Why Trying Everything Won’t Lead You to Truth
Life Lessons Learned
There’s a growing narrative in our world today: you have to try it for yourself to know if it’s worth it. It sounds brave, even admirable—an anthem for the experiential generation. “Live and learn,” we say, “you can’t know until you try.” But when Solomon, the Teacher of Ecclesiastes, took that road, he reached a very different conclusion.
In Ecclesiastes chapters 2–4, we’re given a raw, unfiltered glimpse into one of the most exhaustive experiments ever undertaken in the search for meaning. Solomon had resources we could only dream of—power, wealth, wisdom, status, leisure, opportunity. So he did what many are still doing today: he tried it all. He observed the lives of others, then dove in himself. Whether through pleasures of the flesh, epic construction projects, accumulation of wealth, or testing moral boundaries, his mantra was simple: “Try it and see.”
But what did he find? Emptiness. Frustration. Fleeting satisfaction followed by a deeper hunger. In his own words, “I denied myself nothing my eyes desired… yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless” (Ecc. 2:10–11).
When Nature Isn’t Enough
In Ecclesiastes 3, we find a reflection many have misread as a celebration of life’s cycles. “There is a time for everything,” Solomon writes. But he’s not romanticizing the seasons of life—he’s critiquing natural religion. Yes, nature reflects a Creator through its patterns and symmetry (Ecc. 3:1–8), but it stops short of revealing God’s intentions, or eternity’s secrets.
Verse 11 cuts through the poetic haze:
“He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.”
We have a hunger for more, a longing for eternity, but we can’t figure it out on our own. Nature can stir wonder. It can whisper that there is something beyond. But it cannot define what that “something” is. And worse still, it offers no comfort for the injustices we see. Oppression reigns (Ecc. 4:1), envy drives ambition (Ecc. 4:4), and even relationships—once touted as the ultimate path to fulfillment—fall short if they exclude God.
This is where Solomon’s critique bites deepest. “I looked and saw all the oppression that was taking place under the sun,” he writes. If this world is all there is, then what’s the point? Even power is temporary. Even companionship, noble as it is, fails to answer the deepest questions of the human heart. Why? Because the one relationship that matters—the one that anchors all others—is too often ignored: our relationship with God.
Experience Is a Harsh Schoolmaster
Solomon’s experiment was expensive, not just in gold, but in soul. He gave himself to a life of observation and experience, and he emerged disillusioned. In Ecclesiastes 2, his approach was clear: “Try it and see.” He wasn’t naïve; he was deliberate. Yet all the pleasure in the world, without purpose, only deepened the ache within.
This speaks directly to us today. Culture says, “Go see for yourself.” But Scripture gives us another way. We don’t need to test every poison to know it’s harmful. As Thomas Carlyle wisely put it, “Experience is the best of schoolmasters, only the school fees are heavy.”
God, in His mercy, has given us His Word so we don’t have to learn everything the hard way. The Bible is more than a spiritual textbook—it’s a map, a warning sign, a personal guide from the One who sees all things from beginning to end. We’re not left fumbling in the dark, trying every door to see which one might open to peace.
Revealed Religion vs. Natural Religion
There’s a stark difference between man-made religion—what Solomon calls “under the sun” thinking—and the revealed truth of Scripture. Natural religion might tell us there is a god, but it doesn’t tell us who He is. It may hint at morality but cannot ground it. It can suggest that life is sacred but offers no eternal hope when life is lost.
In contrast, revealed religion—God’s Word, God’s covenants, and ultimately, God’s Son—invites us to know the One who not only made the seasons but who rules over them. It gives us something far better than experiential guesswork; it gives us certainty grounded in love.
Only a relationship with God, rooted in His grace, commitment, and eternal truth, can satisfy the longings that natural experience fails to answer. We weren’t meant to figure it all out on our own. We were meant to walk with the One who already knows the end from the beginning.
Personal Application: Don’t Jump Just to Learn You Can’t Fly
We wouldn’t jump off a building just to test if we can fly. Why then would we insist on testing every human pleasure or ambition when Scripture already tells us where they lead? We have a better guide than Solomon did—we have the full counsel of Scripture and the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit.
Instead of saying, “I have to try this for myself,” we can say, “God has already spoken, and I trust Him.”
Our culture romanticizes failure, pain, and wandering as rites of passage. But in reality, many never recover from the wounds those experiences leave behind. Why pay tuition in the school of regret when wisdom is freely offered?
Quotable:
“Experience is the best of schoolmasters, only the school fees are heavy.” — Thomas Carlyle
Related Article:
“Can Natural Theology Lead Us to God?” – The Gospel Coalition
A deep look at the limitations of natural revelation and why divine revelation through Scripture is necessary for knowing God fully.
Thank you for your commitment to studying the Word of God in one year. Your journey through Scripture is not just about learning—it’s about living wisely under the loving direction of the One who authored life itself.
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