- The fool folds his hands and eats his own flesh. -
If you remember our post from this past Tuesday, I asked you to consider these next three verses together.
I believe they are connected to show us a balance: a golden mean for all you philosophy nerds out there.
The last verse is an admonishment not to work too hard. Why? At some point you begin not working for the purpose of providing but for the hoarding of stuff.
Why do we need the latest phone? Most of the time it’s to prove we’ve got us as much money as everyone else.
Losing this approach to our work frees us and allows us to focus on other parts of our lives that matter.
This is not to focus on ourselves or perform some function of self-care, rather we can use our lives to love others in non-material ways.
That’s our last verse, so what does verse 5 have to say?
The fool folds his hands. Strange phrase right? It means he doesn’t work. Hard to use tools or carry anything if your hands are folded.
Now the consequences of this are stark. The fool is condemned to eat his own flesh. How in the world can that punishment fit the crime?
It’s not as extreme as that. It’s rather, “If you don’t work, you don’t eat. If you don’t eat, your body will eat itself.”
That also shouldn’t be read as the limit of the punishment. The Bible gives plenty of admonishments to the people of Israel when they turn away from Him.
What happens if you don’t prepare for the invasion of your enemies? Well, you might get so hungry that the unthinkable becomes necessary.
The verse is true on multiple levels, and the Israelites who had read the prophets would have known those consequences as well.
This is a command not to let your sustenance be the responsibility of others, to at a minimum ensure your own survival.
Man, that thought feels so foreign in our world today. I wish we could go back to the good ole days when people knew this. Common sense!
If I asked you to tell me which political party the last two verse fell into, I think we would all agree the 1st would be liberal and 2nd would be conservative.
Whenever I stumble upon this “good ole days” mantra I remind myself of what I’ve read in Ecclesiastes before.
There is nothing new under the sun.
What does that mean? It means this verse was as uncomfortable and upsetting to the “idealized” people of Solomon’s day as it is in my own.
Sure, there are degrees to all that, but it doesn’t mean the same emotions and responses were different.
Here’s a startling revelation: there is a percentage of people in our population that given their upbringing, intelligence, and social skills, it is a miracle they show up on time for a shift at McDonald’s.
What in the world do we do about that?
Perhaps we could honor their work, small though it may be, and not belittle any movement towards bettering oneself.
Do we need social programs? Probably. Not every form of corruption can be weeded out, and snakes sneak into even the grandest buildings.
What every generation needs to hear? Get to work. There’s enough going wrong in the world without your laziness making it worse.
Is that harsh? Of course. Nothing is easy about surviving.
Perhaps loving others by lifting our and their burdens is more than that.
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