The "sluggard" is lazier than a pig on vacation. His only exercise is turning on his bed; Proverbs says he is hinged to it. Any far-fetched excuse - "there is a lion in the streets!" - will keep him from going to work. Proverbs laughs at the sluggard a little, but uses him to teach serious lessons. You can be like him very easily, for it doesn't require much: "a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest." Putting things off, making excuses, sleeping in: who doesn't sometimes fall victim to these tendencies?
The result of such a life? Poverty, frustration, broken relationships. The sluggard still wants the luxuries hard work earns, but he never gets them. "The sluggard's craving will be the death of him" (21:25).
Proverbs on laziness: 6:6-11; 10:4, 26; 12:24, 27; 13:4; 15:19; 19:15, 24; 20:4; 21:25; 22:13; 24:30-34; 26:13-16.
Life Questions: What attributes of a sluggard do you recognize in yourself? Do you think of these as serious? |