July 14, 2026 -- Ecclesiastes 4:5 -- What is idleness? Why is it so devastating?

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The fool folds his hands and eats his own flesh.
Ecclesiastes 4:5 ESV
 
Those words were like an electric shock to me. (TBH first I needed to figure out what they meant. But the sentence was so unusual I did a bit of digging and then the electricity of it hit me.) Remember that Solomon writes these words for believers. A fool, that is someone who says in his heart there is no god (Psalm 14:1), can in the scriptures also be a description of someone who is acting foolishly. That is, who knows better, but is acting like a non-believer.
 
To fold one’s hands is to be idle. My grade 9 English teacher loved idioms and pithy sayings. One he quoted often is “idleness is the Devil’s workshop” (which he applied to students who had not completed their homework!). That idiom likely is a summary of varied verses like Proverbs 10:4, 16:27, II Thessalonians 3:10-12. In this instance folded hands are NOT praying hands, but evidence that one refuses to work.
 
Of course, the big question is, what does it mean that the lazy man “eats his own flesh”? It means he begins to torment himself. The longer he is lazy, or doing nothing, the more his racing mind begins to spin out. His anger gets whipped up. His self-loathing is stirred up. His mind thinks about injustices and wrongs committed against him, even as he is just sitting there and wasting God’s precious gifts of time, and opportunities for good, and talents to exercise them. He is oblivious to how he is insulting God and ignoring his duties to service.
 
In context, a Christian man or woman, does well to dedicate his day and his play to the LORD. He may be tempted to idleness and rehearsing wrongs committed against himself, but he will not luxuriate in these. He puts a stop to such idleness by asking the LORD, in view of the great love You have shown me in Christ, how shall I live for You today? Who should I forgive? Who needs comfort, or instruction, or of the fixing help a handy man? Then, use the abilities you have for the glory of God. You’ll stir yourself from eating your own flesh. You’ll stop the hamster wheel of useless thoughts. You’ll begin to see the people around you as real, people, needy and broken as you are. You’ll see how the grace of God is something you’ve been given, and such grace as you’ve received you have the privilege of administering to those around you. What a glorious God we serve!
 
I saw all the oppressions that are done under the sun. Witnessed the tears of the oppressed, and they had no one to comfort them! The oppressors seemed to have all the power, and the oppressed seemed to have no one to comfort them. I was tempted to sit and grow in my frustration. Instead of wasting time that way, by the intervening grace of Your Spirit, I considered Your Word and Your ways, O God of Glory. As You have rescued me in Christ, and given me life and purpose, You have furthermore blessed me with the power to share these gifts by Your dynamic Spirit living in me. Therefore, I pray to You, Mighty God, excite in me a new enthusiasm to serve You. Amen.
 
(The first two sentences of today’s prayer are a variation of Ecclesiastes 4:1)
 
https://youtu.be/JZUxy6WSS_M?si=8wfwJELECt0McDzk Thine is the Kingdom
 

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