⁴Give no sleep to your eyes, nor slumber to your eyelids; ⁵deliver yourself like a gazelle from the hunter’s hand and like a bird from the hand of the fowler. ⁶Go to the ant, O sluggard, observe her ways and be wise, ⁷which, having no chief, officer or ruler, ⁸prepares her food in the summer and gathers her provision in the harvest. ⁹How long will you lie down, O sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep? ¹⁰ “A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest”— ¹¹your poverty will come in like a vagabond and your need like an armed man.

Proverbs often overlap, which is understandable when considering wisdom’s comprehensiveness and inter-relatedness. One proverb may read similarly to another, but with a slightly different perspective or application, a distinctive but related hue on wisdom; yet the common and overriding factor remains wisdom. One proverb slides seamlessly into another in a natural connection. In Proverbs 6:1-3, we learned to avoid the foolishness of taking on the responsibility for someone else’s foolish financial debt. Debt is particularly foolish when it is motivated by laziness, taking the “easy” way to enjoy life now and avoiding the cost of that enjoyment until later. Long after the enjoyment dissipates, the debt is still due, and we will then feel like we are being robbed (vs. 11). The natural overlap of this teaching extends into wise instruction about laziness, or as our passage calls it, being a “sluggard.”

A sluggard tends to enjoy his sleep and finds ways to avoid work. For him, the priority always goes to resting, taking breaks, lingering, and making excuses for not working hard—to the extent that these things characterize the individual. Proverbs often represent people in a binary way, as though there are only two states of being, wise and foolish, with no in-between. This is a teaching technique for emphasizing that our choices are binary. We cannot choose to be “somewhat” wise or a “little” foolish; we must choose one or the other. We are all on the spectrum of being wise and being foolish, the goal being to learn wisdom and move on the scale toward wisdom.

The point is never to let down our guard when it comes to the temptation of laziness. Of course, we all have to sleep, but we should never be “asleep at the wheel.” When we are to be working, we must not give in to dull, sluggardly laziness. We should follow the example of an animal being hunted for its life. Choosing to run over taking time to sleep is a life-or-death decision for the animal. We would say, “That’s a no-brainer.” Even ants know enough to work hard so that in time they will be able to reap the benefits of their work at a later time. Again, a no-brainer. We never see lazy ants; they are constantly in motion, always moving!

Laziness wants the fruit without the work, but the sluggard builds his own guillotine. Wisdom teaches that being a sluggard will lead to poverty, and when our debt for easy living comes due, it will feel like we are being robbed, with no recourse or solution for our lack. All because we chose the easy way to live. Be sure that the foolishness of being lazy will be proved when we come to the time of harvest with nothing to reap. Wisdom, therefore, teaches us to learn and grow in our commitment to work hard; we will reap the benefits of our labors.

Some people spend all their income to the last penny on the enjoyments of life, new cars, expensive vacations, large homes, and many “grown-up toys.” Listen to what the apostle Paul writes to the Thessalonian believers—he practices what he preaches (possibly having Proverbs 6 ringing in his ears):

For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example, because we did not act in an undisciplined manner among you, nor did we eat anyone’s bread without paying for it, but with labor and hardship we kept working night and day so that we would not be a burden to any of you; not because we do not have the right to this, but in order to offer ourselves as a model for you, so that you would follow our example. For even when we were with you, we used to give you this order: if anyone is not willing to work, then he is not to eat, either. For we hear that some among you are leading an undisciplined life, doing no work at all, but acting like busybodies. Now such persons we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ to work in quiet fashion and eat their own bread. (2 Thess. 3:7–12)

Lord, at times I work hard; You know that. But help me overcome my laziness, which You also know about. I commit to following the apostle Paul’s instruction and example, which You have given in Your Word.