Proverbs 19:15, 24, Sloth – Such Ignoble Ease!

December 13, Proverbs 19:15, 24

Matt. 12:30; 20:6-7 “Everything that counts – costs.”

Sloth – Such Ignoble Ease!

In Solomon’s time slothfulness was a common failing. Making allowances for victims of poverty, it is still a major social problem today. So many want everything without giving anything! Today, it is not “politically correct” to call this for what it really is- sloth, a sleeping paralysis! Sloth is a good old Anglo-Saxon word that needs to be rehabilitated. It was well understood in past centuries. “O England, full of sin, but most of sloth” (Hebert). Milton wrote: “Belial, with words clothed in reason’s garb, counselled ignoble ease, and peaceful sloth, not peace.” Bishop Ken taught us to sing:

“Awake my soul, and with the sun thy daily stage of duty run.
Shake off dull sloth and joyful rise to pay thy morning sacrifice.”

1. It is Insensible (15): The result is decay and collapse of everything.

a. A Fatal Rest: A deep sleep is a kind of deadly hypnosis resulting in an unconscious oblivion, and brought on by sloth! We are reminded that if sleep is a static state, sloth is not! It puts its victims into a creeping, spreading trance (Isa. 56:10). It so dulls conscience that the sleeper is blissfully unaware that life is passing him by, and life’s opportunities, once lost, are lost forever (Lk. 13:34-35).

b. A Fearful Risk: Sloth leads to an idle soul, a forgotten soul, then to a famished soul! He has no time for God, is senseless to sin, to his need of a Saviour, without concern for the things of eternal value. Unchecked, it becomes the sleep of death! Oh! beware, above all, of spiritual sloth, damning both body and soul (Eph. 5:14; 1 Thes. 5:6)!

2. It is Contemptible (29): Compare proverbs 19:24 and 26:15.

a. A Deceiving Soul! It is thought both these proverbs are “hyperbolic” or “sarcastic overstatements” to shock us into taking seriously the consequences of sloth. The former walks as if in a deep sleep, dreaming, not doing. This one won’t so much as “put forth his hand to feed himself” even when food is set before him! He hides his hand in his bosom (or dish). His deception is a pathetic bid for more help than he really deserves.

b. A Decaying Soul! So shameless is he that he would rather “starve than stretch” (Henry). The same proverb in 26:15 adds that it actually grieves (irritates!) him to bring his hand to his mouth. He wants to be fed like a baby! He has become a mental, and then a physical paralytic! His deceit leads inevitable to his decay! Isaiah tells how Moab is weary (same word) of prayer. Note the outcome in verse 14 (Isa. 16:12-14)! Christian, can that be said of you? Are you standing idle when there is work to do (Mt. 20:3, 6)? Peter wants us to add to our faith, and then [we] shall neither be barren nor unfruitful (2 Pt. 1:8).

Thought: “Not to serve God is to serve Satan” (Hodge).

Prayer: “Be Thou, Lord, our Helper, our Strength, our Physician”.