Seek not out things that are too hard for you, neither search the things that are above your strength.
All Commentaries on Wisdom of Sirach 3:21 Go To Wisdom of Sirach 3
Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
Let us, therefore, listen together to the admonition and to the words of Scripture: "Do not seek out the things that are too high for you, neither search the things that are above your strength." Not that such things are forbidden to us, since the divine Master says, "There is nothing hidden that shall not be revealed." But if we continue along the way we have undertaken, as the apostle tells us, God not only will reveal to us what we do not know and ought to know but also anything else we care to know about. The way we have undertaken is the way of faith: let us keep to it without wavering. Let it introduce us to the secrets of the King in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. For it was surely not out of envy that the Lord Jesus Christ acted toward those great and specially chosen disciples of his when he said, "I have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now." We must be walking, making progress and growing so that our hearts may become fit to receive the things that we cannot receive at present. And if the last day shall find us sufficiently advanced, we shall then learn what here we were unable to know.
