“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16: 11)
Growing Dominion, Part 132
“The desire of the slothful killeth him; for his hands refuse to labour. He coveteth greedily all the day long: but the righteous giveth and spareth not” (Prov. 21:25-26).
One of the things that Proverbs is known for—a major part of Proverbs’ reputation, we might say—is the dim view it takes of lazy bums. We have another instance of it here. Since the heart and mind of the slug is not occupied with work, the attention can be turned to wanting things desperately. He wants them all day long from his vantage there on the couch, remote in hand. The more his hands refuse to work, the more his desires torment him. There is an inverse relationship between how much he wants stuff and how little he is willing to work for it. Right, it doesn’t make sense. If it made sense, it wouldn’t be sin. The more he wants, the less he has. The righteous, on the other hand, is the photo negative of this. The less he wants (in the way the lazy man wants), the more he has. He has it, and is running a surplus. He has a good attitude toward material possessions, and so he overflows. He gives to others without stinting—but if he is wise, he gives nothing to the character in the first half of the verse they share.