“LAZY” Proverbs 26.16 EXPOSITION: 1. Are you lazy? You heard me. It’s not a question that is oftentimes asked these days, but I asked if you were lazy. Are you a lazy person? Do you even know what it means to be lazy? Some of you are doubtless too young to really know what being lazy is all about, though others of you are old enough to know. 2. For you who are younger, our culture has so changed, and my generation has so distorted virtue and vice, that what was once considered commendable behavior is now condemned behavior, and what was once condemned behavior is now considered commendable behavior. 3. For example: It used to be that people valued such characteristics as diligence and industry, hard work and determination. But nowadays the industrious and hard working person is as often as not condemned as a neurotic workaholic, while the “lazy” person takes great pride in being laid back, in being relaxed, in moving slowly and casually. 4. There I go, using that word “lazy” again. Perhaps I should define the term. The dictionary defines “lazy” as 1. averse or disinclined to work, activity, or exertion; indolent. 2. causing idleness or indolence: a hot lazy afternoon. 3. slow moving, sluggish. The dictionary lists the word “slothful” as a synonym of “lazy” and the words “industrious” and “quick” as antonyms, or as words of opposite meaning.[1] 5. Perhaps you didn’t notice, but a second glance at the dictionary would reveal the absence of any value judgment connected with the word “lazy.” There is no indication of laziness being good or being bad, being moral or immoral, being right or being wrong, in the dictionary. But that’s what you get from a dictionary. 6. If you want to know about the rightness or wrongness of something, the morality or the immorality of something, you don’t look the word up in a dictionary. What you do is go to God’s Word. It’s in the Bible that we find out about the rightness or the wrongness of being “lazy.” 7. The only problem is that the word “lazy” is not found in the Bible. But this does not mean the Word of God does not speak to the issue of laziness, even if the word isn’t found in our King James version of the Bible. You see, the English word “lazy” was borrowed from German in the mid 1500s, so it was not a widely used word in England when the King James translators were doing their work.[2] 8. What we find instead in our Bible are two well established English words, “slothful” and “sluggard,” both referring to habitual inactivity and laziness. And these two words are used to translate two Hebrew words in the Old Testament and two Greek words in the New Testament that would probably these days be translated by the word “lazy.” 9. Do you have your Bible with you today? We’re going to quickly look at 20 verses to get an overview of what God’s Word has to say about someone who is “lazy,” reading every verse in the Bible in which the English words “slothful” and “sluggard” appear. Are you ready? 10. Judges 18.9: “And they said, Arise, that we may go up against them: for we have seen the land, and, behold, it [is] very good: and [are] ye still? be not slothful to go, [and] to enter to possess the land.” Why did the children of Israel not fully possess the promised land? Perhaps because they were sluggish and lazy? 11. Proverbs 6.6: “Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise.” What examples of diligence and hard work the ants are to us. And the contrast here shows the lazy person to also be an unwise person. 12. Proverbs 6.9: “How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? when wilt thou arise out of thy sleep?” Sleep seems to occupy too important a role in a lazy person’s life. Wouldn’t you agree? You would if you’re not lazy. 13. Proverbs 10.26: “As vinegar to the teeth, and as smoke to the eyes, so [is] the sluggard to them that send him.” In other words, a lazy person is an irritant to the person who dispatches him on a mission, to the person who assigns to him a task, to anyone who sends him to accomplish something. It will not be properly done by the lazy person! 14. Proverbs 13.4: “The soul of the sluggard desireth, and [hath] nothing: but the soul of the diligent shall be made fat.” The lazy guy wants things, wants stuff, but doesn’t have anything. Why? Never gets around to it. The diligent person, on the other hand, accomplishes, achieves, succeeds by hard work. 15. Proverbs 15.19: “The way of the slothful [man is] as an hedge of thorns: but the way of the righteous [is] made plain.” Notice, here, that the lazy man is contrasted with the righteous man. Complexity characterizes the lazy man’s life, while the path through life of the saved person is plain, and is much more simple and straightforward than the lazy person’s life. 16. Proverbs 19.24: “A slothful [man] hideth his hand in [his] bosom, and will not so much as bring it to his mouth again.” Look to the lengths this lazy man will go to to avoid work, to keep his hands warm and away from the chill and exposure of toil. He’s so lazy, and this is an exaggeration you understand, a hyperbole, that he won’t lift his own hand to his mouth to feed himself. 17. Proverbs 20.4: “The sluggard will not plow by reason of the cold; [therefore] shall he beg in harvest, and [have] nothing.” Excuse me, but it’s when it’s cold that you have to plow, because when it’s warm the seed needs to be planted and the crop growing. No wonder the lazy fellow will go begging at harvest time. 18. Proverbs 21.25: “The desire of the slothful killeth him; for his hands refuse to labour.” Though the lazy man’s hands refuse to labor and toil, he is eaten up by the desire for benefits and blessings that come only by hard work. He wants what only hard work will provide, but without the willingness to work hard. 19. Proverbs 22.13: “The slothful [man] saith, [There is] a lion without, I shall be slain in the streets.” There’s always an excuse not to work for the lazy man. What likelihood is there of a lion walking through the city streets? Have you noticed how outrageous a lazy man’s excuses are? They insult your intelligence. 