Ecclesiastes 4:5: “The fool folded his hands together and eats his own flesh.”

It seems most commentaries tend to agree that the writer is basically saying that there are people who feel the world owes them a living. They sit back in their laziness and eat their own flesh or are self-tormentors, never really satisfied.  I can see that in this verse, but there seems to be more.
If we look at this verse word by word, we begin to get a deeper understanding. The first word is fool. This is kasal in Hebrew and does mean to be foolish but this is a foolishness which is bred from a refusal to look beyond your own understanding.  Today we often refer to this as tunnel vision. We say someone has tunnel vision when they have established a position and refuse to listen to any evidence which may contradict that position and only hear the evidence that supports their position. The word is spelled “Kap, Samek and Lamed.” In its shadow form the Kap can represent arrogance, willfulness, and becoming a tyrant. The Samek shows a blocking off or shutting down and the Lamed teaches us that one can become narrow minded and bookish.  In other words, this fool is one who will not accept advice or counsel, he just shuts down and dwells on his own understanding of events.  He is one who has tunnel vision. This is very prevalent with conspiracy theorist, people with certain political views, and even doctrinal positions.  Such people are so certain they are right and everyone else is wrong or they are so afraid of something that they will not even listen to another viewpoint except to find fault with the opposing viewpoint.  Such people are called kasals.
He folds his hands. Commentators say that this is an expression for laziness. This is true but it is also a Hebrew idiom which expresses a picture of a person going through a difficult time and giving up. Someone who is so discouraged will no longer lift a hand to get himself out of a situation. He refuses to look at the positive side, he is totally pessimistic and convinced that disaster and tragedy lies ahead and will not raise a finger to do anything about it. Remember Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh? Such a person is a self-tormentor.

There are more Eeyores out there than we really think.  In fact, many of us at one time or another is an Eeyore who folds our hands. This Eeyore complex or folding of our hands finds its way into many areas of our lives. Someone may say: “It is no use, I can’t find a job (lose weight, give a speech, finish my education etc.), so I will just give up and not try.”  Such a person who gives up is called akasal (fool), they refuse to look at another side, a positive side.  They see the bumps in the road, but will not see the road itself, yet, that the road is still open and passable.  They are ultimately too lazy to continue the journey.
I know in the last couple years, I have given up a number of times. The only problem is that I could not figure out what exactly giving up is or how it is manifested?  I mean life still goes on, you still get up in the morning and go through the daily routines.
 Taking a look last expression eats his own flesh commentators say this means self-tormenting,  I wonder if self-tormenting is all the writer had in mind. The word for flesh in the Hebrew is besar which speaks of your inward parts.  The word for eat is ’akal which means to consume, or devour.

 
You know, I am not opposed to commentaries and I use commentaries, but the danger is that we can limit ourselves to commentaries and not open ourselves up to further revelation by the Spirit of God. For one thing commentators are people just like us and who is to say they have the final word on a passage of Scripture. Every commentator can say something different about a passage of Scripture and even sometimes contradict one another. I mean who is right? Perhaps they all are. Who is to say that God will not allow for various shades of interpretations to fit our needs?  Perhaps God will reveal something with a different shade of meaning to fit your own personal need from a passage of Scripture.
I could feel God has a message in this passage for me, but if I limit myself to commentaries or just depend upon another man’s interpretation, I may not find any message that would apply to myself.  However, if I allow myself to just step out of the box a little, I find God addressing me at the very root of my problem.  As I look at that final phrase, eat their own flesh I find if I substitute the wordconsume or devour for eat and inward parts for flesh (all which are appropriate in the Hebrew), I begin to get a clear picture of myself. This giving up is not so much just not doing anything at all, but allowing yourself to consume my inward parts.
 Sometimes you look at your personal situation and all you see is doom and gloom ahead. You have tunnel vision, you are just being akasal before the God who created you and gave you salvation. No, you have not really given up, you are still in that ring punching it out, but your heart and soul are no longer in the fight and that is pretty much the same as giving up only you just keep getting punched out. You have already admitted defeat in your heart and you are just waiting for that knockout punch.  In the mean time you continue to let the enemy beat up on you while you sit with your hands folded taking the beating or eating your own flesh.  In other words you just sit back and worry or fret, letting your blood pressure rise and your stomach develop ulcers, (letting your inward parts consume themselves). The writer of this passage calls you a kasal (a fool).

There is a word in the Hebrew, savar, which is sometimes rendered as hope. Jesus Christ has found a home in your heart.  How easy it is to forget that our bodies are a temple that Jesus dwells in and if our boat sinks, He will be right in there treading water with us.  If we have the very living, loving life of Jesus Christ inside of us, the power of the Holy Spirit in us, then what better definition can we give forsavar (hope).
I have researched the word imagination in the Old Testament and found that is it always used in a negative sense. This is very similar to the Aramaic word savar, the word that Paul uses in the Aramaic Bible in Hebrews 11:1. Savar really has the idea of a positive imagination.  Hope is the positive imagination. Faith is the substance of your positive imagination.  Thus, Ecclesiastes 4:5 tells me that if I just fold my hands and dwell on the doom and gloom, which is what I will get on a natural level. I have no faith; I will not use my positive imagination. But if I savar or imagine things positive, imagine that the living, loving life of Jesus Christ Jesus is inside of me (faith – things positively imagined and evidence of things not seen) then no matter what happens, I can rest assured that spiritually, only good things will take place.

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