Slackers Prov. 10: 4-5 CLICK TITLE FOR AUDIO
Here is the guy who deals with a slack hand – amazing how up to date the King James Version is – we call this guy a “slacker” even to this day!!! When he starts to cut back on the level of his work we say that he is “slacking” off. The NASV changed this verse to make it “easier” to understand – it says “Negligent hand” – Okay, you get the point – that is not an improvement!!
Let’s run the references on this subject and see what the Bible has to say by comparing the slacker to the diligent – Today we’ll deal with slackers.
With slack hands we find:
- Poverty – v.4 – A system that encourages people not to work is a system that perpetuates the very poverty that it seeks to eliminate – refer to the Reader’s Digest story of Antonio, the 22 yr old college graduate, who was awarded custody of his brothers and sisters after his mother died and demanded that they do well in school and get involved in athletics or extracurricular activities so they could get out of the projects.
- Sleep – v.5 – What they want is time off – less work and more pay. Take a harvest for instance; I have known farmers to nap in their combines and tractors until they got the crop out. In Palacios we ran the grain elevator till the farmers quit cutting late at night and started again the next morning as soon as the dew burned off. We worked cattle till the work was done and started in the predawn hours when we worked the river pasture. There’s a beautiful bronze by Chris Hellen called, “Waitin’ for daylight,” that depicts a cowboy resting in his saddle waiting for the sun to rise so he can gather his cattle.
- Shame – v.5 – Here the Dad and family are depending upon the kid who’d rather sleep than work. When crops are not put up for the winter, they won’t have enough food to make it till the next harvest. They’ll have to beg or borrow [shame]. They wouldn’t have had to if the slacker had done his job. We have a proverb of our own about this very point, “Make hay while the sun shines.” This dude can hurt you Prov 10:26 [causes others to question your ability as a parent].
- Waste – Prov 18:9 – he’s even too lazy to put away left-overs or clean his own game. Hhe won’t change the oil in his car or do routine maintenance. He gets paid today and by Monday it’s all gone [like the prodigal]. He wastes money, time, tools, inventory, etc
- Desire – Prov 13:4 – They want what the diligent have but they just can’t bring themselves to put forth the effort to get it. So they have nothing. You are not to feel sorry for a character like that. 2 Thes 3:10 says that if he won’t work then he shouldn’t eat. He’s so lazy that even an incentive doesn’t motivate him.
- Comfort – Prov 20:4 – A lot of manual labor is done in bad weather conditions, when it’s too cold or too hot. If the slacker has to have the temperature just right before he’ll go out and work, that poor sucker will end up starving to death Prov 21:25. Too bad if you have one of these guys for a boss.
- Conceit – Prov 26:16 – He can give you every excuse under the sun why he can’t get up and get going. Seven wise men could sit down and give him good counsel about his ways and he could still justify himself as a slacker Prov 22:13. Frankly, there is no cure for this guy!! Prov 24:30-34
Paul’s command Rom 12:11