PROVERBS 6: 6-11
A WARNING AGAINST LAZINESS AND PROCRASTINATION
[John 4:31-38]
God speaks to us most clearly and directly through His Word, but if one does not trust the wisdom of His Word, then he can extract wisdom from observing nature and fallen man. Nature teaches us to be prepared and fallen man is often ill-prepared. Foolish, unwarranted financial dealings can impoverish a man, but most generally man is destitute because of laziness.
The procrastinator and lazy person in order to become wise is told to learn from the example of the ant. Ants are industrious workers whose diligence provides for the present and prepares for the future. This diligence and industry of the ant needs no supervisor to tell it what to do or to see that it is done. Laziness keeps one from fulfilling their physical and spiritual responsibilities and realizing the potential of their earthy and eternal future (CIM).
I. GO AND OBSERVE AND LEARN, 6-8.
II. LAYING DOWN ON THE JOB, 9-11.
To encourage and instruct in diligence verse 6 advises us to study the ant. "Go to the ant, O sluggard. observe her ways and be wise."
God’s creation can teach us many lessons, if we let be a classroom. So "a sluggard" or a lazy irresponsible person is challenged to learn from "the ant and be wise." The book of Proverbs mentions ants in several places and reminds us of what remarkable creatures they are and the many lessons we can learn from them. Much of the study of insects in recent days has confirmed many of the varied aspects of the life of these tiny insects.
Ants are models of industry as they organize themselves for a great variety of undertakings, and in the way an ant colony resembles a great complex community in which citizens are hard at work moving the wheels of industry and agriculture.
Naturalists have shown the ants’ ingenuity as architects, and their industry as miners and builder. They have divided them into mason ants, carpenter ants, mining ants, and carving ants.
One variety of ants generally called Harvester Ants are specialists in harvesting and storing food. These busy little workers move out among the seed-producing plants, carefully gathering the seeds and carrying them back to special nests where the seeds are painstakingly stacked away in reserve.
Another ant with agricultural skills is called the Parasol Ant. These ants collect leaves which are cut and prepared as a special kind of compost in which the diligent little farmers plant fungus spore. The beds are carefully tended with Gardener Ants removing the weeds and harvesting the mushroom crop as it is ready for eating.
The ants do so much despite being so small because of resolve and effort. Man is far more equip for work that ants though. You with your marvelous skeletal frames, strong sinews and strategically placed muscles as well as intellect, memory, imagination, conscience and soul. You have been equipped with all that is needed to attempt the task set before you. And in the attempt there is growth.
"Go to the ant"-world look at their little mines, chambers, store houses, military garrisons, workshops and in all of these not one idler, all are active. Scripture says if a man does not work he should not eat, (2 Thess. 3:10) God will not feed you physically or spiritual without your own exerted effort.
People often misunderstand the fall of man and think that work is cursed (Gen. 3:17-19). They have not read the Scripture very carefully or they would have seen that man was made to work in his perfect state, that God worked and enjoyed what He was doing, that Jesus worked in glad obedience to the Father, and that those whom Christ chose as His disciples were men who were not afraid of getting their hands dirty. The drudgery of work is the result of man’s downfall, not work itself It is man’s fallen attitude toward his work that makes him so dissatisfied, so disgruntled and so difficult.
While work is hard and difficult because of fallen humanity if a believer will commit his work to Christ he can use it to bring glory to God.
The sluggard lags behind the ant in two observed ways. The first, in verse 7, is that ants needs no leader to achieve success but each readily joins in the organizational structure that promotes achievement. "Which, having no chief, officer or ruler,"
Although ants may be a nuisance, Solomon praised them for their steadfast work ethic. Ants, known for being industrious are how commended for their initiative. He pointed out that ants are self-directed. Apparently ants have no leader, in the form of a commander or chief to direct them, no overseer or officer to instruct or inspect their work, or no ruler to prod them on. Yet they work better and are more productive than most people with a leader!
What about us? Do we do good work only when someone is watching? Or do we recognize that all our service is for God, and so do our best at all times, even when no human is watching. Jesus warned us that He wants us working even when there is no supervisor (Mt. 24:45-51; 25:14-30).
Far too often we sit back waiting to be asked, instructed or lead to do what needs to be done. But you have a mind that can think, a heart that can love, a conscience that can guide and a will that can lead, encourage, motivate and instruct. Trust your own born again instincts and like the ant act on your own enabling, use the light you have and more will be given (Eph. 4:14). While you are making excuses or looking for greater advantage or more help your time is passing and a cold, black bleak winter is approaching. Those who act only when commanded to do so do not possess wisdom. Make provision for the future while there is still the light of day in which to work. Be like the ant who does its work without being monitored or watched.
A second reason for her success is that she plans ahead. Ants understand the seasons, the cycles of life—harvest season and dormant periods. Verse 8 indicates that ants work while food is plentiful and stores it against the season of want. "Prepares her food in the summer, and gathers her provision in the harvest."
