The Rubbery Bones of the Lazy

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Introduction

In just a minute, I will have a thought experiment for you. Like all cultures our culture generalizes, but we have been trained to generalize about poverty in an exculpatory way. In other words, our default assumptions about poverty routinely tend to exclude the factors created by the poor themselves. We tend to think of them as primarily unfortunate instead of primarily, say, irresponsible.

Now of course, there are other circumstances that bring in poverty. The oppression of the rich can do it (Jas. 5:4). The judgments of God can do it (Amos 4:6). No one should ever argue that the solitary cause of poverty in every time and in every place is the laziness or irresponsibility of the poor. This is not a “one-size-fits-all” kind of thing.

But in many cases, according to Scripture, personal irresponsibility is the culprit. So here is the thought experiment. Suppose you were talking to someone about their neighbors down the road, folks who were living from hand to mouth, and that person said, “Their problem is that they are just lazy, through and through. They could really make something of that place, if they just got up and did it. But all her brothers are fit for is stealing watermelons out of my truck patch.” If your internal flinch is to start to say “well, it isn’t always so simple,” then I believe that you are very much of out step with the book of Proverbs. And our proverbs exhibit the same outlook. Proverbial wisdom is not at all shy about saying that “if could be raining porridge, and Henry would have forgot his bowl.” Or Billy was “like Ludlum’s dog, who had to lean his head against the wall to bark.”

If we look at the wisdom contained in Proverbs, we are going to learn a great deal. But we will find no real help in looking at the Hebrew word for lazy man, or sluggard. It means . . . well, it means lazy man or sluggard. Some things are so universal that they translate well into any language; quite apart from our shifts and evasions, we all understand what a shirker is.

Laziness is Shameful

However common it might be, the Bible still teaches that laziness remains a disgrace.

There it is, right out of the gate. A slack hand causes poverty. A diligent hand makes rich. Stereotypical wisdom, entirely unashamed of itself. And a wise son works when it is appropriate to work. A son who brings shame—because his behavior is shameful—is a son who sleeps when the crop must be brought in.

As a sin which brings shame, we should consider some of its identifying characteristics. As we learn about all of this, we should remember that laziness has an obvious alternative.

Some might be confused by that “traveler” at the end. Other translations render it is as vagabond, or robber, or prowler. Poverty will sneak up on you from behind, and beat you up. It will beat you up, and then take all your money.

The alternative is to look around and consider how industrious the ant is. Not only ants, but also birds. And consider the squirrels, who know that nuts will be scarce in the coming winter. Why don’t you know that?

Laziness Has No Follow Through

A lazy man may have bursts of activity, and he may even get something done during one of them. But he does not maintain; he does not persevere.

The diligent man takes care of his entire project, beginning to end. The substance of his work is precious to him, but not in any inordinate way. He hunts, and he takes care of the meat, and he roasts it. But the slothful man starts something, kills the prey, but then doesn’t take any advantage of what little work he did do.

Sometimes this lack of follow-through is extraordinary—a very simple thing could be done to bring a project to completion, but he does not do it. He buries the chip in the bean dip, but somehow he can’t get it up to his mouth. It is too heavy. Too much bean dip on it. The sun got in his eyes.

The solution to laziness is seen in the proverb right after this one, incidentally—the lazy must be required to eat their own cooking. If he is as lazy as all that, then it seems that the natural consequences of his behavior are insufficient. Somebody in authority needs to give him a whack.

Laziness is Full of Excuses

The scriptural assessment of all this laziness is pretty blunt, brutal even. And naturally, a lazy man is not inclined to accept this version of things. This is why a lazy man carries excuses around with him in a sack. He is always ready with an excuse. He has a supply of them.

Sometimes the excuses are unreasonable—the ancient Hebrew equivalent of “the dog ate my homework,” or “aliens kidnapped me . . . what year is it?” Other times the excuses may seem more reasonable, but the results are still the same.  

Sometimes it might really be cold. Sometimes there are obstacles that the industrious experience as well, but they push through. For them, the glad fruition of harvest is on the other side of not giving up. Confronted with a genuine obstacle, the heart of the sluggard is greatly encouraged because he won’t have to come up with an excuse that was manifestly ridiculous. But as the proverb indicates, the one thing the excuse won’t be able to do is put food on the table when the time of harvest comes.

