Go to the Ant!

Verses familiar to me as a young child are found in Proverbs 6:6-8:  "Go to the ant, you sluggard! Consider her ways and be wise, ⁷ which, having no captain, overseer or ruler, ⁸ provides her supplies in the summer, and gathers her food in the harvest."  As long as this world endures, there likely will be sluggards and ants.  It is estimated there are 1 - 1.5 million ants per person on the earth!  The term "sluggard" is seldomly used in common speech today, not unlike the word in the Strong's Concordance which defines it:  indolent.  To be "indolent" as defined by Webster's 1828 edition is "habitually idle or indisposed to labour; lazy; listless; sluggish; indulging in ease; applied to persons."

Solomon directs the indolent and lazy person to the ant, an industrious insect whose qualities and characteristics outshine the sluggard in every way.  Sluggards are idle and only move when it stands to benefit them, but ants labour for the good of the entire colony.  Sluggards love their sleep and like a door turning on its hinges, roll over in bed after hitting the snooze button again and again if they bother to set their alarm at all.  Ants do not need their mum to remind them it is time to rise from bed or to be bribed with goodies to contribute for the good of the household.  Ants prepare tirelessly to seek and procure necessary food for themselves and the colony so their stores will be well-stocked for winter.  Though some species of ants are practically blind, they demonstrate more foresight than the sluggard who boasts two good eyes.

I learned recently that ants have two stomachs:  one for themselves, and the second stomach to store food for other ants.  Paul rebuked the Cretians for being liars and lazy gluttons (Titus 1:12), which sounds very much like the description of the sluggard who lives only for himself and to fill his belly.  He always finds a reason to put off necessary labour like it says in Proverbs 20:4, "The lazy man will not plow because of winter; he will beg during harvest and have nothing."  I have seen many ants scurrying around, but I have never seen them begging.  Did you know since ants do not have lungs their physical activity and movements aid in respiration?  Like most insects they have tiny openings called spiracles in their sides which connect to tubes in their bodies to distribute oxygen and release carbon dioxide.  For an ant, labour literally sustains their lives.

God forbid we would see labour as a bad thing, something to be avoided!  God created man for work, as we see Adam was given responsibility by God to tend and keep the Garden of Eden.  After Adam was sacked of his landscaping gig and thrown out of Eden because of his sin, God told Adam the ground would be cursed, producing thorns and thistles.  In the sweat of his brow he would labour for food.  Sluggards make the mistake of thinking hard work is a curse, but this is not the case.  Indolence is a result of the curse of sin!  Paul laid down a principle in the early church for people who hoped for handouts without labour in 2 Thessalonians 3:10-13:  "For even when we were with you, we commanded you this: if anyone will not work, neither shall he eat. ¹¹ For we hear that there are some who walk among you in a disorderly manner, not working at all, but are busybodies. ¹² Now those who are such we command and exhort through our Lord Jesus Christ that they work in quietness and eat their own bread. ¹³ But as for you, brethren, do not grow weary in doing good."  Eating is a privilege obtained by working.  Those who refused to labour would be refused food without pity.  To be given a job and responsibility by God is a blessing, and praise the LORD for His provision.

Some might ask, what about retirement?  Retirement from formal employment does not mean retirement from work, for there are good works all are called to do.  Even retirement is no excuse for sloth and indolence.  Indolence is a mind-set, a self-centred perspective which places more value on ease for self than obedience to God or service towards others.  Some of the hardest working Christians I know are retired from their careers, but will never retire from working for the LORD until God retires them.  Go to the ant, sluggard!  Every person is potentially a sluggard so the lesson is useful for all.  Praise the LORD for the satisfaction of a job completed and to hear from our Saviour, "Well done, good and faithful servant.  Enter into the joy of the LORD."