Walking with the Wise #50: Familial Diligence

“He who gathers in summer is a prudent son,

but he who sleeps in harvest is a son who brings shame.”
—Proverbs 10:5

Community, family, diligence and honor—are inseparably connected for good or bad. In the agrarian world of the Old Testament, the harvest was essential for survival. If there was a famine, it meant destruction and death. In the book of Ruth, we get a picture of everyone strenuously working in order to bring in the harvest. When the crop is ready, it has to be brought in; it can’t wait because weather can change in a moment, destroying all of the crops in the process.

Solomon understood the purpose of honor, diligence, community and family. Looking at two different sons, he contrasts the prudent son who presumably brings honor to his family by diligently working in the summer with the son who sleeps during the harvest, bringing great shame. If a son wouldn’t help in bringing in the harvest, he not only shamed himself, but his family and greater community. The entire community's help was needed in bringing in the harvest, and for one to disregard his communal and family responsibility showed great disrespect and selfishness. Laziness such as his didn’t just affect himself, but all of those around him, bringing great shame on his family. It is the son who is diligently fulfilling his family and communal responsibilities who is prudent and brings honor.

Though our culture has shifted from being agrarian to urban and from being communal to individualistic, the same truths regarding diligence and honor still apply. God desires that we be diligent in whatever work we find ourselves, working as unto the Lord and not for men. If we are diligent in our work, and seek the benefit of our greater community, God receives glory and sinners are won to Him.

Are you diligently working? Or are you lazy? Are you working just to please men or to please God? Throw away any wrong attitudes that do not promote the glory of Christ and benefit the greater community. Get rid of all selfishness and seek to be of sacrificial service to those around you so that Christ may be seen in you, and others may be won to Him because of it. Amen.