The Power of Diligence

He who has a slack hand becomes poor,

But the hand of the diligent makes rich.

He who gathers in summer is a wise son;

He who sleeps in harvest is a son who causes shame.

Proverbs 10:4-5

Poverty can be caused by any number of reasons.  Unexpected events, sickness, even political upheaval can cause financial ruin and hardship.  It would be totally false to suggest that poverty is always caused by laziness.  However, it would be equally false to say that poverty is never caused by sloth.  Again, the proverbs are not guarantees, they are observations about how God designed the world to operate.  God made the world such that diligence in work brings a profitable and positive return.  The Lord may yet allow poverty to strike any one of us, but let it be a result of His greater plan to work in and though our lives as we fill up the sufferings of Christ and not because of our sinful unwillingness to redeem the time that has been given to us by His amazing grace.  

Insect Industry

Go to the ant, you sluggard!

Consider her ways and be wise,

Which, having no captain,

Overseer or ruler,

Providers her supplies in the summer,

And gathers her food in the harvest.

Industry is a regular theme of the Proverbs because it is a central theme of godly wisdom.  A dear friend once told me, “I think that much of the problem with the world today is that we no longer talk about the story of the ant and the grasshopper.”  This fable contrasts the ant who works to store up for the winter, and the grasshopper who chooses leisure all summer long.  The ant survives the winter and depending upon the source, the grasshopper is either reduced to beg from the ant or simply dies.  Rest and leisure are never condemned in scripture.  In fact, we find them regularly commanded for Israel in the Sabbaths and the Feasts.  Laziness, however, is universally condemned.  Physical laziness and spiritual laziness alike defy the very character of our God.  God designed humanity for constructive and sweet labor in every sphere, and any form of sloth flies in the face of all that He is and all that He has created us to be.