Proverbs 6:6–11
Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise:
Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler,
Provides her meat in the summer, and gathers her food in the harvest.
How long will you sleep, O sluggard? when will you arise out of your sleep?
Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep:
So shall your poverty come as one that travels, and your want as an armed man.
The wisdom of Proverbs provides both commands for what we ought to do, and statements concerning what is the case. These are called prescriptions and descriptions. Most, if not all, religions and manmade philosophies commend industriousness. But this particular divine wisdom merely points out that sluggardliness produces poverty, without actually referring to laziness as a vice or a sin against God. This passage presents a description of the consequence of slothfulness.
Poverty is no laughing matter. Impoverished nations are often saddled with crime, corruption, disease, and starvation. Poverty wounds and robs the people of prosperity, sometimes for generations on end. Often, the women are found scraping out a minimal living while the young men are sitting about smoking peyote, playing computer games, and engaging in worthless tribal warfare and sports competitions.
But why work? Why should a boy get out of bed and get to work on a Monday morning? While poverty may not be a desirable condition for some, others will put up with it. Children are to obey their parents, and if their parents require schoolwork and chores, refusal to obey is sinful. Disobeying parents is an infraction of the Fifth Commandment.
But the more fundamental question is this: shall we be diligent in order to serve ourselves and to collect more creature comforts for ourselves? Or, shall we be diligent and “fervent in spirit, serving the Lord?” (Rom. 12:11). If we are to serve the Lord, we must be diligent at it. If we are not to serve the Lord, diligence hardly matters but for the purpose of keeping ourselves from starving to death. However, as believers, we know that we belong to God. By Christ’s redemption, we are bought with a price. We are not our own. We are created by God to steward His creation, and we are redeemed by Jesus to serve a new Master.
Most of the time, hunger is enough of a motivation to get men and women to work. As the Apostle instructed, “If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat” (2 Thess. 3:10). Also, if any man does not provide necessary sustenance for his own family, “he has denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel” (1 Tim. 5:8). These are the most basic instructions for human life, and that should provide some motive to work. But the most powerful motive to human action must be rooted in our identity as grateful servants to the Lord Jesus Christ.
The ant is also our example. Most children are blessed with fathers and mothers who will remind them to complete chores, schoolwork, and Bible memory but the ants apparently need no such supervision. They are self-motivated. They make hay while the sun shines. They take full advantage of opportunities to gather when there is something to be gathered. They redeem the time, save resources, and prepare for difficult times ahead. These are humbling examples for children and adults, as they pursue the work God has laid before them.
“How long will you sleep, O sluggard? When will you arise out of your sleep?” The sluggard has a special affinity for sleeping. He is unconcerned with reality, the needs of others, the demands of life, and the responsibilities placed upon him by God. He escapes all of that and would rather not be faced with it. He is running away from God and throwing off God’s expectations of him in an act of rebellion. If the father or master is working in the fields, this son or servant is hiding in the hayloft of the barn, hoping nobody will notice him. This becomes a pattern of life for him, and inevitably he will suffer and others will suffer because of it.
Lazy forms of sleepiness, escape into the pretend world of games and entertainment, or the drug-induced stupor are various avenues by which men seek an easier path to handling life’s problems. But what appears to be the easy way always proves to be the harder way after all. Problems appear insurmountable when this sleepiness works its way into every spiritual, mental, and physical cell of the body. This malaise of laziness drifts into a spiritual dying and death that only the reviving breath of God can remedy. May every young man caught in this terrible state hear the voice of Christ: “Awake sleeper! Arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light. See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil” (Eph. 5:13-15). Those who are alive to God and dead to sin will rise up to work and to serve the Lord naturally, purposefully, and joyfully. They will expend physical energy to serve and the spiritual energy needed to run the race and fight the good fight of faith.
1. Is there any evidence of slothfulness in our home? Are our children self-motivated? Do they apply themselves to their tasks with joy? Are they emptying the wastebaskets, doing their school lessons, and fulfilling their chores without being reminded? To what extent does our family struggle with slothfulness?
2. Do we find purpose in work? Are we self-aware of our identity as belonging to God, and redeemed by Christ?
3. Since famines and economic downturns are inevitable, are we careful to work hard and “save for a rainy day”? What is the difference between wise savings and miserliness?