Go to the Ant You Sluggard (Proverbs 6:6–11, 24:30–34, 26:13–16)

Proverbs 6:6 says, "Go to the ant, O sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise." Read or listen to this chapter from Work and Rest God's Way to see the wisdom in God's Word about the dangers of laziness. Table of contentsThe Sluggard’s Sobering ExampleLearning from AntsOversleeping—The Sluggard’s Great TemptationPhysical Consequences to OversleepingPoverty—The Sluggard’s PaymentAre Sluggards Funny?The Lazy Man’s Strength Is ExcusesThe Lazy Man’s Payment Is StarvationThe Lazy Man's SelfishnessThe Lazy Man’s PrideA Better Motivation The Sluggard’s Sobering Example God’s Word provides the conviction that can help Christians resist laziness. Commit the verses in this chapter (or at least their locations in the Bible) to memory. The next time you’re tempted to remain on the couch when there’s work to do, or sleep in later than you should, review these passages. The sluggard is characterized by inactivity and doesn’t take responsibility for himself. He can work but refuses to do so. He lacks the drive, personal responsibility, and common sense to provide for his needs. The sluggard is not a Christian who occasionally gives in to the temptation to be lazy. Instead, he is habitually lazy, and his life serves as evidence that he is unregenerate. He is mentioned fourteen times in Proverbs, and each instance condemns his behavior and warns of the consequences. There is nothing good said about him. Since he is dead in his sins, his laziness can’t be corrected by mere information, even biblical information. He needs the transformation of regeneration to repent and change. Proverbs is the book of wisdom, filled with practical teaching for daily living. Since Jesus “became for us wisdom from God” (1 Corinthians 1:30), all proverbs point to Him. In John 8:23, He said, “I am from above.” James 3:17 says, “The wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.” Jesus is the embodiment of the wisdom from above, and only in looking to Him in the Proverbs can the sluggard’s life be remedied. As preacher and theologian, Charles Bridges, wrote: But with all care to preserve a soundly-disciplined interpretation, we must not forget, that the Book of Proverbs is a part of the volume entitled—“The word of Christ” (Colossians 3:16). And so accurately does the title describe the Book, that the study of it brings the whole substance of the volume before us. It furnishes indeed the stimulating motive to search the Old Testament Scripture [which testifies of Christ] (John 5:39)—the true key that opens the Divine Treasure-house—“If we do not see the golden thread through all the Bible, marking out Christ, we read the Scripture without the Key.” Charles Bridges, An Exposition of the Book of Proverbs, (BiblioBazaar, May 20, 2009), 7. Learning from Ants A proverb is a short saying that expresses a general truth for practical living. There are so many proverbs dealing with laziness it would take up too much room to cover all of them. We’ll consider the three main passages (Proverbs 6:6–11, 24:30–34, 26:13–16) with other verses integrated. Go to the ant, you sluggard! Consider her ways and be wise, which, having no captain, overseer or ruler, provides her supplies in the summer, and gathers her food in the harvest (Proverbs 6:6–8). The book of Proverbs is written as a wise father speaking to his son: “My son, hear the instruction of your father, and do not forsake the law of your mother” (Proverbs 1:8, see also Proverbs 1:10, 1:15, 2:1, 3:1, 3:11, 3:21, 4:10, 4:20, 5:1, 5:20, 6:1, 6:3, 6:20, 7:1, 19:27, 23:15, 23:19, 23:26, 24:13, 24:21, 27:11, and 31:2.). He tells his son to learn from the ant’s example. She’s a humble, industrious creature that works without anyone watching over her. We, too, should work without having someone standing over our shoulders. If you’re a parent, you know the blessing it is when your children work without having to constantly tell them what to do. Ants are also good examples of planning. They busy themselves storing food, so they’re prepared for the winter ahead. Proverbs 30:25 says, “Ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their food in the summer.” Ants serve as a rebuke to lazy people who think only about the moment. Sluggards expect the benefits of labor without laboring, showing they don’t understand the law of sowing and reaping. Since they don’t plan, they don’t have what they need to live. Oversleeping—The Sluggard’s Great Temptation How long will you slumber, O sluggard? When will you rise from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep (Proverbs 6:9–10). Oversleeping is one of the marks of sluggards. Asking “how long” implies this has been going on too long, and something bad is going to happen. For example, Exodus 10:3 says, “So Moses and Aaron came in to Pharaoh and said to him, ‘Thus says the Lord