On Sloth and Diligence (Part 1)
Samuel shared this recently with the youths at their weekly youth meeting. Our youths are working through the book of Proverbs now, and looking at how this book has wisdom for life. In this study, they considered what Proverbs has to say about sloth and diligence. This is the first of two parts.
Who would you say is the Strongest Bible Character? Samson?
How about the Wisest? Solomon?
The most Courageous? A few people make a good case – Esther? Or Daniel?
How about the Saddest? Jeremiah was known at the weeping prophet.
Who would you say was the meekest? Numbers 12:3 suggests it might have been Moses.
And the most beautiful? It is said that Rachel was beautiful in form and appearance (Gen 29:17). Esther was a young woman who had a beautiful figure and was lovely to look at (Esther 2:7). It is said of Job’s daughters – Jemimah, Keziah, and Keren-Happuch – that “in all the land there were no women so beautiful as Job's daughters.” (Job 42:14-15). There were many beautiful women in the Bible, it’s hard to choose a winner.
How about the silliest Bible character? Anyone that comes to mind?
Let me tell you who I think is the top contender for winner of the silliest character award in the Bible – it’s the sluggard from the book of Proverbs. Hopefully, by the end, you’ll see why I say so.
Two big things I hope for us to do. Firstly, let’s build a sluggard in our heads, and we’re going to do this by looking at how the Proverbs describes the sluggard. We consider the characteristics of the sluggard as well as what the Proverbs say about the consequences of being a sluggard.
And as we go through each characteristic and each consequence, build up that picture of the sluggard in your head. Secondly then, of course, we have to think about what the sluggard in the Proverbs is meant to teach us.
Characteristics
The sluggard is undisciplined with sleep and leisure.
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.
The sluggard doesn’t want to get out of bed. He can’t get out of bed. The day could already be halfway gone, and everyone else is out, going about activities, getting things done. But the sluggard? He’s still in bed. He can’t get up. He’s glued to the bed. How long will you lie there, O sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep? “Just a little while more, just 5 more minutes…”. And an hour later, he is still there. How long will you lie there, O sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep? “Ugh…just a little while more, just 5 more minutes…”.
Other people are up and about, but the sluggard is going nowhere.
As a door turns on its hinges, so does a sluggard on his bed.
Can you picture that? A door goes nowhere, it just rotates about its hinges. And the sluggard is like a door, just turning from side to side on the bed. The sluggard also goes nowhere. Add this your image of the sluggard and imagine what this person is like.
Well, in some ways, the modern sluggard is worse than what is described here, right? The modern sluggard is glued to his chair or his bed, but he is not even getting sleep. Instead of sleeping, the modern sluggard is watching TV, watching video after video on YouTube, watching episode after episode on Netflix, playing one game after another game of Fortnite or Mobile Legends or FIFA. Just a little more! Just one more video, just one more episode, just one more game. But the videos start stacking up, the episodes start stacking up, the games start stacking up. And soon the day has passed. But the sluggard has done absolutely nothing.
Or maybe in these modern times the night has passed, and the sun is rising. And the sluggard finally closes his laptop or puts down his phone, and he goes to sleep, and wakes up later at 3pm.
The sluggard does not get things done when they need to be done.
The sluggard does not plow in the autumn; he will seek at harvest and have nothing.
There is a set time to do certain things, but the sluggard is not bothered. He doesn’t care. He doesn’t care that once the window of time is passed, the opportunity is gone. Deadlines mean nothing to him. See, autumn was the start of the agricultural season, it was the time to plow, to start working on the field, start planting the crops – so that the crops have the best conditions to grow, and when harvest time comes, they will be ready to be collected. But the sluggard doesn’t care, he is too lazy to bring himself to do that. Well, if you don’t start plowing in autumn, you’re not going to have anything to gather at harvest time. But the funny thing here is that this verse says the sluggard will seek at harvest. He actually expects to find crops. It’s silly, right? He didn’t plant anything, but he expects something to…magically appear! It’s like the person who doesn’t work but then looks at their bank account and wonders why they have no money. It’s like the person who doesn’t study but then takes the exam and wonders why they couldn’t pass. It’s so silly.
