Walking with the Wise #488: In the Dust

“The sluggard says, “There is a lion in the road!


There is a lion in the streets!”

As a door turns on its hinges,

so does a sluggard on his bed.

The sluggard buries his hand in the dish;

it wears him out to bring it back to his mouth.

The sluggard is wiser in his own eyes

than seven men who can answer sensibly.”
—Proverbs 26:13-16

The Christ-life is seen in its humility, authenticity, mercy, generosity, servitude, obedience, love, compassion, and industry. It is not relegated to Sunday morning, but permeates every single facet of life. It is transformative. It is willing to listen to the wisdom of others. In fact, it seeks out wisdom. It is not unaware of the devastating and poisonous nature of sin; rather it knows of it, and seeks to defend against it.

One of the ways that the sinful nature finds expression is in laziness. The lazy person is filled with excuses. God has made us to work, instilling work as part of the created order (Genesis 2:15). Although distorted by the Fall (Genesis 3:17-19), work remains in the here and now and will be part of the New Jerusalem (Revelation 22:3), although the devastating effects of sin will be removed, and it will be perfectly enjoyed, not dreaded. Nevertheless, rather than work, the lazy person gives all kinds of outlandish and foolish excuses as to why they cannot work, such as “There is a lion in the road! There is a lion in the streets!”

To make the lazy person’s condition all the more dramatic, the proverb has the lazy person mimicking the movement of a door, which is supposed to symbolize a person leaving their home to go to work. Instead, their only movement is turning over and over in their bed. They are sleeping the day away.

Even the lazy person needs to eat, and the proverb often sketches a picture of the lazy person as someone who works too little and eats too much. Here the image is of a deep dish that he is putting his hand into. He has been eating so much that he gets too tired to bring it back to his mouth anymore. Perhaps the most salient feature of the sluggard is that he thinks he is smarter than everybody else (v. 16), which just shows that he is an even bigger fool.

The antithesis of being a fool is doing one’s work unto the Lord (Colossians 3:23), as Paul wrote:

“But we urge you, brothers, to do this more and more, and to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you, so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one”—1 Thessalonians 4:10-12.

Let us leave laziness in the dust, quit making excuses, do our work heartily as we look to God as our true boss, making every effort to live a life that is indicative of the Lord who purchased us, so that others might see Christ in us, be drawn unto Him, and then receive Him as the Lord and Savior of the world. Amen.