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The Problem with Laziness

Proverbs 24

Becoming a sluggard requires little effort

Proverbs 24:33 A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest—and poverty will come on you like a thief.

The “sluggard” is lazier than a pig on vacation. His only exercise is turning on his bed; Proverbs says he is hinged to it. Any farfetched excuse—“There is a lion in the road!”—will keep him from going to work. Proverbs laughs at the sluggard a little, but uses him to teach serious lessons. You can be like him very easily, for it doesn’t require much: “a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest.” Putting things off, making excuses, sleeping in—who doesn’t sometimes fall victim to these tendencies?

The result of such a life? Poverty, frustration, broken relationships. The sluggard still wants the luxuries hard work earns, but he never gets them. “The craving of a sluggard will be the death of him” (Proverbs 21:25).
Proverbs on laziness: Proverbs 6:6–11; 10:4, 26; 12:24, 27; 13:4; 15:19; 19:15, 24; 20:4; 21:25; 22:13; 24:30–34; 26:13–16.

Life Questions

What attributes of a sluggard do you recognize in yourself? Do you think of these as serious?

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