The ants also keep busy even when it’s not is not immediately need, providing supplies during the summer and gathering food in the harvest. Go to an ant hill and see these tiny insects lay up for the future. Ants also work in anticipation of future needs, storing up and gathering while it is warm, before winter comes. When winter arrives, they’re not worried about what they will eat. Little by little, these hard workers have saved up enough to sustain themselves.
Divine providence watches over these little insects. But observe that God provides for His creatures through their own powers. He does not do for any creature what He has given that creature power to do for itself. We can learn from the ant.
You have a future like these little insects and God expects you to prepare for it. When God gives us times of plenty, we can prepare for times when resources may be low. God is the provider of all that we have, including our ability to work.
You also have an eternal future and God expects you to prepare for it now. The fields are white unto harvest, but the ungathered fruits fall to the ground for lack of laborers to bring them into God’s eternal store house (Mt. 9:37-38).
The virtue of wisdom is not in being busy, but in having a correct view of future needs and opportunities for addressing them. We are to work diligently, be wise stewards of what He has provided, and then rest in the promise of His care (Mt. 6:25-34). We are to trust God day by day and prepare for tomorrow.
II. LAYING DOWN ON THE JOB, 9-11.
Verse 9 challenges the procrastinator with questions. "How long will you lie down, 0 sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep?"
By two questions the sluggard is urged to get out of bed and start working. Laziness is inactivity because one does not want to work, not because one is incapable of work. He does not lack sufficient power but lacks desire to work. A lazy man does not say he will won’t work, he simply procrastinates or postpones work.
Those last few moments of sleep are delicious - we savor them as we resist beginning another workday. But Proverbs warns against giving in to the temptation of laziness, of sleeping instead of working. This does not mean we should never rest. God gave the Jews the Sabbath, a weekly day of rest and restoration as well as many festive holidays. But we should not rest when we should be working.
Part of the problem in our society and world is laziness. So king Solomon says, "How long will you remain in your sluggish condition?" This applies both to spiritual poverty for lack of devotion and financial poverty for lack effort. The most tiresome thing in the world is to not work because you never get to stop and relax. Work hard. Plan ahead—and then trust that what the Lord sends your way will be what He intends for you. [Courson, Jon: Jon Courson’s Application Commentary: Vol 2. Nashville, TN : Thomas Nelson, 2006, S. 193]
Laziness refuses to carry its own weight let alone help with the loads of the rest of us who plod along supporting our young, our aged, our infirm. We have no surplus energy to carry those who can work and will not. "How long" and "when" are the right questions.
Verse 10 reveals the tendency to deny laziness by saying its only done a little. "A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest;"
A lazy person doesn’t have any inspiring motivation to be, or do, anything. He doesn’t make a monumental decision to adopt a life-style of apathy, he simply can’t be bothered to think about a life-style. It is all done "little by little." Just a little more sleep, a little more delay. There’s no hurry or emergency, no sense of the necessary or feeling for the obligatory. Just a little less of this and not quite so much of that. The insidious nature of laziness is marvelously portrayed in these words of Solomon: "As a door turns on its hinges, so a sluggard turns on his bed." The spell grows stronger as resistance is delayed. Every day wasted makes it more improbable that the slumber will ever awaken at all. The song of the lazy person’s life is: "Mañana, mañana, mañana."
Our text in verse 11 now shows that the final result of idleness is ruin. "And your poverty will come in like a vagabond, and your need like an armed man."
The danger or result of a person continuing to nap when he should be working is poverty. Like a robber (thief) or armed man (soldier) quickly attacks unsuspecting victims and takes all they have so laziness brings ruin.
Procrastination is more than the theft of time, it is the thief of life for time is life. With his time squandered the lazy person cannot rectify his situation and has little money to meet needs much less emergencies. The wasting of opportunity and ability are two of the most shameful things about laziness. Obviously such a person is unwise.
CONCLUSION
The text is not suggesting that all poor people are lazy nor that leisure is wrong. But if we come to our work looking for an easy way out, God says, "Go to the ant you sluggard. Consider her ways and be wise."
If laziness turns us from our responsibilities, poverty may soon bar us from the legitimate rest we should enjoy. Laziness is a thief. It robs you of time, potential, personal progress, the esteem of others, and self-respect. It is a cancer. A little laziness breeds more-and more breeds much. The person who thinks the world owes him a living may simply be too lazy to work for it.
On the other hand, hard work and diligence can save a person from the ravages of laziness. Industriousness will produce great rewards.
Laziness makes no sense, sometimes even to the lazy person. But it is a form of bondage from which people often need help in overcoming. Be on guard against robbing yourself, seek good work and exert yourself in it to the glory of God.
Hard work ought to be the normal routine of us who serve a carpenter-Christ, who follow the lead of a tentmaker-apostle, and who call ourselves children of a Father who is still working (John 5:17). Praise God for the blessings inherent in hard work!