God of the Hebrews: “How long will you refuse to humble yourself before Me? Let My people go, that they may serve Me.’”” (See also Proverbs 1:22 and Psalm 74:10). The longer Pharaoh would not let the Hebrews go, the worse things became for him. The longer the sluggard sleeps, the worse things become for him. All the sluggard knows is his tempting drowsiness. The two rhetorical questions, “How long will you slumber…When will you rise,” are aimed at stirring him to get to work and ridiculing his preference to stay in bed. The three-fold repetition of “a little” shows the lazy person prefers “a little” more sleep rather than work. He doesn’t refuse to work. He simply won’t get started. Newton’s first law of motion states that an object in motion tends to remain in motion, and an object at rest tends to remain at rest. This law can apply to people too! Some people work hard, and they tend to stay in motion. Other people are lazy, and they tend to stay at rest. The poet Robert Frost said, “The world is full of willing people, some willing to work, the rest willing to let them.” Physical Consequences to Oversleeping If Scripture’s condemnation of oversleeping isn’t enough, science has found an increased risk of death from sleeping too long! There is a 30 percent increase in mortality rates for people who sleep more than eight or nine hours per night on average. In 2010, The National Library of Medicine published, “Sleep Duration and All-Cause Mortality: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Prospective Studies.” The study found: Increasing evidence suggests an association between long duration of habitual sleep with adverse health outcomes. Long duration of sleep is a significant predictor of death in prospective population studies. Poverty—The Sluggard’s Payment So shall your poverty come on you like a prowler, and your need like an armed man (Proverbs 6:11). Sluggards dream of the things they want to enjoy, but they won’t work to earn them. Soon their dreams become nightmares. This is the first mention of a truth that is communicated throughout the book of Proverbs—laziness results in poverty: “Do not love sleep, lest you come to poverty” (Proverbs 20:13). “Poverty will come upon (the sluggard)” (Proverbs 24:34). “He who follows frivolity will have poverty enough” (Proverbs 28:19). Lazy people deceive themselves. Since they don’t expect the disaster that comes upon them, they aren’t prepared. Two illustrations capture the suddenness and unexpectedness: First, a prowler is a vagabond or drifter who silently creeps in and steals. Poverty surprises sluggards like thieves surprise people. Second, the armed man is a bandit or a man with a shield. He forcibly imposes his will. Sluggards are overpowered and left in need. Poverty is also caused by talk without labor: “In all labor there is profit, but idle chatter leads only to poverty” (Proverbs 14:23). Lazy people like to talk, but without work, they’re like the second son in Jesus’ parable: “But what do you think? A man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, ‘Son, go, work today in my vineyard.’ He answered and said, ‘I will not,’ but afterward he regretted it and went. Then he came to the second and said likewise. And he answered and said, ‘I [will] go, sir,’ but he did not go” (Matthew 21:28–30). Talk is cheap. It doesn’t matter what we say. It matters what we do. The second son was a lazy talker, but the first son was a convicted worker. Are Sluggards Funny? Proverbs 26:13–16 describes lazy people with a can-you-top-this quality that provides comic relief. This causes us to ask: Is laziness funny? Not at all. Sluggards are the object of jokes in Scripture, but although the verses are humorous, they are also very unflattering. Reasonable people would want to ensure that these verses don’t apply to them. The Lazy Man’s Strength Is Excuses The lazy man says, “There is a lion in the road! A fierce lion is in the streets!” (Proverbs 26:13). Proverbs 22:13 records an almost identical verse. Remember, God repeats Himself when He wants to make sure we don’t miss something. What makes this proverb so important that it’s worth repeating? Lazy people are filled with excuses, even if they’re absurd. This would be like a person in our day saying, “A piano might fall on my head, so I better not go to work.” For most people, the possibility of a piano falling on them is so remote it is laughable, and certainly no reason to stay home in bed. Billy Sunday said an excuse is “the skin of a reason stuffed with a lie.”98 People who are good at making excuses are rarely good at much else. Proverbs 15:19 says, “The way of the lazy man is like a hedge of thorns, but the way of the upright is a highway.” Lazy people find reasons why they can’t make it to work (they’re surrounded by thorns), but the righteous find ways to make it to work (it’s an open highway)....