20. Proverbs 24.30-34: “I went by the field of the slothful, and by the vineyard of the man void of understanding; And, lo, it was all grown over with thorns, and nettles had covered the face thereof, and the stone wall thereof was broken down. Then I saw, and considered it well: I looked upon it, and received instruction. Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep: So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth; and thy want as an armed man.” There’s the sleep pattern again. Sleeping instead of diligently maintaining his vineyard. Refusing to do anything that isn’t an emergency. And just as surely poor from it as if he’d been robbed. 21. Proverbs 26.13: “The slothful [man] saith, [There is] a lion in the way; a lion [is] in the streets.” Again, with the insulting excuses for nonperformance. 22. Proverbs 26.14: “[As] the door turneth upon his hinges, so [doth] the slothful upon his bed.” How utterly predictable the lazy person is. As the door moves back and forth on its hinges in a never ending routine, so the lazy man rolls back and forth on his bed. 23. Proverbs 26.15: “The slothful hideth his hand in [his] bosom; it grieveth him to bring it again to his mouth.” Solomon doesn’t want his son to be lazy, so he repeats several of these warnings against laziness. I have seen many boys in single parent homes who grow up lazy, though their mothers worked very hard and were anything but lazy. Boys need to be ridden hard to overcome their tendency to be lazy. Amen, Dr. French? That’s what he did, and he has three grown sons who are not afraid of hard work. 24. Proverbs 26.16: “The sluggard [is] wiser in his own conceit than seven men that can render a reason.” See the arrogance here? The lazy guy actually seems to himself to be better than those who work hard. “I could have done that, but I was busy,” he thinks to himself. Sure you were busy. Busy resting. 25. To this point we have looked at verses that translate a Hebrew word for sluggish and lazy into our Bible words sluggard and slothful. But the next three verses translate an entirely different Hebrew word into the English word slothful. It’s a word that means deceitful, a word that has to do with treachery. 26. A mistranslation? Not at all. You see, there is always an element of deceitfulness and treachery associated with laziness. The lazy person has to cut corners, has to cheat and lie and deceive. If he didn’t do those things he wouldn’t be lazy, would he? The translators clearly understood the connection between laziness and treachery, between laziness and deceitfulness. Recognize that a lazy person is a liar. He has to lie to cover the shortcomings and deficiencies of his laziness. 27. Proverbs 12.24: “The hand of the diligent shall bear rule: but the slothful shall be under tribute.” See the contrast here between diligence and deceitfulness? Deceitfulness really is a fellow traveler with laziness. 28. Proverbs 12.27: “The slothful [man] roasteth not that which he took in hunting: but the substance of a diligent man [is] precious.” Again the contrast between laziness and diligence. And how do you roast that which you did not take in hunting? You have to lie to the person who did shoot the game, convincing him with your lies that you shot the animal and not him, because you are too lazy to track and shoot your own game to roast and eat. 29. Proverbs 18.9: “He also that is slothful in his work is brother to him that is a great waster.” Of course the lazy person is a great waster. He won’t do the job assigned to him efficiently, carefully, skillfully. He’s too lazy. He cuts corners. He won’t exercise the diligence necessary to do the job correctly, because he is lazy. And he wastes time. You have to look for the lazy worker to tell him what to do, don’t you, Don Imm? 30. Now we move to the New Testament, which was originally written in Greek, to look at the three verses that use two different words that refer to laziness. 31. Matthew 25.26-27: “His lord answered and said unto him, [Thou] wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strawed. Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury.” In other words, the Lord Jesus Christ said in this parable about a master rebuking his lazy servant, “If you were too lazy to work to increase my wealth, you could at least have earned interest by loaning my money and thereby gaining value without lifting a finger.” So you see, there is something more wrong with a lazy person than just his unwillingness to exert himself. He gains nothing even when gain could be had for doing nothing. 32. Romans 12.11: “Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord.” The Christian life is opposite in every way to the lifestyle of a lazy man. The word “business” refers to that which should be done speedily, eagerly, earnestly. And the word “fervent” means to be hot, to be energetic. In other words, the Christian is not to be some sort of laid back, casual and cool guy, when it comes to serving God, when it comes to taking care of necessary business. 33. Hebrews 6.12: “That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.” Do you see this? Those who through faith and patience inherit the promises are not lazy! And the writer to the Hebrews is telling those readers, some of whom are lost, some of whom are unsure about their soul’s salvation, that they need to get after things, to follow the spiritual example of Abraham. There is no conflict between the truth that salvation is by grace through faith, and not of works, and your personal responsibility to exercise diligence and persistence in the pursuit of eternal life. 34. After brother Isenberger comes to lead us when we stand to sing, I will bring today’s sermon, expressing both observations and concerns about the likelihood of lazy people getting converted. Shall we stand as brother Isenberger now comes?
Posted on: Wed, 10 Jul 2013 08:29:38 +0000
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