The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied.

Proverbs 13:4 (ESV)

Fifty-nine percent of Americans would rather win the lottery than fall in love. Seventy percent of the U.K. population regularly play the British National Lottery, despite the tiny chances of winning a prize. Indeed, the lottery has been called “a tax on stupidity; the more foolish you are, the more you pay.” Yet, ignoring the odds, some people persist in dreaming of prosperity that comes without the need for work. And the writer of Proverbs has their number.

The sluggard and the diligent are poles apart, in both their desires and their destiny (see also 10:4; 12:24). The sluggard is a dreamer, constantly longing for more. He craves the fruit of diligence and is full of passionate longings (Heb. mit’avvah—desire, wait longingly for, lust, crave), but they are never so strong that they motivate him to action. His empty yearning leads to empty hands.

However, while the sluggard gets nothing, the diligent person lacks nothing. His hard work reaps a rich reward: his soul, his very life, becomes fat and prosperous. Free from the sluggard’s endless craving, the hard worker rests content with the fruit of his hands.

Proverbs never views life in a mechanistic fashion, with automatic payoffs; blessings come from the hand of the Lord (e.g., 10:3; 15:25). Furthermore, God, in His sovereignty, grants or withholds benefits in surprising ways, as He shapes the souls of particular people. Nevertheless, God has written general principles into His creation, and He uses men’s and women’s choices as means to His ends. So human actions have predictable consequences, such as that bread comes through the sweat of man’s brow (Gen. 3:19).

The biblical message is full of grace, mercy, kindness, beneficence, and compassion, but these virtues work only against a backdrop of truth, and that truth can be sobering. Christian graces were never meant to negate or replace tough-minded wisdom. One cannot help a sluggard, or cease to be a sluggard, until he recognizes sloth for what it is and the ruin it produces. Similarly, one cannot hope for personal or communal prosperity until there is frank avowal of its cost, namely diligence.

It is easy to think that the truths of Proverbs are so obvious that repeating them is essentially a matter of badgering the recalcitrant. But this is to underestimate the level of confusion in the world. The culture has tutored many people to suppose that striking it rich and getting something for nothing are natural occurrences, even birthrights. The sooner they are unencumbered of this silliness, the sooner they can get on with productive and satisfying lives. Once on the right track, they may remember to thank the person who shared one of God’s proverbs with them. Far better, they will thank God Himself, who is never miserly in revealing the conditions for abundant living.

adapted from Kairos Journal

First Baptist Church, Perryville, MD