too Much

The writer of the book of Ecclesiastes, generally thought to be King Solomon, provides a huge challenge for us all in our world today. He says in the first chapter, “The greater my wisdom, the greater my grief. To increase knowledge only increases sorrow” (Ecclesiastes 1:18).

In the last chapter he warns his child to be careful, “But, my child, let me give you some further advice: Be careful, for writing books is endless, and much study wears you out” (Ecclesiastes 12:12).

Solomon was saying the amount of information that was available in his day could be overwhelming and cause anxiety and depression. How much more would he have warned us today against too much watching of You Tube and television news reports, or reading of tweets, Facebook posts or the many other forms of social media.

The more we know the more worried we can become. My Bible commentary says ‘Wisdom is a mixed blessing: to gain wisdom and understanding is to gain a clearer view into the tragedies of life in a world marred by sin’.

It is further complicated by the fact that some of what we read later on proves to be false information. It can be fake information, propaganda which is aimed at changing our attitude and opinions about world events. It is difficult to discern what source of information we can trust to be telling us the truth.

God’s word gives me comfort, and I often like to remind myself of Psalm 131. ‘Lord, my heart is not proud; my eyes are not haughty. I don’t concern myself with matters too great or too awesome for me to grasp. Instead, I have calmed and quieted myself, like a weaned child who no longer cries for its mother’s milk. Yes, like a weaned child is my soul within me. O Israel, put your hope in the Lord— now and always’ (Psalms 131:1-3).

I find it is all too easy to be passive and let myself be distracted and waste a lot of precious time on trivial and useless information, only to find that the time has slipped by and I haven’t focussed on hearing from the Lord.

Solomon concludes the book of Ecclesiastes by offering positive advice.

‘That’s the whole story. Here now is my final conclusion: Fear God and obey his commands, for this is everyone’s duty. God will judge us for everything we do, including every secret thing, whether good or bad’ (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14).