“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16: 11)
Growing Dominion, Part 147
“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” (Prov. 24:30-34).
Proverbs is famous for pounding lazy guys. Consider the ant and be wise. Everything comes to him to hustles while he waits. Take a quick doze, and don’t be surprised if you wake up to find poverty sitting on your chest and punching your face. Look at a lazy man and it won’t be long before you are looking at a poor man.
It would be easy to assume that this passage is doing the same thing, but here the person in the field of vision is not the sluggard. Rather, the man walking by a field sees nothing but the results of laziness, and from that he infers the involvement of a lazy man. He saw thorns and nettles growing over a field and vineyard. He saw a stone wall that was fallen down. He look at that and received instruction. In this world, we are justified in reasoning (provided we are careful and “consider it well”) from the absence of results to the presence of laziness.