But it gets even sillier.
He who gathers in summer is a prudent son, but he who sleeps in harvest is a son who brings shame.
Even when the harvest is there to be gathered, the sluggard won’t even bring himself to get up to work and gather the harvest. Instead, he is sleeping. The opportunity could be there for him. All he needs to do is reach out and grab it. Perhaps it was even an opportunity that others had to work hard for him to have. But he can’t even bring himself to get up and take it. He doesn’t care about the consequences. The sluggard does not finish or follow through on things.
The sluggard buries his hand in the dish; it wears him out to bring it back to his mouth.
It’s getting sillier and sillier, isn’t it? The Bible is really trying to show us how silly the sluggard is. The sluggard buries his hand in the dish. He is not even using any cutlery or using his hands to eat in a proper way. He just plops his hand in the dish. So, there he is, hand in his bowl of cereal or whatever. Food all over his hand. And then what? He just falls asleep! It’s too tiring for him to even bring his hand back to his mouth to feed himself! Just imagine that!
What we see here is that the sluggard leaves things half done. He probably has a whole bunch of things that he started but none of it is completed. He doesn’t have the commitment that is needed to finish things, to follow through on things.
Continue building the sluggard in your head.
Maybe he told his parents he wanted to learn the piano, so they bought one for him and paid for his piano classes. But a few lessons in, he just decided, “I’m not interested in this anymore”, and he starts skipping classes and he never touches the piano again.
Maybe he said he wanted to apply to a job or a programme, so he got the application form, and started filling it up, but it never got completed and it never got submitted.
Maybe he sits down to do his homework, but only manages to write his name before he starts dozing off, or daydreaming, or gets tired of it and starts walking about the house, maybe looking for something to eat even though he just had lunch. And the homework just doesn’t get done.
The sluggard doesn’t finish things, he leaves things undone, he doesn’t follow through on things.
The sluggard makes excuses. Sometimes, very ridiculous excuses.
I’m sure you’ve heard of the most famous excuse for not having homework -- “My dog ate my homework.” It’s such a silly excuse but the Bible gives us an even sillier excuse.
The sluggard says, “There is a lion in the road! There is a lion in the streets!”
Try this excuse the next time you don’t want to go to school, or tuition class, or whatever it is you want to escape: “There’s a lion outside! I can’t go out, I’ll get eaten!”.
Can you see what kind of ridiculous excuses the sluggard can come up with so that he can avoid doing something, avoid hardship and avoid everything? He comes up with all kinds of excuses to avoid doing work. To the people listening to these excuses, it is painfully obvious that it is all absolute nonsense.
How is that sluggard in your head looking now? Very silly, I hope. We still have one more characteristic of the sluggard.
The sluggard often thinks he is right and everyone else is wrong.
The sluggard is wiser in his own eyes than seven men who can answer sensibly.
Basically, the sluggard is self-deceived. He is someone who when he has a conversation with other people who are trying to tell him to get something done, or trying to help him out, or giving him advice, or scolding him for his laziness and trying to get him to change, he walks away from the conversation thinking he is smarter than all of them.
“They don’t know anything. They don’t understand my situation.”
Or “Nah, that’s a foolish way to do things. It doesn’t make sense. My way is better.”
He thinks his ways are the best.
His ways are often shortcuts and unrealistic ways of getting things. Probably ways that depend on getting things by good fortune, and not by putting in the work required. Because the sluggard simply will not be willing to put in hard work to get things done.
If he knows the Bible, he might even use the Bible to argue for his laziness. He might say, “God gives us rest”, or “Hey, salvation is not by works”, or “You know, you shouldn’t work so hard. Money is the root of all evil”.
The sluggard is wiser in his own eyes than seven men who can answer sensibly. That’s how self-deceived the sluggard is. He always thinks he is right, and everyone else is dumb, everyone else is wrong, everyone else doesn’t know better.
This continues in part two, which takes us through the consequences and the hope that we have. Read it here.