What is a sluggard? What does Proverbs teach about sluggards?

The sluggard is one given up to laziness. He might well consider the object lesson of the ant. a creature so small, yet a willing worker. Without captain, overseer or ruler, she diligently uses the summer to provide sustenance, gathering food in the harvest to meet her needs for the winter. Certainly, God has so created her to be an object lesson for anyone who wants to live in idleness. The sluggard is asked how long will he slumber, for only a little slumber, that is, the hands desisting from work, will in the end bring poverty, like a prowler who steals one's living, or like an armed man who comes to deprive one of all defense (vv. 10-11). Let us be workers, not drones!

There is a difference between being idle and being lazy; a man may be idle because he does not know what to do. We are familiar with the parable of the labourers. At the eleventh hour of the day the householder went forth into the market-place and found men standing there and said to them, “Why stand ye here all the day idle?” And they answered, “Because no man hath hired us.” They were ready to work, but did not know what to do. A lazy man is one who knows what he ought to do and does not do it. How shameful is laziness! If any of my readers are inclined to be lazy as to God's work, I would suggest to them that they read The Proverbs and mark and consider all that the wise man said about the sluggard in contrast to the diligent man. My desire is to instruct the idle and to stir up the lazy and to encourage all who are serving the Lord with diligence.

There is a difference between being idle and being lazy; a man may be idle because he does not know what to do. We are familiar with the parable of the labourers. At the eleventh hour of the day the householder went forth into the market-place and found men standing there and said to them, "Why stand ye here all the day idle?" And they answered, "Because no man has hired us." They were ready to work, but did not know what to do. A lazy man is one who knows what he ought to do and does not do it. How shameful is laziness! If any of my readers are inclined to be lazy as to God's work, I would suggest to them that they read The Proverbs and mark and consider all that the wise man said about the sluggard in contrast to the diligent man. My desire is to instruct the idle and to stir up the lazy and to encourage all who are serving the Lord with diligence.

Then we have the person too indolent to take trouble for good or ill, the sluggard. "A sluggard's soul desires, and has nothing." All begins and ends in wishes, with which the Apostle dealt trenchantly in 2 Thessalonians 3:10. How different the lot of the diligent! They shall be made fat, says the wise man. In every sphere it is true in the main — unfailingly so in the things of God who raises above many a mistake, and values purpose of heart and ways.

"A proud [and] arrogant one, scorner [is] his name, deals in haughtiness of pride. "The longing of the sluggard kills him; for his hands refuse to work. "He longs greedily all the day; but the righteous gives and withholds not. "The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination; how much more [when] he brings it with a wicked purpose! "A false witness shall perish; but the man that hears shall speak enduringly. "A wicked man hardens his face; but the upright, he ordered (or, considers) his way. "[There is] no wisdom nor understanding nor counsel against Jehovah. "The horse [is] prepared for the day of battle, but deliverance [is] of Jehovah."

But a different form of enmity against the truth is seen the verses 12 to 16, where the proud, self-opinionated sluggard is considered. "Seest thou a man wise in his own eyes? there is more hope of a fool than of him." A fool may be actively opposed to God; but the sluggard takes a haughty, contemptuous attitude, considering himself wiser than everybody else, and therefore indifferent to what is good and precious. He can easily tell how everything ought to be done, but does nothing himself. A man of this kind is less likely to be converted than is a fool.

"The slothful man saith, There is a lion in the way; a lion is in the streets."He can always perceive difficulties standing in the way of doing good; but does not perceive the tragic harm that his laziness brings to his own soul. No faith is present, to give courage to overcome difficulties, whether real or imagined. If Satan (the lion) is in our way, the believer may count upon the power of God to overcome this; but the slothful man gives up before he ever tries. The believer ought not to be like him in any way.

The slothful man is an object of pity as well as censure. He might be estimable this way or that, but his field and his vineyard proclaim the fault, and presage his ruin. Thorns and nettles hold the field where the good grain should wave; and the wall is so broken down as to invite injurious man and beast. Is it not an objective lesson to him that beholds all with the least attention? Certainly it is no example, but a serious warning. The outward discloses the inward. The heedless man lives to sleep his life away: "a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep." He may be innocent of strong drink, or of sensual pleasure, or of wasteful company. His laziness ensures his ruin. "So shall thy poverty come as a robber and thy want as a man in armour."

In full contrast with the earnestness enjoined here is the indolent folly which is next portrayed vividly. The sluggard is sunk so low, that Jehovah bids him learn of the tiny "ant" as his sufficient monitor; so the lilies of the field are made in the New Testament to rebuke anxiety for raiment. Not a word is said of hoarding store for winter, as in fact like many animals they are then torpid for the most part. But their unceasing industry and good order and even care for others in the summer and harvest while activity is open to them, may well put to shame the self-indulgent slumberer. If moral weakness in its easygoing has exposed its prey to the hunter and the fowler, so on the listless and lazy, poverty comes like a tramp or an armed man that will not be denied. What goodness on Jehovah's part to guard His people from both snares along their earthly pathway! How salutary for such as are called to higher things!

But there is also danger from one's own slothfulness, which is exemplified in its paralyzing the ordinary call to labour. It is ordered of God as the rule that plowing time should not be when things grow, and still less when they ripen. But a sluggard finds an excuse for putting off his duty in the cold weather which invites him to strenuous industry. Does he plead the winter against plowing? Then shall he beg in harvest and have nothing.

The lazy man can imagine any kind of trouble in his way if his conscience tells him he ought to work, even thinking a lion may be outside (v. 13). thus, he can always find an excuse for his laziness. Does he not stop to think that he may be listening to the voice of the serpent inside?