4 “Again, I considered all travail, and every right work, that for this a man is envied of his neighbour. This is also vanity and vexation of spirit”.
This is a golden nugget coming from Solomon, we could not agree with him more! Because one envies and covets what his neighbor has he works harder to have more "…this is vanity and vexation of spirit". As believers, the more we walk on in God the less we desire the spoils of Egypt, the less we desire the dainty morsels of the world. There is an appetite that increases and it is for souls and whatever the cost we feel compelled to pay it; however, more than that there is an ever increasing desire to see Jesus, to behold His pleasant face and to have His opinion of us to be a good one (by His grace!).
5 “The fool foldeth his hands together, and eateth his own flesh”.
What this is actually saying is that the fool sits doing nothing until he starves to death. It is the exact opposite of the previous verse (Eccl 4:4) where that group labored furiously out of envy and jealousy this poor soul is too lazy to do anything. The point Solomon is making is that at both extremes there is folly; one side works hard in vain and the other side does nothing to his destruction. Again, this is the perspective of a backslidden man. We want to on one hand labor hard but for the right reasons (to serve our Master, provide for our families and for the needs of others) and on the other be content with whatever God provides even in times of leanness.
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