A Served Notice
24 hours ago
3 min read
Today's Verse:
Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise: ~Proverbs 6:6
When someone is served a notice, it is a formal announcement of great importance that requires his attention. Typically, a notice is served formally with a specified period of time to respond. This morning, we see a notice that God serves upon the sluggard.
We see the nature of the sluggard.
“Thou sluggard....” Sluggard is someone who is careless, complacent, indifferent, lazy, procrastinating, and slowly takes his time. He is unconcerned about the passing of time, halted progress, lack of supply, decay, and missed opportunities. Solomon describes this man who spends much of his day sleeping. “How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? when wilt thou arise out of thy sleep?” He sleeps while others plan, work, and accomplish their goals. Have you slipped into the pattern of a sluggard?
We see the negligence of the sluggard.
“So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth, and thy want as an armed man.” A sluggard lacks the foresight and motivation to prepare for the future. His negligence will deprive him and his family of their needs. His negligence will result in the loss of harvesting. His negligence will not lay away provisions for old age. His negligence will result in souls not being reached with the gospel. The end result is poverty! He will be a beggar when he could be blessed. He will be lacking when he could be living. He will be on the outside looking in when he could be on the inside looking out. He has no one to blame for his poverty except for himself.
We see the notification to the sluggard.
“Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise.” Solomon issues a direct and solemn notification to the sluggard. He tells him to go outside and carefully study the nature of an ant. An ant has discipline. It does not have supervisors telling it what to do. Its instinct moves it to be attentive to the limited time it has to harvest food. An ant has direction. “Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler...” An ant understands the task at hand and requires no oversight. The ant is discerning. “Provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest.” The ant is dependable. It is an example of faithfulness and reliability. Solomon told the sluggard, “Go to the ant.”
We see the negating of the sluggard.
We must quickly deal with the tendency of becoming a sluggard. Paul tells us that “if any would not work, neither should he eat.” We should not encourage anyone to allow the characteristics of a sluggard to develop in them. We must be careful not to have close associations with sluggards. Be careful of idling time away in fruitless endeavors. Live by a schedule, assign timelines for accomplishment, and build in margin for rest. We must be diligent to not fall into the trap of procrastination. We must endeavor to do whatever our hand finds to do with all our might. We should engage our young people and and teach them the requirements and rewards of work.
Solomon served an important notice—go to the ant, and consider her ways. Be diligent and always abounding.
Have a diligent God Morning!
Reading Schedule: Hosea 8-14
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