Laziness is Full of “Wisdom”

So laziness is willing to offer lame excuses, if that is necessary. But other times, the lazy man will set up shop as a consultant. But talking about fruitful work is not the same thing as doing fruitful work. A time comes when everyone needs to pick up their shovels.

The foolishness of his talk is not found in the content of what he says. His aphorisms might all be true. He might be quoting from the book of Proverbs. The folly is found in the disconnect between what he is saying and what he is doing. Wisdom is always made known by the applications. But the lazy man who is a fool wears the wisdom (that he is not doing) as though it were a diadem. The lazy man wears his foolish talk like a crown. He may be full of proverbial wisdom concerning work, but his wisdom is like the legs of a lame man.

In this next proverb, we see certain themes repeated that we have already covered. But our current topic is addressed in the last line. The lazy man, swathed in ridiculousness, nevertheless has a very high opinion of his nonsense. He is wiser in his own conceit than seven men who have actual facts on their side. That is pretty conceited.

So even though his lifestyle is ludicrous, and his folly is apparent all around, in a 360 degrees sort of way, the lazy man has it all figured out. He has more wisdom (in his own eyes) than seven wise men do.

Laziness is an Irritation to Others

Of course, such a man cannot be relied on.

This is not surprising. If one of them is lazy, two men will have very different ideas about what constitutes diligence. They will have very distinct views on what enables us to say “mission accomplished.”

The implication of this proverb is that it is another kind of folly to entrust anything that matters to a lazybones. You might do it in all innocence the first time, because that is when you found out how lazy your messenger is. But if you do it a second time, that means you must like drinking vinegar. You must like having smoke in your eyes.

Laziness Compounds With Interest

When a person gives way to laziness, they find that it works like a drug. Laziness inaugurates a laziness cycle. It is not as though there is one laziness episode, followed by a lifetime of hunger. Laziness accumulates, laziness compounds, and laziness pitches one into a laziness lifestyle. The sleep becomes addictive.

All of the issues covered above do have immediate consequences. But they are also realities that manifest themselves over time.

Laziness is not rest; it does not prepare for future work. It only prepares for more laziness. The laziness grows, along with frustrated desire. And what this means is that a man can be ensconced on his couch, and still be surrounded by an aura of entitlement. He has significant complaints about how they are handling EBT cards these days.

Laziness Provokes Hastiness and Deceit

Not only does laziness lead to really stupid excuses, which are a form of attempted deception, so also it leads to more serious forms of deception and thievery. It leads to the “getting of treasure by a lying tongue.”

All of this is simply a set up for bone-headedness and lies, leading to parasitic and dishonest attempts to live off the wealth generated by others.

Laziness is Hard

The irony is that the lazy man is fundamentally seeking a path that is free of difficulty, and he winds up choosing the path that ends in enormous difficulties. Proverbs teaches us that laziness is counterproductive; it does not accomplish its desired end.

The difference in the paths chosen is that the diligent are long-term thinkers, and they choose the path that has the difficulties at the front end. It therefore comes to pass that the way of the righteous is “made plain.” The lazy man wants his path to be made plain at the front end, thereby choosing to have all the difficulties later on. He is a short-term thinker, and is aggrieved and astonished when he winds up getting dragged backwards through a hedge of thorns.

The diligent grow up into authority, which is as it should be. The slothful find themselves in some sort of bondage or slavery, which is what they actually have chosen for themselves.

And Laziness is an Object Lesson

Laziness is a public vice. It is a way of life. Everybody can see it, and everyone can see the consequences of it. Walking by such a man’s house, you can see all the upkeep that is not being done.

In conclusion, remember that the book of Proverbs is a book of instruction that a man is giving to his son. Not only can he see the lawn that is not mown, he is supposed to be pointing out that same lawn to his teen-aged son. “Son, this is the kind of thing that we don’t ever want taking root in our family.” This is not gossip, and it is not idle chatter.

It may seem cold and uncaring—but it is an act of genuine love . . . for your son,