All in a Day's Work Attitude; Proverbs 6, Ecclesiastes 5

May the mumbling commence!

Nothing like a hard day’s work to make for a restful sleep at night!  Hard work will surely end in prosperity.  If we shirk our duties, then trouble will soon follow.  These are the lessons taught in the “ant diatribe” of Proverbs chapter six:

Go to the ant, you sluggard!

Consider her ways and be wise, 

Which, having no captain,

Overseer or ruler, 

Provides her supplies in the summer,

And gathers her food in the harvest. 

How long will you slumber, O sluggard?

When will you rise from your sleep? 

A little sleep, a little slumber,

A little folding of the hands to sleep –

So shall your poverty come on you like a prowler,

And your need like an armed man. (Verses 6-11)

Time to take lessons from the ant – small but mighty and wise!  Consider her ways.  There may be no captain or ruler or overseer, but there is a queen.  Consider her ways and be wise.  Consider the ways of her colony and be wise.

That gets my attention.  It gets my attention like a patrol of fire ants.  And, let me tell you, fire ants have a way to get the attention of beings much bigger and supposedly brighter than they are.

Fire ant bites hurt – like the dickens.  So, what ways are we to consider of the ants?  Times of summer – times of rapid growth and fruitfulness – are not shirked.  Supplies are provided.  Times of harvest are not neglected.  Food is gathered in harvest.  It is gathered in times of plenty to provide for the lean times of winter and spring.

Be awake to these things.  Do not fall into slumber of ease and apathy.  Otherwise, it will not go well for you.  Consider the ways of the ant and follow her ways and worry will be far from you.  Poverty will be far from you.  Needs will be cared for without question.

What a wise thought!  But there is more to consider.  How do we deal with the blessings of our work?  How do we deal with the blessings that would not be possible without God making food grow?  What attitude to we bring to our storage barns?  These questions cannot be ignored.  Read from Ecclesiastes chapter five:

There is a severe evil which I have seen under the sun:

Riches kept for their owner to his hurt. 

But those riches perish through misfortune;

When he begets a son, there is nothing in his hand. 

As he came from his mother's womb, naked shall he return,

To go as he came; And he shall take nothing from his labor

Which he may carry away in his hand. 

And this also is a severe evil –

Just exactly as he came, so shall he go.

And what profit has he who has labored for the wind? 

All his days he also eats in darkness,

And he has much sorrow and sickness and anger. (Verses 13-17)

There is a severe evil.  Riches are kept to the hurt of their owner.  These hoarded riches perish through misfortune – perhaps withheld from the people whom they could bless.  And descendants are left out in the cold. 

You cannot take it with you.  Things that we think we own often time end up owning us.  We strive to keep that which is not ours to begin with! 

 This thought brings sadness and sickness and anger.  Why not let them go and share in the abundance of God?

Enough mumbling for now… 

Peace Out