“Go to the ant, O sluggard;
consider her ways, and be wise.
Without having any chief,
officer, or ruler,
she prepares her bread in summer
and gathers her food in harvest.
How long will you lie there, O sluggard?
When will you arise from your sleep?
A little sleep, a little slumber,
a little folding of the hands to rest,
and poverty will come upon you like a robber,
and want like an armed man.”
“Like vinegar to the teeth and smoke to the eyes,
so is the sluggard to those who send him.”
“The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing,
while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied.”
“The sluggard does not plow in the autumn;
he will seek at harvest and have nothing.”
“I passed by the field of a sluggard,
by the vineyard of a man lacking sense,
and behold, it was all overgrown with thorns;
the ground was covered with nettles,
and its stone wall was broken down.
Then I saw and considered it;
I looked and received instruction.
A little sleep, a little slumber,
a little folding of the hands to rest,
and poverty will come upon you like a robber,
and want like an armed man.”
“The sluggard says, ‘There is a lion in the road!
There is a lion in the streets!’
As a door turns on its hinges,
so does a sluggard on his bed.
The sluggard buries his hand in the dish;
it wears him out to bring it back to his mouth.
The sluggard is wiser in his own eyes
than seven men who can answer sensibly.” Proverbs 6:6-11; 10:26; 13:4; 20:4; 24:30-34; 26:13-16
The only thing the sluggard accomplishes in the book of Proverbs is to appear in a variety of colorful descriptions and analogies that draw negative, and humorous, attention. Indolent, adrift, craving, grating, he is one to understand, then avoid. The Lord peppers through much wide wisdom the consistent warning to avoid laziness. It creeps and seeps and destroys ambition, vision, desire. It is the opposite, and destroyer, of vigilance and holy passion.
The sluggard’s warning is repeated because God knows the inclinations of the human heart. He targets the folly of settling into ease, relishing personal rights without responsibility, the ever-present allure of pride, sloth, and greed. Aiming to sanctify, He pokes warnings at our resolve and determination. With every illustration, He reminds us to get up, exchange ambivalence for spiritual clothes, and act like mature men. (Jeremiah 17:9; 1 Corinthians 16:13; 1 Peter 5:8)
In what areas do I tend toward a sluggard? In what responsibilities do I procrastinate? What inspirations and divine promptings do I neglect, or cast aside? When will I put this sin to bed once for all, and rise up to obey?
“Rise up, O saints of God!
Have done with lesser things;
Give heart and soul and mind and strength
To serve the King of kings.” ~William Pierson Merrill (1911)
“O to grace how great a debtor
daily I’m constrained to be!
Let that grace now, like a fetter,
bind my wandering heart to thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
prone to leave the God I love;
here’s my heart; O take and seal it;
seal it for thy courts above.” ~Robert Robinson (1758)
Lord, may I leave sloth behind and wholeheartedly follow and serve Thee.
As the rain and snow 